Ukraine

Ukraine is a beautiful country between the Carpathians and the North Caucasus having connection to Black Sea. Dnepr river divides the country into two parts, east and west which is also seen in the culture of these regions. West Ukraine like Galitsia is a part of middle Europe and East Ukraine is more slavonic.  Also Ukraine language is more common in West and Russian in East. 

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Old Kiev was ruled by the prince Jaroslav the Wise, whose grave is in Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. In his time the old Kiev was built with churches, hospitals, schools and library.

Crimea is a part of Ukraine, which has a large independence. Crimeas has been and still is a very popular holiday resort, but it is full of interesting culture destinations. In Jalta there are those famous palaces and castles, Sevastopol is the center of Navy, Bahtsisarai is the center of Crimean tatars and also the place of cave town and monastery and finally Feodosia is the birth place of the famous painter Aivasovsky.        

Podchaiv monastery locates in the place where Our Lady appeared to a shepherd announcing the foundation of the monasery under her footstep. Later from in this foorprint a spring was opened. This happened in the 13th century after the Mongolian invasion to Kiev, when the monks of Kiev Petshesrki monastery had to escape the attack and they came here to Podchaiv. Monastery is now a big Lavra, important spiritual center of West Ukraine.   

Tours to Ukraine are made by flight from Helsinki to Kiev and from there we continue either by bus or train. Tour leader from Finland will take care of the group during the whole tour and local guides and specialists are presenting  all destinations. 

Every tour in Ukraine includes some walking at destinations and landscape differs depending of a region, but there are hills and stairs everywhere like at railway stations.  There are no lifts everywhere and you need to carry your luggage in many places by yourself. There is possibilities also to get luggage helpers to carry bags and taxis to remove one place to antoher. 

Handicapped people need to contact us before the tour, so we can arrange them some special arrangements. 

Basicly our tours demand good heath to take part in these tours.

To avoid risks  we recommend to drink bottled water in all our tours!