Dnieper River Cruise – Photos and Itinerary

FOOTSTEPS OF THE COSSACKS:

Dnieper River Cruise, Ukraine

A river cruise in Ukraine means a cruise on the Dnieper River, down to or up from the Black Sea.

Following is the itinerary of the “Footsteps of the Cossacks” Ukraine river cruise that we took in August 2008 with Viking River Cruises.  This 12 days/11 nights cruise starts in Odessa and goes up to Kiev. You can also do this in the reverse direction.

[Note:  The itinerary for 2010 spends a day less in Yalta and instead they make stops in Dnepopetrovsk and Kremenchuk.  The General Lavrinenkov, which we travelled on,  has been replaced with the Viking Lomonosov, but looks pretty much the same - no full height opening windows.

Wine (2 glasses) is now included at dinner time.]

The Ukraine was a new destination for us and as such there were a lot of unknown factors before the trip. We hope that the day-by-day activities list, coupled with our comments and Ukraine photo galleries will give potential travellers an insight into this interesting country before they leave.

A few key points to note about this cruise:

• If you’ve previously done a Rhine River cruise, the Dnieper River is very different.  It is a very wide river and for a lot of the journey you have a very distant view of land.
• There are a lot of optional tours on this cruise.   You’ll need to consider budgeting for these as you wouldn’t want to miss out on seeing what the Ukraine is like.
• Itineraries change a fair bit, especially in cities where you’re stopping for more than a day, but the nightly information sheet provides the latest programme.
• The time in Kiev is insufficient and it’s worth adding a few more days in this capital city.
• The cruise was lacking in a cruise director and professional programme manager and the people who ran the daily activities are the tour guides who have the English language skills.
• Special credit go to the restaurant staff.  These girls work very hard to earn their tips.