The back story
Where Kyiv sleeps: the river, the old town and the boulevards
The Fairmont on the Dnipro embankment, the InterContinental beside St Michael’s, the Hyatt Regency by St Sophia, the Opera Hotel and the Hilton on the boulevards: where to stay in Kyiv today, and what to ask before you book.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Moahim · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsKyiv’s grand hotels sit in two clusters. On the high ground of the old Upper Town, the InterContinental and the Hyatt Regency stand between St Sophia’s and St Michael’s, a short walk from the Golden Gate. Below, on the Podil embankment, the Fairmont Grand Hotel looks over the Dnipro. To the south and west, the Opera Hotel and the Hilton are on the wide boulevards of the city centre, close to the Opera House and the university.
The old town
InterContinental Kyiv, at 2A Velyka Zhytomyrska Street, has 272 rooms and suites and was built, in the hotel’s words, to match its historical surroundings: St Sophia’s Cathedral, St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery and St Andrew’s Church. Its French and Ukrainian restaurant is Comme Il Faut; the b-hush lounge bar is on the roof. The Hyatt Regency, at 5 Alla Tarasova Street, has 234 rooms beside St Sophia, with Naturel Spa and a 20-metre indoor pool in its Club Olympus (Hyatt).
The river
The Fairmont Grand Hotel stands on the banks of the Dnipro behind what it calls a “wedding cake façade”; its rooms, between 40 and 53 square metres, are in its own words the largest in the city. Marigold, its restaurant, weaves Ukrainian traditions with European ones, and classical concerts are given in the Atrium hall.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Rbrechko · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsThe boulevards
The Opera Hotel, a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, has 140 rooms and suites, some decorated after the great operas, a short walk from the Opera House and St Volodymyr’s Cathedral; its shelter is in the Symphony conference hall. The Hilton is at 30 Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, with an indoor pool and a spa (Hilton).
In wartime, ask every hotel where its shelter is before you book; the good ones answer at once.
Our advice: choose a hotel that names its shelter and its generator plan, and keep the Air Alert app on your phone.
Why it's on our list
- The old town
- The river
- The boulevards
Check availability
Opens Booking.com in a new tab with your dates. ULTIMATE Kyiv City Guide doesn't take bookings or payments.
Location
The map comes from Google Maps, which sets its own cookies once it loads.
More in depth
The back storyThe city of golden domes: reading Kyiv’s great sightsSt Sophia’s and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on UNESCO’s list, the Golden Gate, St Michael’s and St Andrew’s, the Andriivskyi Descent down to Podil, and the memorial at Babyn Yar: how to read Kyiv.
The back storyKyiv’s arts: the Opera, the Arsenal and the theatres that never closedThe National Opera, the Franko, the Lesya Ukrainka and the Molodyi theatres, the Mystetskyi Arsenal, the Khanenko Museum, the Dovzhenko Centre and the contemporary galleries: Kyiv’s arts today.The back storyBuying in Kyiv: what a foreign buyer should know firstApartments and houses yes, farmland no; a notary for every deal, a Ukrainian tax number, the state register, and the questions wartime adds: buying a home in Kyiv, in outline.