Late-20s male and am planning on volunteering in Ukraine sometime in 2025.

I've noticed that people in this subreddit often ask whether it's safe to visit Kyiv as a tourist, how ethical it is towards locals, and what there is to do in Kyiv right now.

These questions are well-addressed in the comments of similar posts, but the short answer is: Kyiv residents are very welcoming, and the city is beautiful with plenty to do even during wartime.

So if you're planning to visit Kyiv, this post is for you.

One of Kyiv's most amazing features is its restaurant scene. What makes it special? There are tons of restaurants with high-quality food. The presentation, ingredients, and portion sizes are excellent, but what's most interesting is that prices are much lower than in Europe.

I'm a huge foodie and have visited over 500 restaurants in the city. I've been satisfied with 95% of them. I used to make lists of places, sorting them by district, year, and cuisine (Ukrainian, Georgian, Asian), but now there's an awesome app that locals mainly use, and I want to share it with you - it's called "Expirenza". It's definitely available for Apple, though I can't be certain about Android since I use Apple. The app's logo is a pixel heart on a purple background.

This app is a complete guide to the city's restaurants. You can view menus, locations, make reservations, leave reviews, and even pay your bill. Think of it as Facebook, but for restaurants instead of people. The app already includes 80% of restaurants in the city and is gradually adding new ones. If you want to solve all your dining questions, definitely install and use it.

If you're interested in posts like this, upvote and I'll know this information is valuable - I'll write a few more posts.

Happy travels!

Good evening everyone, I'm going to Kiev this week to play football, I'm Brazilian and I'm watching a lot of news and I end up getting confused, about the war situation, what can I expect? Because I'm going alone and I'm going to leave my whole family here and everyone is afraid of something happening to me including myself, any risk of Kiev receiving a more severe attack for now?

I’m planning on visiting Kyiv for just a few days. After always wanting to visit Ukraine but never having a chance.

I just have a few questions and I’m sure they’ve been asked before but I just wasn’t able to find them.

1. is there any area’s in Kyiv that aren’t safe? I don’t mean from Drone attack, more in the sense of gangs etc like other big cities.

2. When I travel I like to bring back souvenirs like a fridge magnet. Is there anywhere in Kyiv that I could get one? What are traditional Ukrainian gifts I could bring back.

3. What does the usual weather be like in late January? Is it still snowing?

Thanks Slava Ukraini

I’m hoping to visit Kyiv in December and am really looking forward to experiencing the city. However, I had a conversation with my priest who raised some concerns that I’m trying to navigate.

He said that it is selfish for me to visit a place that is at war, especially since it might put unnecessary strain on local resources. The last thing I want is to add any burden to an already challenging situation.

I always thought that the main inconvenience I’d cause would be my lack of Ukrainian language skills haha, but now I’m reflecting more on the bigger picture. I’d love to hear your thoughts—do you think visiting Kyiv right now, even in December, would be irresponsible given the current circumstances?

Thanks)

hi

i wanted to know if there is an atm in kiev that i can withdraw euro currency and not local money. i asked around but seems no one know about that. the answer I get is euro available only through banks

thanks

Hello, anyone suffer from lack of friends in big city? I see only work&home. Would like to meet new ppl

I am unhappy with my current cleaning service. Increased prices and other unnecessary misunderstandings have me shopping around. Thank you.

Hi there, We are a couple exploring surrogate options and wondering how safe Kyiv is for travel and hopefully surrogacy.

We are looking to travel multiple times for the same.

Hi. Im looking to buy a pickup or SUV with AWD/4x4 but some of the people i have talked with always says that you need to spend atleast 4 go 5k USD for a used car in decent condition. Is that true? What about those cars that go for like 2k USD? how much will that cost in repairs? Can you get any decent car for 2k USD?

Hi. I’m travelling to Poland with my dog and have to get his paperwork done to take him across the border. Can anyone recommend a good vet that has experience in this? Preferably in Podil, but not absolutely necessary.

Thanks.

We've moved to a new apartment with my wife recently. There is a problematic family leaving next door. They keep shouting at each other all the time, and if it's night time, i shout to them as well so they shut up.

