travel odessa

Understand [ edit ]

"Odesa" is the spelling preferred by Ukrainians. The Russian spelling, "Odessa", is no longer commonly used in English.

History [ edit ]

There has been human settlement here since the earliest times; remains of a Hellenistic seaport circa 6th – 3rd century BCE are being excavated. In medieval times Crimea was an independent Tatar state, and in 1240 its Khan Hacı I Giray founded the settlement of "Hacıbey". This region later came under Lithuanian control, then was part of the Ottoman Empire between 1529 and 1792.

In the 18th century, under Empress Catherine the Great, Russia expanded rapidly south and came into conflict with the Ottoman Turks. The Ottomans were defeated in the wars of 1768-1774 and 1787-1792, and Russian control was cemented by the Treaty of Iaşi in 1792. The strategic value of this port was obvious - it had a huge productive hinterland, was ice-free, and gave access to the Black Sea and Mediterranean - and in 1794 the Empress founded the city and named it Odesa.

She had looked to her favourite, Potemkin, to develop this region, but he died in 1791 as did Catherine herself in 1796. The task fell instead to four foreigners: José de Ribas captured Hacıbey and convinced Catherine to develop it as a sea-port; the Duc de Richelieu was its first governor 1803-1814; the Count of Langeron, as a later governor, made it a free port; and Franz de Vollan laid out the city grid pattern, a novelty for its day.

From 1819 to 1858 Odesa was a free port. It boomed economically, becoming the fourth largest city of the Russian Empire , after Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Warsaw. It was a magnet for labour, creativity and outcasts from elsewhere, becoming very cosmopolitan, with its architectural hodgepodge of Italianate, Renaissance, Neoclassic and Art Nouveau buildings. During the Soviet period, it was the USSR’s leading port, with exports of grain, long-distance oil pipelines, and related industries.

These industries continued after Ukraine’s independence in 1991, and Odesa was again declared a free port and free economic zone, as defined by the World Trade Organisation. Culturally and economically, however, the city has suffered from the turmoil within Ukraine and conflict with Russia, and the resulting collapse in tourism. Much of it is grubby and down-at-heel, and many of its fine city blocks are in serious disrepair. Ever since the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, however, Ukrainians flock to Odesa to soak in the summer sun at its sandy beaches while at the same time triggering redevelopment and building of new resorts and tourist facilities.

Talk [ edit ]

While Ukrainian is the country's only official language and spoken by most people in Odesa, the native language of the majority is Russian . Young people tend to know at least basic English; the more upmarket you go, the more fluent it gets. Almost all of the city's numerous colleges and universities teach Russian as a foreign language.

Get in [ edit ]

By plane [ edit ].

The closest operating airport is in Chișinău :

By car [ edit ]

The main highways are mostly in good condition and well-signposted, with adequate filling stations. With your own car, if you see traffic braking ahead of you, slow down, it's either a speed bump, pothole or police trap. You can cycle - the going is level - but it won't be fun, and unsafe at night.

Hitchhiking is also an option, see page on Ukraine: getting around.

By boat [ edit ]

There are ferries several times a week to Batumi and Poti in Georgia (48 hr), and to Istanbul Haydarpasa in Turkey (27 hr). For schedules, prices and tickets see www.ukrferry.com. The ferries run all year and take vehicles; indeed trucking is an important part of their business, as so many travellers nowadays fly. This network of ferries serves other Black Sea ports (eg Sochi, Samsun, Varna & Constanta) but usually without direct sailing to Odesa.

The ferry terminals are at Chornomorske (formerly Illichivs'k) 20 km SW of Odesa, on the NE bank of the river. Reach them by marshrutka from central Odesa.

Get around [ edit ]

Walk [ edit ]

The north end of the central city grid is compact and parts are pedestrianised, so enjoy it on foot. Most of the main sights are here.

It's too far to walk from the centre to the beach or airport, or to the bus and railway stations if you've much luggage.

By public transport [ edit ]

The city public transport consists of trams, trolleybuses and marshrutkas. Usually there's a conductor on board who'll collect your money and issue your ticket & change; there's no system of pre-purchase or of validating the ticket, unlike Kyiv. If there's no conductor, pay the driver on exit.

One of the tram routes, with tourists can find useful is number 5. It runs from the bus station area to the Arcadia Area, passing "Starokonny Rynok" (knows for flea markets), Moldavanka area, Privoz Market, Railway Station, Musical Comedy Theater, and many of the city beaches on its route.

Passengers of route 5 can transfer to a trolleybuses of route 5, 7, 9, which will take them to the city center; trolleybus 10 to seaport area, and trolleybus 14 to airport. It's also possible to transfer on trams of routes 3, and 12 at the Preobrazhenskaya street stops which will take a tourist to Deribasovskaya street.

Transferring on routes 10, or 21 take tourist all the way to Tiraspolskaya square transport hub which is still close to Deribasovskaya street.

Trams 3 and 12, can be even more useful for tourists. They run all the way of Preobrazhenskaya Street, which in one of the major transport arteries of Odesa. On their route, they pass by Deribasovskaya Street, Gorodskoy Sad, Sobornaya Ploschad' (Cathedral Square) Tiraspolskaya Ploschad' tram hub, (transfer for routes 10,15,21) and Privoz Market area. Then route 3 switches east to Railway Station, and its route still continues, while route 12 turns west to Moldavanka section of Odesa. En route, this line crosses a few trolleybus routes, which run through city center.

Because those routes are highly demanded, they are often overcrowded.

Route 28 runs the same was as route 5 in city center, however passing the Theater of Musical Comedy, it runs North toward Schevchenko Park, and Lanzheron Beach. In Moldavanka, it uses different route toward different terminal than tram 5.

Marshrutkas are the main mode of transport, as they cover a lot more ground. They pick up anywhere (wave your hand) and set down anywhere (holler to the driver).

By scooter [ edit ]

Kick scooter is a funny way to shorten your time while getting around the city.

• E-wings . ( updated Sep 2023 )
• JET.UA . ( updated Sep 2023 )

See [ edit ]

The core of Odesa, with all the main sights, is the city grid stretching from Pryvoz in the south to the Potemkin Steps in the north, and with the 2-km-long Vul Yekaterynynska (Catherine Street) as its spine. You’ll probably arrive in Pryvoz as all modes of transport funnel into here. This area is grubby but sights include the 46.468883 30.733651 1 Pryvoz market (next to the bus station) and the Panteleymonivska monastery (just head for the huddle of onion domes). Spare a look for the railway station even if you’re not travelling by rail. There are eating places and decent accommodation nearby, handy for late-night arrivals or early departures.

Head north along any of the main streets, and for the first km you’ll wonder why you bothered coming; then after Vul Zhukovskoho the prospect improves. Another couple of blocks and at last you see the grandeur wrought by all those 19th-century entrepreneurs. But much of it has been neglected since independence, so even on the finest avenues there is dereliction and decay.

For a pleasant walking circuit, start from the magnificent rebuilt Orthodox Cathedral on Soborna Sq, and drift north through the City Gardens into Havanna St. Bear left into Gogol St, where Gogol's own house, number 11, is yet another sad example of dereliction in an otherwise upmarket avenue. This brings you onto the pedestrianised promenade . It’s not on the shore, but beyond here the land falls away steeply, and there are views over the docks and sea. Turn right and cross 46.490541 30.737386 1 Tyoschin Bridge (Mother-in-law bridge), the footbridge over the valley that descends to the docks. On the other side, try to ignore the kitsch cod-Grecian pillars, but admire 46.490145 30.738535 2 Vorontsov Palace (now a performance space, so look artistic yet not too weird, the babushka will probably let you in). Continue along Primorskiy Boulevard to the 46.488071 30.741067 3 statue of the Duc de Richelieu , in a toga yet, at the head of the Potemkin Steps . Continue to the end of the boulevard and you'll see the city hall. Turn inland and a short block brings you to the Opera House on Lanzheronivska St. Return to your starting point either along this street or adjacent Deribasovskaya St, which has most of the cafes and restaurants. This walk is especially charming early evening, when the fine façades still show their colours and the tumbledown bits are softened by dusk.

The Historic Centre of Odesa was listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2023.

Do [ edit ]

• Walk the old town. As well as the circuit described above under "see", the attractive streets also branch west, along Sofia and Pastura Streets.
• 46.537798 30.626181 4 Museum of Partisan Glory and Catacombs , ☏ +380 48 725 2874 . Odesa's underground is perforated with one of the biggest catacomb systems of the world. More than 2000 km underground tunnels in several layers cover all the area below and around the city. In former times it saved as a quarry, so the limestone taken from the catacombs was used to build up the historical buildings on the surface. Later it became a hideout for dubious activities and for partisans in Second World War. The museum can only be visited with guided tours.  

Odesa beaches [ edit ]

Most of the city waterfront, except the port territory, forms a beach zone. All of the beaches are located at the eastern edge of Odesa. The most popular beaches are the following: listed according to their distance from city center.

• 46.47447 30.76497 5 Lanzheron . is closest to the city centre, located just underneath the Shevchenko Park. Reachable by tram #28, as well as by trolleybuses #2 or #3, then a short walk is needed. The dolphinarium is located nearby. ( updated Mar 2024 )
• 46.46591 30.76276 6 Otrada . is slightly farther from the city centre than Lanzheron. It is the closest to the centre among the beaches located under the French Parkway (Francuzskij bul'var). Otrada is easily reachable by tram #5, 3 stops from the railway station and 5 stops from the intersection with Preobrazhenskaya Street, which is the major transportation artery of the city centre. ( updated Mar 2024 )
• 46.45194 30.76857 7 Dolphin . is in 3 more tram stops past Otrada. ( updated Mar 2024 )
• 46.44555 30.77175 8 Chkalovski . two nudist beaches located between Dolphin and Arcadia, near the Chkalovski sanatorium. The smaller first one is wildish with strange bathers and lots of rocks. The second, 500 m further on, is bigger and frequented by many families with a nicer atmosphere. Little sand, mainly pebbles. ( updated Mar 2024 )
• 46.55344 30.77019 9 Malibu . A beach at Luzanovka neighborhood, easily reachable by numerous bus routes which link the city centre with the Poselok Kotovskogo section of Odesa. Malibu is the cleanest beach on the sea shore with excellent service similar to ones in Arcadia. ( updated Mar 2024 )

Buy [ edit ]

Go to the Pryvoz market by the station - one of the biggest in the ex-USSR. Lots of cheap vegetables and fruits. Try the pakhlava - the Ukrainian pronunciation of baklava.

Be aware, if you're going to buy anything but food in the market (and sometimes with food also), that Odesa is significantly harder in bargaining than anywhere in Russia or Ukraine. Prices several times the regular price without any signs of trying to budge is often, moreover, unlike most bargaining places sellers would often be un friendly. The tactic extends to anyone not from Odesa, so having a guide from elsewhere may not help.

Check Flea Market - on Moldavanka district, around "Starokoniy rinok". Simple people sale here old knick-knacks and trinkets. Here you can buy an original souvenir of the Soviet era like postcards, military stuff etc. The market is only open on Saturdays and Sundays in the morning. It is customary to bargain here, although experienced traders will not be able to significantly reduce the price. At the same time, some rare things can be bought very cheaply.

Sleep [ edit ]

Accommodation is plentiful in Odesa and ranges from renting a small room from a local resident to registered hostels, to the more expensive hotels. But "expensive" is a relative term - with online booking and avoiding peak periods, you can enjoy top accommodation here for less than you'd pay for a chain hotel in the English Midlands.

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5 reasons to visit Odessa, Ukraine

With the current situation in Ukraine, with a heavy heart, I strongly advise not visiting the country. This is the older, pre-war article and you can use it for future inspiration and information to plan a trip when it’s safe to visit Ukraine again.

I’ve been planning to visit Odessa, Ukraine for years yet always something went wrong.

I’ve had tickets for a long weekend at the Black Sea and two days before departure I got sick and had to cancel the trip.

Then I again had tickets to visit Odessa but the revolution tension in Ukraine was really big back then and the airline has suspended the flights – I could rebook for the later date which I did and guess what – I got sick again!

Third time’s a charm – I finally managed to visit Odessa in the summer time two years ago.

I took the train from Chisinau, Moldova via Transnistria .

It was a tiring journey – 5 hours on the wooden benches – but as soon as the train pulled into the station I felt a huge wave of excitement.

This is it, one of my travel dreams comes true, I’m finally visiting Odessa!

I really didn’t know what to expect from the city, had no expectations at all.

The only things I knew were the Black Sea harbor, Potemkin Steps my mother kept raving about and some random facts about the multicultural Odessa and its criminal past.

But I fall for the place very quick, from the moment I arrived and saw the magnificent building of the train station.

With each passing minute Odessa fascinated me more and more and I can’t even say why. It was city like no other I’ve visited before, didn’t look like other major Ukraine cities – Kyiv , Lviv or Ivano-Frankivsk – at all!

At times it reminded me of Old Tbilisi with its charming yards but soon it felt like a completely different, one of a kind place.

I’ve spent 2 summer days in Odessa but I felt it was not enough so exactly a year later I returned to the city.

Spending time in Odessa was a pure pleasure, it was a big joy for me just to be there, walk around the old town and relax at the beach.

I can’t really put into words why I’ve enjoyed Odessa so much (hence this post is so belated). I just clicked with the city and felt really good there.

If I have a chance to visit Odessa again I wouldn’t need to think twice! And here is why it’s worth to go there.

Quick Odessa cheat sheet

Are you looking for the airport transfer directly to your hotel in Odessa? Click here for the details!

Where to stay in Odessa:

• Orpheus Hostel and Apartments (budget)
• Potemkinn Hotel (mid-range)
• Boutique Hotel Palais Royal (luxury)

Best Odessa tours:

• 2.5-Hour Private Walking Tour
• The Hidden Yards of Odessa: Private Tour
• Underground Secrets Catacombs Tour

Table of Contents

Beautiful architecture

The old part of Odessa is so pretty!

The city used to be the cultural and intellectual center prior Soviet Russia and the majority of the most amazing buildings comes from that period.

