Is a week too long in Kiev?

TK Lemon · 28-01-2019 5:39pm #1

Thinking of going to Kiev in the summertime.

The flights are Sunday & Thursday. So we can do a week, or four nights.

Is a week too long?

One of the things that we’re planning to do is Pripyat.

cdeb · 28-01-2019 6:41pm

Probably. But there's still plenty to do.

Have you thought about a multi-day tour in Pripyat? I did 6 days in Kyiv - including arrival/departure day, so only four days really - with one of those being a day trip to Pripyat. But there are longer tours though which take more in, which might help bridge the gap.

Johnny Red Cab · 28-01-2019 6:45pm

How long are you intending to spend in Pripyat?

grimm2005 · 29-01-2019 1:49am

Have booked it for the 4 days myself, Sunday to Thursday, on the new Ryanair direct route. The flying days don't leave a lot of room for choice unfortunately (the Thursday to Sunday is a bit too short IMO due to the flight times). Planning to do a 1 day trip to Chernobyl on one day and apart from this will have 2 full days plus most of the arrival day and departure day which I reckon is easily plenty. Have booked it on the May Day weekend so less time required to take off work.

TK Lemon · 17-03-2019 5:06pm

Can anyone recommend a tour company for booking Pripyat?

Expedia UK is coming up as £180 per person.

Is this the average price most companies charge?

cdeb · 17-03-2019 5:37pm

Depends on what tour you take I guess, but from memory, I paid E100 for a full-day, which was perfectly fine.

This was the company - https://chernobyl-tour.com/english/48-one-day-trip-to-the-chernobyl-zone-and-prypyat-town.html

TK Lemon · 21-03-2019 12:29am

Can you buy the Ukrainian currency in Dublin or do you buy it over there?

Anyone have any rough idea for the budget of two people, for a week?

cdeb · 21-03-2019 1:57am

Just use ATMs

It's reasonably cheap - say 15 for dinner (each), 10 for drink, 5 for travel and 15 for sightseeing? That's a basic day - no Chernobyl; hotel extra. If you wanted to spend more, you could

TK Lemon · 11-07-2019 11:54pm

So we’re going to Kiev this weekend!

Anybody been recently? Any good tips?

grimm2005 · 12-07-2019 11:33am

I was there in May and I'd definitely recommend the Chernobyl day tour if you haven't it booked already.

St. Michaels Domed cathedral, St Sophias catherdral and st andrews church are all worth checking out and quite close to each other.

A big section of Khreschatyk St which is the main street becomes pedestrianised during the weekend so worth having a stroll down there as there's random stuff going on usually. I heard great things about the aviation museum also but unfortunately we never made it and also Hydropark looks interesting but again we never had it over as it was raining a lot during our visit.

The city itself is incredibly cheap by our standards so you can basically relax and not think about what you're spending unless you are on a very tight budget. In terms of getting around I highly recommend using Uber, it's ridiculously cheap and quick, we were paying around €1 - €2 per trip and the airport to city price was about €12.

Also, if your phone is unlocked and SIM free, I'd recommend getting a prepay sim card, I got one from a Vodafone shop near the main shopping street for about €5 for unlimited data for 30 days, well worth it compared to what you'd pay for roaming and then you can freely uber around and use Google maps etc.

TK Lemon · 21-07-2019 8:37pm

So we came back from Kiev today!
It was great from start to finish (although it rained the first two days!) but a few things we did: It might be LONG. :P

We went to Hidropark and just lay on the beach for a while. There was zip lining, paddle boats, tennis, everything fun! A good day out!

We visited the Zoo, good range of animals but there were NO toilets or cafes open!

We visited St Michael’s & St Sophia’s Cathedrals as they were nearby. Beautiful architecture and you can climb the bell towers.

We bought a ticket for the river cruise of Dnipro River, takes an hour and you can buy snacks onboard and relax.

We went to the Chernobyl museum, takes about 1h 30mins to visit but worthwhile.

We got a picture taken with some monkeys on the street and they wanted €70 from us (we paid €20). Watch out for this. :eek:

We rode the funicular at Volodymyrska Hill. Volodymyrska Hill also has a fantastic view of the city.

We saw The Motherland Monument and visited the tanks/aircraft museum nearby.

We went to the deepest metro in the world Arsenalna, but it doesn’t take too long on the escalators, as most metros are deep. :P

On the weekend, the Main Street called Khreschatyk St closes off traffic and is pedestrianized. There was a small stage with singing and dancing and various street acts.

The food and drink weren’t too expensive, although we found service to be slow in most places. :eek: grand pint of Guinness in O’Briens Irish Pub.

But the final part, the airport. We queued at bag drop for 1hour, and had an hour for security and getting to the gate but there is only a small kiosk for snacks or drinks at the gates. Bring food in advance or if wanting to buy duty free, there is nothing. :eek:

It was a great holiday overall and I’m sure that I’m missing loads of details.

If anyone has any questions, ask away.

grimm2005 · 22-07-2019 10:45am

TK Lemon wrote: »

But the final part, the airport. We queued at bag drop for 1hour, and had an hour for security and getting to the gate but there is only a small kiosk for snacks or drinks at the gates. Bring food in advance or if wanting to buy duty free, there is nothing. :eek:

Yeah, this caught us out as well and I did a bit of a Google and apparently they only recently re-opened that small terminal in March for LCCs with Ryanair being the anchor tenant with a few other random airlines and it's still in pilot mode. Absolutely nothing, not even a duty free stand, just a bunch of empty lots and a kiosk selling fairly miserable sandwiches. There was a lounge which I had a nosy in which looked fine but it was about €25 entry so we didn't bother for the amount of time we had. To add insult to injury, our taxi dropped us off at the main terminal which seemed buzzing and modern with loads of shops and restaurants!

Ah well, hopefully they will add at least a duty free and maybe a basic restaurant or something. Would seem like a lost opportunity for the airport for any business at all, particularly if there ends up being several flights a day in and out of the terminal. Either way, for the €80 return we paid for the flights, I'll take a couple of hours in a boring terminal!!

TK Lemon · 22-07-2019 12:24pm

grimm2005 wrote: »

To add insult to injury, our taxi dropped us off at the main terminal which seemed buzzing and modern with loads of shops and restaurants!

We were dropped off at the main terminal too. :P

There looks to be some work started in a duty free or a restaurant.

But it was a great trip in all.

Is a week too long in Kiev?

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