Steltzjr

I'm planning a trip to Minsk, Kiev, and Kishenev (Chisenau) - Belarus, Ukraine,
and Moldova, the 3 European countries I haven't yet visited.

The majority of hotels in these cities seem to be very large, anonymous ones -
many built back in Communist times.

Are there newer, smaller, perhaps family-run hotels that have sprung up in the
past several years - similar to the many tourist-oriented hotels that sprang up
in eastern Europe following the Soviet withdrawal?

My wife and I like to stay at 2-star hotels - for price and "ambiance".

Thanks. And any comments on any hotels in these cities is welcome.

For the past year I've rarely seen any posts on these three cities.

robert

I've written up a few Ukrainian hotels on www.pdaworldtravel.com

Yes, the big anonymous ones in Kiev and basically pretty horrible. It
wouldn't be so bad if they were cheap but they are cheap AND horrible.

Maybe there are some small, nicer, cheap ones there? If there are
I'll be interested to see the posts myself.

I stayed at a really nice, small hotel in Kiev but it was rather
expensive.

I would suggest thinking about staying in some of the lesser
well-known cities. Cheap accommodation is very easy to find and,
depending what you're hoping to get out of Ukraine, you might have a
better time in a smaller city.

Robert (www.pdaworldtravel.com)





On 18 Aug 2004 23:54:25 GMT, [email protected] (Steltzjr) wrote:


    >I'm planning a trip to Minsk, Kiev, and Kishenev (Chisenau) - Belarus, Ukraine,
    >and Moldova, the 3 European countries I haven't yet visited.
    >The majority of hotels in these cities seem to be very large, anonymous ones -
    >many built back in Communist times.
    >Are there newer, smaller, perhaps family-run hotels that have sprung up in the
    >past several years - similar to the many tourist-oriented hotels that sprang up
    >in eastern Europe following the Soviet withdrawal?
    >My wife and I like to stay at 2-star hotels - for price and "ambiance".
    >Thanks. And any comments on any hotels in these cities is welcome.
    >For the past year I've rarely seen any posts on these three cities.

Bjorn Olsson

[email protected] (Steltzjr) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > I'm planning a trip to Minsk, Kiev, and Kishenev (Chisenau) - Belarus, Ukraine,
    > and Moldova, the 3 European countries I haven't yet visited.
    >
    > The majority of hotels in these cities seem to be very large, anonymous ones -
    > many built back in Communist times.
    >
    > Are there newer, smaller, perhaps family-run hotels that have sprung up in the
    > past several years - similar to the many tourist-oriented hotels that sprang up
    > in eastern Europe following the Soviet withdrawal?
    >
    > My wife and I like to stay at 2-star hotels - for price and "ambiance".
    >
    > Thanks. And any comments on any hotels in these cities is welcome.

This might be worth checking for Kiyv:

http://www.tourintel.ru/online/getho....asp?id=100070

The same site has listings for all three cities, but I didn't see any
other entries that seemed to match your preferences.

Bjorn

Steltzjr

<< I stayed at a really nice, small hotel in Kiev but it was rather expensive.

Thanks for the information and for the lead to the website.

At which hotel did you stay mentioned above?

We're well into our senior years and it's just easier to do the transportation
to the major city in each country. We'll miss seeing much of the countryside
and small towns but that will have to take second place to the ease of travel
in a part of the world where I can't understand the language.

Leland Windreich

I enjoyed visiting the western Ukraine, especially Lviv (Lvov) which has
spectacular architecture. I stayed in the Grand Hotel on the main square of
town, and it is an art nouveau style building completely renovated and quite
attractive, with a good dining room. I was unhappy, however, about the
number of scams that I encountered everywhere, getting the impression that
the whole community was run by the locals (including the airport at Lviv,
which was a chaotic nightmare). The country in the western Ukraine is
spectacular with many small rustic communities. But go with a reliable guide
or a group, unless you are fluent in the language.

ofnews:[email protected]...
    > << I stayed at a really nice, small hotel in Kiev but it was rather
expensive.
    > >>
    > Thanks for the information and for the lead to the website.
    > At which hotel did you stay mentioned above?
    > We're well into our senior years and it's just easier to do the
transportation
    > to the major city in each country. We'll miss seeing much of the
countryside
    > and small towns but that will have to take second place to the ease of
travel
    > in a part of the world where I can't understand the language.

robert

Scams? I was there recently and didn't see any sign of anything like
that? What sort of scams? (that the airport was a mess I don't
doubt)

RB


On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:20:22 GMT, "Leland Windreich"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >I enjoyed visiting the western Ukraine, especially Lviv (Lvov) which has
    >spectacular architecture. I stayed in the Grand Hotel on the main square of
    >town, and it is an art nouveau style building completely renovated and quite
    >attractive, with a good dining room. I was unhappy, however, about the
    >number of scams that I encountered everywhere, getting the impression that
    >the whole community was run by the locals (including the airport at Lviv,
    >which was a chaotic nightmare). The country in the western Ukraine is
    >spectacular with many small rustic communities. But go with a reliable guide
    >or a group, unless you are fluent in the language.

Roman Werpachowski

On the 18 Aug 2004 23:54:25 GMT, Steltzjr wrote:
    > I'm planning a trip to Minsk, Kiev, and Kishenev (Chisenau) - Belarus, Ukraine,
    > and Moldova, the 3 European countries I haven't yet visited.

I can only offer some help with Byelaruss, I've been there a few days some
years ago.

You may have troubles getting a visa to enter the country. The safe way is
to get a so-called 'AB' visa which states that you're being delegated there
by you employer. That's how I visited it, but of course this may be
impossible for you to get.

On entering the country you'll taste the last remains of Soviet Union,
Byelarussian custom officials. These are people you shouldn't piss off.
I wouldn't show them that I have lot of expensive stuff with me if I were
you, they may want to extort a bribe from you or -- in the extreme case --
confiscate something on the pretext that you didn't pay the customs duty. I
had a camera with me and didn't put it into customs form, and they didn't
bother to check my luggage. Funny thing is, they're still interested in
books people take with them.

Once you get there, it should be really smooth. People are VERY FRIENDLY and
decent (except for the local mafia, of course). The country looks as if it
was still 1989, alas, and people are really poor even according to Central
European standards. Remember that railways, museums and such will charge you
extra because you're a foreigner.

Grodno is a historic city, one can probably visit Bialowieza Forest on the
border with Poland. Look on your own for other places to see.

--
Roman Werpachowski
/--------==============--------\
| http://www.cft.edu.pl/~roman |
\--------==============--------/

Steltzjr

<< Grodno is a historic city, one can probably visit Bialowieza Forest on the
border with Poland. >>

Thanks for the tips.

As far as visas go, since we're also traveling to Ukraine and Moldova, we're
having an agency handle all our visas so there will be no problem.