The architecture resembles more of the Mediterranean or French influence than Russian and that already gives the unique look and style to the city.

You will find the most spectacular buildings around pedestrian Deribasovskaya street (which itself isn’t all that great) and Potemkin Steps.

For me there are two absolute highlights of the architecture in Odessa: The Opera house – second biggest opera in the world after La Scala in Milan – and the Passage (it used to be the best hotel in Southern Russia).

Both take my breath away every time I see them.

But the architecture in this part of the city really is amazing and random walks around the enshadowed, cobbled streets are the best thing you can do in Odessa!

Unfortunately, most of the places are in poor condition but when you look carefully you will see its true, faded-out beauty.

Odessa really can be a treat for the eye!

There is one architectonic masterpiece in Odessa that deserves a special attention – Potemkin Steps.

Opened in 1841 those 192 steps are the peculiar entrance to the city, the most known image of Odessa and the symbol of the place.

They were designed to give the optical illusion – when you look from the top you can’t really see the stairs itself but when you look from the bottom you only see stairs.

If you’re too lazy to climb to the top there’s a funicular riding on the left side. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work but maybe you will be lucky.

I definitely recommend visiting the highlights of Odessa with the guide as there are so many details and gems it’s good to have someone to explain it all.

There is a great walking tour you can join to learn all about Odessa. Check more details and prices here!

Charming backyards

The backyards are my absolutely favorite thing in Odessa.

Kind of like in Old Tbilisi you enter a random gate and you are transformed into a completely different, magical world.

As soon as I found out what is hidden from the street view I was peeking inside every single gate!

Unfortunately, most of them were closed but those I’ve entered were amazing and sometimes surreal.

I even found a statue of Ludwik Zamenhof (a founder of Esperanto language, originally from Poland) in one of the yards!

I’ve only seen those in the old town as I didn’t dare to do any solo wandering in the backstreets of the (in)famous Moldavanka district – I still regret not being brave enough as apparently that’s where the best yards are!

Still, I can’t complain as those I’ve seen were pretty amazing!

I literally could spend at least a few days only exploring Odessa backyards and that’s already a very solid reason that makes me want to visit Odessa again!

If you find yourself in Odessa you can go for the courtyards tour which I wish I had done too! Click here for more details and prices!

Odessa – a perfect summer getaway

Odessa makes a perfect and really affordable summer destination!

I’ve been there twice in August and it was just perfect!

The weather was really warm and sunny, the sea was bearable and the prices were so cheap you had to pinch yourself!

I spent half of the day just relaxing at the beach – I was ready to spend some money on the sunbed and the umbrella but I couldn’t believe when I heard the price, 80 hryvnas, for everything, for the whole day! That’s not even 3$/3€!!!

The beach was wide and sandy yet I was in the second row from the shore so every time I wanted to go to the water I didn’t need to worry about my belongings as I could see everything.

There are local vendors cruising the beach with drinks and snacks so you basically have everything you might need.

I was at Bali Beach, not far from the dolphinarium. It was a perfect place to relax, not too crowded and not too loud.

If you’re interested in more of a party place there is the whole seaside district for you – Arcadia!

The place is full of clubs, discos, all kinds of entertainment and young vibe.

If I were 10 years younger I’d definitely stay there and it seemed like a great place to have fun!

Maritime vibe

Odessa is the biggest harbor at the Black Sea and you simply can’t escape the maritime vibe there.

Right at the bottom of Potemkin Steps you have the sea station where local as well as long distance ferries from Batumi and Poti, Georgia arrive.

The view of shipyards is very much present in the Odessa skyline.

Young sailors are casually strolling the streets of the city.

Even the majority of souvenirs are with the maritime theme.

It all somehow fits perfectly to the city. I can’t imagine Odessa without its maritime accents, it gives the city an extra twist.

The craziest cable car and other Soviet remnants

You might know by now I like crazy Soviet things: playgrounds, amusement parks, cable cars, metro – you name it. The more crazy, the better!

The moment when I read about the cable car in Odessa I knew I have to ride it.

It was the whole expedition to find the cable car as back then it was really difficult to find any info online but I succeeded!

It’s hard to describe my joy, I was bouncing around like a kid and I almost fell down when leaving the cable car in the lower station – that’s how excited I was!

The ride is a little bit frightening but the views of the vast green spaces and the Black Sea are definitely worth it!

The cable car is painted with the children heroes, with “Nu, pogodi!” being my favorite one (I still find it hilarious we’ve had cartoons like this when I grew up).

The cable car isn’t the only remnant of the Soviet past in Odessa.

In Shevchenko Park you can find the Monument to an Unknown Sailor, dedicated to those who died during the siege of Odessa in 1941 .

Like in many post-Soviet countries not only there is an eternal flame at the site but the war songs from that period are played there too.

My Russian is too poor to understand them but they sound very dark to me, made me feel uncomfortable…

If you’re after Soviet architecture in Odessa you definitely should check Odessa Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy and the building in the middle of the park at Kulykove pole, next to the main train station.

That’s where the clashes in 2014 took place, with almost 50 casualties – now you barely can see such a tragic event occurred in this very place.

Is it worth to visit Odessa

For me, Odessa has (almost) everything I enjoy – beautiful architecture, hidden gems, quirky places, fascinating history, and a strong multicultural past.

Even if I’m not much of a beach person both times I happened to be in Odessa towards to end of my trip and as little as those few hours of relaxing was much needed – Odessa turned out to be perfect for this.

I can only recommend visiting Odessa!

The city has so much to offer, so many layers to discover that everyone will find something for themselves there with plenty of culture, history or fun to immerse into.

You shouldn’t be afraid of traveling to Ukraine and once you go there don’t miss Odessa!

And if you wish to learn more about Odessa and its multicultural, Jewish or criminal past there are numerous affordable tours that you can join! Check all the details and availability here!

Odessa pictures

And to show you how beautiful the city is below you have few more Odessa pictures!

Travel resources

You can find the best accommodation options at Booking . They have many discounts and excellent customer service. Click here to look for the place to stay in Odessa

I recommend joining organized tours to get to know the place better and to visit more places during your trip. You can find a great selection of tours at Get Your Guide – click here .

For the end I left a few announcements that might interest you:

• Sign up to my newsletter or follow me on Bloglovin to get updates about the new posts
• Join my Facebook group about Eastern Europe, the Balkans and former USSR and connect with fellow travellers and enthusiasts of these regions – just click here!
• I’ve included a few handy links of services and products I personally like and use so you can plan your own trip to Odessa too. They are often affiliate links. This means I will get a small commission if you book/purchase anything through my links, at no extra costs for you. Thank you!

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61 Comments

Stefania - The Italian Backpacker

Really great post and one thing is certain: you take great pictures. I love the one with the memorial and behind a picturesque courtyard with a super old car.

Thank you! I really appreciate your kind words! :)

Odessa also reminded me of Tbilisi because of the backyards! My airbnb flat faced s backyard overgrown with flowers and grapes and populated by cats, it was lovely.

Ah, that must have been beautiful! I would love to stay in such place next time I’m in Odessa (which I’m sure will happen eventually)

I enjoyed this post enormously and visiting Odessa is now on my To Do list. It is not somewhere I had considered before but I shall get the Bradt book you recommend and have a look at Ukraine.

Thank you! I really recommend Bradt guides for the less known destinations, they are the best, so much better than Lonely Planet. I also personally know two Bradt writers and I know they do excellent research!

I visited Odessa last year, and also found it to be a beautiful city. Love your photos as well!

Thank you! Odessa is such a wonderful city, isn’t it?

Your post brought back so many good memories….I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking about Tbilissi when in Odessa.The house of unions in Kkulykove pole was still fenced and still smeling like fire when I was there a year ago.Have you been to the big market called “privet” if I remember correctly?I noticed you don’t mention it.

It might be the run down feeling of a formerly beautiful place that makes Odessa and Tbilisi to be so much alike! The pictures of Unions House were taken almost 2 years ago, the entrance was fenced but I walked around easily and no one bothered me. Unfortunately I haven’t been to Privoz market – I really wanted to, both times, but I always run out of time. There are just too many things to do in Odessa! I was meant to mention it in the post, must have forgot after all! Thank you for reminding me!

You convinced me! I want to go there, but I heard it’s not really safe for Americans. :(

I haven’t heard about any unsafe situations in Odessa but maybe I just missed something. I think you still should give it a go, it’s an amazing city!

Stacja Bałkany

Wizz air uruchomił loty z Wrocławia do Lwowa. Najtańsza są po 40-50 zł. Kupiłem bilet na sierpień i zamierzam odwiedzić Odesse w sierpniu przybywając nocnym pociągiem ze Lwowa. A po Twoim artykule już doczekać się nie mogę :)

jeździłam tym pociągiem tylko w odwrotnym kierunku :) Fajny jest! Kiedy w sierpniu lecisz?

stacjabalkany

Hej wylatuję 19 sierpnia w sobotę o 12 z Wrocławia przylot do Lwowa na 14, cena całe 50 zł:) Pociąg do Odessy to pewnie ze 200 hrywien, a myślę że będę mieć czas tak do 24 sierpnia do czwartku. Lecę z kolegą – on raczej nastawiony na plażowanie, ja mniej. I chcę zrobić sobie dwudniowy wypad z Odessy do Tiraspolu i do Kiszyniowa:) Powrót planujemy albo jeśli znajdziemy tani lot, to samolotem z Kijowa do Wrocławia – na razie wizzair w tym terminie nie chce z ceną zejść. Lub jak nie, to nocnym do Lwowa i dalej do Wrocławia :)

Loved this post, Kami!!! :) We were in Odessa a few years ago and rode those same cable cars. Also searched for Zamenhof’s statue but couldn’t find it… maybe next time.

Happy travels to you!

Thank you! Zamenhof’s statue was in the yard at the end of Deribasivska street, close to Kaczynski street. Happy travels to you too!

Odessa should be on everyone’s must go list! It reminds me a bit of Prague 20 years ago after the Soviets were kicked out. And while Tripadvisor has some good restaurant listings, some places I recommend are Farsh (for hamburgers) and Eleven Dogs, which has some great hotdogs and cocktails :)

Also, on Deribasovskaya is the Jarmarka, a sort of out doors dining/drinking/gathering place with many restaurants and little bars. Check out Burger Point for some good burgers and pasta, as well as California Republic Odessa, which has the ONLY authentic Mexican food in Southeast Ukraine…

Thank you for recommendations, I will try to check them out next time I’m in Odessa! And I agree with you, everyone should visit it! It’s such a great city!

The biggest port at the Black Sea is Constanta

I didn’t connect with Odessa from the get-go so I am determined to go back and give it another try! This is inspiring me :)

you definitely should! I didn’t have my expectations too high yet I loved it and I’m sure I will be back again!

Jesteś moją motywacją! Mam jedynie 18 lat i chciałabym zacząć podróżować, ale… chyba się boję, sama nie wiem czego ;-) Pozdrawiam i szczerze zazdroszczę! :)

Dziękuję, bardzo mi miło! Podróżowanie nie jest takie straszne, każdy kiedyś zaczynał i nabierał wprawy :) Zdrowy rozsądek przede wszystkim, tylko trzeba zrobić pierwszy krok, może być i blisko żeby sie oswoić. Powodzenia!

Margaret Piton

Loved your post. I was there on a cruise stop in 2010 and found it very interesting, similar to but more interesting than Yalta. Took the Jewish tour and learned that they are trying to revive Jewish life there, with rabbis from the U.S. Would have liked to have had more time to explore the city. Are people boycotting Crimea now? If so, Odessa is a good alternative and most Westerners don’t need a visa for Ukraine, which makes it more appealing.

Thank you! I think Crimea is off limits now as Russia controls it and it’s not so easy to get there. But I agree, Odessa can be a perfect alternative. I really hope you can get back there, it’s so fascinating!

You have an absolutely outstanding blog. I have been a couple of times to Ukraine, and your post about Chernivtsi convinced me to go there also. I was not disappointed, it is a beautiful city. Now with your post about Odesa, I decided to go there in September. Do you think it’s a good month for visiting, not especially for the beach? Continue the good work!

Thank you for your kind comment Hans! I’m really glad you enjoyed Chernivtsi! I think Odessa in September will be really good – still warm but not so crowded! You will love it there for sure!

Great post! Do you think Odessa is a good place to visit right now? I had some friends here in Poland tell me not to go, and that it was unsafe. Thanks!

thanks! I don’t think Odessa has changed all that much since my last visit a year ago and I keep seeing people visiting it all the time so I’d say go! It’s a great place to visit!

Leyla Giray Alyanak

Hi Kami, I’m going to Moldova and was thinking about taking a quick side trip – undecided. And then I read your post and now I’ve decided to go. Your photos are superb so now I’m really looking forward to the photographic side of my visit.

Thank you! I honestly think Odessa is much more interesting than Chisinau (that I liked too!) so you should definitely go there! I’m sure you will love it, it’s such a beautiful place! Have a good tripi!

Hi Kami, thanks for the great read about Odessa. I am absolutely in love with Odessa and have traveled here many times over the last few years. While Odessa is beautiful and is filled with many great people, there are also many bad people making a living off of scamming tourists. A few months ago I was inspired to write a blog post about common scams targeting foreigners in Odessa and was wondering if you would be interested in linking to it in-order to help keep your readers safe as they enjoy everything Odessa has to offer.

I will leave the link here for your review. Please feel free to email me with any specific questions.

Thank you for your comment and link Kameron, I will leave it here so others can read it! Unfortunately with growing tourism there are more and more scammers everywhere so it’s good that people can learn from other’s how to stay safe. Thanks!

Marina Davidovich

What is the best way to get from Vinnitsa to Odessa?

There are few trains and busses connecting Vinnitsa and Odessa, I’d recommend the train though as it’s more comfortable

Hi ! What about visiting Odessa in the beginning of February ? Too cold ????

I just checked on AccuWeather and it says around 0C so I’m not sure that’s the best time to enjoy Odessa :)

Mazhar Valjee

Thank you Kami, that reaffirms my desire to visit & experience Odessa…that has fascinated me since I read the Odessa Files many years ago!

