BootsnAll Travel Community

I will be going to Kiev, Ukraine for 2.5 weeks in August with my 2-year-old. I've traveled with my child before, so that is no problem, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips for Dad and kid (things to do, things to avoid, useful stores, etc.).

I've heard that baby clothes are expensive, so I should bring enough, and I have also heard the diapers are plentiful.

With the new travel restrictions, I will be traveling a bit lighter than usual and fully expect to have to use the local economy quite a bit for baby supplies. Basically, any child advice for Ukraine is welcome.

Cheers,

ktm

Hey ktm,

I just got back from 10 days in Ukraine with an 18 month old (and wife).

We were only in the west, not in Kiev, so some of my info may be of limited relevance. Kiev being the capital and largest city, things may be different there. We were also backpacking, moving around quite a bit. Not sure if you’ll be parked in Kiev or moving around. But for what it’s worth a few thoughts:

- We only had to buy diapers once, and oddly enough, ended up finding them in a pharmacy. This was in a small town however, where we couldn’t find a big supermarket (only small markets).

- Not sure if you’ll be moving around, but Ukrainian buses can be tough. One problem is that the windows rarely (if ever) open, so it gets extremely hot. Buses are also extremely slow by eastern European standards.

- If you’re moving outside of Kiev and your 2-year-old is potty training, you might encounter some difficulty. Ours was still in diapers full time, but some of the small-town bus station toilets, for example, were among the most hideous I have ever seen (and I’m proud to say I’ve seen a lot!). Completely unusable, maggot-ridden, and essentially abandoned. Restaurants, hotels, and big city public toilets were generally great, though.

- Ukrainians love kids. It was like Halloween for our son, who often couldn’t walk down the street without getting candy from random old ladies. Our backpack-carrier (we didn’t bring a stroller) also got lots of stares. Generally no problem bringing kids in restaurants.

- As for sights and things to do, I have limited info. Our son is still at a stage where playing with dirt and rocks is about the best entertainment there is. I can assure you that there is plenty of dirt and rocks in Ukraine, though.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I left right before your response and the one thing I would second is bringing a backpack carrier instead of stroller (I brought a stroller). Even though Kiev is polishing up nicely (I was last here in '93), it still is not very handicapped or stroller friendly. And it should be emphasized that Kiev is a city full of hills, steps, and uneven sidewalks. Granted, no matter how you carry your baby up a hill it will burn some calories, but I would give my stroller another few weeks before a wheel goes out.


With that said, the parks are very nice and generally have good playground equipment. Vareniki (Ukrainian dumplings) was an instant hit. Diapers and baby supplies are available widely, though it may take some searching at first to find a pharmacy or a larger grocery store.

I haven't found Ukrainians to be exceptional friendly towards kids (so far at least). Relative to other places I have traveled with my child, Kiev probably ranks near the bottom, but I would probably attribute this more to urban indifference than anything else. The streets are full of young people, and children aren't even a glimmer in their eye yet.

Anyhow, I will send a recap of child travel tips for Kiev once my stay is over.

- ktm

Cool, looking forward to the report! We seem to have a dearth of "traveling with children" info on the boards.

Well, I finally returned from Kiev. The one thing I will say is that three weeks seemed long with a toddler. I am not saying it was bad at all, and in fact our baby girl loved it so much she didn't want to leave. BUT I dropped 5+ pounds, broke our stroller, and had to resort to parenting bribes that I never would have allowed anywhere else.

And even when a trip is done, the bad habits don't necessarily go away. I think I know why most people don't travel with children this age. Anyhow, I guess this applies to traveling with children in general, and of course it depends highly upon the temperment of your child. Considering my baby model, in the future I would probably limit travelling to 10 days.

OK, now on to Kiev. Kiev is a fabulous city and very child friendly. It has numerous parks, which are very good. Shevchenko Park (near the university), Volodymyrska Park (near St. Michaels), and Mariyinsky Park (near Dinamo stadium) were all well equiped to occupy the little ones for hours. The Mariyinsky one was the best probably. It also had gear for younger children and wasn't too sandy. All the big parks also had pony rides, little motorized cars, and those air-inflated jumping things (for a price of course). In addition to that, there were literally small parks (somewhat less maintained) all over the place.

Beyond parks, there is really a lot to do. We took river boat rides and even rented a sailboat for the day at a sailing club outside of Kiev. Our little girl also loved the funicular, and they often wouldn't even take your fare if you were pushing a stroller.

Most restaurants were fairly child friendly, though many did not have high chairs. (That didn't matter to us so much.) We found a nice set of restaurants near the big market on Nizhny Val. The restaurants were around the back on Bulitza Horiva. One was called Kvartira, another was across the street called Garbuz, and the third (right next to Kvartira) was a cafeteria style place where you can sit down and eat. It was very clean and had great food.

All of the places were reasonable in price, and it was one minute away from the big covered market. There was even a toy store right around the corner if you needed some cheap Chinese plastic thing to get the little one through the dinner.

Garbuz was typical Ukrainian. Children love the vareniki, potato pancakes (deruni), or any variant of the thinner blini-style pancakes. Kvartira even had a children's room (no smoking) with childrens books in Ukrainian. On Saturday and Sunday they even have special non-smoking kids hours and give a treat to kids.

My little girl probably liked the fast food Ukrainian restaurant, Shvidko, the best. I don't know what it was, but the mushroom vareniki there were her favorite.

There is a restaurant called Arizona, which is modeled on an American franchise like Chilis. You will hear a lot about it, but I didn't care for it. On Sundays, they do have puppet shows (in Ukrainian) for kids and it has pool tables and a play house in the back. The food was oh so expensive ($18 for a hamburger) and it wasn't that great of quality. I personally would stick to Ukrainian food.

We also found some childrens books at the Metrograd shopping area under the street directly in front of the Besarabsky Market on Hreschatik. It is called Globe and it is located in the book department area. They have a small English-language selection of kids books, but it is a pretty good selection. I got a lot of Dr. Seuss.

If you are staying a longer period, you may want to make a visit to the International Women's Club of Kiev (near Shevchenko park but a bit hard to find). They publish every year in September their survival guide that has a lot of tips for parents living in Kiev. Later in the year, they will probalby be sold out though; we looked through someone's older copy and it was still useful.

We found the Fourchette supermarket to be really good for baby supplies. You could choose from many brands and it was reasonably priced. In general it was a very good supermarket, but we stayed in Podil, and they had a good store there.

One of the main problems in Kiev, which I hinted at in my earlier post, is how the city is not very stroller friendly. I would definitely make my baby as portable as possible with a backpack carrier. I never tried the metros, so I can't say for sure if they were stroller friendly or not. I would assume they weren't that great as the steps leading down to them weren't set up for strollers.

The main thing is that when you are traveling, your stroller is just heavier. Guidebooks, sun screen, food for the day etc. After lifting the stroller so many times, I came back with these freaky muscular cut fore arms.

There are stores for children, but I didn't need to use them. What I have picked up from several sources is that the clothes can be quite expensive, so don't depend upon packing light and buying things on location.

My last bit of advice would be to go for a two-bedroom apartment for lodging -- though they may not have baby beds if you need one. It worked out really well for us, especially when trying to correct for jet lag. Also don’t forget the sunscreen and bug spray if you are traveling during the summer.

Well, that is about it. I will be returning to Ukraine in about 9 months and staying for four years, so I will eventually learn much more than these few weeks taught me.

- ktm