As an integral part of Semester Abroad program, different excursions in and outside Lviv are offered to encourage the better understanding and further learning of Ukrainian and local Lviv’s history, culture and traditions.

Usually the direct list of excursions is fixed after the arrival of  Semester Abroad students and depends on their choice, study schedule and excursion fees.

In Lviv and Lviv Region

1. Medieval Lviv. During this excursion we will visit city center and get aquainted with Lviv`s medieval history. City was founded in 1256 and combined both western and eastern traditions in one place. You will see the first European Opera, Dominican and Latin cathedral, visit the Jesuit church. You will hear stories about mysterious stone city. To get acquainted with Lviv, you will take a walking tour covering Rynok Square, High Castle, Gunpowder tower, Arsenal, Corniaktos tower, Armenian church and many more.

2. Political history of Lviv. This excursion is a possibility to see Lviv as a political arena. Starting from the medieval times, you’ll see how different global trends influenced local history, culture and people and form what is known as a contemporary Lviv. Ruthenian, Polish, Austrian, German, Soviet and Ukrainian Lviv transitions will be combined into one political and cultural process.

3. Austrian Lviv. Famous Buildings of Lviv, built during the Austrian period deserve special note. During the tour we will show you the Habsburg Empire quarters of the most beautiful and most interesting buildings of that time: the Galician Diet, the oldest city park, Potocki Palace, Svoboda and Shevchenko avenues. Let’s have a walk around the medieval city center.

4. Jewish Heritage in Lviv. Multicultural ancient Lviv is one of the famous centers of Jewish culture. Jews arrived to Lviv in the 13th century and have always been one of the largest ethnic groups in the city population. Lviv Jewish heritage tour includes a city tour, which will show you the historical, cultural and social life of Jews in one of the largest cities in Ukraine. You will also visit a Hasidic synagogue. A walking city tour allows one to visit the Pharmacy-museum, the Italian courtyard, the medieval Jewish quarter, the once famous Renaissance «Golden Rose» synagogue remnants, Bet Hamidrash, Dem Parnas house, Jewish quarter of the Krakow suburb of Lviv, ruins of Progressionist synagogue, Bet Hamidrash, Hasidism school, the residence of the new Jewish religious community, Jewish hospital, Yad Harusym, house of Shalom Aleichem, monument to the victims of the Jewish ghetto.

5. Lychakiv Cemetry. Visiting the memorial museum under the open sky, you will see sculptures gravestones first half of the XIX century., Ukrainian and Polish war graves, the oldest tombstones in the cemetery. You will heared many interesting stories from biographies of famous people who were funeral in this famous necropolis.

6. Open-air Museum of Ukrainian Culture and Mode of Life at Shevchenkivskyi Hay (Shevchenko Grove. This is an ethnographic excursion, which features authentic 15-16th century villages relocated from various parts of Western Ukraine. There is a large number of 18th – 20th century wooden cottages, churches, farmsteads and windmills, many with beautiful gardens and preserved interior furnishings.)

7. Underground Lviv. Your journey in Ukraine may start from the quiet, dark, mysterious cave. You will hear many stories and legends of Lviv dungeons.

8. Lviv Сoffee + Ukrainian Сuisine. Restaurants and coffee houses are the integral part of Lviv life culture. Living in Lviv style is an art of tasting delicious dishes of famous Lviv restaurants, arranging meetings for coffee in cozy cafes, getting the real pleasure from fantastic desserts and cakes, offered by glorious Lviv confectioneries.  You  can take cooking classes by authentic old Ukrainian recipes, tasting herbal and berries liqueurs, that were popular in the times of knights, and finally the Lviv day with visiting unique cafes and pubs of the city.

