Is it safe to go to Chornobyl?
Chernobyl is a unique and incredibly picturesque place that everyone should visit! It is worth noting that tours to Chornobyl and Prypiat are safe, and the radiation background here is about 30 µr/h, which does not exceed the permissible norms.
Every year the Exclusion Zone is visited by a large number of tourists both from Ukraine and the world; someone comes here for new experiences and emotions, someone for rest and someone wants to get answers to questions after watching another film about the disaster at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station.
Would you like to see it all with your own eyes? We offer you to go on our tour “Chernobyl in 1 day”.
The uniqueness and mystery of the Exclusion Zone
You may ask what so fascinating you can see here today? First of all, it is the unique nature of the Ukrainian Polissia, which is almost completely restored to the state of the 17-18th century. During the tour to Chornobyl, you can see wild boars, lynx, foxes, wolves, which feel themselves complete masters of this area and settle in abandoned houses. The real legend here is the fox called Semen. You can often find this beautiful red-haired animal in the Exclusion Zone among hundreds of tourists who willingly treat him to a variety of delicacies.
One more attractive place is the canal of water from the cooling pond of the NPP. They say that here you can see giant catfish up to 3 meters long. All the fish here are radioactive, so it is strictly prohibited to touch them.
An incredibly arresting and mysterious place that you are sure to see during tours to Chornobyl is “Red forest”, the first area where the radiation dust went after the disaster at Chornobyl NPS.
Of course, today this area is decontaminated, the trees that took the first blow were cut down and buried, and new trees grow in their place, but the radiation background is still many times higher. Today, without exaggeration, this forest can be considered the most radioactive forest on the planet.
Generally, we should not forget that the Exclusion Zone is a unique 30-kilometer zone that covers not only the abandoned towns of Prypiat and Chornobyl but also about 200 villages that were permanently erased from the map of Ukraine immediately after the disaster.
The memorial complex in Chornobyl, which consists of tragic plaques, reminds us that there once lived a large number of people who in a panic had to leave their homes with the hope that soon they will be able to return here again.
Of course, the most mysterious place here is the dead town, or as it is called the town-museum of Prypiat. You can also visit it during our tours to Chornobyl. Before the Chornobyl disaster, the population of the town was 45,000 people. It was quite young (founded in 1970) and had a well-developed infrastructure: there were 5 secondary schools, 10 gyms, 2 stadiums, a huge cinema, as well as an amusement park, which never opened (the opening of the park was scheduled for 1 May 1986). Today, walking along the abandoned streets of this town, it is hard to believe that once you could see people walking here and hear children laughing.
Mysterious and secret places of Chornobyl
During the tour to Chornobyl be sure to visit another incredibly remarkable and fascinating place — over-the-horizon radar station “Duha-3”, which is located within the so-called object Chornobyl-2. To get here, you need to cross the checkpoint “Leliv”.
This station can be surely called the pearl of space exploration. It emitted a signal that could be heard by short-wave radios around the world between July 1976 and December 1989. Totally, there were 3 such stations in the Soviet Union. Today, the only station that remained is in Chornobyl, the other two were dismantled.
Do not forget that the “Duha-3” was a top-secret object, the main aim of which was to follow the intercontinental ballistic missiles both over Europe and the United States. That is, it can be argued that this unique construction was a part of the network of the Soviet missile defence system (ADS).
Recently (at the end of 2016), over the destroyed reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant was installed the object “Shelter” in the form of an arch. This majestic structure, which reaches a height of 108 meters, immediately became one of the most visited places among tourists. By the way, during the tour, you can get inside the Chornobyl NPP. Here you can see those “golden” corridors of the station and the reactor control panels firsthand, as well as get into a variety of technological premises of power units.
Some tips for tourists who are planning to visit Chornobyl:
- the most important thing: to avoid trouble when crossing the checkpoint, before the tour, be sure to check you have your passport in the bag, without it you can not get to the area;
- do not forget to bring your personal travel first aid kit; in case of any trouble, it may come in handy;
- remember that clothes should be tight and closed, (and most importantly comfortable!) even if you travel in summer;
- we advise you to bring some food and water to be able to eat on the road (on the bus) or in Chornobyl, in the canteen; it is worth noting that drinking and eating in the Exclusion Zone is strictly prohibited!
- you shouldn’t deviate from the route, follow the group and the tour guide;
- at the end of the trip, when leaving the Zone, you will have to go through radiation control.
You should definitely visit the Exclusion Zone! It is incredible at any time of the year. If you have long dreamed of visiting not only Chornobyl but also the National Park “Mezhyhiria”, known as the Museum of Corruption, the estate of the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, you can do it by booking an exceptionally fascinating 2-day tour Mezhyhiria residence, Chornobyl and Kyiv.
In “Mezhyhiria” you can see a luxurious house “Honka”, the Presidential ship “Haleon”, a zoo with the famous Yanukovych’s ostriches, a unique garage with rare cars and motorcycles, an elite kennel club with rare dog breeds, a path of “stumps”, where Yanukovych used to run and many other impressive locations which will take your breath away!
If you are planning to visit Ukraine, but going to Chornobyl does not seem like a good idea for you, we have plenty of other tours and one-day excursions in the best places of Ukraine that might be interesting for you. Visit our tour selection page to choose your Ukraine adventure.
We look forward to seeing you on our tours!
