Driving from London to Lugansk

[Dr Nick]

Hi Everybody!

No we are back in the UK.

Roads have improved just a little bit along the E40 on the Ukrainian side. On the Polish side I think they are done for now with the improvements and its still very poor despite being new from just after Tarnow heading East. 3.5 hrs minimum to the Krakovets from there, on silly single lane road with traffic lights speed cameras and never the same speed limit for more than 100 yards it seems to me.

We had been lucky with border crossings up until now I think. 4.5 hours Poland to Ukraine on a Saturday afternoon. Then 3 hours coming back this time late at night on a Friday. I'd recommend the late at night idea as its not so hot for the kids in the car. I fact they slept through most of it, and then we couldn't get them to go to bed at the motel on the Polish side. There are plenty of motels on both sides..

Still lots of bent coppers with radar guns on the Lvov - Kiev stretch, particularly around Rivne. They are not interested in safety at all. They generally stop the cars before the crossing points which obstructs the view of the crossing to approaching vehicles. This makes it more dangerous than before. These guys really are muppets. Having said that, I didn't get stopped once, for any reason the whole two months we were here.

Gotno... as far as I know your foreign vehicle can still only stay for 60 days.

Let me know if you successfully leave it there for a quick return flight home. I may want to do this in future.

Cheers

Dr Nick

[Ashleigh]

Just out of interest... How much would it cost in fuel to drive from London - Lviv and how much did it cost to cross on the ferry?
I wonder if it is a lot cheaper than flying.

[Gotno Gizmo]

If you browse Wizz Air you will see that it requires four or more adult people travelling in a car to compete on fuel/ accomodation costs of travelling by road. For competitive car ferry prices see DFDS - Northern Europe's leading integrated shipping & logistics transportation networks - DFDS.com Dover/ Dunkirk services.

[Dr Nick]

Regarding costs:

Its about 220 pounds in petrol currently London to Lviv in a vauxhall vectra 1.8 petrol. You could make it a bit cheaper if you didn't do 110 mph on the autobahn and had an economical diesel car instead. If you can make it to Poland on the first day before you stop, overnight accommodation for 2 adults and 2 children is less than 40 pounds instead of near to 100 in Germany. We used the train on the way out (70 pounds) but you could get a ferry ticket cheaper as Gotno points out.

Actually its not about cost though, its about having a car to drive about in in Ukraine and being able to take vast amounts of luggage including liquids!

Lviv would be easy but its a hard drive to Lugansk make no mistake

Hope that helps