Odessa is a fascinating place to visit, I hope you will be able to go there soon! Happy travels!

Rick Holland

Absolutely beautiful…..found this place by accident. Very charming—hope to visit someday.

thank you. you should visit, Odessa is such a nice city!

We also fell in love with Odessa–for many of the same reasons. Now we go every summer for 3 months! It is a wonderful city to walk around, and we always stay in the center of downtown, a short walk to Potemkin steps. I recognize almost every building in your photographs–so beautiful!

I’m glad you share my feelings for Odessa, it’s such a beautiful city. I need to plan a trip there soon too!

hej ;) wybieram się Odessy na początku września i trafiłam do Ciebie (w języku polskim jakoś mało kontentu na temat Ukrainy) i uzyskałam praktycznie wszystkie informacje jakie potrzebowałam, ale czy pamiętasz może jak trafić do tej kolejki z wagonikami? Chcę zaznaczyć sobie na mapce, ale nie znalazłam żadnego adresu. Będę bardzo wdzięczna za pomoc! Strona trafia do zakładek, Pozdrawiam ;)

Dzięki! Cieszę się, że artykuł się przydał :) Wygugluj sobie “Kanatna Doroha Odessa” i pokaże Ci się wtedy na mapie dokładna lokalizacja kolejki, koło przystanku tramwajowego Pyrohovska. Udanego pobytu w Odessie!

I was born in Odessa and know my city from the hearth . However, for over 30 years I reside in USA . Going to visit Odessa this year and yes ,Kami you pointed a lot of right things about Odessa. However, there are lots of issues there as well. Lots of houses in ruins and no one wants to fix it .

I think every city deals with issues that visitors don’t see or don’t want to see. But overall I think Odessa is doing pretty well, tourism is definitely helping the city! Have a good trip to Odessa!

david fischer

I’ve been to Odessa,Ukraine 7 times. It never dissapoints. Many Beautiful woman,great cafe’s,strong dollar,and Derivasovskaya street.The Opera House and potemkin stairs are worth seeing.

Agree, there are so many reasons to visit Odessa!

Artem, Ukraine

I had to write an essay about my best trip and I decided to write about Odessa. I was really surprised you’re from Poland because your English is great and beyond great haha! Awesome post, thank you. I borrowed some words and phrases. I’m definitely gonna check your other posts.

Lars-Henrik Christensen

Dear Kami. Greetings from Denmark. I have really enjoyed your varm description and your artistic picture rendering of Odessa. you have caught the special atmosfære of Odessa glowing forth in their beautiful architecture and picturesque streets including the warmth of summer and people enjoying the sea. I was quite mesmerized by your pictures and descriptions wondering if I had maybe lived a life there 100 years ago. Anyway I will be driving to Odessa from Bulgaria this summer spending at least 10 days in the city. Regards

Thank you! I’m sure you will enjoy Odessa when you visit, it is a truly amazing place. All the best!

Dzień dobry, Trafiam tu przypadkiem, szukając info o Odessie. Czy poleciłaby Pani również podróż zimą? Wiadomo plaża odpada, ale inne rzeczy powinny wciąż nadawać się do zwiedzania.

Szczerze mówiąc ciężko mi powiedzieć, bo nigdy zimą nie byłam w Odessie, ale jest tam na tyle dużo “niemorskich” atrakcji, że na pewno będzie co robić. Opera, piękna architektura i ogrom fajnych i przystępnych cenowo knajp, i już się dzień zapełnia :)

Great blog! I was born in Odessa and it warms my heart when people from the West find it as charming as i do. Thanks Kami! :)

Thank you, Max! Odessa is such a wonderful city and I truly hope the place will survive this madness and its inhabitants will live peacefully again…

Maya Odessa!!!

That was my first destination when I departed Africa in 2014; and where I still long to be.

Then, I lived in Fontanskaya doroga, precisely at Mirniy resort.

I enjoyed Odessa, and hope to b there soonest.

Thanks for reminding me of so many events and places I visited then.

I’m glad you enjoyed the article and I hope it will be safe to visit Odessa again soon! All the best!

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• The 10 Best Things To...

The Best Things to See and Do in Odessa, Ukraine

A Black Sea port city, Odessa is known for its beaches and 19th-century architecture. Today, it has a thoroughly contemporary energy that complements the historic grandeur. Why come to Odessa? To visit its unusual museums in the morning, to have a relaxing rest by the sea during the daytime, and to experience the wildest party in your entire life in the Ukrainian Ibiza at night.

Listen to classical music at the odessa opera house.

Locals appreciate the culture of going out and consider a visit to such a venue to be an important cultural event. Ukrainians are more than familiar with Russian musicians like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky , so Ukraine is the perfect place to get acquainted with their masterpieces for an extremely affordable price, starting from 50 UAH (US$2). A magical atmosphere reigns inside and outside the theatre. The 19th-century building of the Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theatre is influenced by French and Italian Baroque styles.

Get down to the Odessa Catacombs

Explore the cafés along Derybasivska Street

Derybasivska Street is a pedestrian street in the city centre of Odessa. A busy thoroughfare, surrounded by ancient landmarks and shops, numerous bars, restaurants, and cafés. You can go there in the morning for a cup of coffee and tasty breakfast or brunch; at midday, cafés and restaurants serve business lunches, while in the evening, Derybasivska is a perfect place for fine dining or just to take a walk and get a real feel for the city’s vibe.

Walk by the harbour

Odessa has a major seaport that is the biggest in Ukraine and one of the most important on the Black Sea. Take a walk along the harbour, and you’ll get a sense of its importance to the vitality of the city; watch the hustle and bustle of ships, sailors and passers-by and head to the end of the pier. The end of this structure offers a great view of the sea, something that is especially impressive at sunrise or sunset.

Get acquainted with Eastern European modern art

Odessa has always been a city of art and culture, so it’s no wonder that it was an inspiration to many groundbreaking artists of the 20th century. The Museum of Modern Art is well worth a visit for visitors looking to know more about this history, and the gallery has a particular emphasis on Eastern European art in its collections.

Run up the Potemkin Stairs

Cinema buffs will remember this iconic landmark from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin . Built in the 19th century to give the city direct access to the harbour, these immense stairs are now the most famous symbol of Odessa. Fortunately, the staircase’s length is only an optical illusion: from the bottom, it looks as if they were endless. In fact, there are only 192 steps with ten equal spans.

Party at Arcadia

Arcadia, a historical district about half an hour away from the city centre, is affectionately nicknamed ‘the Ibiza of Ukraine’. Like the most popular nightclubs in Ibiza, the Arcadia district holds the wildest parties in Odessa and concerts of world-famous stars. During the daytime, Arcadia is full of families going to the seaside, but at night it transforms into a party hotspot, with clubs, bars, and people dancing the night away, especially in the summer.

Sunbathe at Lanzheron beach

Odessa is a coastal city. Therefore, it has many beaches, even in the centre, and all of them are very crowded in the summer. The closest to the heart of the city is Lanzheron beach. It has turned into a popular beach because it is easily accessible. Moreover, you can rent an umbrella and a sunbed there. Between sunbathing and swimming in the sea, you can pop in one of the many restaurants and bars. The main attraction in the area is the Nemo Dolphinarium.

Learn about illegal trade in Odessa

With a wide network of tunnels underneath it, Odessa was historically a haven for smugglers. To commemorate this secret history, you can visit The Museum of Smuggling to learn how illegal trade once thrived in Odessa. Now on the exhibition has around 150 items of confiscated goods and illustrations of the ways of their illegal importation. In particular, you can see porcelain sets with drugs inside, a car door stuffed with cigarette packs and a mock-up of an underground passage, dug under the state border near Uzhgorod (the border city in Western Ukraine).

Be delighted by the Vorontsov Palace

Vorontsov Palace is an architectural jewel of Odessa. The palace was built in 1827 in a mixture of different architectural styles, but at the same time gives the impression of lightness and elegance. The palace was built on the site of a Turkish fortress and later was the residence of the Russian statesman and military leader, the Governor-General of Mikhail Vorontsov. Nowadays, it is an art centre and a hub for the youth cultural events.

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Home » Travel Guides » Ukraine » 15 Best Things to Do in Odessa (Ukraine)

15 Best Things to Do in Odessa (Ukraine)

Established by Imperial decree at the end of the 18th century, Odessa quickly flourished as a crucial port on the Black Sea. In the 19th century Odessa was the most populous city in the future Ukraine, and was inhabited by titans of the age like the writer Alexander Pushkin and Field Marshall Vorontsov who made his name in the Napoleonic Wars.

Nowadays Odessa is Ukraine’s favourite holiday escape for its culture, mild climate and beaches. A lot of the architecture from its golden age endures at palaces, cultured parks, boulevards, ceremonial stairways and a spellbinding opera house, held as one of the finest in Europe.

Let’s explore the best things to do in Odessa :

1. Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre

The magnificent opera house is Odessa’s piece de resistance and was conceived by the Viennese partners Fellner & Helmer in the 1880s.

Fellner & Helmer contributed dozens of opera houses across Central and Eastern Europe, but they looked back on Odessa’s as their masterwork.

If you want to know the finer details of its Academic architecture and technical specifications you could take a daytime tour, but nothing beats coming to an opera or ballet performance.

These are very reasonably priced by Western European standards, and seats in the stalls and at the front of the balconies go for as little as €15. So a night watching Carmen, Swan Lake or Iolanta could be a spur of the moment thing provided you packed a smart-ish outfit.

2. Potemkin Stairs

This grand staircase is a very ceremonious way to enter Odessa from the port.

Paved with granite, the stairway was ordered by Prince Vorontsov as a gift to his wife and built at the turn of the 1840s.

There are 192 steps in total, over a length of 142 metres and a difference in elevation of 27 metres.

The stairway has a few intriguing quirks: One is that it is much broader at the bottom (21.7 metres) than at the top (12.5 metres). That is intentional and was done to create a false perspective and make the stairway seem larger when you’re viewing it from below.

Also interesting is that when you’re standing at the top you can see only the landings while from the bottom you can see only steps.

3. Deribasivska Street

Running horizontally across the city for almost a kilometre, Deribasivska Street is Odessa’s beating heart.

Whether you’re shopping, dining or sightseeing you’ll keep finding yourself on this dynamic artery.

Deribasivska Street is named after one of Odessa’s founders, the Neapolitan José de Ribas, and you can find his statue on the eastern end of the street.

The western half was pedestrianised in 1984 and has long lines of 19th-century and early-20th-century mansions.

In summer this half of the street is a blur of sightseers, buskers and other street artists, and there are long cafe and restaurant terraces where you can take it all in.

Great tour to start your trip in Odessa : Odessa Private Half-Day Walking Tour

4. City Garden

Odessa’s oldest park was landscaped by the brother of José de Ribas in 1803 and was initially a private property.

It opens onto Deribasivska Street in a web of paved paths, iron lanterns and flowerbeds with little iron fences.

These all centre on a beautiful pavilion, fountain and the summer theatre for the Odessa Philharmonic.

There are recitals most days in the summer to add even more sophistication to the place.

The City Garden is also the site of some monuments honouring Odessa’s cultural figures: The Twelve Chairs monument is a nod to the famous Russian satirical novel of the same name by the brothers Ilf and Petrov.

5. Primorsky Boulevard

Perpendicular to the upper landing of the Potemkin Stairs, Primorsky Boulevard is a cultured street and walkway beside Istanbul Park.

On the city side there’s a row of tall mansion blocks, now hotels and museums, while looking out in the harbour are four lanes of pedestrian paths divided by lawns enclosed with little wrought iron railings.

At the top of the Potemkin Stairs you can board a funicular to descend the slope.

Here there’s also a statue of the Duke of Richelieu the first Governor of Odessa, in Roman garb.

Another monument, on the far eastern side of the boulevard, pays homage to Alexander Pushkin, who lived in Odessa for just over a year up to 1824.

6. Odessa Passage

Just off Deribasivska Street there’s a sumptuous late-19th-century shopping passage covered with a metal and glass canopy.

The Odessa Passage is part of a sizeable development that includes a hotel on its upper three floors.

It’s all in a lavish Academic style: You’ll be met at the entrances by statues of Mercury and Fortuna, and on the first floor there are stucco mouldings and rows of exuberant sculptures.

Its all a testament to the extravagance of the last years of Tsarist Russia.

The passage has boutiques, souvenir shops and cafes to potter around, and a plaque commemorates the site of Carl Fabergé’s Odessa branch.

7. Monument to the Founders of Odessa

Follow Katerynyns’ka Street from the upper landing of the Potemkin Stairs and you’ll soon be at the foot of a commanding monument that has many clues to Odessa’s past.

On a plinth stands Catherine the Great who in 1794 issued the decree to build a port and city on this spot.

And at the base are Count Grigory Potemkin who was an advisor to Catherine, the military officer José de Ribas, Platon Zubov another of Catherine’s favourites and finally the Flemish engineer François Sainte de Wollant.

The monument was built in 1900 was removed in the 1920s during the Soviet period and finally restored in 2007 on the initiative of a local businessman.

8. Transfiguration Cathedral

To look at this church without know its story, you’d never believe it could be less than 20 years old.

The original Neoclassical Transfiguration Cathedral was erected in 1827, but demolished by the Soviets in 1936. It wasn’t until 1999 that the building was reconstructed according to the same plans.

The project took less than four years, and when it was re-consecrated, some of the distinguished burials were moved back after having been disinterred 80 years ago and buried elsewhere.

The most famous of these is the Governor of New Russia Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, whose tomb now has pride of place inside.

9. Archaeological Museum

As the oldest museum institution in Ukraine, the roots of this attraction can be followed back to 1825. There are up to 170,000 exhibits at the museum, all relating to the ancient history of this region, as well as Greece, Italy, Egypt and Cyprus.

The palace housing the attraction is from 1883, and catches the eye for its big Neoclassical portico.

