When you travel to Ukraine, there are some great places to visit during your stay.  Here are the top ten places you are going to want to see before you leave the country.  Each of them has their own unique qualities and all of them combined make up the beauty of Ukraine.

Crimean Resorts

Crimea is a beautiful region to visit and vacation.  Many of the cities in this region were built and settled by Greek, Venetians, and Genoese who inter-married with local residents as they built their life there.

Carpathian Mountains

Considered the ‘Green Pearl’ of the region, the Carpathian Mountains is filled with resorts and tourist centres.  It is filled with wildlife, small villages, and meadows.  It is also the mysterious inspiration for a variety of vampire novels over the years.

Kiev

Located on the Dnieper River, Kiev is the capital of Ukraine and the home to 3 million people.  The centre of trade routes during the 11^th and 12^th centuries between the Baltic and Mediterranean, Kiev is a beautiful, historic city.

Lviv

Lviv is city that is made up of medieval streets paved with stones, architecture of different centuries, and once the capital of the Slavic state of Galicia-Volyn.  It was also once part of the Austro-Hungarian and Polish empires.

Odessa

The third largest city in Ukraine, Odessa is known as the ‘Pearl of the Black Sea’ by the countries residents.  The city has a mild climate, warm waters, and sunlit beaches that attract thousands of tourists each year.

Yalta

This is the city that Anton Chekhov chose to live in while writing his many novels.  This seaside resort on the Crimean peninsula is filled with resorts, beaches, and museums.

Kamyanets-Podilsky

Considered to be one of the oldest cities in Ukriane, Kanyanet-Podilsky can trace its history back over 1,000 years.  It’s on Smotrich River on a rocky island in a picturesque canyon.

Chernihiv

This city has been known as a human settlement for over 2,000 years and was the second most important city in Ukraine during the Kyivan Rus period of the country.

Sophievka Park, Uman

This beautifully landscaped park has architecture masterpieces that date back to the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries.  The park is spread over 154.7 hectares of land outside the ancient town of Cherkassy.

Poltava

Poltava is located between Kharkiv and Kiev.  It is the city in which the Swedes and Cossacks battled in 1709 against Czar Peter I, securing the Russian position over Ukraine.

You can get more information at The Ukraine Travel Advisor.

Varenyky – also known as halushky, these are small boiled dumplings that are filled with potato or cheese or some other filling and are served with cheese and meat with sour cream or butter sauce.  Similar to Pirogues in the United States.

Borshch – Ukraine’s national soup, Borshch has been ‘adopted’ by other Slavic nations.  Borshch is traditionally made with beets and mixed vegetables in a broth.  It comes in different varieties, each area adding their own flavour to the mix.  Borshch is usually served with a clear broth or with sour cream.

Holubsti – cabbage rolls stuffed with seasoned rice, buckwheat or meat and topped with a tomato style sauce.

Kotleta Po-Kyivsky – the real name of Chicken Kiev.

Kasha – a grain based cereal similar to a buckwheat porridge and served as a side dish or stuffing.

 Khleeb – this is the Ukrainian word for any type of bread.  This is the generic name as each type of bread – sweet bread, wedding bread, honey cakes, doughnuts, white and wheat bread, etc.  While each of these types of bread have their own name, if you ask for Khleeb you’ll get some type of bread.

Recently Ukraine’s government allowed tourists into the area surrounding Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in the history of man.  Visitors to Ukraine who are interested in seeing the site first hand and are not afraid of a little bit of radiation can now take a one day trip to the nuclear site and meet people who still live in the surrounding area who refused to give up their homes.

The trip leaves Kiev at exactly 9am and travels north to the ‘exclusion zone’, a 214 kilometre perimeter that surrounds the nuclear plant.  At 10:30, visitors will pass the ‘Dytyatky’ checkpoint which is located on the border of the 30 kilometre zone – also known as the estrangement zone and compulsory resettlement area.  Once past the checkpoint, visitors will travel a half hour to the site and then learn about the scientific work being done in the estrangement zone where scientists and specialists are learning about radiation and how power plants can be made stronger.

