Dates: July 27th - August 8th
Route: Lviv - western side of Ukraine - Carpathian mountains - Transfăgărășan, Transalpina - Budapest - Victoria Station
The map is the first draft, just a few waypoints, not the final route.
Day 1 - Start in Lviv (my hometown, woop!) spend the first day there enjoying the city.
Days 2-5 - I'm working on planning a route through the Carpathian mountains, and at least one day is planned to be spent for rest or hiking. On day 5 we cross to Romania.
Days 6-8 - Drive through Romania, do the passes.
Days 9-10 - Hungary, and city day in Budapest.
Day 11 - Bratislava
Day 12 - Maybe Prague
Day 13 - Altenahr
The Ukraine part of the trip will be mostly sightseeing. Although the roads improve every year, do not expect them to be very good, certainly not in Carpathians. Some stretches are likely not to have asphalt at all. Ukrainian Carpathians have several national parks, and it is somewhat a touristy area for locals, but as far as I know, not so much for international visitors. Much of it is not really accessible by car (or at least normal car), it's a popular area for hikers, and I really want to experience some of that myself...
...Soo, there is an observatory called White Elephant on top of a Pip Ivan peak, which looks absolutely stunning, but it involves walking for 10km one way with 1km of elevation. It's doable by novice hikers, but it's no joke, so it takes a bit of preparation. It's gonna take a full day to go up there and come back down before sundown. The route goes from a small village called Dzembronya, where my hope is we can stay for 2 nights, so whoever wants to do the hike can have a full day to do it. Here's a video of a hike, to give you an idea.
About Romania all I can say for now is that we need to do Transfăgărășan and Transalpina ?
There was also talk about visiting Chernobyl. This is however significantly more eastern than our route. It takes 3 days in total for such detour, the road is dull, and monetarily will cost as much extra as booking plane tickets to Kiev and back (guided tours apparently start from Kiev). So it was decided that including that as a part of the roadtrip does not make much sense.
Ukraine doesn't require visas for EU citizens. Belarus does though, so if you want to tackle that before the roadtrip starts, take that into account.
The trip will probably not involve any camping, accommodation should be pretty cheap.
I'll be updating this post as the route is taking shape. Meanwhile register your interest!
Route: Lviv - western side of Ukraine - Carpathian mountains - Transfăgărășan, Transalpina - Budapest - Victoria Station
The map is the first draft, just a few waypoints, not the final route.
Day 1 - Start in Lviv (my hometown, woop!) spend the first day there enjoying the city.
Days 2-5 - I'm working on planning a route through the Carpathian mountains, and at least one day is planned to be spent for rest or hiking. On day 5 we cross to Romania.
Days 6-8 - Drive through Romania, do the passes.
Days 9-10 - Hungary, and city day in Budapest.
Day 11 - Bratislava
Day 12 - Maybe Prague
Day 13 - Altenahr
The Ukraine part of the trip will be mostly sightseeing. Although the roads improve every year, do not expect them to be very good, certainly not in Carpathians. Some stretches are likely not to have asphalt at all. Ukrainian Carpathians have several national parks, and it is somewhat a touristy area for locals, but as far as I know, not so much for international visitors. Much of it is not really accessible by car (or at least normal car), it's a popular area for hikers, and I really want to experience some of that myself...
...Soo, there is an observatory called White Elephant on top of a Pip Ivan peak, which looks absolutely stunning, but it involves walking for 10km one way with 1km of elevation. It's doable by novice hikers, but it's no joke, so it takes a bit of preparation. It's gonna take a full day to go up there and come back down before sundown. The route goes from a small village called Dzembronya, where my hope is we can stay for 2 nights, so whoever wants to do the hike can have a full day to do it. Here's a video of a hike, to give you an idea.
About Romania all I can say for now is that we need to do Transfăgărășan and Transalpina ?
There was also talk about visiting Chernobyl. This is however significantly more eastern than our route. It takes 3 days in total for such detour, the road is dull, and monetarily will cost as much extra as booking plane tickets to Kiev and back (guided tours apparently start from Kiev). So it was decided that including that as a part of the roadtrip does not make much sense.
Ukraine doesn't require visas for EU citizens. Belarus does though, so if you want to tackle that before the roadtrip starts, take that into account.
The trip will probably not involve any camping, accommodation should be pretty cheap.
I'll be updating this post as the route is taking shape. Meanwhile register your interest!