The sarcophagi, papyrus and hieroglyphics in the Egyptian galleries are always crowd-pleasers.

And there’s a huge collection of 50,000 coins from Ancient Greece through to the days of the Russian Empire.

The museum also maintains an exhibit under a glass canopy on Primorksy Boulevard where you can view the foundations of a Bronze Age settlement from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC.

10. Vorontsov Palace

This fabulous palace was completed in 1830 and rests on the western end of the Primorksy Boulevard.

It was ordered by Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, who hired the Sardinian architect Francesco Boffo to design it.

Vorontsov was so pleased with Boffo’s work that he quickly commissioned him to design the Potemkin Stairs.

It’s a landmark to view from the outside, but there’s a lot to appreciate.

Standing over the port is a crescent-shaped colonnade, while guarding the palace is a pair of lions modelled on the Medici lions in Rome.

During a bombardment in the Crimean War the palace and grounds were riddled with hundreds of cannonballs, one of which is still stuck in a wall on the palace’s ground floor.

11. Langeron Beach

Around the coast from the port is the first of a string of beaches that continues for a few kilometres to the south.

Langeron is the easiest to get to and is invariably packed in July and August, even though it’s a little narrow and bereft of sand.

If you find Langeron a little rough, you only need to keep going down to find one you do like.

TABU is broader and generally cleaner, and there are also affordable private beach clubs like Bono and Ibiza in Arcadia if you want waiter service and a bit more peace.

12. Port of Odessa

At the foot of the Potemkin Stairs you can allow a few minutes to poke around the passenger jetty and watch the Black Sea.

The city owes its 19th-century success to the fact that it’s warm-water port, so doesn’t freeze in winter, a vital characteristic in that period.

Over the last 200 years the seafront has seen some dramatic moments in the Crimean War and the mass departure of Jews during a succession of pogroms at the end of the 19th century.

On the jetty behind the terminal building there’s a statue depicting a fisherman’s wife holding a child and looking out to sea, along with a small maritime museum and a couple of seafood restaurants.

13. Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art

A couple of roads down from the Opera House, on Pushkins’ka Sreet is a compelling art museum in a noble sky-blue mansion from 1858. The museum was founded in 1923 and its art comes from a mix of private collections and pieces assembled by Odessa’s university.

The name is a little misleading, as apart from a some porcelain, weapons and pieces of furniture nearly all the art is from western Europe, mainly the Netherlands and Italy.

There are paintings by Caravaggio, Rubens, Francesco Guardi, Gerard David and Abraham Bloemart.

Maybe the standouts are the two “tronies” of the evangelists St Luke and St Matthew by the Dutch Baroque master Frans Hals.

14. Shevchenko Park

Long before Odessa existed there was an Ottoman fortress on the site of the this Park over the harbour.

When it was taken in the 18th century it was replaced by a Russian stronghold, which soon became obsolete as the frontier shifted far to the southwest.

So from the beginning of the 19th century this area became the port’s quarantine, and there’s still an arcade from this period where you can view the container port.

It was all turned into a park in 1875 and at first was named after Tsar Alexander II, before switching to the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in the 1950s.

There’s a monument to Shevchenko at the entrance, as well as one to Tsar Alexander II which has been restored since the Soviet period.

15. Odessa Catacombs

The Odessa Catacombs in Nerubayskoye Village are an extensive labyrinth beneath the city (and its surroundings).

The catacombs are the longest in the world.

A guided tour is a great way to learn more about what they were used for (it involves robbers, smugglers and hiding in World War II).

15 Best Things to Do in Odessa (Ukraine):

• Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre
• Potemkin Stairs
• Deribasivska Street
• City Garden
• Primorsky Boulevard
• Odessa Passage
• Monument to the Founders of Odessa
• Transfiguration Cathedral
• Archaeological Museum
• Vorontsov Palace
• Langeron Beach
• Port of Odessa
• Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art
• Shevchenko Park
• Odessa Catacombs

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Ultimate Travel Guide to Odessa

Odessa is a port city on the Black Sea in Ukraine, an Eastern European country. In the past, the city was essentially a seaside town for Ukrainians to enjoy the warm weather in summer but over the last few years since Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union

More and more international visitors are discovering Odessa’s gorgeous pastel-coloured 19th-century architecture, it’s unusual museums and historic sites and yes, it’s beach nightlife scene that rivals Ibiza in Spain.

Odessa really has something for everyone. Odessa’s beach and seaside attractions are the city’s main draw but the world-class Opera house, art galleries, catacombs and all of the other cool things to see in Odessa are what make it special. 

Many visitors travel to Odessa without knowing much about the city because of its exceptionally low prices and great weather and are stunned by how charming the city is for its other qualities, and this ultimate guide to Odessa will show you what they are.

This ultimate Odessa travel guide will show you all the most beautiful places in Odessa, what to expect when visiting, where to stay in Odessa and things to do in Odessa which will help you in planning a trip to Odessa.

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Table of Contents

How to get to Odessa

Odessa International Airport flies directly to two of the main airports in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital city, daily as well as many cities around Europe and nearby such as Vienna, Moscow and Tbilisi in Georgia via airlines like KLM.

If you are travelling to Odessa from further afield, the most convenient option would be to fly to Kiev and catch a domestic flight to Odessa. There is a ‘trolleybus’ service (tram) from Odessa Airport into the city which runs several times an hour or there are plenty of unmetered taxis.

Odessa is quite far away from other major European cities, but they are still accessible by trains which are usually infrequent yet incredibly cheap sleeper trains.

The nearest and fastest city to reach from Odessa is Kiev in around seven hours, and Moscow and Minsk take around 24 hours and there are fewer rail services outside of the summer season.

What to expect in Odessa

Ukraine, in general, is one of the cheapest countries to visit for most Western tourists and this includes Odessa. Expect beautiful hotels for the equivalent of €40 and fancy coffees for less than €1. The currency in Ukraine is the Ukranian Hryvnia (UAH) .

For a lot of people living in Odessa, Russian will be their first language though the only official language is Ukrainian. Younger generations and service employees will probably speak basic English but it’s not common, learning a bit of the Cyrillic alphabet will help you understand menus, signposts, etc.

Ukraine is not part of the Schengen area or the EU so make sure you double-check your visa requirements. And there is unrest near Ukraine and Russia border, so is Odessa safe to visit? Thankfully, Odessa is nowhere near the conflict and it’s just as safe to visit as any other Eastern European city for most travellers.

How to get around Odessa

The centre of Odessa is compact and walkable so, aside from your transfer from Odessa Airport or train station, you may not require public transport at all but if you do there are plenty of options from trams, buses and taxis. 

Trams are the most popular public transport option because they’re easy to navigate and they operate between the airport, train station, bus station and Arcadia beach. On trams, you pay in cash to the conductor and most journeys are less than €0.25. If you need to take a bus, unlike most other cities in Ukraine you pay the driver when you leave.

However, a lot of travellers opt for taxis in Odessa because they’re so cheap and public transport in Odessa doesn’t have air conditioning and are magnets for pick pocketers. Tipping taxi drivers is not required, but most taxis don’t have meters so agree on a price upfront.

The best time to visit Odessa

The summer months between June-August are without a doubt the best time to visit Odessa. The city has a wonderful stretch of coastline filled with beaches, resorts and activities so it would be a shame to not be able to make the most of this time of year.

Temperatures reach 30 degrees Celsius and even though this is peak season for Odessa and accommodation and transport costs may be marginally higher than usual, it’s still far cheaper to visit Odessa than comparable European beach cities like Ibiza or Barcelona during this time of year.

But if you’re a culture vulture and watching The Nutcracker ballet is on your bucket list, travelling to Moscow and seeing the famous festive ballet might be expensive. However, you can visit Odessa in November or December and watch the many highly professional annual performances for as low as €10 a ticket!

Things to do in Odessa

Langeron beach.

One of the top things to do in Odessa that’s on every visitor’s must-do list is to sunbathe on the beach! Odessa beach is situated on the Black Sea and Langeron beach, in particular, is the most accessible to tourists.

It can get crowded in the summer but it’s absolutely worth it and you can hire sunbeds and check out the restaurants and facilities nearby.

You can also visit Odessa harbour which is the biggest in Ukraine and one of the most important on the Black Sea. Several boats and ships sail in and out every day and it’s a great place to go during sunset.

Opera and Ballet House

Odessa’s Opera house is one of the city’s biggest attractions and best-loved buildings. Many people associate ballets by composers like Tchaikovsky as being a cultural experience to have in Russia, but because of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s close ties to Russia, Ukraine has a very long and impressive operatic history too.

Odessa’s Opera and Ballet Theatre is a grand and ornate building influenced by the Baroque style built in the 19th-century.

They have performances year-round and while ballets and operas in other European countries might set you back some serious cash, tickets for an opera in Odessa start from around €2. Take a tour and get backstage access!

Derybasivska Street

Derybasivska street is Odessa’s main city street and it’s worth a wander down during your trip because there’s so much to see.

There are tonnes of gorgeous little cafes and bars like the Friends and Beer Microbrewery and lots of commemorative statues such as the Monument to de Ribas.

At the end of Derybasivska street is the Odessa City Garden, a delightful green space with lots of flowers, more monuments and a perfect place to chill out in the middle of the city.

Potemkin Stairs

There isn’t a stronger symbol to Odessa than the Potemkin stairs. Constructed in 1841 right by the harbour, these were the steps that sailors used to walk into the city and were the ‘official’ entrance to Odessa.

They were built wider at the bottom and narrower at the top in order to appear much taller and steeper.

The stairs were featured in a famous scene in the silent film Battleship Potemkin where a baby carriage accidentally rolls down the stairs. It’s known as a cinematic masterpiece and this scene has been paid homage to in several Hollywood films, particularly The Untouchables.

Arcadia District

What was once a historic neighbourhood in Odessa is now one of the top party destinations in the country.

The Odessa nightlife in the Arcadia district is thriving enough to rival any other European city like London, Berlin or Ibiza and is filled with a huge choice of clubs, bars and events and attracts world-class DJs, festivals and concerts. 

Museum of Western and Eastern Art

There are lots of fantastic museums in Odessa and you can easily split your days exploring them in the morning and relaxing on the beach in the afternoons. One of the best galleries in Odessa is the Museum of Western and Eastern Art .

It’s housed in a stunning pastel-coloured palace with lots of pretty intricate details throughout and displays mainly pieces of art that you’d expect to see in a royal home such as vases, sculptures and furniture.

Vorontsov Palace

Vorontsov Palace has a bit of everything. Not only is it a charming 19th-century palace which now functions as an arts centre and events space, but it’s a whole complex with lots to see.

It has a striking ‘colonnade’ which is also considered a symbol of the city as it’s positioned on a hill looking out over the sea and the city. The area is open 24/7 is worth a visit just for the views.

What to eat in Odessa

Odessa possibly has the most multicultural population in Ukraine, since it’s a port city, with strong influences from Greece, Bulgaria and Jewish communities in Russia which are all evident in Odessa’s cuisine.

Typical Ukrainian food is warming comfort food like borscht (beetroot soup) and vareniki (dumplings) which are readily available in Odessa, but the city has its own hyper-local dishes.

For traditional Ukrainian food, head to Kumanets restaurant . It’s a very tourist-orientated place with staff dressed in authentic Ukrainian dress and it’s always packed, but the food is amazing. For traditional Odessa cuisine, you need to try the seafood and as much of it as possible.

Black Sea mussels with plov (rice cooked in broth), brizna (a Greek-inspired, herb-infused goats’ cheese) and the Jewish-influenced forschmack (herring pate on rye bread) are all top things to eat in Odessa. 

Where to stay in Odessa

Budget – All the accommodation in Odessa might seem affordable to most, but if you’re a budget traveller you can save a lot of pennies in Odessa while still staying in fantastic accommodation. A bed in Kosher Hostel’s dorm rooms cost around €10 a night and for that, you’re located right in the centre of the city in a very retro and super-friendly hostel.

Mid-range – You’re spoiled for choice with the affordable hotels in Odessa, but a couple of the best are Odesskiy Dvorik and Design Hotel Skopeli. Both are less than €50 per night and while the Odesskiy Dvorik is a classic, fuss-free hotel in a beautiful building and gorgeous courtyard, Design Hotel Skopeli is right on the beach (literally) with a laid-back vibe and balcony rooms overlooking the Black Sea.

Luxury – For less than €100 a night in Odessa, you can easily stay in 5-star luxury hotels. The Panorama De Luxe hotel is super-luxe with comfy, plush rooms decorated to a high standard and a private pool area overlooking the sea. Nemo Resort is another beachside option with panoramic windows and even space for parking if you’re hiring a car while in Ukraine.

Tours to do in Odessa

Local food tour.

Foodies will love Odessa’s unique food scene and because of its location on the Black Sea, the cuisine is distinct to the rest of Ukraine.

Learn about and taste Odessa’s food from a local food lover and visit markets, traditional canteens and restaurants on this local food tour to make sure you don’t miss out on tasting something delicious that you can only experience in Odessa!

Catacombs Tour

Exploring the Odessa Catacombs is a must-do activity in Odessa. They are unlike the ones in Paris or Rome where they’re like small chapels made out of human bones. 

The Catacombs are an extensive maze of caves literally underneath the entire city of Odessa and the outskirts and are best navigated with the help of a knowledgeable guide who will be able to show you the most interesting corners including the modern-day cave paintings and why the Catacombs exist.

Alternative Walking Tour

Odessa can already be considered an ‘off the beaten path’ destination, but if you’re a truly intrepid traveller, then you can go one step further by joining an alternative walking tour and seeing a side to Odessa that the tourists don’t see.

Explore a historic neighbourhood that doesn’t have all the big monuments and hear stories about Odessa’s dark, criminal past.

Day trips from Odessa

Transnistria.

If you want to understand more about the Soviet Union and communism, then a day trip to Transnistria will be absolutely fascinating! Internationally recognised as Moldova, Transnistria is its own state which covers a sliver of land on the Ukrainian border.

Feel like you’ve gone back in time and explore the quintessential communist-style buildings in this unusual place only 2 hours’ drive from Odessa.

