Kyiv guide for Krupa guests
If it’s your first time in Kyiv save this ultimate city guide with places where to stay, eat, walk, shop and be amused collected by designers for designers.
Projector is gathering design community on KRUPA. Interface Design Conference on April 6. Speakers and attendees from all over the world are coming to hear the legendary Don Norman and have fun. That’s why we prepared the city guide to get your first impression of the Ukrainian capital.
Here’s an overlook on Kyiv from the bird’s eye view or drone 🙃 to get acquainted with the city’s character.
But first of all — where to stay?
Bursa hotel
Choose between “Nice Room” and “Super Nice Room”. The gallery of contemporary art, courtyard, library on art and design, city cafe “White Noise” and a rooftop bar — all in one place to make your visit remarkable. Prices: from 109 euro per night
Friends will be friends-place with all stuff you need behind: Andriyivskyy descent, Postal Square, the creative heart of the city — Vozdvizhenka.
Prices: from 38 euro per night for a private room
Krupa guests can book a room with a 10% discount here and also in Kiev Hotel. Prices: сlassic single — 160 euro
Ibis (the one just at the railway station)
A well-known network of hotels.
Prices: from 62 euro per night
Designers friendly hotel.
Prices: from 217 euro.
Where to eat?
average prices for lunch: starting from 3,3 euro
beer: from 2 euro
- SHO — “It’s a restaurant or a museum?!”. Spectacular interior in Ukrainian style. Try Kyiv cheese pancakes for breakfast.
- Kanapa — new Ukrainian cuisine. Edible candles and other food experiments.
- Barvy — recipes from different parts of Ukraine served in a new way. Interesting: a waiter will offer a proper cocktail to your dish.
- Kosatka — Smashing Magazine’s editor-in-chief favorite.
- Chernomorka — for fish and seafood lovers.
- Zigzag — urban cafe with a laid back atmosphere
- Lyubimy Dyadya — cross its threshold and you’ll see how soon a restaurant became a home. Home of a favorite uncle.
- JZL — simple food, cooked in a new way and special authored cocktails.
- Salateira — for salad lovers.
- Trishky bilshe — so friendly we can’t stop returning there.
Favorites from locals
- Khvylovyi, Barman Dictat, Parovoz Speak Easy, Bar 13, Budu pozzhe, Black Tot Bar, The Nora bar, Loggerhead, Podil East India company — bars where you can find Projector’s team after work.
- Pyrizhkova Titka Klara — take two buns at once, break your diet.
- Kyivska perepichka — don’t take this sausage in dough seriously, it’s just a legend.
Shopping
- Vsi Svoi — the only platform where all the Ukrainian designers, brands and products are under one roof.
- Vsi Svoi. Home and Decor — one place to find presents for the whole family and friends.
- Orner Store — a huge number of cute staff to please your friends with: cups, plates, notebooks, postcards with sweet illustrations.
- Syndicate — Ukrainian streetwear brand, made by cool illustrators and designers.
Let’s break for a coffee
average price for coffee: 1–2,6 euro
- Espressoholic
- The coffee tram in Taras Shevchenko Park — the real tram
Places on your map
Art places, museums, must visits
- Mystetskyi Arsenal — modern Ukrainian art that integrates contemporary art, music, theater, literature and museum affairs.
- PinchukArtCentre — the center where contemporary art of the XXI century lives.
- Projector — creative and tech school which organizes KRUPA conference. We’ll be glad to say hello.
- Khanenko Museum of Arts — eastern and western collections of classic art worth seeing.
- NAMU (National Art Museum of Ukraine) — ancient icons, portraits, sculptures, mosaics, tapestries, avant-garde cubist and constructivist compositions. Lately, NAMU got a new identity from Banda Agency, the one that won Red Dot for the best agency of the year.
- Botan — the Library you want to live in: interior, people, hammock and books to read for free. The silence culture — is the uniqueness of the place you’ll never find somewhere else.
- Izone — a cultural center placed at the old factory.
- M17 — Center for Contemporary Art. The logo used the letter “M”, which refers to Kazimir Malevich as a prominent Ukrainian avant-garde artist.
- Unit City — first Ukrainian innovation park filled with startups, corporations, international companies, and ones again startups.
- National Zoological Museum — hundreds of animal species and skeletons.
- Zhytniy rynok — good food from the locals. The building is a great example of Soviet modern architecture.
- Bessarabka — a big market with a remarkable variety of food points.
Walking the city
If you’d like to discover Kyiv and find spectacular places — we deeply recommend you to take an Overview tour composed by Julia Bevzenko.
- Andriivskyy descent — a place to start your friendship with Kyiv.
- Peizazhna alley — recreation area, hidden in the courtyards of the central district. 30-meters wall with the mouth of a cat-centipede, Little Prince, dozens of creative benches. Every piece of art is made with colored mosaic.
- Kyivskyi velotrek — the most instagrammable place.
- National Botanical Garden — may be the greenest place of the city.
- Funicular — a little cabin that will bring you up from Podil to historic Upper City through the view of the Dnipro River.
- Taras Shevchenko’s Park — also known as a “green building” for students who skip classes in the park. The Red Building should be in your focus, especially in the evening.
Heritage of Soviet architecture
Unique modernism architecture or three buildings you won’t find anywhere else.
Hotel “Salute”
What was planned as an 18-floor skyscraper ended up a 5-floor hotel because of a conflict between architects’ staff and government. Now the hotel looks like an alien, which happened to be in this place at this time by an accident.
Crematorium and Memory Park
Despite the sorrowful function, the crematorium amazes with its unusual cosmic forms. The building looks like mysterious portal to another world, which is fully consistent with its purpose.
Doctor’s house
This is used to be a doctor’s house with a library, laundry, long spacious gallery, and a flat roof as a solarium. It’s difficult not to call it the best example of the constructivist residential architecture of the city.
And as a bonus — charming mini Kyiv video
We hope the list will help you to become friends with Kyiv.
Your KRUPA. Interface Design Conference
See ya on the 6th of April in Kyiv and hope you’ll enjoy the city.
