Kyiv in Your Pocket, № 51, Winter 2012
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Hotels Restaurants Cafés Nightlife Sightseeing Events Maps KYIV Winter 2012 - 2013 Visiting Russia Getting there from Kyiv, visa issues and the highlights to both Moscow and St-Petersburg Bukovel Ukraine’s top-notch ski resort N°51 www.inyourpocket.com CONTENTS All you need to know about where to sleep, eat, drink, visit and enjoy Online Print Mobile Europe’s biggest publisher of locally produced city guides CONTENTS 3 ESSENTIAL CITY GUIDES Contents Arriving & Transport 5 Arriving in Kyiv, getting to the city, car rental and public transport Basics 8 Some useful information Culture & Events 11 Culture celebrations & Sport events Visiting Russia 16 The essentials for a weekend in Moscow and St-Petersburg Where to stay 20 A fine selection of places to spend the night Winter weather in Kyiv is cold, wet and frosty. Restaurants 29 If you’re going out and still think to wear or not gloves and Kyiv dining scene a cap, think twice and put all that warm clothes on. Then Cafés 35 nothing will disturb you from enjoying our beautiful city. Nightlife 36 Bars, Pubs & Clubs Sightseeing Essential Kyiv 39 Museums 43 Kyivo-Pechers’ka Lavra 46 Bukovel 47 Ukraine’s top-notch ski resort Sport & Leisure 48 Winter sports and indoor options Shopping 49 Shopping mals, fashion and food Lifestyle directory 50 Useful directory for staying in Kyiv Business directory 52 Banks, accountants and lawyers Maps & Index Street register & Index 53 Since New Year and Christmas time is coming and Maps 55 everyone needs presents, plenty of shopping centres can be visited around Kyiv. kyiv.inyourpocket.com Winter 2012 - 2013 4 FOREWORD ARRIVAL & TRANSPORT Much to the Grinch’s delight, Christmas celebra- tions were officially banned during the Soviet era. The World of In Your Pocket Much to the Grinch’s dissatisfaction, contemporary Ukrainians are making up for lost Christmases by Northern Estonia celebrating twice: once on December 24 and of- Ireland Russia ficially on January 7. The good old habit of partying Ireland Latvia on New Year’s Eve is still alive and well, and if you happen to be in Kyiv, expect plenty of decorated Lithuania trees, massive firework displays and enough vodka to send Did Moroz (Grandfather Frost, a.k.a Santa Belarus Clause) to an early grave. Netherlands Poland Locals usually spend New Year’s Eve with family Germany Belgium Ukraine and friends eating massive portions of scrump- Czech tious festive dishes, exchanging presents and Republic partying until the sun comes up. Thousands are expected to join the traditional outdoor party on Austria Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), and Switzerland Slovenia Romania with hundreds of business owners already in place Croatia protesting the country’s new tax code, celebrations Italy Bosnia Serbia at the capital’s main square should be extra special Bulgaria this year. Getting a table at a popular restaurant Montenegro Kosovo or club can be tricky - many have been booked FYR Macedonia for months - but don’t get discouraged, these Albania things have a magical way of working their way Greece out. According to local tradition, if you make a wish More than 20 years since we published the first In when the clock strikes twelve and then drink the Your Pocket guide - to Vilnius in Lithuania - we champagne in your glass to the final drop, your wish have grown to become the largest publisher of will come true. locally produced city guides in Europe. We now Christmas in Ukraine is officially celebrated on cover more than 75 cities across the continent (with January 7, the date designated by the Ukrainian Or- Oristano, on the Italian island of Sardinia, the latest thodox calendar. Festivities begin on Christmas Eve city to be pocketed) and the number of concise, (Sviat Vechir) with Holy Supper (Sviata Vecheria). witty, well-written and downright indispensable In Family and friends come together to feast on an Your Pocket guides published each year is app- eye-popping, belly-busting assortment of no less roaching five million. We also publish an iPhone than 12 dishes including the mandatory Kuti - por- app, including more than 40 guides, which can be ridge prepared with a special syrup of honey, grated downloaded for free from the AppStore. Search for poppy seeds, raisins and walnuts. Enjoy! ‘IYP Guides’ by name. The In Your Pocket team would like to wish you To keep up to date with all that’s new at In Your Z Novym Rokom (Happy New Year) and Z Rizdvom Pocket, like us on Facebook (facebook.com/ (Merry Christmas)! inyourpocket) or follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/ inyourpocket). Editorial Copyright notice Editors & Writers Text and photos copyright Neolitas-KIS ESSENTIAL CITY GUIDES 2003-2013. All rights reserved. No part Mike Voehringher, Natasha Martisova of this publication may be reproduced Publisher