Lower Dniester National Park

Odessa has the city life and beach life covered, but if you want to explore the countryside then a day trip to the nearby Lower Dniester National Park is ideal.

Check out the local wildlife like pelicans and storks, go on a river cruise past the white water lilies and see what the natural side of Ukraine has to offer.

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi

You may have a rough idea of Ukraine’s history during the last 100 or so years, but there are more than 2,000 years’ worth of battles, invasions and rulers to discover.

The perfect place to find out more about Ukraine’s epic history is by visiting Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi on a day trip , an ancient city with medieval fortresses and castles on the Black Sea only a short car journey from Odessa.

Recommended tours in Odessa

• Panoramic Odessa Private City Tour by Car
• Private Tour of Odessa Catacombs
• Wild Odessa Catacombs Tour
• Private Sightseeing Walking Tour of Odessa with Local Guide
• Odessa Painting Tour
• Criminal History Tour of Odessa
• Full-Day Combo Tour from Odessa: Akkerman Fortress and Shabo Wine Center with Tasting
• Cossack ethnic tour
• Street Art Walking Tour

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Sam, a seasoned traveler across four continents and 49 countries, is a leading authority in travel planning. Her website, Travelling King, offers tailored itineraries and expert guides for seamless trips. Sam's expertise in luxury travel, fast travel, and destination guides keeps her at the forefront of the travel community.

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A Traveler’s Guide for What to Do and See in Odessa, Ukraine

Ukraine was country #44 for me. My first stop was in Odessa, called the Pearl of the Black Sea. I’d been given several expectations of cheap prices, beautiful girls and an international culture. All were true, and so much more.

I had organized to get toured around the city, but a fiasco with my email prevented me from finalizing where and when to find my guide. Instead, I reverted to old habits of simply wandering around the city. I failed to follow my own advice of taking a walking tour as my first action in the city, but I think I still managed to cover a good portion. Here’s what I saw, and some tips for your own travels to Odessa.

Table of Contents

Deribasovskaya Street and the 12 Chairs Monument

It was already fairly late in the day when I made it to Odessa, having caught a Blablacar from Chisinau, Moldova and traveling through Transnistria . Looking for dinner, I wandered onto Deribasovskaya Street, not yet know that it was one of the main attractions of the city.

Deribasovskaya Street runs east to west along the northern side of the City Center and is lined with restaurants, shops and cafes specifically for tourists, but frequented by locals too. At night, the street was particularly busy. Along the street and many of the side streets were a bunch of young girls dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothing and riding colorful ponies, a sight I hadn’t yet seen in my travels.

The street was originally built along the city’s oldest park. Today there are several statues and sculptures in the park, including the Monument to Ilf and Petrov, otherwise known as the Twelve Chairs Monument, a bronze chair based on the 1928 Russian novel. A little ways off is the Monument to Leonid Utiosov, a bronze park bench where the Odessa-born music legend sits and looks out at the park. Nearby, you can hear his music at the phone booth.

I finally ended up eating with  the Mafia and then called it a night.

Potemkin Steps

The following day, I made my way back to Deribasovskaya Street to meet Scott Paton for a pizza lunch and an interview with Daddy Blogger . We had been trying to connect up for weeks, and it just so happened that Scott was the editor for Daddy Blogger, so we were able to do a three-way interview at Scott’s Airbnb.

The Airbnb was just behind the statue of the Duc de Richelieu at the top of the Potemkin Stairs, so I continued my exploration from there with Scott as my guide. He told me about the significance of the stairs at the time, and how they were the original entrance to Odessa by the sea. They were made famous by the 1925 movie  The Battleship Potemkin . The stairs are an optical illusion. From the correct angle at the top, all you see are the 10 landings. Similarly, all you can see from the bottom are the 192 stairs.

Primorsky Boulevard and Istanbul Park

Next to the top of the stairs, running south, is Primorsky Boulevard, a tree-lined lane filled with couples, artists and a glass-covered archaeology site. At night, the trees light up with multi-colored Christmas lights, and a fleet of coffee trucks await to serve steaming lattes. At the bottom of the park is the Monument to Alexander Pushkin – the famous Russian poet and novelist considered to be the founder of the modern Russian language. It was quickly becoming evident that Ukraine really likes its statues and sculptures.

Archaeological Museum and National Theater of Opera and Ballet

Continuing on past the park, I saw a handful of beautiful buildings, starting with City Hall. Designed in the Neoclassical style, the building is easily recognizable as the local government. Around the back of City Hall, past the distance pointer, is the Archaeological Museum with a statue of Laocoon in front. Next door is the Maritime Museum, surrounded by beautiful rose gardens and, when I was there, an art exhibit.

This is also the location of the National Opera and Ballet Theater, respectively #1 and #5 on Tripadvisor’s “Top Thing to Do in Odessa” list. The building was built originally built in 1810 but burned down in 1873. It was rebuilt in 1887 in a French rococo style, and most recently refurbished in 2007. It now looks as it originally did in 1810. I didn’t get a chance to make it inside, but from without it was clear it was a definite masterpiece in a city full of beautiful and diverse architecture.

Tarasa Shevchenka Park

The last place I explored that day was Tarasa Shevchenka Park overlooking the Port of Odessa. The park was absolutely packed with tons of activities going on, including an archery and throwing knife pitch. Nestled in the trees of the park is the Green Theather, a separated area reminiscent of Christiania in Copenhagen . A large amphitheater is located in the center, and plenty of food stalls surround it.

The next day I also found the Luna Park inside Tara Shevchenka Park, a permanent carnival establishment complete with games of skill, several rides and a giant Ferris wheel.

For my final day in Odessa, I decided to explore the beach. Leaving my luggage at the NEBO Hotel where I was staying, I took the city bus down to the Arcadia “boardwalk.” This walking street at the south end of town is lined with shops, amusement park rides and a large waterpark. At the end of the street is the beach, where Ukrainians and presumably other tourists pack the sands beach chair to beach chair.

The beach actually extends up several miles along the coast of the Black Sea, all the way to the port near the Potemkin Stairs. Some parts are too rocky to enjoy, but most of the coast is a sandy beach, and completely packed with people.

Nemo Dolphinarium

The final place I went to could certainly be considered controversial as a general statement. One of Odessa’s top attractions is a dolphin show. These tend to have a bad rap in general, despite any status they have as a conservatory, research facility or any other stated purpose. Having said that, dolphins are some of my favorite animals, and I thoroughly loved the show.

Obviously this is a point of contention for many people, but I personally like to experience things for myself, rather than listening to all the hype from everyone else. Too often, all similar attractions get identified with each other, and one of them doing something wrong gives them all a bad name. Similarly, media and journalists love to find fault with things and concentrate on the bad. Rarely do they look at the positive side of things. I’m not saying that dolphinariums are a good thing; rather I simply refuse to accept the “group agreement” about all the bad news and facts in the world.

Transportation To and Through Odessa

There are plenty of ways to get to Odessa. Flights there can be really cheap, while many come by ship across the Black Sea. Personally, I took a Blablacar from Chisinau. Most bus, train and car options from neighboring countries run around $10-$20.

The trains in the country tend to be the cheapest, but I also found that there are two wildly different types of trains. One is an ancient metal box loaded with a dozen Russians per sleeping car eating pungent food in squalid conditions. The other is a comfortable, modern train. Unfortunately, unless you speak Russian or have a local translator, getting the correct ticket is nearly impossible. After hours of trying, I finally got a ticket which I was assured was for the good train, but at the end of the night, I found it was for the other. I ended up refunding it and getting a bus up to Kyiv. The buses are very nice, and only a couple dollars more than the train.

Local transportation is wonderfully cheap. A single ride on the buses or metro costs less than $0.20. Routes run all around the city. Most of the buses look like relics from pre-Soviet days, which is exactly what they are. They run on the original, ancient tram lines using the overhead power cables. Perhaps not the smoothest ride, but I never felt they weren’t safe.

Accommodations

As one of the top tourist destinations in Ukraine, there are plenty of places to sleep in Odessa. I stayed at the Nebo Hotel , a small serviced-apartment hotel with a great view. There are hundreds of other hotels, B&Bs and hostels to stay at. The hostels are as cheap as $3 a night, and the hotels only average around $25 a night, making this one of the cheapest cities in Europe to visit. Don’t forget to claim your $20 credit with Airbnb if you haven’t signed up already, or get insider deals with Agoda .

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Planning to visit ukraine.

I only got to spend less than a week in Ukraine. I had some great food, saw some really beautiful attractions and had some interesting adventures. Here are my other stories in the country.

• 10 Places I Enjoyed Visiting in Kyiv, Ukraine
• How Not to Find the Right Train in Ukraine and Other Mishaps
• What It’s Like to Eat With the Mafia in Odessa, Ukraine
• Hotel Review: NEBO Hotel in Odessa, Ukraine

Here’s some extra reading to save hundreds on your next vacation or stage of your journey.

• 5 Steps to Book Cheap Flights
• Hostels: To Book or Not to Book
• Is Workaway Worth it for the Traveler?
• Click here to claim your $25 credit with AirB&B

Hi, I'm Skye. Writer, photographer, adventurer, foodie, teacher, masseur, friend, dreamer, etc. I think "normal" sucks. Let's aim for extraordinary. SkyeTravels seeks to find the good around the world, focusing on adventures, food and wellness. Be inspired. Be yourself.

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The glass covered archaeological site at Primorsky Boulevard sounds really intriguing! I love how this park and the Tarasa Shevchenka Park have so much to do, but completely different atmospheres! A peaceful, and colorful walk with latte versus watching archery and knife throws. Both sound so cool!

There were so many more parks in Odessa I could have written about to. It really is a beautiful city. That archaeological site wasn’t too big – just a small underground room, but still interesting.

Congrats on country #44! Thanks for this insight into your travels through Odessa – Ukraine is not a country I would have immediately thought to visit, but it seems like the city has a lot of color, culture, and history – definitely a lot of statues and sculptures to take in! City Hall is such a beautiful building, I love the Neoclassical style.

The beach at Arcadia definitely looks packed with people, so I would perhaps try not to get caught up in the crowds; I’m not a fan of dolphinariums myself, but I do agree with and respect your view on seeing things personally for yourself before judging or jumping to a particular view. Sometimes there are positive impacts or sides to a story which we need to be open to hear.

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I certainly found Odessa to exceed my expectations too. I really appreciate your comment about the Dolphinarium. I would have liked to dig into what good their attraction was doing for the animals, but there was a distinct language barrier. I’ve yet to find a single news article in English about them online. But yeah, I think the most important thing is to be willing to see both sides of the equation, rather than listening to one side.

The beach looks great, but surprisingly packed. Were you there on a weekend? This is such a refreshing point of view on Ukraine and Odessa in particular. Sounds like knowing the local language is critical. Is English widely spoken? The prices are incredible. Good to know it is one of the cheapest countries in Europe 🙂

That was actually a weekday, but still in the summer. A few of the touristy places spoke English, but it certainly wasn’t common in the country. I’m used to getting buy with the language barrier though.

My first introduction to Odesssa was many years back through a novel by Irving Wallace that was titled as, “The Odessa File”, The city is charming and has an elegance which is at the same time so colourful. Would love to visit the city some day.

I hope you can make it out there. It truly is beautiful.

I’ve heard and read tons beautiful stories about Ukraine and dying to explore it as soon as possible. Not only Kiev, seems like there’s also many fun things to do in Odessa. Is it safe to travel around Ukraine now though?

I don’t think it’s possible to travel into Eastern Ukraine, but the rest is still relatively safe, with the usual precautions taken. I know the Odessa Mafia have made a name for themselves, and there are few countries in the world that don’t have scams. But I never felt unsafe there. I also still want to explore more of the country. Especially the mountains in the west.

Odessa looks nothing like I expected! Looks like you had a great time, any favorites?

To be honest, there wasn’t really anything I didn’t like. I really loved the dolphin show, and the parks were really nice too. The streets and beaches might have been a bit touristy for my taste, but I still enjoyed them. If I had to pick my favorite spot, it would probably be Tara Shevchenka Park, with the Luna Park in it. I didn’t even mention the massive rope obstacle course in the trees next to Luna Park. So much to do there.

You know…. I rarely do walking tours, but this sounds a great idea. Being a bit of a carnival freak, I’d have loved the Luna Park inside Tara Shevchenka Park.

Me too! I wish I hadn’t found Luna Park as I was leaving. I could have easily spent an entire day there. Just another reason to get back to Odessa someday.

Had never heard of Odessa! The streets are so vibrant! :)The Arcadia will all it’s amusement activities and the beach! 🙂 Would have loved to see visuals of the dolphin show though!

Really? I’ll put the dolphin photo in then. Only reason I didn’t include it is I couldn’t get it to upload in time.

Taking a walking tour is always a good idea, but how one can see, you found some beautiful spots by yourself 🙂 I love the look of the Primorsky Boulevard and you could totally find my hanging around in Arcadia 😀 Taking the right train is a bit of a gamble in many countries, but as long as it is only a short ride …

Thanks for the comment! I couldn’t agree more about the trains. I was going to take the train from Kiev to Bucharest, but it would have been 24 hours, and I had already seen what the conditions were like. I’ll certainly be back to Odessa again someday to explore those places more, and partake in that wonderfully cheap food.

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Visit Odesa

Where to stay in odesa.

Odesa City Center

Odesa City Center is noteworthy for its historic sites, and you can make a stop at top attractions like Tikva Odesa and Athena.

Visitors to Arcadia enjoy its seaside views, and if you want to do some exploring, Arcadia Beach is worth a stop.

Prymors'kyi district

If you're spending some time in Prymors'kyi district, Privoz Market and Tikva Odesa are top sights worth seeing.

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Popular places to visit.

• Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet

You can enjoy a show at Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet on your trip to Odesa. While you're in the area, stroll along the beautiful beaches.

Nemo Dolphinarium

Take the kids to visit the sea life you'll find at Nemo Dolphinarium during your visit to Odesa. Stroll along the area's beautiful beaches, or simply savor its top-notch restaurants.

