Ukraine: Getting there & around

Kyiv is linked with most major European cities and a few in north America. Most international flights go to the puny Boryspil International Airport in Kiev, about 40km (25mi) southeast of the centre. The airport at Lviv, about 8km (5mi) west of its centre, has connections with Warsaw, Prague, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Chicago. Odesa's airport is about 12km (7mi) southwest of downtown, and has flights to and from Vienna and Moscow.

International trains enter Ukraine from seven countries at more than 10 locations. As long as you've got a visa, border crossings are pretty straightforward. Most major Ukrainian cities have daily services from Moscow; it's 15 hours to Kiev and 28 hours to Lviv. You can go between Kiev and Berlin (26 hours) via Warsaw (16 hours) and Brest (10 hours). The station is on the western fringe of downtown Kiev. Lviv has rail connections with most major eastern European and Russian cities; the station is 3km (2mi) west of the centre. A few buses a day head into Russia from Kharkiv; it takes 20 hours to reach Moscow from Kharkiv by bus.

You can travel by ship between Odesa or Yalta and various cities on the Black Sea and Mediterranean. The most frequent and reliable is the Odessa to Istanbul route. There's a car ferry running between Kerch, at the eastern tip of Crimea, and the Russian ports of Temryuk, Anapa and Novorossiysk.

Getting between major Ukrainian cities is best done by train. They're frequent, cheap and often a convenient night's journey. If you want to save a few hryvnia and don't mind the extra time, buses serve almost every city and small town; they're best for short trips outside main cities not served by trains. Autolux (www.autolux.com) is a private Ukrainian bus company and has comfortable modern buses to major locations at good rates. State-run buses are rather nightmarish.

Cars can be rented at a few major hotels in Kiev and at a handful of agencies in the major cities. You'll need an International Driving Permit; driving is on the right.