Welcome to my compact backpacker’s travel guide for Lviv, Ukraine. You can read all about my own experiences in the city in the relevant a post which you can find here. The fact that many backpackers are all too familiar with is that they end up missing out on the best parts of the city, especially when it comes to entertainment simply because they don’t know anyone who has been there and often don’t have the best advice on where to go out. Anyway, I hope you’ll find this article useful and will give you a bit of an idea about where to eat, drink, stay and play in a fantastic city of Lviv.
How to Get There
The most efficient way to get Lviv internationally is generally by bus. There are fairly regular connections from cities in Poland such as Kraków and Warsaw and it is also served by direct busses to Vilnius and Prague. There are also daily trains from Moscow and travelling within Ukraine itself is typically best done by train. You can take an overnight train or a day train from Kiev to Lviv for the low price of approximately ₴90 (about £7.20 at the time of writing!).
From the bus station, to get into the city centre I would personally recommend you take the taxi and you should pay no more than ₴40 which at the time of writing was about £3.00. Alternatively, you can take minibus number 71 or 180 to Prospekt Svobody, which is a couple of minutes away from the hostel. The train station is not so far from the center but is regularly served by trams number one and nine (though tram 9 takes a long time as it goes all around the center). Alternatively, you can walk from the train station to the center in around 20 minutes.
The city is also served by an airport about nine kilometres away from the centre however currently the only cheap flights to Western Europe are with the company Whizz Air from Dortmund although I expect this to change in the next couple of years.
Accommodation
Although there are two backpackers hostels in Lviv, the only one which has really decent ratings and indeed the only one I have stayed in, is the Kosmonaut Hostel which is Australian owned and run. The hostel has all the amenities that you expect and is also a fun and homely place to hang out in with great staff and an ideal location right in the middle of the city. You can read my full review about it here. You can find more details about the hostel and how to book on their website or you can check out one of the online booking engines for further reviews and reservation options.
Eat & Drink
The food in Ukraine is certainly nothing to write home about and indeed it can be horrendous on occasions. However, I did have some good food there and here other places which I personally recommend;
Puzata Hata – An enormous buffet restaurant just down the street from the hostel. It serves a wide variety of food including great salads and meat dishes. Although nothing special, it is fairly cheap and definitely convenient and you can be pretty sure you’ll get a good hearty meal here.
Dzyga – Just around the corner from the central square, this is a great place and although the food is not particularly special, you can enjoy a pleasant, artistic sort of atmosphere. This place is a favourite hangout amongst students and expatriates alike. This also happens to be the restaurant where I found pork fat in chocolate on the menu although don’t be put off, since there are many other slightly more savoury things on the menu.
Kriyivka – This has to be one of the most unusual places I have ever been. The name of the place means ‘bunker’ and is decorated in a Ukrainian army partisan theme. It is right on the town square and you usually have to know the password ‘Slava Ukrayini’ (Glory to Ukraine) to be able to enter since a doorman, dressed in Ukrainian WW2 army uniform will point to submachine gun at you and ask you for the password. If you’re lucky, and he lets you in he’ll probably give you a shot of honey vodka which is the main thing that people drink there. It is definitely amongst the most fun places I’ve been in Lviv and it is also open 24 hours. Although it might sound like a gimmick, it is actually far more popular amongst Ukrainian locals and tourists anyone else. The food is all traditional Ukrainian fare and although some of it is rather peculiar, you can be sure to get a good meal there followed by a plenty of beers and honey vodka. Be aware that this place gets extremely busy on the weekends so you will need to book in advance if you’re going at peak times.
Masons – Strangely advertised as the ‘Most Expensive Galician Restaurant’ (Galicia being this area of Ukraine, not to be confused with the one in Spain), this place is right above Kriyivka and is owned by the same people. Go upstairs and take the door nearest to the top of the stairs and don’t be unnerved when you find yourself in a small kitchen with an old man in a dressing gown standing around. He will point you to the door to the restaurant. Prepare to be amazed by the prices, but you only have to ask for a 90% discount and they will happily oblige, in which case, the prices are very reasonable. The food here is superb, the best I have had in Ukraine and the gimmick is a nice touch, typical of the eccentric themes often found in the bars and restaurants in Lviv.
Yapi – If you’re looking for something a little bit different and are tired of Ukrainian cuisine, then you should definitely try this wonderful sushi bar. It is located conveniently on Svobody avenue and prices are fairly reasonable and there is a large menu to choose from.
