Kiev, Ukraine

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Chernobyl-Pripyat Tour

All-inclusive certified English-guided tours since 2003

Included:
Kiev pick-up and drop-off, Zone access paperwork, all-around transportation, certified Zone guides, lunch/meals, English guiding, etc.

According to the current requirements of the Exclusion Zone administration, which is exclusive operator of the Chernobyl tours, a booking application has to be submitted in advance. Since this is a strictly regulated operation, a limited number of individuals can visit Chernobyl and Pripyat on a given day. Make sure to plan/book your trip well in advance and contact us as soon as you can. 

Also check ToursofChernobyl.com for great Chernobyl-Pripyat tours.

WAR in UKRAINE: Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, this tour has been suspended by the government till the end of the military operations in the country and clearing the area from explosive and other dangerous materials.  

 

Chernobyl Zone Tour - Visit Pripyat near Kiev

Schedule / Itinerary

• Duration of our standard Pripyat-Chernobyl tour is one day; we will leave Kyiv at around 8:15 in the morning and will return from your trip back to Kyiv at around 7:00 - 7:30 in the evening.
  (Extended hours are optional. Visiting of the Chornobyl Museum in Kiev the day before the excursion is optional.)
• Transfer: Kiev - Dytyatky, your first check-point before entering the 30-km Exclusion zone. 
• Arrival at the town of Chernobyl. Meeting with the authorities of "Chernobyl Interinform" agency.
• Transfer to the village of Leliyov to pass the 10-km zone check-point/border.
• Transfer to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station and sightseeing of Reactor 4 of ChNPP.
• Visit of Pripyat (Prypiat), the highlight of your trip. Sightseeing of "The Ghost Town": swimming pool area, amusement park with it's ferris wheel, river boats, abandoned buildings, school, hospital, etc.
  If you wish to see more of Pripyat, please contact us to arrange for a private customized trip; 2- (and more) day trips are available too.

• Stop nearby the "Red Forest".

• Return to Chernobyl. Lunch*. (Food is clean, it is delivered from outside of the Exclusion zone. Vegetarian meals can be arranged on a request.)
• Visit to Chernobyl Scientific Center: physical and radiochemical laboratories (optional). 
• Visiting the Paryshiv village, meeting with "re-settlers", people who have moved back to their villages after evacuation (optional; time permitting).
• Passage to the village of Rossokha, a cemetery of military machineries (currently not available due to hazardous radiation levels around it).
• Visiting "Duga-1" ("Russian Woodpecker") antenna array (radar) - now re-opened. (Hurry up - disassembly works will start soon.)
• Passage through the Dytyatky check-point. Checking the radiation, deactivation.
• Return to Kiev at around 7 p.m.
• Entering of the Control Room of the Power Plant is optional (and available on select multi-day tours. It can also be done on a 1-day private tour too.)

Taking pictures and filming video is permitted during the entire excursion. (No blackout zones. Avoid placing your photo/video equipment on the ground.)

Personal dosimeters are allowed on the tour and are available for rent. In addition, visitors undergo radioactivity checkup and cleanup on entering and leaving the 30-kilometer zone,.
 
Using of drones, quadcopters requires a special permit. 

Check ToursofChernobyl.com for great Chernobyl-Pripyat tours.

 

from  $77  €69  £59

Small Groups - Great Rates

MULTI-DAY events:

This Chernobyl tour operates virtually every day, all year round.

If the date your are interested in is not listed above, make sure to contact us. Chances are great that the desired date is actually available.

2-day trips and customized private excursions to the Exclusion zone are available upon request. You might be interested in one of our scheduled 2-day fixtures.

Entering of the Control Room of the Power Plant (ChNPP) is optional and requires a special permit.

So does using of drones, quadcopters.

Terra-P Radiation Geiger Counter/Dosimeter are available for rent or purchase.

Video is shown on the trip.

Email us:: chernobyltour@ukrainianweb.com
 

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

The accident happened on April 26th, 1986 some 100 km north of Kiev, the capital city of this Eastern European nation. Reactor #4 of the Chernobyl (Chornobyl) nuclear power station exploded as a result of a mistake that occurred during the performance of a routine, daily maintenance operation. Tons of radioactive material was propelled into the open skies. That was an equivalent of 90 Hiroshima bombs.

The heavily populated city of Kiev was spared (in a way)  from disastrous nuclear contamination - the winds were blowing mostly north and west over a few days immediately after the accident. The fallout scattered over the neighboring Belarus, Russia, and Poland, as well as in part over the Baltic region, and even Scandinavia. It affected one-fifth of the territory of Belarus. It also covered 5% of Ukrainian territory as well as select parts of Russia.

A zone with a 30-kilometer radius around the power plant was demarked shortly thereafter. Some 130,000 people were evacuated from the zone and adjacent areas which remained at a high risk of radiation exposure and contamination.  Reactor 4 was eventually enclosed in a so-called sarcophagus, a huge construction of steel and concrete. It is supposed to keep the radiation inside.

About 600,000 people from all over the former Soviet Union joined a gigantic clean-up operation inside the Exclusion zone. They are known as "liquidators".

Although the status of the 180 tons of radioactive material entrapped inside the nuclear power plant is still unclear, there is a consensus among the scientists that the risks of the sarcophagus exploding are truly minimal. They better be right .....