Travelling from UK to Kostopol

[Wolodymyr]

Myself, father and wife are preparing to visit relatives in Kostopol in June.
The obvious route is by air to Kiev, then road or rail to Kostopol, but it is about 5 hrs journey from Kiev.
I will be looking at options to fly to Lviv then by road or rail to Kostopol, which is about 3.5hrs, or fly to Rovno which is really close to Kostopol.

My father is 85, so I want to make the road journey the shortest if I can, so any comments welcome on both the air travel, and best way of getting from Kyiv/Lviv to Kostopol.

thanks
Wolodymyr

[IreneLviv]

From where can you fly to Rivne?
I would fly Warsaw- Lviv and continue by car to Kostopil

[Hannia]

As per Irene's suggestion, entering from west is better. Andrij (member name matera) is from Volodymir-Volynskij > Vohlyn. He can probably be very helpful to you. He is just completing some work for Gary (see post re Kaczyn), who can provide references.

[Wolodymyr]

Hannia,
thanks for being helpful, but I'm not looking for anything that needs references, just basic advice.
My Dad has been a couple of times, once with Mom via Lvov, and once alone via Kyiv, when he was met by car. This time, I just want to save the family the trip to meet us, so I am exploring options.
When Mom and Dad went to Lvov, it was a direct flight from Manchester, so no problem, but now as far as I can see, there are no direct flights from UK to Lvov. Since Dad is not too good on his legs now, we really need a direct flight so it looks like Kyiv and a bus or car to Kostopol.

From where can you fly to Rivne?

Yes I was hoping I could get an internal flight to Rivne from Kiev, at first I saw plenty of internet references to Rivne airport, and the Google satellite image clearly shows the runways, and 4 engined planes parked there. So I was misled for a moment, there is a nice website Rivne airport but it just seems to be a shell, from some of the comments on the site it seems that the airport is no longer functional..

Wolodymyr

[Wolodymyr]

Ok, now getting excited as we will be in Ukraine next thursday, and travelling to Kostopol by car.
The flight times through Warsaw - Lvov didn't really suit, but Kiev times were ideal.
This might be my last chance to go with my dad, and he is really happy now. Expect photos and posts when we return.

Wolodymyr

[Dr Nick]

Sounds like a nice trip.

For the car part, try to book a car with plenty of leg room in the seat for your father. Lada's are a bit tight in the back.

It is getting hot so you want a car with air con.

Roads are bumpy so a car with comfy suspension not anything sporty.

I'm English and have travelled the roads myself quite a lot.

If you are going to be the driver do not speed! There are some excellent speed traps on that road . Watch out for the 50 kph sections manned with cops with radar guns near pedestrian crossings in small towns and villages.

Enjoy your trip. Weather should be nice!

[Wolodymyr]

Hi all, we recently returned from what was a great trip.
As I indicated we flew direct from London to Kiev.
To summarise our journey, my wife and I left Scotland on the Wednesday at 11am, and drove the 5 hrs down to my fathers, we had dinner then got some sleep for a 1am rise.
At 2am my brother in law took us down to heathrow for our 7am flight. At the airport, the wheelchair and transport service provided for father was superb and made things so easy for us.
So arriving at Borispol after midday, was an equally good experience with the same good service, a man meeting us at the plane steps to help father down the steps and into the wheelchair. Getting the chair onto the waiting bus is interesting, but I am sure completely safe!
At the airport we were met by a cousin and nephew with a hired MPV and driver, so the 6 hr journey to Kostopol was pleasant with a couple of stops along the way, we arrived at about 7:30pm local time on thursday, so about 32 hrs in transit.
We had a great time, with superb weather and met many relatives, visited many places. For me the best part was the visit to the church where father was baptised, and meeting the priest Father Alexei who showed us the icon that my grandfather had commissioned for the church. That was something no-one had mentioned before, so it was a moving surprise to see such a powerful and tangible connection to him, as he had been a part time priest.
The other story I have concerns our trip to the location of my father's village, in another cousins car. Since it is in a military training ground, we had to get permission to enter, and the location is in the middle of nowhere Within site of the village location, the car sump hit a large tree root partially buried in the sand, this led to a loss of oil and was terminal for the engine. While waiting for rescue, we were able to locate the village, and the cemetery where my grandfather is buried, although this too had been rased to the ground. I took many photographs of the area, and we came across only two artifacts that gave tangible evidence of the village and cemetery, a metal door handle near the location of the church, and the stump of a monument in the graveyard.
It took us 6 hours to get towed out of that area because of the sandy ground and only because there were 5 men able to push both cars on the many occasions we got bogged down. That is another story, that led to my father vowing never to travel with that cousin again, on the basis that wherever he goes there is some disaster or other!.

Anyway as time goes I will write all these stories down and let you know, for now I am putting some of my photos up on panoramio.com, so you are all welcome to have a look. My Photos.

Wolodymyr


Thanks for the advice Nick I see that your journeys have been quite epic.