Few months ago someone put cat shit on our door handle, then after some time, I was alone at home and somebody kicked our apartment door, probably with foot. There was nobody in the door. However after few times I noticed they were again having some crisis. It turned out it was the woman kicking our door. Then she tried to catch my wife coming from work, then I faced her and started to shout at her face for a long time. She went to her mother and didn't come back for 2-3 weeks. It turned out that woman is schizophrenic. She thinks my wife is stealing her husband, she believes her husband keeps sending my wife to holidays abroad, which is obviously not correct. She was making up stories from my wife's instagram posts. While she was absent, her husband told us that he is trying to collect papers for the psychiatric hospital and trying to divorce and take the child from her. We made 2 police reports. The police hasn't done anything yet. The woman is very dangerous and can easily harm my wife when I'm not there.

She is back again now. She painted some cross to our door and put some soil on the floor. Do you have any suggestions? I'm not Ukrainian, maybe there is some other place we should apply and do complaints etc?

Seeking some escapism - Can you please recommend some good, preferably affordable spas or saunas in Lviv or Kyiv? I'm not looking for massages or beauty treatments, rather steam and dry saunas or heated pools. Thank you very much.

EDIT: I went, it was fine thanks to air defenses. It's kinda scary if you stay in a high rise since the anti-air explosions rock your windows. I've heard it's the smaller cities where it's worse since they have far less air defences.

I flew a ukrainian friend here to visit family becuase of a promise and loving my time in your wonderful country so far. Currently in Lviv and everyone is giving me mixed opinions on visiting Kyiv.

I work remotely for a USA company(evening time 3pm to 11pm) and need my power and data signal. The chances of being hit by a drone are tiny but what about power or data outages? I already had to ditch one work deadline due to no power output on the train ride here.

Alternatively, Just do the weekend in kyiv when I'm not working but then if a massive drone strike hits sunday, are trains to lviv absolutely full? Shelters probaly don't get good signals.

Thoughts?

Where, if at all, could you find American style turkey for Thanksgiving in Kyiv?

My grandma who lives in Kyiv went blind recently and I want to buy her a smart speaker so she can easily change the music and radio she listens to as well as ask basic questions. I read Amazon Echo won’t work there, and not sure about Google Home. What is a good option that will work in Ukraine?

Is there an indoor running track in or near Pechersk. Preferably a standard 400m track.

I’m looking to find an apartment in Kyiv and could really use some help with website recommendations. I’m hoping to rent a place that’s not too far from a metro station (walking distance). If anyone has suggestions on good websites to check out or general advice on finding rentals in the city, I’d really appreciate it!

Games are not at a particularly convenient time—especially when there’s a curfew but I guess it’s worth asking.

I have a number of books in English that I would like to get rid of, but don’t simply want to throw out. Is there anywhere in Kyiv that takes used books?

Українська компанія JobAtlas, яка розробляє технологічну платформу професійної самоідентифікації «Profiтроль», стала переможцем престижного заходу Techstars Startup Weekend Kyiv.

Платформа «Profiтроль» працює на межі галузей EdTech та HR-рішень. Вона виділилася серед численних інноваційних ідей завдяки своєму унікальному підходу до кар'єрного орієнтування на основі штучного інтелекту та аналізу великих даних. Особливістю платформи є те, що при рекомендації професії алгоритм враховує не тільки персональні інтереси та здібності людини, а ще й тенденції ринку праці та макроекономічну ситуацію. 

На першому етапі платформа націлена на допомогу із вибором професії для школярів та студентів. Потім вона буде адаптована і на інші категорії – ветеранів та людей у віці, які хочуть змінити свою кар’єру. 

«Зараз платформа запускається в Україні, бо в нашій країні є помітна нестача талантів у багатьох сферах, які критично важливі для відновлення країни, і ми можемо зробити свій внесок у вирішення цієї проблеми, – зазначив В'ячеслав Фокін, CEO компанії JobAtlas. – Пізніше ми плануємо масштабуватися і виходити в інші країни, бо питання визначення зі своїм освітнім та професійним розвитком актуальне на глобальному рівні». 

Конкурс стартапів Techstars Startup Weekend є частиною глобальної ініціативи Techstars, яка об'єднує підприємців, розробників, дизайнерів та бізнес-професіоналів для створення та запуску стартапів. Захід проходив з 18 до 20 жовтня на базі Київської Школи Економіки (KSE).