15D BEST OF BELARUS, UKRAINE AND MOLDOVA HBY15M 19/Dec/2019 to 31/Jan/2021 TOUR HIGHLIGHTS Belarus • City Tour of Minsk • National Library • Isle of Tears • Holy Spirit Cathedral • Victory Monument • Independence Avenue • Victory Avenue • Dudutki Open Air Museum • Mir Castle Complex • Nesvizh Palace Lviv • Lviv City Tour • Rynok Square • Market Square • Lviv “House of Scientists” and Opera House • High Castle Hill • St. George's Cathedral • Hutsul Everyday Life and musical instruments museum • Verhovyna Museum of Vyshyvanka • National University • Khotyn Fortress Ukraine • Chisinau City Tour • Stephen the Great Boulevard • Cricova Winery • Orhei Vechi Open Air Museum • Tiraspol City Tour • Odessa City Tour with Potemkin Stairs • Odessa Catacombs • Kyiv City Tour with Motherland Staute • Lavra Monastery Complex • Maidan - Independence square • Khreschatyk • Monastery Complex • Chernobyl Exclusion Zone D1 SINGAPORE MINSK Depart from Singapore Changi Airport for your flight to Minsk – Belarus. D2 MINSK Upon arrival, be greeted by our local representative and embark on a brief city tour which sights such as the National Library, which was included in the list of the most remarkable buildings in the world. Serving as a functional library, it is also a city attraction. Situated in a park on a river bank and has an observation deck looking over Minsk. Check in to hotel followed by dinner. Dinner D3 MINSK DUDUTKI MINSK After a good night rest and breakfast, embark on a walking tour with our local guide. You will see the architectural monuments of the 17th - 20th centuries, the Upper Town with the City Hall, the temples and monasteries, a visit to Holy Spirit Cathedral and the old small streets of Trinity Suburb. Visit “The Isle of Tears” with the famous chapel that commemorates soldiers who perished during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980’s. Explore the Victory Monument, Independence Avenue and Victory Avenue. After lunch, continue to the Dudutki museum - the open-air museum of folk architecture and have an idea of the traditional village life. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D4 MINSK MIR NESVIZH MINSK Enjoy a scenic drive to village of Mir to visit the Mir Castle Complex which was founded in the early 16th century. The castle was rebuilt into a magnate palace and became luxurious apartments of the noble family, filled with works of art. Next, continue to Nesvizh Palace which includes a visit to the museum inside the Palace and a landscaped park in the English tradition. Both palaces are included into the UNESCO World Heritage List. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D5 MINSK LVIV After breakfast, check out from your hotel and transfer to the airport for your flight to Lviv – Ukraine. Upon arrival, enjoy a late lunch followed by a walking tour of Lviv. During the tour you will see the architecture of Rynok Square, typical Austrian streets, as well as modern dwellings. Together they narrate Lviv's glorious history. Explore the Medieval part of Lviv – the Market Square and the old quarters around it with visits to a few impressive churches and cathedrals. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D6 LVIV BUKOVEL Continue to tour Lviv with highlights which include visits of the Opera House, built in the classical tradition with Neo-Renaissance details. Then continue to visit the High Castle Hill, where a castle once stood during 1300s to the 1770s to protect the residents of Lviv during attacks. The hill now offers the best views of the city. Discover the former Austrian casino, presently called "The House of Scientists". The casino was a meeting place for the aristocratic elite. Visit St. George's Cathedral, which serves as a great example of rococo architecture and was built between 1744 -1760. Today St. George's Cathedral is the main Greek-Catholic church. After lunch sit back, relax and enjoy the scenic drive to Bukovel located at the Carpatians. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D7 BUKOVEL VERHOVYNA BUKOVEL <style forecolor="#000000">Today is dedicated to the mountains and its people – utsuls stating with a drive to </style><style isBold="true" forecolor="#000000">Verhovyna</style><style forecolor="#000000"> – the capital of hutsuls. You will see traditional mountain villages, find out about people who live there: Ukrainian ethnical group – Hutsuls. We will visit the</style><style isBold="true" forecolor="#000000"> Hutsul Everyday Life and musical instruments museum,</style><style forecolor="#000000"> which is located on a hill (hiking required or you will be taken up and down by a soviet jeep 5 mins ride ) and will find out about Ukrainian embroidery and its different meanings in the unique </style><style isBold="true" forecolor="#000000">museum of Vyshyvanka</style><style forecolor="#000000">. A home-made lunch will be served in a private house of one of the museum's owners to let you feel the life of locals. Back to the hotel and free time</style> Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D8 BUKOVEL CHERNIVTSI Start your day with a drive to Chernivtsi - the real cozy European city, situated on the spot where the roads from Europe and Asia cross each other. Embark on a 2-hour walking tour in the historical city center, explore the main pedestrian street – Kobylyanska, view the City Hall, Teatralnaya Square and many others. Enjoy lunch in one of the local Bukovenian restaurants and then visit the National University – which is the real highlight! Continue to visit Khotyn Fortress, which was founded in 13th century and had Moldavian, Polish and Turkish influence! Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D9 CHERNIVTSI CHISUNAU After breakfast, depart Ukraine and cross the border to Chisinau – Moldova. Stop for lunch in Balti town before continue to Chisinau. In the evening walking tour of Chisinau you will see both the historic and the modern faces of the city. Who Stephen the Great was and what did he do for the city? Listen to the cultural, historical facts and legends, as we walk along the central part of the city. On Stephen the Great Boulevard there are many elegant administrative buildings such as the Presidency, the Parliament, and the City Administration. There are cultural centers such as the National Theatre M. Eminescu, the Organ Hall, Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Well-known architects and poets such as Bernardazzi, Sciusev and Pushkin gave Chisinau a unique character. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D10 CHISINAU CRICOVA ORHEI VECHI CHISINAU Visit the Cricova Winery for some the wine tasting before heading to Orhei Vechi - a unique natural and historical complex in the open air. It organically combines the natural landscape and vestiges of ancient civilizations, it is known for the ancient monastery and eco-village resorts. Enjoy local lunch in one of the village houses before touring the complex. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D11 CHISINAU TRANSNISTRIA ODESSA We drive to Odessa via Transnistria the country that officially doesn’t exist. Upon arrival, explore its capital – Tiraspol city which will take you back in USSR: Feel the atmosphere of this disputed territory, which has always been a battlefield between the major powers of the region. This place is full of contrasts. Thereafter cross the border back to Ukraine and towards Odessa. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D12 ODESSA Start your day with a walking tour around downtown visiting its historical places and strolling the age-old streets: Deribasovskaya, Pushkinskaya, Rishelievskaya and Landzheronovskaya. You will see masterpieces of architecture and art of buildings, Opera and Ballet Theatre, and also historical buildings, where the archeological and marine museums are situated. Strolling along the Primorsky Boulevard it’s your chance to see an ancient building of municipal Duma, count Vorontsov palace with colonnaded entrance and the monument to Duke de Richelieu and the famous Potemkin stairs. They are the main entrance to Primorsky Boulevard from the seaside from where you witness the fascinating view to the marine terminal and the seaport. After lunch visit to Odessa Catacombs, which are some of the longest in the world and played an important role during the WWII as a shelter for the partisans. Catacombs are underground labyrinths created during the period of the city construction over 200 years ago. They are situated mainly in Nerubaiskoe village (15 km from Odessa), originally created during mining of hardware materials as shell rocks that were used to build the city. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D13 ODESSA KYIV Take an early domestic flight from Odessa to the capital – Kyiv. Upon arrival, continue with a city tour visiting the Motherland Statue complex (the statue is taller than Liberty statue in NYC), and then continue to explore the UNESCO site Lavra Monastery Complex with caves, the largest Lavra in Ukraine. After lunch, continue to St. Andrew’s descent to shop for local souvenirs, then to Maidan - Independence square and Khreschatyk - the main street of the city Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner D14 KYIV CHERNOBYL SINGAPORE Start your day early in the morning we go to the largest restricted abandoned area in Europe – the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Life here stopped in 1986 after an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. All the neglected land looks exactly the same as if the Cold War had become hot, being the best ‘horrible’ example of a real world nuclear war result. During the tour you will see the remains of a ruined nuclear station and visit the ghost city of Prypyat. Here you will be surprised to learn that all these facilities to a great extant were built for the Cold War purposes, and you will see the over-the-horizon radar system, known as Russian Woodpecker or Duga2 object, part of a super-secret Soviet anti-ballistic missile early-warning network.