Crossing the borders!

[Aussieuke]

We are planing to travel to Lviv and around Sokol area. One of the towns/villages that we may need to see is in Poland.
Is it hard to cross the border and come back.We will be on Australian passports with visa for Ukraine.
Poland is a part of the common accord so we don't need one to visit Poland if travelling around Europe.
But will we have trouble coming back to Ukraine?

Yes Hannia, we are finally going.
Well, I am,my wife is staying home but my sister is joining me instead.

[Dr Nick]

Hello,

Brits dont need visas anymore for Ukraine. But when we did, the visa used to state how many times you could enter Ukraine. So the first thing you must do is see how many times your visa allows you t enter Ukraine. If it is only once, then you can not go to Poland from Ukraine and come back to Ukraine as this would be your second entry. I am assuming you used up your first entry coming from your home country.

If your visa allows you enough entries into Ukraine, then the next thing you need to do is decide how you wish to travel from Ukraine to Poland an back again.

I am guessing you would not plan to fly such a short distance, though this has potential advantages as you will see.

I have never crossed from Ukraine to Poland by train but I believe it is possible to do so and understand there are trains from Lviv to Polish destinations. Some things to consider if you are crossing the border Ukraine to Poland by train. The trains are cheap but slow. Tickets are generally not flexible and quite hard to get in the summer. Although some have air conditioning, my experience of travelling by train in Ukraine in the summer is that the trains get unbearably hot. Once you get to the border I have heard of long waits to go through customs. Customs are looking for cigarettes which are much cheaper in Ukraine than Poland and smuggling is a problem.

If you are planning to cross by car, there are at least two crossing points not far from Lviv - of course, it depends which village in Poland you are going to as to which one you should use. My family and I have crossed at Krakovets. If you are comfortable driving in Ukraine, which is an issue in itself, then it is not difficult to find the border crossings if you have sat nav and the E40, the main road crossing Ukraine east to west, crosses into Poland near Lviv. You can wait a very long time at the border to cross by car. 12 Hours would be a pessimistic but not unreasonable expectation. It all depends on the length of the queue. Cars queue separately fro lorries. The lorry queue is usually longer than the car queue. Carefully squeeze by the lorries to find the end of the car queue. If crossing at Krakovets and the car queue is back past the final petrol station you are in for a long wait. You will be searched at the crossing point. Again they are looking for cigarettes. The thoroughness of the search will depend on whether you look like a family (wife and kids) or some dodgy foreign male cigarette smuggler travelling by himself ;-) Once into Poland the roads are better and so long as you know where you are going you should be fine. Dont forget thought that in Poland and Ukraine they still sell petrol with lead in it. Make sure you buy unleaded if this is what your car needs.

One option that may be best of all is the bus. There is a special lane for busses at the road crossing and it could save you a long queue. However, I haven't done this myself and you will need to check it out to know more.

Finally don't forget that Poland does not use the Euro. You will need some Polish currency to go there. You can get this from the banks in Lviv.

Have a save trip

[Aussieuke]

Thank you Dr Nick,
That was very helpful, and we are still planning things.The number of crossings is still the same for us,we have to nominate whether it is one or two or more.Naturaly the price is adjusted accordingly.We are using a local guide at the start and once we establish family contacts we may go it alone for a bit.
I just thought, that Poland would still be amiable to US dollars which I am thinking of taking as a back up against the local currancy and plastic.I will be posting from Ukraine as I get the chance ,so will update you and the others as we go.
Cheers.

[Lolly]

I will be traveling from Lviv to Lubaczow by car. Which would be the best crossing to use to get there and back?