Odesa Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Odesa has two bus stations that are useful for travellers. The conveniently located Pryvoz bus station (777 7481; vul Vodoprovodna), 300m west of the train station, is mainly for shorter trips. Marshrutky leave from here to Mykolayiv every 15 minutes throughout the day (20uah, 1½ hours), and to Vylkovo (25uah, about every two hours from 6.25am to 6.30pm, three to four hours).

Most international and long-haul domestic buses leave from the long-distance bus station (721 6354; vul Kolontaevska 58), 3km west of the train station. Frequent Gunsel (326 212) and Autolux (716 4612) buses are the most comfortable and quickest way to travel to Kyiv (90uah, 7½ hours). Other companies serve Izmayil (29uah, four hours, hourly), Donetsk (100uah, 13 hours, one daily), Simferopol (80uah, 12 hours, six daily), Yalta (100uah, 14 hours, three daily), Lviv (100uah, 15 hours, two daily) and Chernivtsi (100uah, 13 hours, two daily) via Kamyanets-Podilsky.

There are at least 10 buses per day to Chişinău via Tiraspol, and two via Palanka (40uah to 50uah, five to seven hours). The latter avoid Transdnistr.

Call Arman Tours (728 9518; vul Kanatna 81) for bus journeys to Prague, Krakow and other eastern and central European destinations.

Train

Odesa is well connected by train to all major Ukrainian, Russian and eastern European cities. Despite the addition of ‘summer trains’ on the most popular routes (eg Kyiv, Moscow, Simferopol and Lviv), seats to/from Odesa fill up fast from June to August, so book ahead.

From Odesa train station (727 4242; pl Pryvokzalna) there are about five (mostly night) trains to Kyiv (110uah, nine to 12 hours), plus trains to Kharkhiv (100uah, 14 hours), Lviv (96uah, 12 hours), Kamyanets-Podilsky (75uah, 18 hours, odd days only) and Simferopol (75uah, 12 hours). Longer-distance services go to Moscow, Minsk, Rostov and (during summer only) to St Petersburg.

Trains to western Ukraine no longer pass through Chişinău. In fact, as of the time of research, there were no train services to Chişinău.

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Boat

From the Sea Port there are regular ferry services to Istanbul, plus some to Varna in summer. For Crimea, you can hitch a ride on river cruise ships run by Chervona Ruta out of Kyiv, space permitting. These dock in Odesa before continuing to Sevastopol (€75, 16 hours, one to two per week, summer only). It’s pricey but you’ll be travelling in style in a private cabin. You can only book tickets for these through Chervona Ruta or Odesa’s London Sky Travel.

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Air

Odesa airport (393 549; www.airport.od.ua, in Russian) is better linked to Europe than any other Ukrainian airport besides Kyiv’s. Austrian Airlines, Air Baltic and Turkish Airlines all have regular flights here, and various regional carriers fly to Georgia, Armenia and Russia.

Domestic airlines Aerosvit, Ukraine International Airlines, and Odesa Airlines all fly between here and Kyiv. Kiy Avia (724 2240; www.kiyavia.com; vul Preobrazhenska 15; 8am-8pm) can sort you out with tickets and timetables.

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