• City Garden

Explore the great outdoors at City Garden, a lovely green space in Odesa. Wander the area's beautiful beaches or simply enjoy one of its top-notch restaurants.

• Deribasovskaya Street

Learn about the local history of Odesa with a stop at Deribasovskaya Street. Wander the area's beautiful beaches or simply enjoy one of its top-notch restaurants.

You can enjoy retail therapy at Athena during your stay in Odesa. Wander the area's beautiful beaches or simply enjoy one of its top-notch restaurants.

• Privoz Market

You can do some window-shopping at Privoz Market during your stay in Odesa. While you're in the area, stroll along the beautiful beaches.

Reviews of Odesa

5/5 - excellent.

Amazing city during the early fall and on the springtime. Too busy during the vacation seaside season.

Odessa is a unique historical town with kind friendly family oriented falks. My nostalgia was satisfied

It was great to see Istanbul Park all lit up for the holidays.

it's ancient, and inspired countless from the begining of time.

1/5 - Terrible

Odessa did not see any maintenance for a long-long time The city is trashed to the extend unimaginable

Again, be careful in the restaurants! Everything is billed by weight and not by unit price! If you are on a budget, it can get awfully expensive! Quickly!

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• Places of interest
• Arcadia Beach
• Lanzheron Beach
• Odesa Marine Passenger Terminal
• Catacombs of Odesa
• Pushkin Museum
• Potemkin Stairs
• Ekaterininskaya Square
• Tikva Odesa
• Tsentralnyi-Chornomorets Stadium
• Museum of the Heroic Defense of Odesa
• Palais Royal
• Saint Preobrazhensky’s Cathedral
• Shevchenko Park
• Luzanovka Park
• Odesa Archaeological Museum
• Odesa Academic Theater of Musical Comedy
• Odesa Philharmonic Theatre
• Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art
• Duke de Richelieu Monument
• The Statue of Laocoon
• Panteleymonivsky Church
• Spartak Stadium
• Vorontsov Palace

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A woman clutching an infant is found in the rubble of Ukraine building after Russian drone strike

Firefighters in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa attempted to extinguish flames in a building hit by Russian strikes overnight on Tuesday.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Police Press Office, emergency workers work on the site of a destroyed multi-store building after a Russian attack on residential neighbourhood in Odesa, Ukraine, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP)

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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency workers clear the rubble on the site of a destroyed multi-store building after a Russian attack on residential neighbourhood in Odesa, Ukraine, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service Office via AP)

Ukrainian soldiers of 80th separate airborne assault brigade fires a D-30 cannon towards Russian positions at the front line, near Klishchiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian servicemen of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade fires a 122mm mortar towards Russian positions at the front line, near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian servicemen of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade take their position in a trench at the front line, near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western allies to boost Ukraine’s air defenses after a Russian drone strike destroyed an apartment block in the southern port city of Odesa and killed at least 11 people. Officials on Sunday said the bodies of a boy — and a young woman clutching an infant — were pulled from Saturday’s rubble.

“The mother tried to cover the 8-month-old child with her own (body). She tried to save them. They were found in a firm embrace,” said a Telegram post published on the interior ministry’s official channel. Separately, the governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the other child was 10.

On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said another baby was among those killed after falling debris from an Iranian-made drone hit the building — one of eight Russian drones reported by officials. Later that day, Zelenskyy said a second child aged 2 had also died.

“Delays in the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, as well as air defense to protect our people, unfortunately result in such losses,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

More people may still be trapped, the Odesa branch of Ukraine’s main emergency service said on Facebook. Kiper said rescue workers continued to comb through the site.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, regional authorities reported that a 58-year-old man died under rubble after Russian forces overnight shelled his village in the southern Kherson province. Another civilian man, 38, was killed in a Russian artillery strike in the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, local Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.

On Sunday afternoon, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadim Filashkin said a Russian airstrike on the eastern town of Kurakhove wounded 16 people and damaged 15 high-rise apartment blocks.

REPORTS OF EXPLOSIONS AT AN OIL DEPOT IN CRIMEA

In Russian-occupied Crimea, loud explosions were heard near an oil depot in the early hours Sunday, according to a local pro-Kyiv Telegram news channel. Kremlin-installed officials in the territory said a nearby stretch of highway was closed for about eight hours.

Videos shared with pro-Ukrainian channel Crimean Wind showed explosions lighting up the sky, followed by booms. The channel said they were taken by residents near Feodosia, a coastal town in northeastern Crimea. It was not immediately possible to verify the circumstances in which the videos were shot.

An anti-Russian, Crimean Tatar-led underground group claimed that the blasts destroyed a pipeline, causing “colossal” damage.

The group, Atesh — which means “fire” in Crimean Tatar — did not directly claim responsibility for the strike and said it had learned about its consequences from informers among Russian-appointed officials. Authorities in Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the claims.

Traffic was halted early Sunday along a four-lane Russian federal highway near Feodosia, according to an adviser to Crimea’s Kremlin-installed leader. The Telegram post by Oleg Kryuchkov gave no reasons for the move.

More than eight hours later, Crimea’s local transport minister reported that traffic had partially resumed. A bridge that connects Crimea to Russian territory was also closed to traffic for about two hours early Sunday.

Russia’s defense ministry did not comment on the reports but claimed that 38 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight into Sunday over the peninsula.

CHINA’S UKRAINE ENVOY HOLDS TALKS IN MOSCOW

In Moscow, China’s special envoy on Ukraine held talks on Saturday evening with senior Russian diplomats in the first leg of a European trip that will also take him to Brussels, Poland, Germany and France, Chinese and Russian state media reported.

China’s foreign ministry said Special Representative Li Hui and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin agreed that negotiations are the only way to end the fighting in Ukraine.

Li’s trip, the second since May, comes as Kyiv seeks Beijing’s participation in peace talks that Switzerland is trying to organize . China claims it is neutral in Russia’s war on Ukraine but maintains close ties with Moscow, with frequent state visits and joint military drills.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said it was time to start discussing a cease-fire between Moscow and Kyiv, claiming that “both sides have now reached the limits of the results they can achieve through war.”

Speaking at a news conference, Fidan said that such a move would not mean recognizing Russia’s occupation of parts of Ukraine.

“We believe that it is time to separate the issues of recognition of the occupation and sovereignty from the cease-fire issue,” he said.

Kozlowska reported from London. Associated Press writers Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Taiwan and Cinar Kiper in Antalya, Turkey contributed.

Russia-Ukraine War Russia Strikes Danube River Port, Escalating Attacks on Ukrainian Agriculture

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• Moscow Investigators inside a damaged building after a drone attack. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
• Moscow A damaged building and a closed road after a drone attack. Reuters
• Moscow City workers cleaning up debris after a drone strike. Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE, via Shutterstock
• Donetsk region, Ukraine Members of the 17th Tank Brigade aiming rockets toward the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut. Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
• Odesa, Ukraine A Mass outside the Transfiguration Cathedral, which was heavily damaged in Russian missile attacks. Libkos/Associated Press
• Odesa, Ukraine Salvaging items inside the Transfiguration Cathedral. Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
• Niu York, Ukraine Members of the 24th Mechanized Brigade firing a mortar at a Russian trench position. Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
• Dusaniv, Ukraine A funeral ceremony for a Ukrainian soldier who was killed in the Donbas region. Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press
• Niu York, Ukraine Removing furniture from a house struck by Russian air bombardment. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times
• Donetsk, Ukraine Firefighters extinguishing a destroyed warehouse. Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Follow live news updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine .

Russia struck a port across the Danube from Romania, sending wheat prices up.

Russian drones hit a Ukrainian port town on the Danube River, local authorities said on Monday, destroying a grain hangar in an apparent escalation of efforts to cripple Ukraine’s ability to export agricultural products, one of the country’s leading industries.

The explosions in the town of Reni — just across the river from Romania, a NATO member — would be the closest Russia has come to hitting alliance territory and risking a more direct confrontation with the United States and its European allies.

Ukrainian officials and Romania’s president blamed the attack on Russia, which has spent the past week bombarding Ukrainian ports near the city of Odesa after pulling out of a deal that enabled Ukraine to ship its grain across the Black Sea .

The origin of the drones could not be independently verified, and Russia’s defense ministry made no reference to an attack in the Odesa region in its daily update about the war.

But the strike on a river port about 70 miles from the coast appeared to signal that Moscow had expanded its campaign against Ukraine’s agricultural exports by targeting alternate routes for grain to reach world markets.

Global wheat prices, which rose last week after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea deal, rose by around 6.2 percent in Monday afternoon trading.

A local news website in Reni, a town of around 18,000 people, published a photograph of the aftermath. The town is more than 130 miles southwest of the city of Odesa, the focus of recent attacks on shipping infrastructure, and lies on the east bank of the Danube, just a few hundred yards from Romania.

Russia has previously fired on western Ukraine near the border with Poland, also a NATO member, but had not hit Ukrainian facilities so close to territory covered by the military alliance’s commitment to respond jointly to an attack on a member state.

President Klaus Iohannis of Romania said on Twitter that he condemned an attack by Russia on Ukrainian infrastructure close to his country’s borders and said the “recent escalation poses serious risks to the security in the Black Sea,” as well as affecting Ukrainian grain shipments and global food security. He did not specifically mention the drone strike in Reni.

Romania’s ministry of defense said it was maintaining a posture of “enhanced vigilance” with its allies along the alliance’s eastern flank.

“There are no potential direct military threats against our national territory or Romania’s territorial waters,” the ministry said in a statement.

The attack came after a week of increased hostilities in the Black Sea region, with Russia sending a nightly barrage of missiles into the city of Odesa, while first Russia and then Ukraine warned that they might target ships heading to their adversary’s ports.

Pro-war Russians praised the Danube strikes as a further step toward destroying Ukraine’s economy and blocking Western arms deliveries. They said that Ukraine had been taking advantage of the Reni port’s proximity to NATO territory — and the fact that ships can approach it along the Danube without having to sail through Ukrainian territorial waters in the Black Sea — as a way of continuing to export grain and other goods.

“It looks like they’re blocking this way of evading the sea blockade of Kyiv,” a Russian talk show host, Olga Skabeyeva, declared on the Rossiya state television channel on Monday. “And soon they’ll completely deny Ukraine access to the Black Sea.”

A popular pro-war blog, Rybar, claimed the port was being used to supply Ukraine’s military while also serving as a channel for exporting grain. A Russian state television war reporter, Yevgeny Poddubny, wrote on Telegram that the strikes were part of the “critically important” mission of “breaking every thread of Ukraine’s maritime traffic.”

The chances the grain initiative could be revived have grown increasingly slim over the past week. On Monday, Russia’s F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., claimed that it had evidence that, in May, Ukraine had imported explosives across the Black Sea to one of its Danube River ports. The claim could not be independently verified.

The drone attack occurred over the course of four hours, Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that three drones were shot down by Ukraine’s air defenses. Seven people were injured, he said.

The Danube River delta, a network of waterways crisscrossing the border region between Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, was rarely used to export Ukrainian grain before Russia started its full-scale invasion in February 2022, but has over the past year become an indispensable freight lifeline.

Ukraine has been exporting around two million metric tons of grain per month through its Danube River ports, according to Benoît Fayaud, deputy executive director of Stratégie Grains, an agricultural economy research firm.

The attack on Reni could deter commercial vessels from using the port in the short term and could raise the cost of insurance, Mr. Fayaud said.

Yurii Shyvala and Anton Troianovski contributed reporting.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Andrew Higgins

Russia destroys drones targeting Moscow, and blames Ukraine.

The Russian authorities said they destroyed two attack drones targeting central Moscow on Monday morning in what they called a strike by Ukrainian forces. No one was injured, they said. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

At least two nonresidential buildings were targeted about 4 a.m. local time, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of Moscow said on his Telegram account, adding that there was no “serious damage or casualties.” The Russian Ministry of Defense said earlier that it had used electronic defenses to disable the drones .

The authorities blocked off part of Komsomolsky Prospect, an avenue that runs through one of the most upscale parts of central Moscow, after finding one of the drones there, state news media reported. One of the buildings is about a block away from the Russian National Defense Management Center, an imposing structure that is being used to conduct “centralized combat management of the Russian armed forces,” according to the Defense Ministry website.

Videos verified by The New York Times show damage in at least two locations near the Moskva River in the southern part of the city.

Smoke was rising from the top floors of a high-rise building housing Leroy Merlin, a French home improvement chain. Other footage shows damage to several structures along Komsomolsky Prospect — which is close to the Defense Ministry — including the building of the Military University and the Central Military Band, a performance group of the Russian Armed Forces. It was not possible to determine from the visuals whether drones caused the damage.

Also on Monday, the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally seized in 2014, said that 11 attack drones were shot down or neutralized by air defenses. An ammunition depot in the Dzhankoy district was hit, according to the top Russian-installed official in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, although it was not immediately clear whether any damage was caused by a drone or by debris from an air-defense missile.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said that officials “are all on the alert” because of the strikes.

“You can see that in recent days, the intensity of attempts to attack our regions with drones has increased,” Mr. Peskov said. “Therefore, measures are being taken, very intense daily around-the-clock work is being carried out.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the fighting has been concentrated on the front lines in eastern Ukraine. Russia has fired missiles and drones at cities across Ukraine nearly every day while Russian cities, including Moscow, have been spared the violence of the war.

But in May , the relative safety of Moscow was shattered when the first full-scale drone attacks were launched against the capital, which is nearly 800 kilometers, or about 500 miles, from the border with Ukraine and even farther from the front lines.

In early May, there were two drone explosions over the Kremlin, piercing the aura of relative safety in the Russian capital. Then on May 31, the Russian Defense Ministry said that at least eight drones had targeted the capital and surrounding region. Russia claimed to have intercepted them all, but three residential buildings were damaged after the drones were stopped. It was the first damage to civilian areas in Moscow since the start of the war.

