Everywhere you look in Ukraine yellow and blue abounds. It billows in the Slavic air atop the grand Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev, it dons almost every doorway of Lviv’s charming old town, it clings to the uniforms of the country’s marching policemen and can be seen, albeit accidentally, between the deep-blue sky and golden domes of the Pechersk Lavra. This is a proud nation, defiantly individualistic in the face of Russian rule and curiously apart from the European Union that rubs its shoulders all around.
City-loving travellers should be sure to ask their Ukraine tourist guide for tips on the country’s two biggest and best towns. There’s sprawling Kiev, rising up in grandiose spires and cathedrals from the banks of the Dnieper River. Then there’s off-the-beaten-track Lviv, curiously Germanic in appearance and oozing with Slavic beer halls and looming gothic peaks.
Those looking to get into the great outdoors will love Ukraine’s earthy and welcoming country folk, their quaint villages, all set to the monstrous peaks of the jagged Carpathians, or shrouded by endless forest, steppe or sylvan valley.