Lviv

By plane

Lviv has an international airport just 7km from the beautiful downtown. Lviv is served via direct international routes including flights from Vienna Austrian Airlines, Frankfurt Ukraine International Airlines, Warsaw LOT Polish Airlines, Krakow Eurolot, Timisoara, Romania Carpatair and Munich Lufthansa. Low cost airline Wizz Air flies twice a week to Dortmund and Venice-Treviso.

Important! Lufthansa and Wizz Air-flights are not served from main terminal - go to the small Terminal "3" at the right side of the main building!

It is relatively inexpensive to fly from Kyiv to Lviv, with multiple daily flights operated by Ukrainian International Airlines (http://www.flyuia.com) and Aerosvit (http://www.aerosvit.com.ua). These carriers also operate flights to and from other major Ukrainian cities, although it is still more common to travel by train domestically as the overnight trains save you the cost of a hotel while providing you transporation. Return airfares from Kyiv range from as low as $50 including taxes and fees, if booked more than a month in advance, to approximately $100. Tickets for air travel can be purchased online or via travel agents. Taxi from the airport to town or visa-versa should cost around 45UAH, depending on the time of day. Negotiate prior to departure. There are line 9 operated by trolleybuses from Airport to city center 1.25UAH, also available 50% discounts for students, and line 48 operated by buses 2 UAH, vithout discounts from the airport. Both of them are frequent every 10-15 minutes during the day.

See: Lviv Airport website (http://www.airport.lviv.ua/). The airport is very basic as there is no currency exchange and toilets are only available after check-in. There is only one ATM, and it is located in the main arrival hall. The small restaurants right outside of the main building will be your best bet for food and locating clean toilets.

Arrival Advisory: Travel Insurance

You do not need to buy insurance at the airport. There is a little booth in arrivals with someone who may try to sell you insurance or demand to see yours if you say you have it. You do not need to purchase insurance from this person, nor show them any documentation. Ignore them.

By car

From Poland: take the E40, this will end at the city center. Keep in mind that all formalities at the border take from one hour upwards. There will be a long line for trucks, which you can pass if you travel by car. Don't expect the border police to treat you respectfully, or speak any language other than Ukrainian, Polish or Russian. In fact, expect the very opposite regarding both.

Ukrainian roads are bad, and Ukrainian drivers have an aggressive driving style. When you drive into Lviv, make sure you have a good map because getting lost in this town is very easy.

NOTE: It is forbidden to drive around the city center on Sundays and holidays including Prospekt Svobody. This is signposted, but in Cyrillic only, as one driver caught by a police official learned in July 2012.

Pay close attention to speed limits which are often badly marked, with signs far off the road, covered with branches etc., but the speeding fines are usually low if nothing else is wrong with your car. In towns, the speed limit is usually 60km/h 40mph. Speed limits on "nationals" single carriageway countryside roads is 90km/h 55mph. The poor average quality of the roads already acts as a speed checker. Speed limits on highways motorways is 110-120km/h 75mph.

Be aware that corruption is widespread among Ukrainian police. When you are stopped for speeding or other violations, officers might aggressively try and extract ridiculous sums of money from you €100 and up, offering "reductions" if you pay on the spot the proposed alternative being some unpleasant and more expensive way, all made up.

The highest actual legal fine in the Ukraine is the equivalent of about $200. But the fine should be paid in the bank, not directly to police officer! So if you're asked for fine demand a written ticket for you to pay later instead. Don't let them intimidate you. It's very useful to have an embassy phone number handy for these cases you should NOT under any circumstances travel around Ukraine without your embassy/consulate number handy anyway. If you mention your embassy/consulate, they'll let you off the hook quicker than you know it. At any rate, write down the officers' badge numbers, rank, plate number of the police car, and notify the nearest embassy/consulate in detail, to help fight these corrupt practices.

By train

The easiest way to get to L'viv from Western Europe is through Krakow or Wroclaw/Katowice in Poland. From there, you have several options.