9. Beer in Lviv. Beer has been produced in Lviv since 1715! The «beer tour» will start off with getting to know Lviv – the ancient city of lions. In order to get to know the most about the history of brewing in Lviv, you will have the chance to visit Lviv brewery – the oldest beer making factory in Ukraine. Once you visit the Museum of Beer you will have an amazing opportunity of tracing the history of this amber drink and, of course, tasting its different sorts!

10. Musical Lviv. Lviv is a city where one of the most beautiful European Opera theaters stands. Lviv is the city famous for its musicians, orchestras, musical schools and classical music festivals. You’ll have a extensive tour around Lviv accompanied by stories about outstanding musicians who lived and worked in the city, an excursion to Solomiya Krushelnytska Opera and Ballet theater with the possibility of watching plays there, a visit to the museum apartment of a world-renowned opera singer, a La Scala theatre diva, a singing partner to Enrico Caruso and Tito Ruffo, and Puccini’s friend – Solomiya Krushelnytska.

11.  Lviv region castles “Golden Horseshoe of Lviv” – a trip to the three castles – Olesky, Pidhoretskyy and Zolochevsky.

 Sightseeing Tours outside of Lviv

1. Carpathian Mountains and Transcarpathian Region. Depending on the program you will visit one of the greatest religious, historical and architectural relics of the Western Ukraine – Hoshiv Monastery, the largest lake of the Ukrainian Carpathians – Synevyr, located 989 meters above the sea level, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the Carpathians – Shypit, Dovbush Rocks – a unique in its shape and location accumulation of huge rocks and stones,the Shenborn palace, built by Count Buheymom Shenborn in the years in 1890-1895, which has 365 windows (the number of days in a year), 52 chimneys (the number of weeks in a year) and 12 entrances (the number of months) and visit the most picturesque cities of the Transcarpathian region: Berehove, Mukacheve, Hust as well as beautiful Carpathian places in Yaremche and Kosiv.

2. Kyiv – the capital of Ukraine. Kyiv is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It has been standing on steep hills overlooking the Dnipro River for more than 1,500 years. Since then, Kyiv has flourished into a valuable center of culture and civilization of East Europe. Only a handful of European cities can claim a history spanning such a long time. The city is the cradle of Eastern Orthodox Church where pilgrims from all over Ukraine and abroad come to offer up prayers in ancient Golden-domed cathedrals, churches and majestic monasteries. These unique monuments of high-spiritual aspirations, talent and consummate skills of people born at this land are rightfully claimed as masterpieces of ancient Rus and Ukrainian architecture. As the сountry’s administrative and financial center, Kyiv is a place for Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), Presidential Administration, and ministries and governmental departments. In Kyiv, more than 2,000 objects are placed in the list of historical, cultural, and architectural monuments.

3. Castles of the Western Ukraine. Being connected with different families, people’s fortunes and legends they give us feeling of romance, picture images of past in fancy. The biggest part of them is in the west of Ukraine. Part of them is adapted to museums, but the most of them remains beyond the tourists’ attention. Together with architecture of monasteries and churches, surrounded by picturesque Ukrainian nature these islands of our culture are glad to meet any attentive tourist. Depending on the program you’ll visit Lutsk, Kamianets-Podilsky (Old fortress and old town, museums, churches and Roman-Catholic churches), Khotyn fortress, Fortress Trenches of St. Trinity on canyons of rivers Dnistr and Zbruch,  Buchatsk castle, town council, churches, Roman-Catholic churches, monasteries, Svirzh castle and other places.

4. Uman dendro park Sophievka. Is the world’s landscape architecture masterpiece of the end of 15th and the beginning of19th centuries. The park is spread over the territory of 154,7 h. and is situated at the outskirts of the ancient town Cherkassy, Uman region. It is considered to be the standard of the landscape composition of water, land, architectural works and sculptures. This masterpiece, which was created in the shortest period of time, still astounds the imagination of visitors. Unique sceneries, exotic plants and rare trees, sky-blue ponds, fountains and cascades, grottoes and antique sculptures…all this you can see visiting the park.