A Journey To Hutsuls, Ukrainians Who Live On The Wild Side

The starting point of your travel is Lviv, the biggest city in Western Ukraine, and the center of the historical region of Galicia with beautiful architecture and rich history. You’ll proceed to the Carpathian mountains, to the Hutsul region. This journey to the wild side of Ukraine will take you back in time!

Hutsuls are one of the Ukrainian ethnic groups who inhabited the Carpathians. Living in desolate mountain areas, they preserved their long-time traditions, handicrafts and way of life. We will visit Hutsul sheep shepherds, who still keep their ancestors’ lifestyle. We will make Hutsul traditional handicrafts such as pottery, blankets weaving and woodcarving. We will see traditional Hutsul wooden architecture which is on the UNESCO world heritage list. And we’ll indulge ourselves with traditional local cuisine. All that will be happening in the breathtaking landscapes of the Carpathian Mountains.

Day 1
• Lviv: arriving, transfer from the airport to the hotel according to the arrival, check-in
• Historical Center of Lviv, listed on the UNESCO world heritage list: medieval Armenian, Ukrainian and Jewish quarters of Lviv’s Old Town

Day 2
• Breakfast
• Around the historical center of Lviv (optional): St.George’s Cathedral (the metropolitan cathedral of the Greek-Catholic Church), High Castle viewpoint, Lychakiv cemetery (the necropolis of the XVIII-XX centuries)

Day 3
• Breakfast and check-out
• Rohatyn: Holy Spirit Church
• Yaremche: walk through the Dovbush trail
• Lunch
• Walk to the Probiy waterfall and Hutsulschyna restaurant, an example of hutsul architecture
• Visit to an ancient wooden church in Vorokhta
• Dinner and overnight stop in Verkhovyna

Day 4
• Breakfast and check-out
• Visit to the archaic hutsul dwelling and the ancient wooden church in Kryvorivnya
• Visit to the high-mountain sheep farm
• Lunch in the mountains: classical Hutsul banosh (corn flour porridge with sheep cheese, cooked on fire)
• Visits to masters in wool blankets weaving, traditional Hutsul craft
• Dinner and overnight stop in Kosiv
• Optional: sauna

Day 5
• Breakfast and check-out
• Visits to potters, the makers of traditional Kosiv hand-made ceramics
• Lunch
• Museum of Hutsul everyday life and traditions and Museum of Painted Easter Eggs in Kolomyya
• Return to Lviv: check-in

Day 6
• Breakfast and check-out
• Optionally: excursion, cheese & wine tasting session
• Transfer to the airport (according to the departure time)

Vorokhta is a high-mountain resort (850 m asl) and a famous center for both winter and summer sports. Vorokhta Viaducts are archwall railway bridges built in the XIX century when these territories were a part of Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The Church of The Nativity of the Virgin is one of the oldest temples in the region. It is a perfect exemplar of the archaic Hutsul wooden architecture. 

Kryvorivnya is a small village in the Black Cheremosh river valley. In the XIX century, the village had a fame of the Ukrainian Athens, being a favourite summer destination for the UKrainian intellectual elites. 

Kosiv is a small town known as a center of traditional Hutsul crafts, such as widely-known Kosiv ceramics, wood carving and sheep wool blankets weaving. The town grew in the Middle Ages as a place of the salt mining and trade. 

Yavoriv is a most famous village of blanket weavers in Ukraine. In 1967, Yavoriv blankets were a Prize-winning entry at the World Exhibition in Montreal.