Day 01
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Pripyat Excursion
- Check in at the office in Kyiv, Shuliavska Street, 5 (Metro Station Polytechnic Institute) by 8:00 am and depart towards Chernobyl.
- Travel en route to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
- Pass through the Dytiatky police and dosimetry control checkpoint on the border of the 30-km Exclusion Zone by 10:30 am. Here, you will enter the Exclusion Zone and the zone of absolute mandatory resettlement, complete a passport check, and receive instructions on radiation safety rules.
- Pass by Cherevach village and behold hundreds of deserted houses on the way to Chernobyl town with your English-speaking Chernobyl tour guide.
- Travel through Zalissya village, once home to more than 3,500 people.
- Discover the town of Chernobyl, which has more than 4,000 residents, most of whom are personnel of the Exclusion Zone and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
- Capture photographs in front of the Chernobyl "Welcome" sign, St. Ilya Church and the bell tower, Chernobyl downtown, the main square, the Wormwood Star Monument, and the Statue of Lenin. Grab this rare chance to see a statue of the infamous communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Ukraine. The new decommunization law does not apply to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. You will also see the destroyed synagogue, Chernobyl river port 3, and the "Monument To Those Who Saved The World".
- Pass the Leliv checkpoint, the entrance to the 10-km zone.
- See the Soviet secret military base Chernobyl-2 and the Duga over-the-horizon radar station, the most secret object of the Soviet Union, which was marked as a "summer camp" on all topographic maps of that time. The distinctive sound it made while operating was called the "Russian Woodpecker." The station is about 150 meters high and 800 meters long. After 1986, it was frozen, and exploitation was discontinued due to possible damage to electronic equipment.
- Tour the village of Kopachy, a buried village, and its only remaining building - a kindergarten.
- Enter the territory of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and see the cooling towers of the ChNPP and the unfinished building of the 5th reactor of the ChNPP. Drive around the Chernobyl NPP and stop near the observation deck of the new safe confinement ("Novarka").
- Stop for a lunch break at 1:00 pm. You can order lunch while booking the tour or at the meeting point in the morning for $10.
- Pass by the remains of the Red Forest. This relatively small section of forest belt, about 10 square kilometres, received the largest share of the radioactive dust released during the explosion. A powerful radiation leak "painted" the forest a bright red colour. Trees helped people greatly at the cost of their lives, delaying dozens of tons of radioactive dust like a filter. The pine crown is very dense and retains dust well. This is one of the unique places in the Chernobyl zone where you can still visually observe the effect of radiation on living organisms today.
- Take pictures near the Pripyat welcome sign.
- Drive through the "Bridge of Death," shown in one of the episodes of HBO's Chernobyl TV series.
- Pass the checkpoint to enter Pripyat, an abandoned city where a great deal of radioactive fallout remains, with dust firmly stuck in the ground, trees, and houses.
- Go through dosimetry control at the checkpoint exit from the 10-km zone.
- Proceed to the final dosimetry control at the checkpoint on the way out of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
- Arrive back in Kyiv, Shuliavska Street, 5 (Metro Station Polytechnic Institute) by 8:00 pm.
