Spain and Portugal – getting from Ukraine and back

Beginning

There are not so many variants as it seems to be. The main variant for us is from Ukraine to Poland, and then from Poland by plane to the far west of Europe. However there are not so many variants by plane as well.

Ukraine – Poland – Ukraine

As Ihor Tymots wrote in his article about Rysy (“Rysy of Polish mountain tourism”, https://tymots.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/rysy/, in Ukrainian), you can get to Poland by blablacar.com, or by train, or you can go by many buses, you can even go by planes from the closest Kyiv-like cities.

Information from Ihor Tymots

The best way to get to Poland is by Hyundai train «Intercity+» Kyiv-Lviv-Przemysl. You can buy tickets online. The train leaves at 7 am from Kyiv, at 12.17 pm arrives to Lviv, and at 2:27 pm its already arrived to Przemysl. A ticket on the second class carriage from Kyiv to Przemysl costs 430UAH (~14EUR), the same ticket from Lviv costs 185UAH (~6EUR). It’s better to buy tickets in advance. It’s quite comfortable to go by the train,  and especially it’s comfortable not to get stuck on the border for another 5-6 hours if you go by bus or by car.  It takes you only 2.5 hours to go from Lviv to Przemysl.

You can buy train ticket online for 45PLN (~11EUR) from Przemysl to Krakow, but it’s better to buy it in advance, because it’s being sold in the ticket office before departure on the train without seat place and you could be end up standing for four hours.

Lviv-Krakow direct bus ticket costs from 380UAH (~15EUR) to 800UAH (~27EUR). There are many bus lines: busfor.ua, infobus.eu, ecolines.net. Usually you can spend 6-8 hours in the bus depending on how much time it will take for you to cross the border. Usually it takes longer to enter Poland versus entering Ukraine.

Also you can use blablacar.com services, where drivers take hitchhikers for money. Usual price is around 300UAH (~10EUR) from Lviv to Krakow. The pure travel time is around 6 to 8 hours as well, but usually lines at Polish-Ukrainian border makes you wait for another 4 to 12 hours.

In any case it’s more important to how to get further. And further you will get the limited  variants.

Poland – Spain

Never use Wizzair. “Why? It’s cheaper!!!” – you would say.

Here is the refutation in bullets (especially if you like in Krakow):

– Wizzair doesn’t fly from Krakow, but from Katowice – and you can add another 50PLN (~12EUR) one wait for shuttle bus

– Wizzair hello only one small nonstandard bag (42 X 32 X 25 cm) until 29/10/2017 –  and it’s not even full-size hand luggage

– Wizzair flies from Warsaw to Barcelona El Prat, Alicante, Porto, Lisbon

– Wizzair flies from Katowice to Barcelona El Prat and Lisbon

– Wizzair flies from Wroclaw to Porto

– Wizzair cost is not a lowcost for a long time, but priced like first class Air France or Emirates flight

What are the other variants? To my regret it’s only Ryanair. But it has its own problem: there are only 5 cheapest tickets. The next price category is 5 tickets +10EUR each. And then it goes into space.

Our flight choice to Alicante (Alacant) with Ryanair:

– 1 person from Warsaw (the cheapest price, purchased timely) on the next day

– 4 persons from Krakow (the price is significantly higher)

– 3 persons from Wroclaw (including three hours for Polskibus from Krakow to Wroclaw and Uber to the airport is still significantly cheaper) landed four hours later

From Spain and Portugal – to Poland

It may sound weird, but in August-September the tickets from Portugal to Poland is almost twice as expensive as tickets from Spain to Poland.

Our departure point to Poland (Krakow) with Ryanair: Madrid