Ukraine has maintained a policy of not commenting on any attacks inside Russia that appear to be linked to its military or its supporters, arguing that the silence allows it to maintain the element of surprise and military advantage. But on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to retaliate against Russia after a week of deadly strikes on Odesa that targeted civilians, infrastructure and port facilities crucial to exporting grain.

Ukraine has started to publicly take credit for attacks in Crimea, which is far behind the front lines but an important logistical hub for Russian forces, arguing that the strikes are inside Ukrainian territory.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, reiterated on Monday the United States’s position that it did not support attacks inside of Russia.

Shawn Paik , Jin Yu Young and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.

— Andrés R. Martínez ,  Haley Willis and Tiffany May

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The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog says mines have been spotted at the embattled Zaporizhzhia plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday that its inspectors had observed mines inside the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the frontline facility occupied by Russian forces that the agency has monitored to help avert a possible catastrophe.

The I.A.E.A., the United Nations’ nuclear agency, reported last month that it was aware of land mines having been placed at “particular places” inside the plant’s perimeter, without offering further details. On Monday, the agency disclosed that its team had identified anti-personnel mines in a restricted area between the plant’s internal and external barriers.

The mines were placed in an area that plant workers cannot access, according to the agency’s statement. It did not specify when the mines had been placed. An email to the I.A.E.A. was not immediately returned on Monday.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the I.A.E.A., said in a statement that the agency’s initial assessment was that any detonation of the mines wouldn’t affect the security of the plant. But, he added, “having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the I.A.E.A. safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff.”

Mr. Grossi said in the statement that agency staff members had raised the matter with officials at the plant and been told that it was, in his words, a “military decision.”

No mines were spotted within the inner perimeter of the site, according to the agency.

Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear plant in Europe and has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, shortly after Moscow began its full-scale invasion. The nuclear agency has long expressed concerns about safety risks posed by shelling and fighting in the plant’s vicinity. Both militaries blame the other for the shelling, which has caused damage around the plant and, at times, cut off its supply of outside power.

Five of the plant’s six reactors are in a cold shutdown, with the other in a so-called hot shutdown, meaning it produces steam for certain plant operations. Even in a cold shutdown, power is still necessary for critical cooling functions.

An additional hazard materialized on June 6, when the nearby Kakhovka dam was destroyed. The resulting flood drained the reservoir from which the plant drew water to cool its reactors and spent fuel rods, but I.A.E.A. officials soon determined there was no immediate danger.

Although the plant is controlled by Russian forces and lies in a region that Moscow illegally annexed last September , it is still being operated by the Ukrainian employees who worked there when the invasion began.

Ukrainian officials, who blamed Russia for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, have repeatedly suggested that Russia could stage an attack at the plant.

— Gabriela Sá Pessoa

The attack on a Danube port raises the threat to Ukraine’s alternative export routes.

The apparent drone attack on the Ukrainian port town of Reni would be the first known Russian strike on a port in the Danube delta, an increasingly important part of Ukraine’s ability to ship agricultural products that has only become more crucial with the end of the Black Sea grain deal .

The attack on Reni, which followed a week of attacks on ports near the city of Odesa, was a “massive escalation” by Moscow in terms of the effect it could have on Ukraine’s ability to use alternative shipping routes, said Mike Lee, director of Green Square Agro Consultancy, which specializes in the Black Sea and Eastern Europe.

Russia’s termination of the grain deal last week has dramatically escalated tensions in the Black Sea, with Russia warning that it would consider any ship approaching Ukraine’s ports as potentially carrying military cargo, and Ukraine responding in kind.

Russian forces have also launched a series of attacks on Ukrainian ports that have compound challenges to the country’s efforts to move grain to world markets — a logistically and geopolitically complicated matter.

The grain deal that was first reached a year ago allowed Ukraine to ship more than 30 million tons of grain through a trio of major Black Sea ports. But smaller ports on the Danube that were not part of the deal were a vital source of exports that wended their way to the Black Sea and eventually to international destinations. Roughly two million metric tons of grain per month made it to world markets through Ukraine’s Danube River ports.

In theory, Ukraine has the capacity to cover all of its grain exports using routes outside the provisions of the grain deal, but higher costs would make the shipments less competitive.

Increased reliance on overland routes is also politically fraught. Since the start of the war, Ukraine has sent more than 20 million tons of grain to foreign markets through Romania and millions more by train through Poland, a flood that has infuriated East European farmers who say it has driven down local prices.

The Ukrainian grain sent into Eastern and Central Europe by river barge, train and truck was intended for onward shipment to Africa and Asia but some of it has seeped into the European market, creating a political headache for governments that have been among Ukraine’s most stalwart supporters.

Last summer, Brussels took steps to smooth the path for Ukraine’s overland grain exports. But after protests by farmers in some E.U. countries, the bloc allowed Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, though they continued to allow the transit of those items for export elsewhere.

The ban is expected to end on Sept. 15. Last week, however, ministers from those five countries called for the bloc to allow the bans to be extended — a call that further underlined the importance of the Danube River ports to Ukraine.

But President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Monday that blocking exports after that point is “unacceptable in any form.” He added that Ukraine was seeking a solution that “suits everyone.”

Rising global prices for grain, however, reduce the incentive to divert Ukrainian produce for sale in Poland, Romania and Hungary while encouraging its sale in countries far from Europe that most need it. Those market forces make Russia’s apparent effort to disrupt traffic through the Danube delta potentially very threatening to global food security.

The United Nations has said that Russia’s attempts to stop Ukraine’s exports exacerbate a hunger crisis faced by some countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Ukraine exports grain via road and rail into European Union countries, as well as via the Danube ports.

— Andrew Higgins and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Putin signs a harsh new law targeting transgender people in Russia.

Transition surgery is now banned in Russia and transgender people are subject to a welter of other restrictions under a harsh new law signed by President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday.

Aside from banning surgery and hormone therapy, the law also prohibits changing gender on official documents like passports, annuls any marriage when a spouse changes gender and bans adoptions by such couples. It was the latest step in an ongoing crackdown on L.G.B.T.Q. freedom in Russia , including a law passed in December against depictions of gay lifestyles — what the government called “gay propaganda.”

Russian officials who supported the new law aimed at transgender people portrayed it as another step by the country to assert its adherence to so-called traditional values — a position increasingly embraced by Moscow as it characterizes the war in Ukraine as a fight against Western powers.

“We have our Russian families, and the liberalization of such phenomena can be the first step on the road to hell,” Badma Bashenkaev, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection, said when the ban passed the lower house of parliament unanimously on July 14.

Starting in the 1970s, the Soviet Union maintained a fairly progressive attitude toward such operations, which were guided by government-organized panels of medical experts. But in the face of repeated setbacks since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kremlin officials have tried to use new laws to bolster support both domestically and internationally from people who oppose basic rights for minority groups, analysts said.

“The transgender ban is exactly that kind of manipulation, it resonates with people in order to amass support for the war and other things,” said Alexander Kondakov, a Russian sociologist who teaches at University College Dublin, Ireland.

Since Russia passed its law last December against depictions of gay lifestyles, the country has experienced a rise in both court cases against gay people and violence targeting them, analysts said. The new law, they added, will likely feed those trends.

— Neil MacFarquhar

Ukraine at NATO and a Russia-Africa summit: What to watch for this week.

A new NATO-Ukraine Council, created earlier this month at the military alliance’s latest summit , will meet on Wednesday to discuss the aftermath of Russia’s withdrawal last week from a deal allowing grain shipments from Ukraine.

“We are preparing it to be meaningful,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Sunday in his nightly address. Mr. Zelensky said he had asked the NATO secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, to convene the meeting.

The council was formed as part of a NATO effort to deepen the alliance’s support for Ukraine. Its first meeting, at the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, was attended by top Western leaders.

Moscow withdrew on July 17 from an agreement that had secured the passage of Ukrainian ships and has since bombarded shipment facilities in the region. The decision has affected food prices and raised concerns about food instability across the globe, including African countries like Somalia and South Sudan.

Here is what else to watch for this week:

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will hold a two-day summit with African leaders starting on Thursday in St. Petersburg, providing a test of the Kremlin’s ties with African countries. Attendance will be closely watched; most African nations have avoided taking sides in the war, frustrating Ukraine and its allies, but South Africa and some other African governments have close ties with Moscow.

In June, a delegation, which included the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Zambia and the Comoros, visited Ukraine and Russia with a plan to de-escalate the conflict.

Across the front lines, the Ukrainian counteroffensive continues its slow march. Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said in a CNN interview on Sunday that the Ukrainian battle to regain the territory illegally seized by Russia would be long and hard.

“It will not play out over the next week or two,” he said. “We’re still looking, I think, at several months.” On the front lines, commanders mostly see a violent stalemate , as neither Russia nor Ukraine have made recent breakthroughs.

— Gabriela Sá Pessoa and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

The crackdown on the opposition in Belarus has worsened since 2020.

The recent high school graduate selected her wardrobe carefully as she headed off to a summer folk festival.

She dressed all in white, as is customary for the event, and wore a large flower wreath in her golden hair. But when it came to choosing a sash for her skirt, she grabbed a brown leather band, avoiding the color red.

In Belarus, red and white are the colors of the protest movement against the country’s authoritarian leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko. And even the smallest sign of protest can land a person in jail. “I worry about attracting the wrong kind of attention from the authorities,” said the young woman, who spoke on the condition that her name not be used so she would not draw scrutiny.

After claiming victory in a widely disputed presidential election three years ago, Mr. Lukashenko violently crushed the outraged protests that followed. Since then, activists and opposition figures say, Mr. Lukashenko has ushered in a chilling era of repression in Belarus.

He is moving ever closer to his patron, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, positioning himself as an invaluable military ally to Russia in its war against Ukraine, but also cracking down on dissent in a way that is invisible to much of the world but rivals that of Mr. Putin’s punitive regime.

Belarusian security forces are rounding up opposition figures, journalists, lawyers and even people committing minor offenses like commenting on social media memes or walking a dog without a leash.

In particular, the country’s security forces are intent on finding and punishing the people who participated in the 2020 protests. Belarusians are getting arrested for wearing red and white, sporting a tattoo of a raised fist — also a symbol of the protest movement — or for just being seen in three-year-old photographs of the anti-government demonstrations.

“In the last three years, we went from a soft autocracy to neo-totalitarianism,” said Igor Ilyash, a journalist who opposes Mr. Lukashenko’s rule. “They are criminalizing the past.”

— Valerie Hopkins and Nanna Heitmann Reporting from Minsk, Belarus

Internet trolls propelled Prigozhin’s rise. Now some celebrate his fall.

When President Vladimir V. Putin said recently that the Wagner mercenary group legally “does not exist,” a collection of social media accounts that have historically been associated with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the group’s founder, quickly endorsed the Russian leader’s statement.

“Prigozhin was respected inside the country,” said a post on a Twitter account under the name Bogdan Goryunov. “But with his single act, he has forfeited all that respect,” he added, referring to the Wagner leader’s aborted mutiny last month. “What remains of Wagner is nothing now, just a memory.”

A group of volunteers who monitor Twitter for trolls identified Mr. Goryunov as a likely one. His account had few followers or original posts, mainly posting replies to more popular accounts, and it sometimes contradicted itself. Days earlier, it had defended the Wagner leader, tweeting in response to reports that he had met with Mr. Putin after the mutiny: “Did Prigozhin finally recognize that it was a big mistake and he wants to be useful to the country again?”

More than a decade ago, Mr. Prigozhin became a pioneer in the dark arts of internet trolling, launching so-called troll farms to shape narratives in Russia and beyond, including by sowing pro-Trump discord during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

But as his conflict with the Russian Defense Ministry over the conduct of the war in Ukraine deepened in recent months, some social media accounts, labeled trolls by activists, also turned against Mr. Prigozhin himself.

The change suggests that many of the tools that Mr. Prigozhin operated don’t specifically serve him — they serve the Kremlin. It also shows that the Russian state, which moved quickly to take down other parts of Mr. Prigozhin’s news media empire, may seek to take advantage of the troll farms, whose posts have often reflected how the Kremlin wishes to steer the public narrative in Russia.

“Prigozhin is Putin’s instrument,” said Antibot4navalny, a leader of a group of anonymous volunteers who monitor trolls, and identified Mr. Goryunov. “Without Putin, and the finances he provides, Prigozhin is nothing.”

Posts coming from troll accounts are both pro- and anti-Prigozhin, but that also may serve the Kremlin’s interests, according to Antibot4navalny, by allowing an outlet for those who support the Wagner leader’s views, including his harsh criticism of the Russian military leadership . What is clear, the group says, is that the trolls devote outsize attention to news related to Mr. Prigozhin’s interests, sometimes steering the discussion in his favor.

Over the past two decades, Mr. Prigozhin has been willing to undertake some of the most sensitive tasks for the Russian state — including by deploying Wagner mercenaries in Africa and the Middle East — in exchange for lucrative state contracts and increased influence.

His aborted mutiny — born out of his ambition to assume a greater role in the Russian power hierarchy — has sidelined Mr. Prigozhin, but the tools he helped develop could still serve the Russian state’s interests, analysts say. Since the uprising, Russian troll farms have been as active as ever, according to Darren Linvill, who studies trolls and social media disinformation at Clemson University in South Carolina.

“I think it would be a priority for the Russian government, especially right now when there are so many threats to Putin’s power,” Mr. Linvill said. “I would argue that the work of troll factories is as important as ever for Putin.”

By contrast, the Russian authorities moved quickly to take down Mr. Prigozhin’s media company, a collection of crudely designed news websites that never matched the reach of the better financed Russian state-run media.

According to Vladimir Yagudayev, who worked for one of Mr. Prigozhin’s websites, Politics Today, police officers searched the company’s offices in St. Petersburg after the mutiny. Days later, Mr. Yagudayev’s manager told him that the whole operation would shut down.

“It was very sad,” Mr. Yagudayev said in an interview, adding that he supported Mr. Prigozhin’s political views and believed his media companies made a valuable contribution.

“It wasn’t about money,” he said. “I was putting my soul into it.”

Alina Lobzina contributed reporting.

