Ukraine seems to be a mysterious country to lots of foreign tourists who mostly prefer to stay in big touristic destinations like Kiev, Lviv or Odessa. However, beautiful Ukrainian landscapes and interesting historic sites all across the country are really worth visiting. Here are some basic travelling tips in Ukraine that will help to stay safe and will make your trip as exciting and rich in impressions as it only could be:
1. Upload the scans of important documents on Google Drive, Dropbox or iCloud storages to have wireless access to them: in case you find yourself in without the originals at a place, where there is no embassy or consulate of your country, you can at least print a copy.
2. Bring 3-5 credit cards and store them in different places: if you lose the main card or have it stolen, you can block it, put the money on the second card, and continue your journey. Don’t forget to always bring some cash (but not too much) with you as cars transactions are not always available, especially outside big cities.
Read: Travelling to Kiev: 3 tips for a foreigner
3. Download smartphone applications for travelers with maps that work without Internet connection as 3G connection does not function good enough across all the territory of the country. Some of them can even replace the guide, which is very convenient for smaller towns and remoted places, where touristic infrastructure is not that much developed.
4. Buy or download a phrasebook: Google translator does not always give accurate translations of long sentences and only functions with Internet connection. Ukrainians do not tend to understand and speak good English in general, especially outside big cities.
Read: Lala Tarapakina and her “Znaydeno v Ukrayini” travel project
5. Use Tripadvisor and Foursquare to find really nice places appreciated by tourists and locals to have dinner or grab a drink: these places are more often rated fairly and are not artificially promoted by touristic agencies or websites.
Enjoy your journey and get the most out of it!