Post-tour 2

Dnipro River cruise (9 days)

Day 1

After boarding a nice river boat which will be your home for the next week and a half, you will depart from the Kyiv River Port and sail south toward Kaniv (1). There, you will visit a large commercial beekeeping farm which outputs the entire range of beekeeping products, and afterwards, take a tour to the place of burial and museum of Taras Shevchenko.

Day 2

The boat will continue downstream, taking you through the largest continuous locust growth area in the world where you will enjoy the scenery of locust forests growing on the both banks of the Dnipro River. You will see the harvesting of famous Ukrainian locust honey – winner of Apimondia gold medal and other prestigious international awards – when visiting an apiary during the boat’s next stop at Subotiv (2). You will also be offered a tour of Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s memorial places, and in the evening – Ukrainian-cuisine dinner with Ukrainian beekeepers in an authentic restaurant located in a 19th century village estate.

Day 3

Your next stop will be at Kremenchuk where a comfortable bus will take you to the ‘beekeeping capital’ of Ukraine, Kirovohrad (3). Here, you will visit one of the leading Ukrainian beekeeping producers, Zlatomed and the largest manufacturer of beekeeping equipment, Os.

Day 4

After staying overnight in Kirovohrad you will visit another company, honey producer and exporter ats, and then your bus will take you back to the boat and you will continue your journey down the Dnipro toward one of the largest industrial centers of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk where you will be offered an evening tour of the city and a dinner with local beekeepers.

Day 5

From Dnipropetrovsk you will go to Zaporizhia and the very heart of Ukraine, the legendary Great Khortytsia Island (5, see page 47, paragraph 5) where every stone is breathing with the glorious history of Ukrainian Cossacks. You will visit the completely restored Zaporizhian Sich, see a Cossack martial arts show, and drink a genuine Sich medovukha (Ukrainian mead) in a company of Cossacks.

Day 6

For the whole day the boat will sail through the vast Kakhovka Reservoir among mysterious Taurida steppes where invincible Scythians once lived, until arrival to Nova Kakhovka in the evening.

Day 7

A bus will pick you up at Nova Kakhovka berth and take to the unique biosphere reserve Askania Nova (6) included to the list of 100 greatest preserves and parks of the world. You will see a unique natural preserve with a virgin steppe hosting hundreds of rare animal species which otherwise can be found perhaps in zoos. Zebras, camels, Indian and African antelopes, lamas, Scottish ponies, American bison, African ostriches and emus, peacocks, and fl amingos – you name it.

Day 8

The boat will take you west through picturesque estuaries of the Dnipro delta, via Kherson and coastal fortress of Ochakiv to famous Odesa (7, see page 50, paragraph 9) where you will arrive late in the evening.

Day 9

You will visit the largest migratory commercial apiaries in Ukraine near Odesa and enjoy an unforgettable lunch right at the apiary in the open air. After that, you will return to Odesa to spend the rest of the day walking around this charming unforgettable city of endless impressions and smiles. Odesa has large international airport, so you can return home right from here, unless the charm of Odesa will captivate you to the point that you will decide to stay here a little while longer.