Poland & Ukraine - Walking in the Carpathians & Lvov

Poland & Ukraine
Walking in the Carpathians & Lvov

Southeast Poland has remained a rural backwater where horses and people, rather than tractors, work on the land and dramatic castles and Uniate wooden churches punctuate the landscape. Close to the Ukrainian border, remote national parks in the Carpathian mountains offer excellent walking, through beech woods and limestone gorges and along ridges with extensive views.

Historic Lvov (properly Lviv), Ukraine’s cultural capital and a UNESCO World Heritage site, largely escaped damage by invading forces over the centuries and retains an impressive heritage of Renaissance, Baroque, Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture.

TRIP ITINERARY

DAY 1

D included

After meeting in the late afternoon at Rzeszow airport, a short road transfer takes us to our first hotel, a restored manor house, where we sample an ice-cold bison grass vodka before dinner in the traditional restaurant.

DAY 2

B, L, D included

In the morning we drive to nearby Sanok for a walking tour of the excellent skansen - an open-air museum of traditional wooden architecture set in woodland up in the hills - where we see granaries, pigsties, village inns, fire stations and some remarkably eccentric beehives. After a picnic by the river San, we visit the superb Icon Museum in the Renaissance castle, the largest collection in the world after Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, with icons dating from as early as the mid-1300s. Driving south, we pause to walk in the atmospheric mediaeval Jewish cemetery at Lesko en route to the Bieszczady National Park. Our delightful family-run hotel was recently purpose-built in the style of a traditional nobleman’s wooden summerhouse.

DAY 3

B, L, D included

Today we walk on good trails in the Bieszczady mountains, the eastern ranges of the Carpathians, looking out for common species of wildflowers (willow gentian, monks rhubarb and yellow hypericum) and birds (fieldfare, red backed shrike and even occasional black storks along the river). Little visited by outsiders, the national park is composed of limestone rounded peaks (800 - 1200 m high) cloaked with undisturbed forest and flower-filled upland meadows - there are also areas of tall grassland reminiscent of savannah. In the afternoon we walk through an abandoned village, cleared of its Boyk population during ‘Operation Vistula’ in 1947 and learn about the complex history of this mountain border area.

DAY 4

B, L, D included

On a full day walk we climb steadily (450 m over 2 hours) to reach the peak of Wielka Rawka (1,304 m) with commanding views east into Ukraine and south into Slovakia. Bears and wolves still occur here (though they are very shy of man) and birds of prey include lesser spotted and golden eagles, goshawks and honey buzzards. A superb ridge on open moorland and a gradual descent brings us back to our peaceful mountain village in the river valley and our walk gives us an appetite for hearty homemade Polish food: cheese-filled pierogi; wild mushroom soup; barszcz (beetroot and sour cream); grilled mountain trout and game.

DAY 5

B, L, D included

As we drive north every other building seems crowned by a stork’s nest and we walk in a remote rural area on the Ukraine border where hay is being mown and stacked by hand. We see an Orthodox wooden church which is gradually being restored and also stop to see some of the many elaborate wooden Uniate churches, with their rich iconostases and Cyrillic inscriptions. Our destination is Krasiczyn, where our atmospheric hotel for 3 nights is in the coach house of a 16C castle, one of the most important Renaissance castles in Poland, situated in a formal romantic park with a small lake.

DAY 6

B, L, D included

We begin with a guided tour of the castle, then have a two hour walk which takes us through forest and open fields (many of them still divided in the mediaeval strip system and ploughed by horses) to a viewpoint overlooking the historic town of Przemysl. Founded in the 10C, Przemysl enjoyed a golden age in the 16C and is celebrated for the immense fortifications built by the Austro-Hungarians in the 19C - a 45 km long outer rampart with over 60 strategically placed forts! We explore the cobbled streets of the old town, seeing the Renaissance Carmelite church (with a surprising wooden pulpit in the shape of a boat) and visiting the new museum documenting the history of the border region.

DAY 7

B, L, D included

This morning we visit nearby Lancut with its pink and cream Renaissance castle (containing extraordinary Chinese and Turkish apartments and a private Rococo

theatre), formal 18C gardens and interesting carriage coach collection. We also visit the richly decorated Synagogue which dates from 1760 and is one of the very few Polish synagogues to have survived the Nazi era intact. Our afternoon walk within the Przemyski Landscape Park follows a ridge through forest above the river San.

DAY 8

B, L, D included

The border crossing into Ukraine is only half an hour away and after completing formalities we head north through forests (busy with mushroom collectors in autumn) and small fields, eventually following an unmade road to an isolated Western Ukraine village little changed over the centuries. A local guide explains the traditional architecture of the whitewashed cottages and wooden barns and we learn about the multifunctional Ukrainian stove, how potatoes are stored and how grain is kept safe from mice during the winter. Returning to our vehicle we drive to Lvov (45 km) and have an orientation walk before settling into our 4 star hotel in the historic centre.

DAY 9

B, L, D included

Lvov, in Ukrainian Lviv (meaning ‘the City of the Lion’) was founded by the Ukrainian Prince Danylo Halytskiy in 1256 and has been occupied by Poland, Austria and the Soviet Union, finally regaining its independence in 1991. We have a guided walking tour of the intact historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site, walking through parks where groups of elderly men play chess, and seeing the onion-domed Ukrainian Orthodox churches, the mediaeval Armenian and Jewish quarters, the Opera house and Secessionist buildings of the Austrian period and the icon and applied arts collections of the Ukrainian National Museum. Our farewell dinner features Galician (Western Ukraine) specialities in an elegant setting.

DAY 10

B included

After a free morning to explore more of Lvov, our journey concludes with an early afternoon transfer to the airport.

Price includes:

All accommodation for Days 1 through 10 on a twin shared basis

All meals (with wine and beer/vodka at lunches and dinners) as listed in the daily notation

All land transportation in a private vehicle as described except during free periods

All entrance and sightseeing fees except during free periods

Gratuities for hotel and restaurant staff

Visa and Health Requirements

Visitors from the EU and the US currently require a valid passport, but not a visa, for entry to Poland and Ukraine. If you are a national of any other country, please check visa regulations with your nearest Embassies of Poland and Ukraine.

At present there are no specific and compulsory health requirements for entry to Poland and Ukraine. Residents of countries in the EU can claim free (emergency) medical treatment in Poland by presenting their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which is issued in the UK by the Department of Health. You may also wish to check the advice given to travellers the FCO.

Insurance

It is essential, and a condition of booking, that you protect yourself with a suitable travel insurance policy as soon as you book a trip. Follow this link for a quote for a policy available to UK residents.

If you are already insured or a non-UK resident, please inform us of your policy at the time of booking.