Ukraine is the largest country entirely within Europe, with golden-domed cathedrals, historic centres like Lviv's and a very rich culture that stretches from the Black Sea to the Carpathians. Important: since the Russian invasion of 2022 Ukraine has been at war and, for now, it is not a safe tourist destination. This guide is informational and cultural: it is meant to help you get to know the country and its heritage, not to plan a trip while the conflict lasts.
Ukraine is the largest country lying entirely within Europe, and one of those with the richest heritage and the least known to Latin American travellers. It has thousand-year-old golden-domed cathedrals, the historic centre of Lviv (a World Heritage Site), fertile steppes, the Black Sea coast, the Carpathian Mountains and a vibrant culture in music, literature and food. Kyiv, its capital on the Dnipro River, is one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe and the cradle of Kyivan Rus', the medieval state from which several Slavic nations descend.
The country is huge and varied: the west, around Lviv and the Carpathians, has a Central European, Catholic and mountainous feel; the centre and north revolve around Kyiv and its monasteries; the south opens onto the Black Sea at Odesa, a port city with a great cultural tradition; and the east is a land of steppes and industry. That diversity of landscapes, languages and traditions coexists in a single country with an intense and complex history.
Important, and said plainly: since the Russian invasion of 2022, Ukraine has been at war and, for now, it is not a safe tourist destination; its airspace remains closed to civil aviation and most governments advise against all travel. This guide is informational and cultural: it is meant to help you get to know the country, its people and its enormous heritage, not to plan a visit while the conflict lasts. Before considering any trip, check the current official travel advisories from your foreign ministry.
The currency is the Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH). In the big cities cards and contactless payments were widely used, but it's a good idea to carry some cash for small places. ATMs are common in the main cities.
Full converter for UAH →Safety note: since the Russian invasion of 2022, Ukraine has been at war and its airspace remains closed to civil traffic, so there are no regular commercial flights into the country. Most governments advise against all travel to Ukraine while the conflict lasts. The information in this section is cultural and informational; it is not a travel recommendation. Before considering any trip, check the current official travel advisories.
With the caveat that Ukraine is at war today and is not a tourist destination, in terms of climate the best time in the country is from late spring to early autumn (May to September): mild to warm weather, with summer highs of 24 to 30 °C, green or golden fields, the Black Sea coast at its best and the Carpathians ideal for hiking. July and August are the warmest months.
Autumn (September and October) brings golden colours, especially lovely in the Carpathians and Kyiv's parks. Winter (December to February) is long, cold and snowy, with snow covering the golden domes and a good ski season in the Carpathians, but with short days and intense cold. These climate notes describe the country in normal times; while the conflict lasts, the decision to travel depends on the security situation, not the weather, and you must follow the current official advisories.
Ukrainian cuisine is hearty, tasty and rooted in peasant cooking, with a very rich larder from extremely fertile land. The national dish is borsch (the deep-red beetroot soup recognised by UNESCO as Ukrainian cultural heritage), served with sour cream and garlic bread (pampushky). Also try vareniki (boiled dumplings filled with potato, cheese, meat or cherries), holubtsi (stuffed cabbage), salo (cured pork fat, almost a national emblem), kotleta po-kyivsky ('chicken Kiev') and black bread. To drink, kvass, beer and horilka (the local spirit).
As a general reference and in normal times (wartime prices vary a lot): eating in Ukraine used to be very cheap. A plate of borsch or vareniki cost just a few dollars, a full lunch at a casual place 5 to 10 dollars and dinner at a good restaurant in Kyiv or Lviv 10 to 20 dollars per person. Markets (such as Kyiv's Besarabsky) offered excellent fresh produce. These are rough figures from before the current situation.
The central point is clear and must be said plainly: since the Russian invasion of February 2022, Ukraine has been at war. There is a risk of missile and drone attacks that can reach cities across the whole country, including those far from the front, frequent air-raid alerts, power cuts and mined areas. The east and south, near the front line, are active combat zones. For all these reasons, the vast majority of governments advise against all travel to Ukraine while the conflict lasts, and civil airspace remains closed. This guide is informational; it is not a travel recommendation.