Visitors will then travel to the 10 kilometre zone, the closest anyone is allowed to the power plant.  They will be able to see the ‘Sarcophagus’ – the concrete and steel shroud that covers the radioactive elements and debris left from the explosion – visit the review pavilion and the ‘red forest’ and see the burial village as well as the ghost town of Prypyat.

After lunch visitors to Chernobyl will be able to speak with the residents of Paryshiv, the self-settlers and elderly who refused to leave their homes and resettle somewhere else.  Visitors will leave the area at 5pm and return to Kiev by 7pm.

While the one day excursion could be considered a very sobering day, it is also a way to witness in first person the site and to speak one on one with survivors about the days after the explosion, learning their stories to pass on to the next generation.

Airline officials and the police in Ukraine are advising that anyone who is flying out of Boyrspil International Airport make sure that any valuable items are packed in their carry on bags and not the luggage they check in.  The airline authorities are having problems with what they refer to as ‘airport vulture’ – or more officially luggage thieves who rifles through your suitcase looking for valuables that can be sold.  In 2007 alone there were more than 11,000 thefts that occurred, with an entire police squad and six luggage handlers being arrested.

Everyone – celebrities, students, and the average person – are being targets by these luggage thieves and the items that are being stolen are being sold on the black market.  The luggage area at an airport is not the most tightly controlled area and with the current scanning methods in place, these luggage thieves can easily see what is in your luggage.  If you are transporting anything of value – jewellery, extra money, electronics, cameras, etc. – pack them in your carry on case where they can be watched at all times.  Do not pack anything that is valuable in your check on suitcases as the insurance from the airlines only pay by weight and not by value.  This means your $500 camera will only get you $8 back.

Part of the group who has become affectionately known among football fans as the ‘Group of Death’, Ukraine’s football team is preparing for the next World Cup, to be held in 2012 in their home region.  Joining Ukraine in this group includes Italy, France, and Scotland.  Ukraine qualified and played in the 2006 World Cup for the first time as an independent nation.  Unfortunately they – with the other three teams – did not make it to the 2008 World Cup and practice has started for the team in an effort to make it to the next football running.

The team is gearing up for the 2012 World Cup qualifying round, led by coach Alexei Mikhailichenko.  They drew a place in Group Six and are joined by England and Croatia.  The Croatia team almost made it into the 2008 Euro semi-finals.  So far the teams from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra do not seem to be posing much of a threat to the team from Ukraine, but it could still be a tough race to the finals.

 Ukraine’s captain is Andriy Shevchenko with strikers Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and Andriy Voronin joining him on the pitch.  Both are experienced players on the international level and come from top drawer clubs Zenit St. Petersburg and Liverpool.

You can find more information about the world cup at Ukraine.worldcupblog.com

The city of Kiev, capital of Ukraine, celebrated its 1,020^th anniversary of its adoption of Christianity on the 16^th and 17^th of August, celebrating with groups of women in headscarves and a bearded man in all of the billboards and posters in town.  Kiev is considered the cradle of the East Slavic civilisation and the city itself is older that St. Petersburg in Moscow, Russia.  The celebration dates back to the time of Kievan Rus, circa 9^th century, when the country went to Christianity instead of Islamic Asian.  Many of the traditions celebrated by Slavic people and their descendants were born at this time.

Anyone who visited Kiev over the weekend witnessed residents circling and praying at the Pechersk-Lavra, a religious complex founded by St. Antoniy in 1051 and is considered one of the holiest places in Ukraine.  The complex is a group of caves and visitors to it would’ve witnessed the mummified corpses still contained within.  The Dormiton Cathedral was also filled with pilgrims and even thought the building is a copy of the original that was destroyed, the people don’t care.  There were plenty celebrations going on that included good food and plenty of worship services that fit the tastes of everyone in Kiev.

There is also more information available at From Kiev With Love.

While the men were winning gold medals left and right, Ukraine women were having a slightly tougher time until Saturday when they were handed the gold medal for the women’s heptathlon.  Nataliia Dobrynska of Ukraine recorded 6,733 points after competing in a two-day, seven sport discipline event.  Her teammate Lyudmila Blonska too the silver medal 33 points behind Dobrynska and American Hyleas Fountain of the United States taking the bronze with 6,619 points.

