Ukraine: The Bradt Travel Guide

Rating:
Summary: Best guide to Ukraine (reviewed by Ukrainian!)
Review: Having done some travelling before and being familiar with a usual "average tourist" style of travel guides available on the market I was pleasantly surprised by the refreshing style of Andrew Evans' writing. He evidently did some in-depth study and managed to capture the essence of the Ukrainian culture in a short space of the first part of the book. I particularly enjoyed a brief overview of the Ukraine's history in the second chapter. I also liked the way Andrew presented Ukrainians with some witty comments in the third chapter of the book and could not agree more with him about the importance of getting to know the local people wherever one is travelling to. The second part of the book ("The Guide") provides concise information on pretty much all major destinations in Ukraine with some very practical advice on transport, accommodation etc. Being born in Odessa and living there for 20 years I enjoyed reading about my birthplace and hope that the positive outlook given by Andrew in his book will encourage many more tourists to visit this beautiful city. I hope very much that with the increasing number of visitors to Ukraine the word will spread about the hidden corners of this East European country and that this will generate a much deserved positive coverage for Ukraine in the Western media. I see this book as a pioneer in this area paving the way for other publications about Ukraine. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is travelling or consider travelling to Ukraine. Those who are particularly interested in Ukraine's capital city - Kiev, may find very useful to read a separate Bradt's city guide due later this year. See their website for more information - www.bradtguides.com