• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

River Cruises

  • Home
  • About River Cruises
  • Photos
  • Map of Europe
  • Site Map
  • Cruises
    • Rhine Danube River Cruises
    • France River Cruises
    • Germany River Cruises
    • Holland Belgium River Cruises
    • Italy River Cruises
    • Spain Portugal River Cruises
    • Russia Ukraine River Cruises
    • UK River Cruises
  • Riverboats
  • Sightseeing
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Sightseeing / Arriving in Odessa and Airport Transfer

Arriving in Odessa and Airport Transfer

By Helen Page 4 Comments

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Dnieper River Cruise – Odessa, Ukraine

DAY 1 – Odessa (Wed.) Arrival in Odessa.  If Viking River Cruises arranged your transfer, you will be met at the airport and transferred to your river cruise ship. Because the crew will be preparing cabins for arriving passengers, you can relax in the ship’s lounge or explore Odessa on your own. You will be given access to your cabin as soon as it becomes available, usually by 3 p.m. If you arrive during lunchtime (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.), some light snacks will be available. Your ship remains docked overnight. (D)
General Lavrinenkov, Odessa

General Lavrinenkov, Odessa

Airport meet and greet transfers are only included when air is purchased from Viking River Cruises and Viking can only offer air to passengers traveling from the U.S. or Canada.

Organising Airport Transfers

We decide to organize our own airport transfer as the price being charged per person by Viking seems quite expensive for a 10 mile trip.  However, finding reliable information on airport transfers in Odessa is a challenge.  You have more luck finding information on dating Ukrainian women than airport transfers and facilities at Odessa airport.  Websites that offer transfers don’t always respond to your queries.  Many will offer free transfers if you purchase accommodation from them.

Finding information about airport transfers in Kiev is much easier than Odessa, presumably more business people fly into Kiev.

I finally got in touch with a company UkraineFare.com who is able to arrange for our arrival transfer in Odessa and departure transfer out of Kiev.  The fares quoted are very cheap as well – USD15 for the transfer from Odessa airport to the seaport terminal and USD40 from Kiev sea terminal to Kiev airport.

When you’re totally unfamiliar with a travel destination, especially a non-English speaking, eastern European city like Odessa, it’s always difficult to imagine how things will pan out.  It would have been easier if we were going to and leaving from a hotel, but where these sea terminals are and pinpointing where the river boat is moored is a bit difficult.  Also, according to Viking, the ship’s mooring position can change at the discretion of the port authority.

General Lavrinenkov Suite, Odessa

General Lavrinenkov Suite, Odessa

Immigration and Customs

Immigration and customs procedures at Odessa airport are slow due to their manual processes, however we did not encounter any problems at all. Contrary to advice, we didn’t have to declare how much money we are bringing into the country.

I’m glad to say the transfer worked out well.  Our taxi driver was at Odessa airport waiting for us and we found each other quite easily.  He didn’t speak any English, but got us to Odessa seaport terminal very efficiently.  You’ll know when you’ve arrived by the landmark Hotel Odessa, a modern business hotel on the waterfront.

Note:  The road is above the water level and to get to the river boat you have to go into the Port Authority building (the building behind the Golden Baby statue) and walk down some steps (if the escalator is not working).  On exiting the Port building we see a few ships at the mooring and the General Lavrinenkov is one of them.

Sunset, Odessa - River Cruise

Sunset, Odessa - River Cruise

We board the ship and are shown to our nice stateroom, although no ceiling to floor windows.  We quickly unpack and have time to go back on land to walk around the seafront.

Tip: If you need to use the Internet, go to the Hotel Odessa.  Next available place is at Yalta.

There is a embarkation briefing at 6 pm, after which we have welcome drinks on the Sun Deck with the beautiful sun setting in the horizon.

Dinner is served at 7:30 pm.  There are two restaurants, “Kiev” and “Odessa” and passengers are required to stick with the restaurant that they are allocated.

The river boat overnights in Odessa.

Previous page: Dnieper River Cruise Itinerary

More information on Odessa here: Coming

Photos of Odessa: Odessa Photo Gallery

Next page: Odessa City Tour

Dnieper River Cruise: Index
Day 1: Odessa
Day 2: Odessa
Day 3: Sevastopol/Bakhchisarai
Day 4: Sevastopol
Day 5: Yalta
Day 6: Yalta
Day 7: Yalta
Day 8: Kherson
Day 9: Zaporozhye
Day 10: Dnieper River Cruising
Day 11: Kiev
Day 12: Kiev
Dnieper River Cruise Photo Gallery
Odessa Livadia Palace Kiev
Sevastopol Swallow’s Nest Khortisa Cossack Horse Show
Bakhchisarai Kherson Zaporozhye City
Balaklava Khortisa Cossack Museum Zaporozhye Dam and Lock
Alupka Palace

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Sightseeing Tagged With: airport transfer, black sea, Cruises, dnieper river, dnieper river cruise, europe cruises, europe river cruise, odessa, odessa airport, odessa travel, river, river boat, river cruise, river cruises, river cruising, river tours, ukraine river cruise, ukraine travel, viking cruises, viking river, viking river cruises

avatar

About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Comments

  1. avatarNancy Conn says

    September 17, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    Thank you for suggesting the website: UkraineFare.com. We were very pleased with their transfer service last month. After a 5 minute wait in Kiev airport, the driver arrived to take us to our ship. When departing from Odessa, the person arrived 10 minutes early.! Viking Cruises charge an outrageous amount for these transfers…

    2 from Toronto

    Reply
    • avatarHelen Page says

      September 18, 2012 at 12:35 am

      Hi Nancy,
      I’m really pleased that your Kiev and Odessa airport transfers worked out well with UkraineFare.com and that you’ve managed to avoid the outrageous fares by Viking.

      Did you enjoy your cruise?

      Kind regards,
      Helen

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Plan and Book Your Trip


Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!

Latest Additions

  • Embarkation Day – Amsterdam to Budapest River Cruise
  • Amsterdam – The City of Canals
  • Cologne on the Rhine
  • An Evening Stop at Koblenz
  • Cruising the Romantic Middle Rhine
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright Travelsignposts Pty Ltd © 2023 Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address