Says Dobrynska after winning her medal, “The Olympic Games is the main goal for every athlete, but today I think I wanted it more and that’s why I won it.  I had very strong opponents, but like every athlete, I had the goal to win the Olympic Games.”  Her medal was based on her performance in seven different track and field events, with her shot put landing at 17.29 meters – a personal best for the Ukrainian athlete – and the long jump of 6.63 meters.  She scored 13.44 seconds in the 100 meter hurdle and 48.50 meters in the javelin.

Blonska, who took the silver, was the 2006 world indoor champion and reigning world silver medalist.  “I never thought I could win a silver medal in the Olympic Games. It has always been my dream to win a medal in the Olympics,” she said.  Now, her dream has come true.

The Olympics are in high gear and half-way completed and the team from Ukraine scored another gold medal on Saturday.  Olesandr Petriv Ukraine took the medal for the 25 metre rapid fire pistol event, beating the silver placed winner Ralf Schumann of Germany by 0.7 points

Petriv claims that his colleagues think he’s insane because of his complete dedication to the sport, but his gold medal helps him disagree.  Petriv usually finds the final of his competitions sticking points and he attributes his success in winning the gold from learning from his past mistakes, allowing him to perform well.  This is the first time Petriv has ever gone to the Olympics even though he has been participating in the sport for the last 22 years of his life.

The leader going into the even was Keith Sanderson who ended up in fifth place.  American Vincent Hancock won the gold in skeet shooting and then for tie-shooting, firsts for the American team.  The world’s number 1 shooter, Georgios Achilleos of Cyprus finished fifth in the skeet shooting pack and Qu Ridong of China ended at sixth after a seven way shoot off tie breaker.

All of the shooting events finished with the men’s free rifle 3-position competition on Sunday, August 18^th. You can find more information on the Olympics at this blog: The Armenian Blog

If you are making plans to travel to Ukraine for a vacation or to visit friends and relatives, then you are going to want to go between late April and early June.  During this time of year the weather is warming up and the chestnut trees are in bloom.  This is time of year when the cafes begin to offer outdoor seating, the Carpathian and Crimean Mountains are in bloom for hikers, and rainfall is at a minimum.  There are fewer tourists in the cities and if Easter should happen to fall during these months, the Orthodox Easter rituals and celebrations are rich with tradition and traditional Ukrainian foods.

While July through August also offers visitors to the country the full summer foliage, the weather can be hot and stiflingly at times.  Tourists and residents alike flock to the cooler Crimea and Carpathian Mountains or head to the coast of the Black Sea.  The summer months see more outdoor activities being available for visitors to enjoy, but everything is more crowded than during the cooler summer – and even autumn – months.

Skiers will appreciate Ukraine during the bitter cold of December and January as the slopes in the Carpathian’s open up for some great powder action.  However, visitors to the country during the winter are advised to bring heavy clothing in order to fend off the cold.  The winters in Ukraine do tend be a bit shorter than the countries that surround it with the northern part of the country seeing temperatures around 14 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit in January.    The southern part of the country has only slightly warmer temperatures.

For more travel tips you can check back here at ukrainian guide and also at lonelyplanet.

When you visit Ukraine, you discover that there is a language barrier you are going to have to overcome.  The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian and most visitors to the country will find this language or the language of the countries located around it – such as Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Polish – being spoken.  While many Ukrainian residents understand Russian, they may not respond to you if you speak it, especially the further west you go.  In the eastern part of Ukraine, like Crimea, Russian is spoken almost exclusively.  In the central and eastern parts of Ukraine, you will find Ukrainian and Russian being spoken at the same time.  This language mixture is called ‘surzhyk’.

Younger members of the country and its communities may speak and understand some English.  English is taught as a foreign language in the schools and if you are lucky enough to find a young Ukrainian who understands and speaks English and they are willing to help you, you will be extremely unfortunate.

Unless you are planning on bringing a translator with you on your trip to Ukraine, it is recommended that you learn basic Ukrainian or Russian before entering the country.  A Ukrainian or Russian phrase book will come in handy.  You should also keep the mobile number of someone who is bilingual in English and one of these languages in your phone so that you can have something translated quickly.  If you can speak another Slavic language such as the one listed above, you will be able to communicate well enough to get around the country.