— Ivan Nechepurenko

The most popular places where people in Odessa are looking for new houses

Posted: April 23, 2024 | Last updated: April 23, 2024

Where people in Odessa are looking to buy homes

Home prices are largely starting to normalize across the country, but remain high, as the number of homes for sale continues to decline.

The median listing price in Odessa was $312,750 in December 2023, a 18.2% change from the year before. Record-high mortgage rates are keeping homes largely unaffordable for most buyers. Even a percentage point increase can increase a monthly mortgage payment by more than $100.

That's causing potential homeowners to expand their searches outside costly urban cores, especially when they can work from home.

Stacker examined data from Realtor.com's Cross-Market Demand Report to see where people in Odessa are looking to buy homes. View share is based on page views of active listings during the fourth quarter of 2023 on Realtor.com. It does not include international viewers.

Continue reading to see who is looking to move into your neck of the woods.

#10. El Paso, Texas

- 1.8% of all page views

#9. Abilene, Texas

- 2.1% of all page views

#8. San Angelo, Texas

#7. Amarillo, Texas

- 2.5% of all page views

#6. Lubbock, Texas

- 3.2% of all page views

#5. Austin, Texas

- 3.4% of all page views

#4. Houston, Texas

- 6.6% of all page views

#3. San Antonio, Texas

- 6.7% of all page views

#2. Midland, Texas

- 13.8% of all page views

#1. Dallas, Texas

- 14.0% of all page views

This story features data reporting and writing by Elena Cox and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 218 metros.

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Planning a trip to Moscow? Our travel guide contains up-to-date, personal information on everything from what to see , to when to visit , where to stay , and what to eat !

• General Information
• What to see
• How to get to Moscow
• Where to stay
• Where to eat

Why visit Moscow?

Majestic churches, impressive historic fortresses, and palatial buildings: Moscow is a fascinating city whose emblematic architecture reflects the turbulent history that has defined Russia throughout the centuries.

The traces of the USSR can be found around every corner of the city , side by side with the iconic relics of Imperial Russia , like the mythical Red Square , the imposing Kremlin , and the beautiful  St Basil's Cathedral . 

Discover a fascinating world of Cold War bunkers, golden-domed basilicas, world-class art museums, and the legendary "palace of the people,"  as the Moscow Metro has been nicknamed. Whether you fancy watching a classical Russian ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre , perusing the fine arts at the Pushkin Museum , or marveling at the sheer size of the monuments to the Soviet state's achievements at the  All-Russia Exhibition Centre , this travel guide will help you on your way!

Where to start?

If you're going to travel to Moscow and you don't know much about the city yet, the first thing to do is to dive into its legendary history - understanding the past will help you understand the present. Next, check out our practical hints and tips on traveling to the city before discovering which of its most important museums , monuments , and attractions pique your interest.

Looking for a place to stay?

Booking your accommodation in advance is the best way to get great discounts. Our detailed guide on where to stay in Moscow  will help you decide which neighborhood you'd like to look for hotels or apartments in, and our hotel search engine will find you the best deals!

Why is our Moscow travel guide the best?

Introducing Moscow is a  city guide written by travelers for travelers  and contains personalized advice to help you make the most of your trip to the city.

All the information in this guide is valid as of December 2022. If you find any errors or have any comments, please feel free to contact us .

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Moscow Travel Guide: Best Things to Do + More [2023]

· everything to know about visiting moscow, including the best things to do and how to get around. ·.

Moscow is Russia’s vibrant capital city, and it also happens to be the largest city in all of Europe. The city’s long and infamous history makes it one of the most unique places we have ever visited.

The architecture ranges from centuries-old palaces to uniform, gray concrete buildings. The people range from cold and private to warm and welcoming. Moscow is a city is strong juxtapositions, and we learned a lot during our time there.

This post will break down all you need to know about visiting Moscow, including the best things to do, how to get there, how to get around, and more.

The Best Things to Do in Moscow

1. explore the red square.

The Red Square is the heart of Moscow. Most of the city’s top attractions can be found here, including just about everything on this list. The Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral, and Lenin’s Mausoleum are all located here, and the State Historical Museum and GUM are not far from here, either.

The Red Square is a common home for parades, protests, and seasonal celebrations. There are massive Christmas celebrations here, with food vendors and carnival rides set up in numbers.

2. Check Out the Ziferblat

The Ziferblat is a café in Moscow that is unlike any café we have ever been to. While most cafes charge you for your drinks and food, the Ziferblat charges you for your time.

Upon arrival, you are given a clock. When you leave, the barista calculates how much time you spent in the café and charges you accordingly. This concept was created to help visitors to be more intentional with their time, and the cafe itself is incredibly charming.

For a detailed look at everything you need to know before you visit, make sure you read my post about visiting the Ziferblat Cafe in Moscow .

3. Marvel at St. Basil’s Cathedral

St. Basil’s Cathedral is one of the most iconic churches in the world, and it was the single thing we were most excited to see while in Moscow. Built almost 500 years ago, St. Basil’s Cathedral is recognized by its colorful domes and whimsical style. The church is of the Russian Orthodox faith, and the inside is just as wondrous as the outside.

St. Basil’s Cathedral is located on the edge of the Red Square, making it incredibly convenient to visit. Entrance for non-worshippers costs 800 rubles, and tickets can be bought at the church

4. Explore the Kremlin

The Kremlin is the largest active fortress in Europe, and it is the site of most of Russia’s government affairs. In addition to government buildings, the Kremlin Complex is filled with courtyards, towers, and museums that are open to the public. If you have the time, you could spend a couple of days fully exploring all that there is to see in the Kremlin.

5. Walk Through Lenin’s Mausoleum

Vladimir Lenin is one of the most important figures in Russian history, and his body is located perfectly embalmed in a mausoleum in the Red Square. The Mausoleum is open to the public to visit, and as long as you are willing to go through a few security checks, it is easily one of the best things to do in Moscow. Its convenient location in the Red Square makes it a can’t miss attraction.

There is absolutely no photography allowed inside the Mausoleum. Do not test this rule.

6. Wander Along Arbat Street

The Arbat is a very popular street in Moscow that is lined with stores, cafes, and other touristy attractions. It is one of the oldest streets in the city, dating back to the 1400s. This street is both quaint and trendy, and there are many walking tours that introduce tourists to the neighborhood’s wonders and highlights.

7. Catch a Show at the Bolshoi Theatre

As a lover of the arts, it is hard to think of Moscow and not think of ballet. Russia has always been a top dog in the world of fine arts, and Bolshoi Theater is one of the best places to catch a performance. We were lucky enough to attend an Opera here, and it is a venue that you don’t want to miss out on if you enjoy opera, ballet, or orchestral performances.

8. Visit the State Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum is one of the most respected museums in Moscow. Despite its name, it is not really focused on the history of Russia as a nation. Rather, it contains a collection of artifacts from all throughout Russia’s history.

The museum’s collection is very broad in nature. It houses some items from indigenous tribes that used to occupy the region, pieces collected by the Romanov family, and more.

9. Wander Around GUM

GUM is an absolutely massive mall within walking distance of the Red Square. It isn’t just the size that draws visitors here; it’s the sense of luxury. The mall is so beautiful inside, much like the metro stations.

While visiting a mall might not sound like it belongs on a bucket list, this mall does. You will not want to miss out on visiting GUM while in Moscow.

10. Admire the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

While St. Basil’s Cathedral is the most iconic church in Moscow, it isn’t the only one. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is absolutely stunning, with massive golden domes. It is the tallest Orthodox church in the world, and it is the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow.

It is located just about a mile from the Red Square, just south of the Kremlin Complex. You can walk to it from the Red Square in about 20 minutes.

How to Get to Moscow

Flying to moscow.

Moscow has three major international airports: Sheremetyevo (SVO) , Domodedovo (DMO) , and Vnukovo (VKO) . All three of them are directly connected to downtown Moscow by the Aeroexpress trains, which leave every 30 minutes throughout the day. By Aeroexpress train, you can expect to get to the city center in 25-45 minutes depending on the airport that you fly into.

Sheremetyevo is the biggest and busiest of the three airports, and it is the one you are most likely to fly into – especially if you are coming from outside of Europe or the Caucus region. We flew into Sheremetyevo on a direct flight from New York City.

I usually provide backup airport options, because flying right into the city isn’t always the cheapest way to get where you’re going. Unfortunately, when it comes to Moscow, don’t really have a choice other than to fly right into Moscow. It is a very remote city, and it is usually the cheapest place to fly into in Russia as a whole.

Since Sheremetyevo is so busy, you will probably find a great flight option anyway. I wrote in  my post about finding cheap flights  that using hub airports will lead to more affordable airfare, and the same logic applies here. Even though Russia’s national airline, Aeroflot, is no longer a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, Moscow is still a major hub connecting passengers from all over the world.

READ OUR CHEAT SHEET

Train or Bus to Moscow

Trains and buses are one of the most popular ways to get around Europe. However, they’re of very little use when you’re trying to get to Moscow.

Moscow is hundreds of miles from the nearest major cities. The only major European city that can even be reached within 8 hours on the ground is St. Petersburg, and even the Baltic capitals of Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn are over 12 hours away.

If you want to get to Moscow, the best option is almost always to fly. While the train routes to Moscow are scenic, they simply take forever.

How to Get Around Moscow

METRO | TROLLEYS | TRAMS | BUSES

Moscow has one of the most memorable metro systems in the world. Its metro lines are very deep underground, and the stations are absolutely stunning. Each station has its own unique style, but all of them contain escalators that seem to go on forever.

The system was built in an effort to showcase the power of the Soviet Union and its bright future. The plans were a form of propaganda, but they resulted in what is still one of the most visually appealing subway systems on earth.

Moscow’s metro system isn’t just pretty. It is also very useful and accessible. The system has 17 lines that connect the city and its surrounding area.

But wait; there’s more!

The Moscow metro system is also incredibly affordable, with each ride costing less than a dollar. The metro is by far the best way to get around Moscow, as it is almost impossible to beat the connection times and the low cost to ride.

Tickets can be bought at electronic, English-speaking kiosks in stations, or directly from ticket counters at certain larger stations. There are also day passes available, which are a very solid option if you plan on riding the metro several times per day.

The metro is by far the best way to get around Moscow.

In addition to the metro system, Moscow also has a network of buses, trams, and trolleys. This system is nowhere near as convenient or well-connected as the metro, though, and is likely of little use to you during your trip. There is no Uber in Moscow, but a similar app named Yandex is available if you need a ride in a pinch.

How Many Days Do You Need in Moscow?

Moscow is the biggest city in all of Europe, and it is absolutely loaded with things to do. You could spend weeks in Moscow and still find new things to do. Of course, most travelers don’t have that kind of time to spend in one place!

I recommend spending no less than three full days in Moscow, and ideally closer to five or seven.

Moscow is very spread out, and it can take some time to get from one major point to another. There are also so many places that are nice to just sit back and relax, which is hard to do when you’re in a hurry trying to cram activities into just a few days.

If you only have a week to visit Russia, I’d advise spending all of the time in one city. If you decide to split your time between Moscow and St. Petersburg, I recommend not trying to squeeze in any day trips beyond those two cities.

When Is the Best Time of the Year to Visit Moscow?

There are two different ways to approach this question. Personally, I think the best time to visit Moscow is around Christmas and New Year’s Day. While the weather will be absolutely freezing, Moscow is a surreal winter wonderland in December and January.

We were in Moscow right before Christmas. While it was very cold, you can always bundle up. Exploring the Christmas markets and pop-up ice skating rinks throughout Moscow is one of my favorite memories from anywhere I’ve traveled, and I dream of going back to do it again.

If you aren’t fond of the cold, Moscow is beautiful in the summer. It tends to get pretty cold in the shoulder seasons, so if you want warm weather, you should plan to visit in the summer. Moscow actually gets pretty warm in July and August, and there are a bunch of fantastic places to soak up the sun within the city.

The best time to visit Moscow is either around Christmas or from late May to August.

Is Moscow Safe to Visit?

While Moscow is a truly wonderful city, there’s no denying that visiting Russia comes with risks. As the country is run by an infamous communist dictator, concerns about visiting are valid. While we didn’t experience any sort of threat or negative treatment during our time in Moscow, we visited in a peaceful time.

In our experience, Russia doesn’t seem to detain normal Americans or Westerners to use as pawns. As a regular person, as long as you don’t commit any crimes, there is a slim chance you will run into any issues. However, Russia will not hesitate to enforce its laws against foreigners, and illegal behaviors will likely land you in a very compromising position.

Russia will not hesitate to enforce its laws against foreigners, and illegal behaviors will likely land you in a very compromising position.

To make matters worse, Russia has a bad reputation for gang violence. While the Russian mafia has very little interest in normal Western tourists, they won’t hesitate to pick a fight with anyone who ventures into their sphere of influence. If you seek out illegal substances or activities, you could be a target of the mafia.

If you seek out illegal substances or activities, you could be a target of the mafia.

Finally, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, things are all very different. Russia is currently at war, and there are battles raging within 8 hours of Moscow. While it is still relatively safe to visit, that could change at any time as the war with Ukraine continues.

Is Moscow Worth Visiting?

Without a doubt, Moscow is worth visiting. It is one of the most unique major cities we have ever visited, and we hope to make it back one day. The Russian Orthodox churches are stunning, the city’s history is unlike any other, and the food is to die for.

While many visitors prefer St. Petersburg to Moscow, I think Moscow deserves a lot of hype of its own. Moscow is the beating heart of Russian culture and history, and it’s a place I highly recommend checking out if you have the chance.

That’s all we have for you about Moscow! I hope this post was helpful as you plan your trip to Russia’s capital.

Have you been to Moscow? Or is this your first time visiting? Comment below if you have anything to add to our travel guide!

Hi, I'm Greg. I'm an avid traveler who has traveled to over 50 countries all around the world with my wife and kids. I've lived in Italy, Mexico, China, and the United States, and I dream of moving abroad again in the future. With this blog, I provide my audience with detailed destination guides to my favorite places and pro-tips to make travel as stress-free as possible.

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