Adrien Lozano (Blimea, Asturias, 1990) owns a travel agency online since 2019. “It’s a kind of Booking,” he assures so that the general public can get an idea. When Russia invaded Ukraine In February 2022, he was in a cafeteria and was thinking about how many people had booked their trips to Ukraine soon.
He had never been there, but he began to wonder how he could continue to attract tourists to Ukraine. He set foot on Ukrainian soil for the first time in June 2022, when the Spanish embassy reopened. “I saw that we could continue to come, but with caution, because we are at war, and I started to travel around the cities under Ukrainian control“.
From then on, it began to offer “a la carte” tourist packages in the main cities of the country. That is, on their website you can get accommodation in Ukraine in the usual way, but traveling is the most complicated part.
In this way, anyone who wants to go to Ukraine for tourism has to organize their own transportation. “You have to come one way or another at your own risk,” says Adrián. “People who contact us cannot come by plane. You have to arrive at Krakow and from there to the border. We enter through a border post 10 kilometers from Ukraine and that’s where the presidents and the weapons come in. It’s very safe,” Adrian says.
“There you come in by train from Ukraine and we pick them up,” says Lozano, who is the one who buys the train tickets there. The train drops tourists off in Lviv or kyiv, which are the two cities most people want to visit, although many also ask to go there. Jarkow, Odessa or Dniprowhere visits are organized.
Security concerns? Even though visitors will be far from the war front, “we have a Ukrainian government app that helps with air raid alerts. We know if they are bombing, if there are attacks… 100% safe, there is no” explains Adrian.
Day by day and prices
Adrián normally tells us from a terrace in kyiv how the travel project unfolds: “Once in the city, we organize visits to the most emblematic points and points where you can see tanks and Russian equipment. Then, some catering, shopping areas “We offer visits with the locals, what they think of the war, testimonies…”.
Adrian in Kyiv with an Asturian flag.
That’s not the only thing. They also go to places where there were wars and even massacres but there are none anymore. “Come on Bouchawhich is the very centre of Russia,” he comments.
To get around, local transport is used. “Vehicle rental is paralyzed. We rent taxis because everything is very cheap,” explains Adrián.
Since the first time in June 2022, Adrián has set foot in Ukraine about 11 more times. That’s why he has contacts since they speak Spanish and they do the tours. Although the story is not very long either, “it is more about seeing the current situation and being informed about it.”
How do locals welcome tourists? “They see it well here”assures Adrián, who emphasizes that “we do not make a circus out of war and suffering.”
“This is not war tourism, I am not taking people from Donetsk, we are 500 or 600 kilometers from the front. What I have talked about here with friends that I meet to live a normal life is that the money that comes in comes from tourism. If it is not because of the little tourism that there is here, that is, restaurants, shops, etc. Here, they live on tips,” explains Adrián.
An example of this is the current situation he is experiencing when answering EL ESPAÑOL by phone: “I am in a restaurant in the center of Kyivme alone at a table. There are three waiters, one person at the bar… Work is almost non-existent. Without tourism, she could not survive. The economy is terrible. “Now, it is true that Inditex reopened a month ago, although it had been closed since the beginning of the war.”
Prices vary. “What it’s like to come from Spain to kyiv varies. I don’t care which airline you take to Krakow. Whoever wants to bring their luggage and such, a ticket with Iberia or another from 150 to 300 euros. For me the starting point is Krakow and a week in Kyiv can be expensive. 300 to 600 euros. It depends a lot on the area you want to stay in. If you want a hotel, an apartment…”
Give some examples, because not all hotels are open, but most are. “In the suburbs of kyiv, it can cost you around 150 euros for a hotel of 3 or 4 stars. “Something like Gran Vía or Sol, because it can cost around 300 euros to sleep and have breakfast.”
But you don’t live only from hotels. “Yes, we have some apartments in the center where we offer the possibility of staying. We do it directly and it is between 30 and 35 euros per day“.
For normal travel, it is advisable to use Uber or Bolt, as in the center of any capital. “It will cost you 5 euros maximumif you want to stay on the outskirts,” Adrián explains.
Waiting list
So far, three trips have been made with groups and “now we have a trip to Lviv by the end of the year”. There are many people who want to visit the Ukrainian territory, the problem is that now there will be a break. “From December to February it is impossible due to the extreme temperatures, which make it almost impossible to walk peacefully in the street.
In any case, before leaving, you must have a personalized interview with Adrián, who must be contacted through his website. “There we discuss the situation and we stimulate them, because they could be there and the alarms could start ringing,” he insists.
Adrian is having a drink in a bar with a friend.
Where applicable, it is explained that hotels “usually have bunkers”.
This is all explained because they must “mentalize”. The reason is that once the decision is made, “it can’t be undone.” The reason is that Adrián pays local companies and they don’t give the money back. They should think about it because if you book and the day before “a drone falls on a children’s hospital, nothing can be undone because it doesn’t depend on us.”
What they offer in Ukraine is “24-hour assistance.” “Having a line to say what is happening and we work with the local population. I have friends here who stay in the apartment when there are attacks and they inform us in real time to tell us what we have to do. It rarely happens, but it can happen. “It has never happened before,” he says.
Adrian insists that “it is very difficult for a drone to fall in the center of Kyivbut Ukraine is still a country at war.”
“I’m already used to it,” Lozano said, but “The first time you hear the sirens is impressive“Of course, try to reassure them and assure them that trains are the safest means of transport currently available.
“I almost always travel at night, for example,” explains the Asturian, “It’s even more dangerous to go there during the day.. The worst thing is sometimes to be without light for several hours. However, Adrián himself experiences the situation normally there.
What do Adrián’s family and friends say?My friends say I’m crazyThey don’t know how I can come here. The first few times my mother had a heart attack. I went through kyiv, Odessa… I have a line here as if it were Spain and I was having a coffee anyway and they called me to see how I was. Now I talk once a day and since they know I can move, they are calm.”