Take a train to Przemyśl near the Polish-Ukrainian border. It costs about 40 PLN and takes between 4 and 5 hours. From Przemysl you take a bus to the border 'granitsa' in Polish for 2.50 PLN, walk through the checkpoint and take another bus marshrootka to L'viv. When you exit the final border control, walk straight ahead and you will come out on to a street which cars use to cross back in to Poland. Follow this street up past the shops and money exchanges, and take your first left. About 50 meters down on the left hand side is the new bus terminal where buses run regularly to Lviv for approximately 23 UAH. Get your ticket from the driver.

The total cost for this route is approximately €12 and maybe less if you have a student card. It is around half the price of the next cheapest option. Whether to take it depends on your stress tolerance, Polish language skills and ability to push and shove at the border.

PEDESTRIAN CROSSING: Queues at the border crossings can be unpredictable and hellish. If you do encounter a queue and are in a hurry, get the guards attention, explain your situation and they will more than likely let you go through immediately. Be polite! 30 minutes from Medyka to Sheheni Шегині on foot is now the norm.

There are lots of "ants" - these are people who cross into Poland with relatively cheap Ukrainian cigarettes and spirits, then buy meats and cheeses at low EU prices and return to Ukraine to sell them for a profit. Everyone has to pass through a turnstile and the bulky bags and suitcases they carry are too big to fit. There is a huge log jam of people trying to fit their bags through that turnstile and ugly words are common. Tourists with backpacks are sometimes let through by the "ants".

There is also a direct train from Krakow to L'viv once a day, plus one with a change. This costs 195 PLN as of the 3/3/2009 booking via Polrail Service (http://polrail.com). A sleeper berth is required on the train, as only sleeping cars are carried across the border to Ukraine. DO NOT pay a cash 'reservation charge' to the Ukrainian conductor on the second train. Ensure you have your reservations for the second train in your possession and fully identifiable.

There are trains coming from throughout Ukraine, including multiple daily trains including 3-4 overnight trains from Kyiv. The timings can be inconvenient - one night train from Kyiv gets in at 4:20am, the one back to Kiev gets there at 7am - and hotels in Kyiv really like to book that pair of trains for their clients. For better options, check the timetables at poezda.net (http://www.poezda.net/en/index) or poezda.org.ua (http://poezda.org.ua/city...) and buy the ticket at any train station in Ukraine.

Trains from Hungary and Slovakia come through Lviv, usually on their way to Kyiv. Train-fare from both countries is approx $80 per person for a bed in a sleeping car. On the MAV website the round-trip price from Budapest is quoted at €64.40, [ (http://www.elvira.hu/elvi...)] but, when contacting the international rail office by phone in Budapest, the one-way fare was quoted at 12,600 Ft $75/€50, however, when purchased at Keleti train station the price was reduced to roughly 11,700 Ft $62/€44 1.1.09. Make sure to bring enough food and water for at least 12 hours 15 hours from Budapest.

Travel Note: Smuggling

Smuggling is a fact of life between Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine. The harsh economic situation in these two respective regions forces many into the trade, involving people of all ages. You may witness individuals unscrewing panels and pulling out plastic wrapped cigarette cartons, and may even be asked to politely move to enable access to a hidden cavity. Similarly if you decide to use the toilet you may find it blocked with cartons of cigarettes and your seat may feel uncomfortable if someone's removed the soft filling and replaced it with cigarettes. The key here is to exercise your common sense. These people are only doing their 'job' and thus should be treated with respect. There is no need for alarm! In fact it can be fascinating watching just how many cigarettes a single train carriage can hold and later watching as everything is removed on arrival in the EU. Border guards may ask you if anyone has been smuggling but the best response is to claim that you were sleeping or pretend not to understand.

UPDATE: As of mid 2009, you are only able to take 2 packets 40 cigarettes and maximum 1 litre of spirits or wine across the border into EU states!

UPDATE: 01.01.2010 - The German customs homepage states that import limits have been extended to 200 cigarettes AND 1 liter of spirits above 22% alc. OR 2 liters of alcohol e.g. sparkling wine below 22% alc. AND 4 liters of non sparkling wine AND 16 liters of beer Valid only one time per travel and for travellers above 17 years old!!