Activities in Ukraine
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Sergey Sorokin
Crimea has some fantastic hiking opportunities but a scarcity of really good topographical maps with marked routes. In addition, a total lack of English signs mean that Westerners will find the going more challenging than usual. Guided tours such as those offered by Sergey Sorokin are recommended.
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Akvarmarin
PADI-approved Akvarmarin offers dives through the watery channels of the factory, or in the bay or sea. Tour operators along the harbour tout regular, short cruises.
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Hydropark
City beaches are a hot talking point these days, thanks to Paris' plage, but Kyiv had them long before sand along the Seine was even a grain of an idea. Thanks to a dam a few kms downstream, the Dnipro around Kyiv is full of islands and beaches, which are packed with sunbathers in summer. Water sports like wake-boarding and sailing are popular summer pursuits, while in the winter ice fishers descend on the frozen river en masse and intrepid 'walrus' swimmers take to the frigid bouillabaisse.
It's better to merely sunbathe than to spend much time in the river, which isn't the cleanest - although that doesn't deter thousands of locals from diving right in. The most central…
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outdoor gym
Kyiv's quirkiest sight might just be Hydropark's giant, makeshift outdoor gym. The machines here are cobbled together from used truck parts and salvaged scrap metal. It's a testosterone-fuelled affair, although you'll usually see one or two women amid the muscle. On weekends and summer evenings the gym is packed. Beware: the sight of hundreds of sweaty dudes in Speedos pumping primitive iron could be a little off-putting. To get here, cross the footbridge and bear right.
Next to the outdoor gym is a gymnastics zone that sees surprisingly competent amateurs swinging from horizontal bars.
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Cable Car
About 1km east of Alupka, behind a little cluster of market stalls, is the cable car up the cliff of Mt Ay-Petri. It’s a truly dizzying ride across the foothills and up the mountain’s sheer face, during which you overlook the coast and the sea. Until the end of 2007, when they were ripped down, one of the most enjoyable things about journeying to the peak was the Crimean Tatar food stalls here. With any luck, they might be rebuilt.
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Sun City
Explore Hydropark and you'll find gay, straight, clothed and nude beaches. Entertainment complex Sun City is a private beach with a swimming pool that rents out jet skis. When the sun goes down it turns into a fashionable nightclub. Other popular activities in Hydropark include beach volleyball, beach football, basketball, bungee jumping from a giant crane near the footbridge and - most popular - drinking vodka. In the winter you can hire cross-country skis.
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Pelikan Canal Tour
The largest and most organised tour operator is Pelikan Canal Tour. Boat hire is available for a half/full day for up to six people. English-speaking guides charge per hour (more for a professional ornithologist who speaks English). A half day should be enough time to visit both the reserve and the canals. A one-hour canal tour is also available.
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A
Vremena Goda
For something a little special, visit this spa hotel and medical centre for its chocolate massages and mud treatments. With clean, modern lines complemented by a few Art Nouveau stained-glass windows, the ‘Four Seasons’ is within fairly easy reach (a 10- to 15 -minute walk) of the high-season action.
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Outdoor Ukraine
Crimea has some fantastic hiking opportunities but a scarcity of really good topographical maps with marked routes. In addition, a total lack of English signs mean that Westerners will find the going more challenging than usual. Guided tours such as those offered by Outdoor Ukraine are recommended.
reviewed
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Drahobrat
Want to go skiing in April? At snowy Drahobrat, 1300m above sea level, you often can. Ukraine’s only truly ‘Alpine’ skiing spot is remote and its conditions are suitable only for the experienced. It’s also popular with snowboarders. The resort is 18km from Yasinya.
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Breeze
If you speak Russian, stalls in Feodosiya and Koktebel sell paragliding (about 180uah), gliding (360uah to 420uah) and microlight (230uah) flights, or you can contact the paragliding school Breeze. The mountain ridge is off the Feodosiya–Koktebel road, signposted ролөты.
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Krok Tour
Krok Tour can supply a guided tour of the town's huge network of underground tunnels. Created in the 16th century, these tunnels were used by locals to move about freely without being seen by the authorities, whether Polish, Nazi or Soviet.
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Euro-Tour
Euro-Tour does excellent three-hour tours of the battlefield where Peter the Great’s army defeated the Ukrainian Cossacks under Ivan Mazepa and their Swedish allies in 1709. Also does city tours.
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Centre for Green Tourism
Dima of the Centre for Green Tourism runs canoe trips on the Desna with overnight home-stays or camping in rural villages. A good route is the three-day trip from Novhorod Siversky to Chernihiv.
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Transcarpathian Hiking Trail
The Transcarpathian Hiking Trail heads south to the village of Kostylivka and is planned to eventually curve back north up the Chornohora ridge and further north towards Poland for 380km.
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Chervona Ruta
This is your only port of call if you’re interested in Dnipro River and Black Sea cruises. The standard cruise is one week along the Kyiv–Sevastopol–Odesa route.
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Slavske
This still popular resort has blue, red and black runs, but slopes tend to get bumpy and icy by the season’s end. Slavske is 130km south of Lviv, on the rail line to Uzhhorod.
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Intourist
If you’re happy to tag along on one of Intourist’s many crowded day tours, great. If you want something different, tough. Customisation isn’t a speciality here.
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Serhiy Stepchuk
Serhiy Stepchuk is an expert in leading tourists and groups around the CNNP, even producing a 120-page book on Transcarpathia in German. Contact him in English for details.
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Chairlift
This flimsy plastic-bucket-style chairlift swings above the rooftops to Darsan, to a bizarre pseudo-Greek temple and lookout that’s popular for impromptu teenage parties.
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Turkul
Turkul's enterprising local hiking guides are based in Uzhhorod, but will meet your group's train as far afield as Lviv if you wish.
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Travel Agency
The efficient Klaudia Petrivna runs the show at the Prydesnyasky Hotel Travel Agency. She personally guides city tours in English.
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Pioneer Ice Club
Escape the rain – or summer heat – on a frozen indoor oval overlooking the mighty Dnipro.
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Vylkovo Tour
Tour operators such as Vylkovo Tour will take you through the Vylkovo canals.
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