Khreshchatyk Street

Come out of the metro and you're on it. Khreshchatyk runs 1.2 kilometres from European Square in the north-east down to Bessarabska Square and Independence Square in the south-west, and it's where you'll end up on most days in Kyiv whether you plan to or not. Bessarabsky Market sits at the far end and is worth the walk down, with Taras Shevchenko Park another ten minutes up the boulevard from there if you want to sit down.

The best time to be here is the weekend, when the street closes to traffic entirely. What's a wide, busy road on a Tuesday becomes a promenade full of families, buskers and street food, and it's the single easiest way to see how Kyivans actually use their city.

What You'll Pass

A lot of the buildings along here are working institutions rather than sights, but they're worth recognising as you go: the Kyiv City Council, which houses the state and city administrations, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the Main Post Office, the Central Department Store, the State Committee of Television & Radio Broadcasting, and Ukrainian House, which holds exhibitions.

The street took heavy damage in the Second World War - the Kyiv City Duma and the Ginzburg House were among the buildings lost - and most of what stands today came out of the rebuilding afterwards. That's why the architecture reads as one piece rather than the usual jumble of a main street.

Shopping and Eating

Khreshchatyk is one of the 20 most expensive shopping streets in Europe, so temper your expectations on price. There are restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops the length of it, plus the Kyiv Passage, a covered arcade of shops and cafes off the main road. The office for the electric scooter tours is a couple of minutes off the street as well, if you'd rather cover the centre on wheels.

Don't forget what's underneath. The subways at the crossings open into a large underground shopping centre connected to the metro, which is where to head when the weather turns.