Don’t know how to get to your destination after stepping off the plane?
Let the Kyiv Post be your guide on how to get around Kyiv, and from the capital to the other host cities.
Boryspil-Kyiv and back
Boryspil is Kyiv’s main airport.
Shuttle buses, called skybuses, go to Kyiv and back on regular basis every 30 minutes, including nighttime.
The buses depart from near Terminals B and F, where the purple-and-white skybuses are easy to spot.
The skybus takes you to the Southern Railway Station, or Yuzhniy Vokzal, which is connected with the Central Railway Station by a passageway.
The skybus also makes a stop at Kharkivska metro station on its way.
The fee is Hr 25 and the trip takes about an hour, depending on traffic. It’s the cheapest way to get from the airport to the city or back.
Another option is a taxi. Official Sky Taxis, white cars with the classic taxi-checkered pattern on the sides, can be found near terminals, as well as other companies’ taxis.
A taxi to Kyiv’s center will cost you about Hr 200-Hr 270.
Boryspil airport is also full of unregulated private taxis, whose drivers can be pushy. Their prices often depend on your bargaining skills.
Riding the metro
Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk are the only cities in Ukraine with a subway system.
The fee doesn’t depend on the distance, but is a flat rate of Hr 2.
When entering a metro station, you should find the ticket office, called kasa, and buy a token for Hr 2. (In Kharkiv, you feed your money into a machine.) You then place the token in the slot at the turnstiles.
When on the platform, look for the white signs above your head to see the list of stations.
Signs will also point you to the transfer station.
In Kyiv, the metro opens at about 5:40 a.m., depending on the station, and shuts at 12:10 a.m.
On match days, it will be open two hours longer; and one hour longer on non-match days.
The exits and entrances to the central Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti stations will be blocked during the tournament.
The stations Olympic Stadium and Palats Sportu will be closed before the game and opened one hour afterward.
Marshrutkas and other city transport
Marshrutkas (route drivers) are the mainstay of Kyiv transport.
The small buses are often yellow and with limited safety features.
These buses cover most routes, but are only for use by the brave: first, because their signs are all in Ukrainian and second, because most drivers have a liberal interpretation of the rules of the road.
In Kyiv, marshrutkas stop only at bus stops, but in some other cities marshrutkas stop at any place the passenger wants.
It is a bit faster than the big buses or trolleybuses. In marshrutkas there are no tickets. Every passenger pays directly to the driver, usually Hr 2.5.
In big buses, trolleybuses and trams, conductors sell tickets. Once you get a ticket, it needs to be punched.
There are usually at least two ticket-punching machines inside the bus.
Occasionally inspectors enter the bus to check passengers’ tickets and issue fines on the spot for those who haven’t paid.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
