Plan Your Trip to Lviv: Why and How

September 11, 2017

Lviv has been called the hidden gem of Eastern Europe, with reason. The city is not only known for its hundreds and hundreds of church towers pointing out above the city, but also for its handmade chocolate, craft beer, its many traditions, and IT. In recent years Lviv has been rated as one of the top destinations by Business Insider, Lonely Planet, Huffington Post, Rough Guides and many others.

You might never have visited or heard about Lviv, but let us explain to you why you should consider coming here – especially during the weekend of the 29th of September.

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During this weekend, IT Arena 2017 – the biggest tech conference in Eastern Europe will take place at Lviv Arena Stadium. The three-day conference will host international speakers from Indiegogo, TechCrunch, Amazon Web Services, 500 Startups, Airbnb, and many more.  Within the conference there will be a big Startup Competition, various workshops, a Tech Expo of Ukrainian products and the huge afterparty Futureland Festival – where the French electronic duo Cassius will headline.

The first two days of the conference will take place at Lviv Arena Stadium, a bit outside the city center, but the third day – a day of meetups with tech specialists, investors and CEOs – will be scattered across the city, which gives you the chance to combine tech and the amazing history and culture of this charming city. Of course – if you have the time – we would recommend you to take some extra days to explore Lviv even more and experience the lovely atmosphere it has to offer. It’s a very European minded city, where people have decent English knowledge and are happy to welcome any visitors.

What to see in Lviv

The city has a huge amount of culture and history to offer, so make sure you count enough days to visit it all! You can stroll around Lviv’s old city center in a day and fall completely in love. You will have to visit (and try) Lviv Chocolate Manufactory, the Coffee Manufactory and Pravda Beer Theatre, where they brew their own special Pravda beer which is distributed all over Lviv.

You can get an amazing overview of the city on the following viewpoints: High Castle or Town Hall (Rynok Square). It’s a climb, but definitely worth it!

Next to the many churches, make sure to visit the Lviv Opera House and the Town Hall. In the evening you can visit one of the thematic restaurants by FEST or Kumpel and afterwards go to Libraria, where they have amazing cocktails and live jazz music, or to Bar 44, another amazing cocktail place.

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How to get to Lviv

Lviv – one of the bigger Ukrainian cities – is situated at only 70 km from the Polish border, in the West of Ukraine. Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport lies in a close proximity to the city center, so it’s easy to get to the center by Uber or bus.

You can find direct flights from Minsk, Warsaw, Madrid, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Rome and Tel Aviv, and a lot more destinations can be reached by a one-stop flight. Flights from Poland start already from 53 EUR in September! To find your flight, you can use the following websites: skyscanner.net, kiwi.com and tickets.ua.

If you are coming from Poland you might consider taking a bus or train, but beware of the waiting time at the border. To avoid lines on the border, our advice is to take an express train from the border city Przemysl. It only takes 2 hours and costs less than 10 euro. You can book it here.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at IT Arena!