Cruises from Zaporizhzhia

Zaporizhzhia lies in the southeastern part of the country, and the road from here to the western border is one of the longest among Ukrainian cities. MSC, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Costa, or Celestyal liners, as for the rest of Ukraine, wait not at home but in Barcelona, Venice, Civitavecchia, Genoa, or Piraeus, so travelers from Zaporizhzhia, before reaching the departure airport, need to cover several sequential legs of the journey. The first and longest leads deeper into the country, to a major transport hub: most often Kyiv or Lviv is chosen, from where it is already easier to find a convenient connection to the Polish border and further to an airport with flights toward the Mediterranean. Because of the considerable distance, many travelers prefer an overnight train for this first leg: it lets them sleep through most of the road and arrive at the transport hub in the morning, instead of an exhausting day trip across half the country. When choosing between Kyiv and Lviv as an intermediate stop, it is worth focusing not only on distance but also on the connecting flight schedule for the needed dates: sometimes the route through Lviv turns out more convenient by time, even if it looks longer on the map. Because of the number of stages, travelers from Zaporizhzhia should budget noticeably more time for the road to the port than residents of western regions, and should not plan a departure from Europe right on the day of arrival in the border region. A small buffer, one more night on the road just in case, significantly lowers the risk of missing your own cruise because of one delayed connection. The detailed route with options through Kyiv and Lviv is described in the article "How a Ukrainian can get on a cruise: the road to the port."