So, this post is designed to raise more interest in Western Ukraine travel and to showcase on of the most truly beautiful cities I have ever had the pleasure to explore!
As some of you may be aware, my main aim is to visit every European country, so when a good deal comes up, I just cannot say no! I have recently joined European travel groups on Facebook, and one thing that I noticed is that there is a lot of love for Ukraine travel at the moment, but only from seasoned travellers and backpackers. I looked further in to the potential Ukraine has and I was quite literally stunned! Ukraine is a very large country and it certainly has a lot to offer, I just knew that this was definitely the next country I wanted to visit. The next thing to sort was which city. I was torn between Kiev and Lviv. Kiev was winning for me as I have always wanted to visit Chernobyl, which is in easy reach of Kiev, however when I researched more about Lviv, I knew this was the best option. I really enjoy pretty buildings and architecture, mixed with a relaxing atmosphere and plenty of bars and restaurants; Lviv really did tick all of the boxes.
When I first said that Ukraine was my next destination, I was met mainly with looks of shock and horror, followed by "why would you want to go there?" and "isn't Ukraine a war zone?!" Well, I aim to clear everything up in this post and hopefully convince more people to be open minded and take the plunge!
First thing is first, how much will a weekend to Lviv set you back? Well the answer is, not a great deal if you are willing to compromise a little. I am from Coventry in the Midlands, however I always seem to find myself travelling from Stansted airport. This is because they are one of the main Ryan Air hubs, and although Ryan Air may not be the most reliable and extravagant airlines in the world, you can always guarantee one thing when travelling with them, their prices will always rival every other airline that operate from the UK to most European destinations. We paid just £26 per person for return flights with Ryan Air from Stansted, and in all fairness, the flight was absolutely fine. We departed and arrived on time, and we did not experience any problems whatsoever. We did however, have to leave our house at 2:30am as our flight was at 6:40am, but this did not bother us one bit, as we were so excited to tick a new country off the list. As for accommodation, my partner and I booked a small studio apartment just a 10 minute walk from the centre of Lviv for just £56 for both of us, for 3 nights. For anyone who does not know, if you sign up with airbnb, you currently get £25 off your first booking, if you spend over £55, which is an incredible deal for a short city break.
Day One:
After travelling all through the early hours, we landed in Lviv at around 11:20am. By 11:55am we had collected our luggage, left passport control and took a taxi to our apartment. We could not be happier about the extremely efficient airport experience, after travelling for so long. Once we arrived at our accommodation, we dumped our bags and headed straight out to explore. After an easy 10 minute walk, we reached the city centre. We arrived in the centre at around 1pm on a Friday afternoon and it was fairly quiet. We headed to Rynok Square and soon noticed just how much it reminded us of other European cities we had visited such as Krakow and Riga. This was such a pleasant surprise as it was completely the opposite to what we imagined. Ukraine has so much negative attention at the moment, and I feel that people assume that it must be an ugly, cold place; but this couldn't be further from the truth, the old town of Lviv is stunning and it's beauty easily rivals any other European old town we have visited. On our way to the main square, we walked past the world famous Lviv Opera House. We decided to take a close look and what an incredibly beautiful building this is. The architecture is amazing!
We had done some research before we travelled and one of the things we really wanted to visit was the armoury museum, known locally as Museum Arsenal. It was a fairly small museum but had many pieces of weaponry and armoury which we found really interesting. All signage was in both Ukrainian and English and the price was just 20 UAH each. This works out to be around 70 pence (GBP, prices correct as of March 2019).
We then stumbled upon an Irish pub in the old town and decided to sit down and have a quick drink. As we looked at the prices, we noticed a trend was starting; everywhere in Lviv seemed to have extremely cheap prices. I can be quite fussy on what I will eat and drink and struggled to find anything on the drinks menu to suit me. I settled on spiced rum and coke, and once I realised a UK double measure was only costing around £1.50, I decided to have a few more. We also stayed there for a bite to eat, and I can honestly say, for my first meal in Ukraine, I was not disappointed at all! Again, the prices were very reasonable and the food was lovely. The one thing I was worried about before coming to Ukraine, was the food, as me and my partner are so fussy, and disgracefully British when it comes to food, however we did not struggle for a nice meal at all and we were very pleasantly surprised at the variety of food on offer.
Before travelling to Lviv, many people had recommended that we visit the hand made chocolate shop. We were not too bothered about this, as we expected just a small shop with handmade treats at high prices. However, we happened to walk past the shop and what we were greeted with, was a five story, busy tourist attraction, with amazing hand made chocolates and as equally amazing prices. As we were slightly tipsy at this point, (wouldn't you be for £1.50 doubles and no sleep in 24 hours, don't judge), we bought sooooo many treats for ourselves and gifts to take home. I thought we had spent a fortune, but we were ecstatic to get the till with a whole basket full of lovely chocolate for just £15!
So after this, realising we had been awake for over 24 hours, and being far too tipsy at only 7 o'clock, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the apartment to rest. We needed to catch up on vital beauty sleep and did not want to waste the next day sleeping in. Although weekends away are about seeing as much as possible for me, I feel that it is so important not to over do it and know when to call it day, as this can cause you to be so tired that you lose so much time and go home seeing only a fraction of the things you wanted to.
