Awesome Kyiv — private and unusual Kyiv tours with a local guide

Alinka was an awesome guide and was super flexible as plans had to shift. She showed me how Kyiv is a fascinating city where you’ll see decaying buildings that are modernized on the inside, modernized buildings that are decaying on the inside, types of architecture that look like mashups of twelve different styles, and so much history. This is an especially good first day tour as you explore a lot of stuff that would be fun to revisit later but it’s also good after a few days to discover new things.

Alina is a gem and the “Awful Kyiv” tour was absolutely fabulous. Alina is generous with her time and knowledge, passionate about her city and country, full of knowledge and ideas for urban regeneration, and a lovely person to be around. She made my trip to Kyiv and I will be sending others to Kyiv and her tours every chance I get!

Alina’s “Awful Kyiv tour” really stands out of the crowd. That made me to book the experience first. Full of irony, her stories gave me a completely different view on Kiev. First of all, it was fun and entertaining, secondly, it felt like an adventure, like we just met for a friendly walk to explore the city. All the awful places we saw are put in contrast with the sparkling ones, so it really provokes many thoughts: which of them are really ugly places, and which are beautiful ones. I saw an amazing view of Kyiv, river, bridges, abandoned plants and factories, the strange sculptures and towers. Locals were sometimes also looking at us with curiosity, that’s how I understood that it’s really a local place where they almost never see tourists. We took a tram through the industrial part of the city, Alina shared many stories about future projects that are happening here, and its past.in the end, Alina showed me cool cozy bars. She also shared me the places where I have to hang out to make my trip even more exciting. Thank you Alinka!

This is worth it , and I am an over-travelled travel snob.

So. Much. Fun. At times I was honestly laughing out loud from some of the things Alinka was showing us. We were seriously off the beaten path. As one of the other guests on the tour put it, Kyiv is kind of "un-Googleable," which is where experts like Alinka come in! And you couldn't ask for a sweeter, smarter or funnier tour guide. She is so passionate about Ukraine's culture and history and current events. I came away from the tour feeling like I was finally starting to understand Kyiv. This is a tour you *cannot* do yourself and don't want to miss!!

I was taken on a Kyiv backyards tour with Alina, I've been to Kyiv quite a few times but it was such an eye opener to see how amazing places I'd missed out of not known about. Alina took me through the backyards and showed me some fascinating old buildings and what I loved the most was her knowledge and passion about each building, who lived there, the history of it and how it significant it was! Also parts of the tour was interactive (music segment) which was super funny and kept you involved all the way through, Alina is a wonderful guide, never rushes and really cares about your experience and truly shows how much she loves Kyiv! Would encourage anyone to book with her, also she'll show you some amazing hidden bars at the end of the tour! Highly recommend!