Tunnel of Love, Tarakaniv Fort and Lutsk Private Guided Tour from Kyiv

This review is for August 13th 2019. I did a full day tour to the tunnel of love as well as stopping by at tarakaniv fort afterwards. the tunnel of love has been on my bucket list for the past 10 yrs, and since i was stopping in ukraine for a week, i was going to make it happen - and green tour ua sure helped it go along well! my driver (and guide) was nikolay. honestly, i loved him! he was so friendly and could speak English quite well. he took me around tarakaniv fort and explained as much as he knew about the place, while allowing me good time to take photos. at the tunnel of love, he took some photos for me at the beginning and then left me to wander down the track to take my own photos (with my timed tripod). I spent about an hour there, while nikolay waited in his car. the tunnel itself is very pretty, but the mosquitoes there were nasty. even though i coated myself in repellent, they still bit through my shirt - so be warned! also the best vantage point for THAT photo would be walking about 30mins into the tunnel first, and then turn back. whilst you start to head back towards the entrance, there is a gap where the sun shines through and that will be where you will be able to take the photo that is plastered all over travel websites. thankfully, i kept my head up when walking back as the initial photos I took weren't that great - it didn't show the "tunnel". also! i never met Snezchana, but she was the person that did all the correspondence and planned everything. I couldn't thank her enough, as I actually also asked if I could stop by one of the many dozens of sunflower fields along the way to Rivne for photos. She conveyed this to Nikolay and he found a field with HUGE sunflowers :) Nikolay again, charming as ever, took photos for me at the fields - these turned out excellent. The drive to Rivne is long about 4hours each way from Kiev - so is a full day thing. I would suggest to start early - I asked to have Nikolay pick me up at 7:30am so you make the best of your day. All in all, it was money well spent. I read about getting to the tunnel via public transport, but sometimes paying for the simplicity just trumps taking public transport in a foreign country where English is barely spoken. Can't thank Nikolay and Snezchana enough. If you do intend to go to the tunnel, ask for Nikolay. His driving is insane - as in, he gets you there quick and efficiently, just how I like it and is super friendly.

My wife and I took this last minute trip to the Tunnel of Love and Tarakaniv Fort during our trip to Kyiv. I really didn’t know what to expect during our trip as I thought it was just some romantic tunnel that she wanted to see. I booked the fort because it seemed interesting and I had no idea how mysterious and interesting it was going to be. Our guide Sasha picked us up from our hotel at 07:30 and we began out long drive to the tunnel. Surprisingly Sasha had a lot to talk about with us, not just about where we were going and the local culture and cuisine, but he has traveled quite a bit throughout the world and we all shared our experiences with each other. Sasha was the most polite, professional and down to earth person we have met during our vacation that has spanned across six countries during the past 2+ weeks. We explained that we were headed to the Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania next and he gave us some advice on that to do and see when you get there. I truly wish Sasha could have traveled with us for the remained of our trip.

This is the best way to get to the Love Tunnel without any hassle in my opinion. There is train from Kiev to Pihue, then with another 30 minute local bus ride. The problem is that is not everyone speaks English, nor signs are all in English. The tunnel is four hours from Kiev by car, 350 KM west of Kiev, one way. We only did Kiev - Tunnel roundtrip, no Tarakaniv Fort, and it's already tiring. Be sure to wear thick clothes even in a hot summer day, mosquitoes in the tunnel are big and aggressive. Use insect repellent.