Day Two:
After a lovely 12 hour sleep, we woke at 8am feeling very refreshed and ready to explore! We decided to head to the main square where we saw cute tourist trains! The first train was at 11am, so that gave us time to climb up the town hall tower. Again, the fee was only 20 UAH each, and the panoramic view at the top was lovely! Do not under estimate the climb though, with just over 400 steps, it is a tough, steep climb (probably not our best idea at 10 o'clock in the morning!) After this we then hopped on the tourist train which departed right outside of the town hall. The fee for this was 120 UAH (just under £4), which included a 1 hour tour of the city and earphones for an audio guide. I really enjoy quirky little things like this, and feel that it really helped us to find our feet in the city.
We then chose to stop off for a quick drink at the Irish pub while we planned the rest of trip. One thing that really caught my attention was a local beer experience. After doing the Heineken experience in Amsterdam and really enjoying it, this was high on my list of things to do. My boyfriend really appreciates a decent beer, so I knew he would love this too. The price was just 70 UAH to enter and 40 UAH for tasting 4 different local beers. This is under £4 which really shocked us, how could a place like this be so cheap? We were not disappointed though, it was very modern and interactive, and was the highlight of our weekend. It is a little out of the centre and if you are going on foot, I think it would be pretty much impossible to find. I would recommend taking an uber or taxi from the centre which should take around 10 minutes and should cost around £2-£3. For anyone interesting in visiting, it is called Lvivarnya Beer Cultural Experience Centre. It really is worth a visit!
After the beer experience, we headed back to the centre and did some souvenir shopping, before heading back to the accommodation for a rest. We then got ready and headed out for dinner. We chose to try Meat and Burger joint which is pretty much what it says on the tin, meat and burgers. But the food was incredible and the prices were so reasonable. Just as example, I chose 3 sample burgers with chips (pictured below and it cost me around £4, which is just ridiculously cheap! We then had a couple of drinks and headed back.
Day Three:
In the morning, we headed to Lychakiv Cemetery, as we had heard that it is well worth a visit and many famous people are buried here. When we first arrived, we were stunned at just how big the place is! Although we did not know who anyone was here, and we cannot read Ukrainian, we found it very relaxing and peaceful just having a stroll around. The price was just 40 UAH per person. We noticed, that there was a relatively new section and although we could not read any of the head stones, we knew exactly what it was. I don't usually like to get religious or political in any of my posts, but I feel this is necessary. You may be aware that Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 due to wanting to take over Crimea. Well, this part of the cemetery was devoted to the young Ukrainian soldiers who lost their lives over the conflict. Most of the people died within a week of each other, they were all so young and each head stone, had a photo of the deceased in their military uniform. Although we could not read the headstones, we found this to be very moving and a great tribute to the brave soldiers who lost their lives during the conflict. This brings me on to my next point. Many people have asked me, is Ukraine safe and isn't it a war zone. Well the answer to that is yes, part of it is a war zone. The UK government advise against all travel to Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Although I really love to travel, and nowhere is off limits to me, I would never purposely put myself in a dangerous situation. I really did my research before I travelled, and found that Western Ukraine seems to be extremely safe. We did not experience any problems here whatsoever, and felt safe at all times. Of course, you are never 100% safe anywhere in the world, so take care of yourself and follow any precautions that you would when travelling anywhere else in the world, but please do not let the conflict put you off coming to Ukraine, because it really is an incredible country. Lviv is not far from The Polish border and it does have a Polish feel to it, I cannot recommend this place enough.
After our visit to the cemetery, we headed to the centre for some lunch and did a little more shopping. We then stumbled upon Pravda beer theatre in the main square and were curious to what it was. When we walked in, we were completely surrounded by huge walls full of different bottles of beer. They were all different types, with different flavours and different eccentric labels. We decided to have a drink here and to our amazement a very large beer was around £1.50. We had a look round the shop and did yet more shopping. There was so much beer on offer to buy, but unfortunately, we just didn't have the room in our cases to get it home, so we just settled with a funky glass. This is definitely the place to come though, if you want to sample different types of beer and find an alternative souvenir or gift.
For dinner, we chose to go back to The Irish pub we found on the first day, as we really enjoyed it there and I wanted one more burger from there before leaving! It was at this point that we realised just how cheap Ukraine really is. We both had a meal and 5 very strong double spirit drinks each, and our bill came to £37 for both of us. How is this even remotely possible? This is unheard of in the UK, or in any other country for that matter! Surely, this is enough to convince anyone to come here right?
Unfortunately, our amazing trip had to end somewhere, and before we knew it, it was Monday morning and time to go home. If you need any more "look how cheap this place is" comments, well in duty free at the airport, I bought a vodka gift set which had 5 100ml bottles of different flavoured vodkas for just £3.50. Also, if you are a smoker, you're looking at around £1.20 for 20 cigarettes, (I know, I couldn't believe it either). I cannot explain to you how sad I was to leave Ukraine, I had an amazing time here and it really opened my mind to other amazing countries out there which tourists seem to avoid. I cannot explain to you how beautiful, relaxing, yet full of places to explore, (and cheap) Lviv and Ukraine as a whole really are. I cannot wait to return to Ukraine some day, and hopefully explore much more of this amazing country. Care to join me?