For anyone with a compelling reason to go (journalism, humanitarian aid, family), the essentials are to get thoroughly informed through the current official travel advisories from your foreign ministry, register with the consulate, take out insurance that specifically covers conflict zones (standard travel insurance usually excludes war), learn about shelters and the air-raid alert system, and avoid the front-line regions entirely. Health-wise, in normal times it's best to drink bottled water and keep your vaccinations up to date. The emergency numbers are 112 (unified), as well as 101 (fire/rescue), 102 (police) and 103 (ambulance).
In normal times, Ukraine was one of the cheapest countries in Europe for travellers. As a rough reference from before the war (verified July 2026 as historical values, not current ones): a backpacker could get by on about 25 to 40 dollars a day, a mid-range trip ran around 45 to 80 dollars a day and a comfortable one from 90. A hostel dorm bed in Kyiv or Lviv cost between 8 and 15 dollars a night, and a simple double room from about 20 to 40 dollars.
Day to day (pre-conflict reference values): a plate of borsch or vareniki came to a few dollars, a coffee 2 to 4, the Kyiv metro less than half a dollar, and long-distance trains were very cheap. It must be stressed that these figures describe the country in normal times; during the war the economy, prices, availability of services and conditions change unpredictably, and it makes no sense to plan a tourist budget while the conflict lasts.
The official language is Ukrainian, an East Slavic language written in the Cyrillic alphabet (with a few letters of its own); Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south, although its public use has changed a lot with the war. English is spoken among young people and in the cities, but Spanish hardly at all, so it helps to have a translator app on your phone and to be able to read Cyrillic. Ukrainian culture is intense and proud: choral singing, traditional embroidery (vyshyvanka), literature and genuine hospitality. It is a people that deeply values its identity and independence, a central and sensitive subject best approached with respect.
On the practical side: plugs are type C and F (European) at 230 V, so a European adapter is all you need. In normal times, mobile connectivity was very good and cheap (operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine, lifecell), with one of the best fibre and 4G networks in the region; during the war, power cuts and damage to infrastructure intermittently affect electricity and communications. The most important advice today isn't logistical but fundamental: while the conflict lasts, keep informed through your foreign ministry's official advisories and don't plan a tourist trip. For now, the best way to get closer to Ukraine is through its culture, its history and its people.
Ukraine (in Ukrainian, Україна, Ukraína) is the largest country lying entirely within Europe, a vast plain of extraordinarily fertile black earth stretching from the Carpathians in the west to the steppe of the Sea of Azov in the east, crossed from north to south by the great Dnieper river (Dnipro). That black soil (chernozem), one of the richest on the planet, turned these lands into the breadbasket of empires and the coveted prize of everyone around them. The country's name is often read as “borderland” or “land on the edge” (from the Slavic root krai), a disputed but telling origin: for a thousand years, Ukraine was the edge where the East Slavic world met the nomadic steppe, Latin Christendom met Orthodoxy, and empires collided with Cossack freedoms.
Few European histories are as long or as contested. Here, on the banks of the Dnieper, Kievan Rus' was born in the 9th century, the first great civilisation of the East Slavs, which converted to Byzantine Christianity in 988 and planted the common root of Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians. Here, after the Mongol devastation, these lands passed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; here the Zaporozhian Cossacks built a state of their own in the 17th century, the Hetmanate, before falling under Moscow's control; here the Russian and Habsburg empires divided the Ukrainians between them throughout the 19th century; here Stalin caused the Holodomor of 1932-33, a famine that killed millions; here the Chernobyl reactor burned in 1986; and here, after independence in 1991, a people took to the streets twice —the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Euromaidan of 2014— to defend its European course, until Russia's annexation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion of 2022 made Ukraine the centre of the largest war in Europe since 1945. Travelling through its history —from the golden domes of Kyiv to the cafés of Lviv, from the Odesa steps to the eastern steppe— means travelling through the very making of Eastern Europe.
Read the full history of Ukraine →Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
