Kharkiv may not be as popular as Kyiv, Odesa, or Lviv, but Kharkiv has been attracted by visitors all around the world with its unique culture, history, and industrial power.
Kharkiv is a city of large squares, parks, and incredibly beautiful churches and cathedrals. In this article, we offer you alternative ways to spend time in Kharkiv. So, what to do and where to go?
Walk
Have a walk through downtown, from the Strelka park near Lopan river to Derzhprom ( State Industry Building or the Palace of Industry).
Strelka Park – located next to the river Lopan. In 2010, after reconstruction, it has become one of the favorite places for Kharkiv citizens. There is also a new suspension bridge, as well as the recently opened boat stations: “Lastochka” (near the Lopansky bridge) and “Strelka” (near the suspension bridge). You can have a boat trip for an hour on the rivers Kharkiv and Lopan for 50 UAH per person.
Shevchenko Garden. Recently renovated, this city garden is suitable for a walk with friends or alone. Sit on a bench and enjoy life!
Derzhprom. In English, the structure is known as the State Industry Building or the Palace of Industry. At the time of its completion in 1928, it was the largest “skyscraper” in the USSR and the second in Europe. Seven of its 12 original elevators still function without being replaced since 1928.
Park of Maxim Gorky. The main park of the city occupies an area of more than 62 hectares. Numerous attractions and cafes, cinema, children’s railway, cable car, at least three playgrounds, the largest Ferris wheel in Ukraine, tennis courts there are in the park.
You can walk in one of the most beautiful streets – Darvina Street, famous for a huge number of monuments. The street is quite short, only about 700 meters in length. But it is full of nice buildings.
LandauCenter
The purpose of the LandauCenter Training Center is to stimulate the revival of lost interest in science and to establish a unique center of intellectual leisure for Kharkiv residents and guests of the city.
Here you can look at aerodynamic levitation, Eddy currents, Kundt’s method for measuring the speed of sound, Tesla coil, that produces a voltage of 500 thousand volts. Try them for yourself and seat on the chair full of nails (and feel nothing).
Jump with a parachute
Airfield “Korotych” – sports airfield, located near Kharkiv. The airfield is designed to accommodate and perform general aviation flights, to launch and testing of model aircraft, as well as performing parachute jumps.
There is an open-air museum on the airfield with 4 legendary Soviet aircraft MiG-21, MiG-23 fighter-bombers, MiG-27 and Su-17, and 2 helicopters, installed on the museum area by the University of the Air Force.
Play golf
Superior Golf Club professional-standard 18-hole golf course is considered the best in the CIS and is rated as one of the highest quality and most challenging in Europe. Besides this, the grounds of the golf resort boast a 5-star hotel, restaurants, a spa complex, pools, and tennis courts.
Meet with friends “at the thermometer”
For 40 years citizens of Kharkiv meeting each other and date” at the thermometer” – on the corner of the house, where Sumska street begins – the main street in the city. It is no coincidence that all year round flowers are selling here.
The “Thermometer” construction of 17 meters in length includes the coat of arms of Kharkiv, 2 meters in diameter clock with an electronic second hand, which is adjusted from the satellite. The first “Thermometer” in Kharkiv was installed in 1975.
Spend a day in the historic manor
Manor Sharovka is about 60 km from the city. This beautiful manor consists of Sharovsky park, the palace itself, a nursery for breeding pheasants, stables, greenhouses, orangery, a house of a gardener, and several outbuildings. Sharovka manor got its final shape when the manor was acquired by a wealthy sugar producer Leopold König at the beginning of the XX century. Sharovsky Palace – white stone manor house in the neo-Gothic style, it is located on a hill and is the centre of the complex.
The park is the work of well-known landscape architect Georg Kufaldt, the creator of Kadriorg Park in Tallinn. For spectacular prospects in the park, he used the height difference up to 32 m. About a hundred species of rare ornamental plants were planted in the park.
During the Soviet times’ sanatorium for tuberculosis patients was established in the complex, but after it was closed in 2008, restoration work carried out in small volumes.
Ride a cable car
Kharkiv Cable Car is a transport system linking the street Sumska near Gorky Park with Pavlovo Pole neighborhoods near Sarzhin Yar. Its length is about 1.5 kilometers, and the highest point is about 30 meters. The journey takes around 20 minutes one way.
Look at the fountain near the railway station
One of the biggest in Ukraine, this station was built in 1896. Musical fountain at the railway station square stats to work after sunset, taking the attention of citizens and guests of the city.
P.S. The image of Kharkiv railway station used in Call of Duty Offensive.
Go to synagogue
The Kharkiv Choral Synagogue is the largest in the country, in CIS and second in Europe after Budapest Synagogue.
Go to Ecopark
Ecopark is an area for a family holiday with entertainment and the zoo. You can have the opportunity not only to watch the animals but to communicate with some of them in the area of the contact zoo.