Research Natasha Martisova in any form, except brief extracts for Layout & Design the purpose of review, without written Neolitas-KIS Ltd. Natasha Martisova, KIS Ltd. permission from the publisher and Nyzhnioyurkivs’ka 3, Suite 25 Photos © Oleg Stelmakh copyright owner. The brand name In Your Kyiv 04080, Ukraine Cover photo www.flickr.com Pocket is used under license from UAB In tel./fax (+380) 44 467 78 20 Your Pocket (Bernardinu g. 9-4, LT-01124, +380 67 977 44 16 Vilnius, Lithuania). [email protected] Sales & Circulation Editor’s note Registration No. KB 7467 General Manager Andriy Chernyavsky © Neolitas-KIS Sales & Circulation The editorial content of In Your Pocket guides is independent from paid-for Printed by Express Poligraph, Kyiv Kyiv advertising. Sponsored listings are Published 4 times per year Natasha Martisova, +380 67 977 44 16 clearly marked as such. We welcome all 60,000 copies annualy Lviv readers’ comments and suggestions. Julia Kaniuka, +380 67 672 44 97 We have made every effort to ensure Maps the accuracy of the information at the Odesa time of going to press and assume no © DNVP “Kartographiya”, 2013 Liubov Rogatinska, +380 95 683 82 57 responsibility for changes and errors. © Kyiv In Your Pocket, 2013 Kyiv In Your Pocket kyiv.inyourpocket.com ARRIVAL & TRANSPORT 5 By plane Boryspil State International Airport (Аеропорт Бориспiль) In the news is where almost all international flights land and depart. The smaller Kyiv Zhulyani Airport (Аеропорт Київ Жуляни) is only 8km from centre and handles mostly domestic travel and Wizz Air flights from Europe. Located 34km east of Kyiv, Boryspil has recently opened its largest Terminal, D. International passengers now ar- rive and depart at Terminals B, D and F. Terminal B also services domestic flights. Ticket agents, immigration, and customs officials speak some English, so don’t worry if you haven’t yet mastered Ukrainian or Russian. Customs control has been greatly relaxed in recent years, but it still makes sense to travel light and pass through the green express line when arriving. If you need to connect to a local flight, a free shuttle bus circulates between terminals every 20 min. Feel like stretching your legs? Walk time between all Terminals is about 15 min. At all terminals you will find NEW STOP SMOKING LAW currency exchange offices (обмiн валют), information, You’re never too far away from a lit cigarette in Ukraine, car rental offices, cafes, public telephones, etc. and in some bars and clubs the term second-hand Getting to town Exiting of the terminals in Boryspil Airport, smoke just doesn’t seem to matter. Smokers enjoy a you are sure to be approached by cabbies. The 20-25 minute ridiculously cheap selection of cigarettes hawked by ride to centre will set you back about 200-250Hr. SkyBuses one of the many babushkas and corner kiosks that are headed to Kyiv leave from Terminal B and F roughly every 10- located throughout the city. But a new more rigorous 15 minutes. The charge is 27Hr and the bus will drop you off law on smoking prohibition takes effect nationwide on about an hour later at the Central Train Station or you can get December 16, 2012. It sets a total ban on smoking in off at the first stop near the Kharkivska metro station (green restaurants, bars, clubs and cafes (except open terraces), line). Tickets are available online at www.skybus.kiev.ua. cultural, medical, educational and sport institutions A taxi from Kyiv Zhulyany Airport to the city centre should (including playgrounds and stadiums), public transport not cost you more than 70Hr. Trolleybus #9 (1.50Hr) (including stops), underpasses (subways), and inside brings you to Tereschenkivska street nearby Ploscha Lva apartment buildings (including stairs and lifts). All other Tolstoho metro station (blue line). Trolleybus #22 goes to premises and buildings (including hotels, hostels, airports, Dorohozhychi metro station (green line). Marshrutka #213 railway terminals) should have designated smoking areas (2.50Hr) shuttles passengers to Dorohozhychi (green line) equipped with exhaust ventilation. The law also sets fines and Petrivka (blue line) metro stations. from 51–10,000Hr for anyone breaking the law. Boryspil State International Airport Boryspil, tel. Passport for train tickets (+380) 44 393 43 71, www.kbp.aero. Kyiv Zhulyany Airport E-1, Povitroflots’kyi prosp. 79, tel. (+380) 44 242 23 08, www.airport.kiev.ua. By bus All international buses arrive at Kyiv’s Central Bus Station (tsentralnyi avtovokzal). The station is still waiting for its European renovations and sits like a hideous centrepiece on Kyiv’s most unsightly square, Moskovs’ka ploscha. A currency exchange office (обмін валют) is next to the main exit, and just outside is an ATM (банкомат) that dispenses Ukrainian hryvnia. If you need to stash your bags, a left-luggage office is available (open 06:00 - 11:00, 11:30 - 17:00, 17:30 - 22:00).