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The Carpathians

Clipping the country's southwest corner, the Carpathian arc has endowed Ukraine with a crinkled region of forested hills and fast-flowing rivers that feel a continent away from the flatness of the steppe. This is the land of the Hutsuls, whose colourful folk culture is laced through thin villages stretching languidly along wide valley floors. It's also rural Ukraine at its best, where tiered wooden churches dot hillsides, horse-drawn carts clip-clop along potholed roads, babushkas shoo geese, and marshrutka passengers cross themselves as they whizz past roadside chapels.

The 'Hutsulshchyna' may be Ukraine's epicentre of rural folk culture, but this is also a leading holiday spot. The local peaks have been a long-term hit with Ukrainian hikers and skiers; the Carpathian National Nature Park, the country's biggest, lies in this region; and within the park's boundaries rises Mt Hoverla – Ukraine's highest peak at 2061m. It's also home to Bukovel, Ukraine's glitziest ski resort.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout The Carpathians.

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Chernivtsi University
University buildings are often called 'dreaming spires', but Chernivtsi's is more like an acid trip. This fantastic, Unesco-listed red-brick ensemble, with coloured tiles decorating its pseudo-Byzantine, pseudo-Moorish and pseudo-Hanseatic wings, is the last thing you'd expect here. The architect responsible was Czech Josef Hlavka, who was also behind Chernivtsi's Former Armenian Cathedral, as well as large chunks of Vienna. He completed the university in 1882 for the Metropolitans (Orthodox Church leaders) of Bukovyna as their official residence. The Soviets moved the university here.
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Oleska Dovbush Museum
Few would brave the potholes to the sprawling Carpathian village of Kosmach, 35km to the southwest of Kolomyya, were it not for the privately run Oleksa Dovbush Museum. Run by the inimitable Mykhailo Didyshyn, this must be one of the oddest sights you'll find among the peaks of Europe's east. Didyshyn claims the garden hut housing his small museum is the one in which the 'the Ukrainian Robin Hood' was killed and he even shows you Dovbush's very own hat, belt, axe and bag.
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Palanok Castle
Built atop a 68m-tall volcano, Mukacheve's highlight is this dramatic castle that pops up from the surrounding plain west of town, like something in a fairy-tale fantasy. This 14th-century fortress, famous as the site where Croatian-Hungarian princess Ilona Zrini held off the Austrian Emperor's army for three years before finally capitulating in 1688, is also popular among Hungarians for its association with Sándor Petőfi (1823-49), the Hungarian national poet, who was held here during the century the building served as an Austrian prison.
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Khotyn Fortress
Ask any Ukrainian which is the country's finest castle and many will say Khotyn Fortress. Eastern European filmmakers love to use this massive fort overlooking the Dnister River as a location; for instance it served as Warsaw Castle in the highly controversial Russian-language blockbuster movie Taras Bulba (2009). With walls up to 40m high and 6m thick, today's stone fortress was built in the 15th century, replacing an earlier wooden structure. Its location safeguarded river trade routes, making it a sought-after prize.
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Carpathian Biosphere Reserve
Declared a Unesco Biosphere Reserve in 1992, this protected area is made up of six separate locations, four of which can be found around Rakhiv. Some 90% of the reserve is made up of virgin forest, home to rare flora and fauna. About 5km southwest of Rakhiv the main road leads to the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve headquarters, which isn't so much of interest for itself as for what's surrounding it.
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Uzhhorod Castle
On the hill overlooking the town stands the 15th-century castle with massive walls and beefy bastions built to withstand Turkish assaults. The main palace is home to the Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore (Закарпатський краєзнавчий музей), which has a good collection of pysanky (patterned eggs), regional folk costume, some Hutsul musical instruments including nine tremibity (the Carpathian didgeridoo), a section on interwar Transcarpathia, a collection of antique clocks and several other themed rooms. On the ground floor the old-fashioned exhibition examines the nature of Transcarpathia.
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Museum of Hutsul Folk Art
This well-curated exhibition of Hutsul artefacts is probably the best of its kind in Ukraine. Decorated stove tiles and other ceramics, musical instruments, carved wooden tools, boxes, furniture, traditional and embroidered folk dress, woven wall hangings and an interesting collection of traditional Hutsul axes fill the museum's grand neoclassical home, which started life in the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a Ukrainian cultural institute.
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Vul Kobylyanskoyi
When you’ve had enough of Chernivtsi’s barmy traffic, head for the tranquillity of vul Kobylyanskoyi, a pedestrianised street running between vuls Holovna and Shevchenka. It’s certainly the city’s most attractive thoroughfare hemmed with beautiful art nouveau facades containing music schools, a couple of minimuseums, bookshops, Lviv chain cafes, pizza places and some local government offices. Retro copies of 19th-century gas lamps, freshly planted trees and lots of benches make this the ideal venue for the evening corso and proves that Ukraine can do 'pleasant' when it puts its mind to it.
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Carpathian National Nature Park
This is Ukraine's largest national park and the heart of the Carpathians. Only about a quarter of the area is completely protected, but that hasn't detracted too much from the natural beauty of the place. Founded in 1980, the Carpathian National Nature Park (CNNP) covers 503 sq km of wooded mountains and hills. Parts of it shelter small numbers of animals and the alpine meadows are carpeted with species of flora. Realistically, however, hiking and possibly skiing are the main reasons to head this way.