Masoch Cafe – Well this is indeed a most peculiar place. Since Lviv is the birthplace of the infamous Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, they decided to dedicate a cafe to him. Expect to go in there and be handcuffed to the seats, be surrounded by breasts and phallic symbols and waitresses wearing what appears to be heavy bondage gear. Interesting stuff.
Strilets – Just across the road from the hostel is a Lebanese cafe. Here you can get some great shishas and fairly decent Lebanese food, which is fairly common in Lviv due to a significant Lebanese minority.
Gas Lamps – On Armenia Street (Virmenska), go through an arch into a building just next to the statue of a man sitting by a table with a gas lamp and an empty chair. You should see a dressed up character selling souvenirs right inside the entrance. Also part of the group which operates Masoch, Kriyivka and Masons, this place sports an impressive four floors and a very narrow spiral staircase. Food is very average and service leaves a lot to be desired, but then such is pretty typical in Lviv. However, this place is certainly worth a visit, since it is both beautiful, cheap and full of character,
There are plenty of other great places to go out drinking and eating in Lviv but the ones I have mentioned are the ones I have been to regularly. Although I can’t remember its name and I can’t seem to be able to find details about it on the Internet, I do remember a particularly pleasant coffee shop just opposite the famous Dubliner Irish pub which is in a little yard just off the street and down the road from the hostel. They do particularly good coffee and perhaps the best I have ever had.
I would also suggest spending some evenings along Svobody Prospekt. There are many bars along the way which all serve water pipes and ridiculously cheap beer. I wouldn’t recommend eating at any of those places however, since the food is shocking. Nonetheless, these places are all open air and great in the summer evenings while watching the world go by and / or having a few pre-club drinks.
Nightlife
Lviv has great nightlife and it is generally very good value too. However, as with any city there are places which are pure rip-off joints and should be avoided at all costs, especially if you are travelling on a budget as I do. There were three places that I went to a regular basis all of which I recommend. Here they are:
Millennium Club – If you are looking for a proper nightclub which is quite cheap to get in, at least by our standards, this place is sure not to disappoint. It has a huge room in the front with billiards tables and a long bar. The dance floor is very large and there is also a balcony around it. The club is open every day of the week and weekends are very busy. Millennium is a short walk past the opera house and about 10 minutes away from the hostel.
Metro Club – This is a good fun place although what I don’t quite understand about it is than half of the people in there, especially the girls, seem to be only 16 or 17 years old. Nonetheless, metro club is always a good laugh and it is fairly cheap as well. Not only that, it also has a nice terrace so you can go outside and get some fresh air after dancing all night and being surrounded by the smoky atmosphere. The place is quite a long walk from the center, but no more than 15-20 minutes. To get home, it’s a good idea to get taxi, which should cost no more than ₴30. There’s a late night pizza place right next door too. Prices have gone up a lot since I was first here in 2008, but it still shouldn’t cost more than ₴50 to enter on weekends, though a beer costs between ₴15 and ₴20.
Picasso – Although situated rather far out of the centre, I must admit this is probably my favourite club in Lviv. It is about half an hour to walk from the Kosmonaut hostel, about half a mile or so further down the road from Metro Club. This place, although relatively pricey to enter, is dirt cheap once you get inside. A vodka with orange or a beer costs barely 70 pence and a pack of cigarettes costs even less. And there is also a really nice terrace which is also open all night, though only in summer. This place is built into a converted Soviet era cinema and has a pleasant and cosy atmosphere and I have always found it a great place to meet local people. Music is a real mix of all sorts of things, attracting a diverse crowd.
Things to do in Lviv
The Old Town is very extensive and you can literally walk around it for hours and you can probably even take as long as a week to fully explore the city. There are various interesting museums just around the square and to get a great panorama of the city, you should definitely climb the clock tower which is located right in the middle of the square. Make sure you don’t forget your camera however, as I did.
You should also walk up to High Castle and although there is actually no castle there today, where you can find a great vantage point where you can see the city from.
Lviv certainly has plenty of churches as well, both Greek Catholic and Orthodox due to its diverse historical heritage. As for museums, the one I would most recommend would definitely have to be the Armoury, where you can see many particularly impressive displays form the history of warfare. Another place worth seeing is the pharmacy museum just off the square and the magnificent Italian courtyard also off the square.
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