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Angelsix
Traveller
2 comments

Posted 3 months ago

I'm planning a visit to the safer parts of Ukraine, which would start with some train trip from some airport outside of Ukraine to Lviv. As best as I can tell from wandering the Internet, the best route would be to fly to Vienna, stay overnight, take a short bus ride to Bratislava (Slovakia), and take the train from there to Lviv. My travels in Ukraine would probably end up in Kyiv, so I'd then be taking a longer train ride from Kyiv (through Lviv) to Bratislava and then fly home. I'd need to avoid any tight connections because, well, there's a war. Any recommendations (other than "don't go, it's too dangerous") welcome.

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argon
Traveller
475 comments

replied 3 months ago

Why going to Bratislava ? There are Nighttrains of UZ directly from Wien or Budapest to Lviv as well as a nightttain Wien-Lviv-Kyiv . Some departures may require long stops (mostly at Chop around 2h) . You can simply look for connections and tickets at booking.uz.gov.ua/en . Cherres argon :)

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MisterSteve
Traveller
1095 comments

replied 3 months ago

None of that makes sense!

Why go to Bratislava when the train starts in Vienna and doesn't go via Bratislava? And why spend the night in Vienna when the bus from the airport to Bratislava runs so frequently? This "wandering around the internet", was it done using Apps recommended by the App Store? Try a proper PC with a proper browser and full fat Google, not the dumbed down version for phones. Ukraine might be too dangerous but I won't tell you not to go, because I don't think you'll make the border. But have you checked visa rules?

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nltrainer
Traveller
1427 comments

replied 3 months ago

When the current hostilities had not started, I´ve been to UKR several times, and as @ those times budget-air as not even started to it yet, I´ve done it mostly via Krakow, closest by, interesting city with plenty of cheap-ish Polsih-style accomm. and also good both bus and train (change @border=different gauge) abd as such still now used by the many UKR refugees who go back home sometime for visits (as they told me here).
WIZZair is the ´Ryan´air of East-EUR and has plenty of flites to there-same policy re luggage etc as that dreaded Ryan, but in general much more friendly and easy to handle.
A those times- UKR was competely visa-free for EU-nationals-but that funny island in the North Sea has stepped out of that union-so dk.
Have @ those times even been into Krym/beaches and that now Russky occupied Eastern Donyetsk/Lugansk zone-the latter was utterly uninteresting, even if I may say a little visitor-UNfriendly and an ecological disaster zone-heavy mining and pollution

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Angelsix
Traveller
2 comments

replied 3 months ago

Thanks!

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Angelsix
Traveller
2 comments

replied 3 months ago

Hi all. Thanks for all the input.
___Any deficiencies in my Internet perusing were mine, not my custom gamer PC (and, not using my phone).
___Looking at the map, it seems to make most sense to travel to Ukraine from Krakow which is much closer than Vienna or Budapest.
Looking on Polrail (thanks to https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Krakow.htm#Krakow_to_Kiev), at
https://booking.polrail.com/index.php?main_page=page_5&from=Krakow&to=Lvov&date=26-11-2024&language=en
I'd have the option to take (e.g. 26 November 2024) 1 IC6300, from Kraków Główny 09:23, change at Przemyśl Główny 12:08l, to 2 D90 Przemyśl Główny 13:45, arr. Lvov 17:24, total travel time est. 08:01. This seems like a pretty reasonable option. Anything else you'd recommend I consider?

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MisterSteve
Traveller
1095 comments

replied 3 months ago

Consider????

Well how about travel insurance? Suitable (by Ukrainian legal standards) insurance is required by all visitors and can be checked by the border guards. The problem is most foreign insurers won't give cover for Ukraine, for example the UK Goverment has advised against all tourist travel to Ukraine, which automatically means normal UK issued travel insurance policies will suspend cover. It's unlikely the UK government and insurance industry is alone in this. The Ukrainian goverment will sell insurance cover to tourists.

There is no reset button to press if things get dangerous.

We'd all be interested in a report of how you get on when you get home....
The Visit Ukraine website recommends you go to the tourist office in Lviv and get a copy or the air raid shelter map. They are trying to encourage tourism but even they say there is a risk of attack! You should also check the curfew hours, the whole country is under martial law and you are banned from being outdoors at certain times, usually starting at midnight.

Check how to contact your country's embassy/consulate. If you are a UK passport holder don't bother, the information on the Government website is that they will not provide in person consular assistance or evacutation if things go wrong. They suggest you hire private security. Once again other countries are likely to have similar policies.