Winter break in Lviv
Winter break in Lviv
As you know, visiting monuments, even the most beautiful ones, in winter, with falling snow and crashing frost is a challenge for real tough guys. But what about the others? Should they give up the trip? Not a chance. Here are a few alternative ideas for spending your time. Maybe you’ve got some ideas of your own? We’re waiting for your commentaries.
Winter Sports
When it’s wintertime, everybody wants to do some winter sports. And you can also do them in the city. All winter long in the main square there is an icerink under the naked sky. When you’re there, you can rent ice skates (Although their quality is quite poor). One hour costs
15 hr, renting ice skates costs 25 hr. After 5 pm it get a little more expensive. Despite that we highly recommend this place, especially in the evening. The open space icerink can also be found in the “Medical” sports centre by 24 Horbaczewskoho street. If it really is extremely cold, you can go to a covered icerink (The “Kingcross” shopping centre, Solkinyky, 30 Stryjska street). As long as you accept the rules of the icerink, of course – 40 hr for every 45 minutes, which begin in every full hour, and then there is a 15 minute break.
Because Lviv is a city located on hills, it is full of hills, which are great for riding down on with your sled. Such a place closest to the centre can be found on the former Governor Hills, between the Roman-Catholic curia and the Ash Tower (Currently the Winniczenki street). However, the true paradise are the Lviv parks, and mostly Kajzerwald. It a huge mountainous forest massive located almost in the direct city centre. You can get there practically by any left block of Lyczakowska above the St. Anthony church.
What’s interesting, the slopes of Kazjerwald is a place not only for sled amateurs, but also for more advanced snow games. Here you can find the “Dynamo” children’s sport zone, which has its own ski lift (Orczyk) and even a ski jump! The infrastructure is dedicated to the zone’s needs, but even the citizens of Lviv often use it for a small unofficial pay or… they climb the slope on foot. If suddenly you’ll want some white craziness, Uncle G. will give you a hint where to rent some skis in Lviv.
Muller
After the craziness on the slope or the pirouettes on the ice, you’ll definitely need to get yourself warm. And you can get special help from a Muller, which is served in most Lviv restaurants under the name of glintwein, and in the holiday season you can also get it on fairs straight from the wooden stands. If you want to taste some really good wine, we recommend the Massandra cellar (Drukarska street), which serves Crimean wines (And this region is famous for its heavy, aromatic red wines) or the Wine Kingdom shop (12 Market Square), where you also can taste the muller.
Coffee
If for some reason you’re avoiding alcohol, you can warm yourself up with hot coffee or chocolate. We can find both of those drinks in every café, and there are countless cafes in Lviv. You should definitely pay attention to The World of Coffee (Katedralny square) – every year it wins the plebiscite for the best café in Lviv- and also Ormianka – a peculiar café, which serves aromatic (and cheep) ormianian coffee (Ormianska). Chocolate lovers should go straight to the Chocolate Workshop (Serbska street), where apart from a tiny drinking room you can find a retro styled shop offering various hand made things.
Museums
Bread isn’t the only thing to keep the man alive, so after feeding your body, you’re going to need to feed your soul as well. You can do that thanks to numerous Lviv museums and galleries. From art and sacral art, through history, nature, ethnography, medicine, technology, countless museums dedicated to famous people to embroidered icons, bread or metrology, and of course beer. (And another occasion to get warmed up) You can find the full list of museum at our website.
Swimming pools and saunas
We can’t forget about this way of spending free time either. Is there anything more relaxing than warming up in a hot sauna on a frosty winter day? Or soaking in… just a bit more chilly water outside Lviv can offer both in satisfying numbers and quality. If you’re a water fun amateur, we recommend you the lviv aquapark (Kniahyny Olhy street) If you just want to go swimming, closer to the centre there is the “Eurosport” sport centre. (1 Petruszewicza square), where apart from the swimming pool there is a gym, tennis courts, football fields, and lots of fitness classes.
When it comes to saunas, there are many more of these in Lviv , although most of them are located far from the centre.
Culture
You can spend the evening inside one of the warm cultural temples of Lviv. Starting with the famous Opera Theatre, (28 Svobody street, spectacles on weekends at 6pm, ticket prices
25-150 hr) which apart from the high quality of the spectacles also offers a stunning, monumental interior, through the Polish Folk Theatre (Copernicus street in the Teacher’s house, irregular spectacles, symbolic ticket prices), and finishing on various concert rooms and a philharmonic, which can offer not only classical music, but also jazz
Discos and night clubs
Instead of the theatre, or the concert, or maybe afterwards, you can go to one of the Lviv clubs. Apart from music, and parquet craziness such places can also offer extra attractions, such as billiards, gambling games, a water pipe, or striptease, which might be enough to make any visitors forget about the freezing weather outside. The most popular clubs in the city centre include: Rafinad People (Rudanski street), Fashion club (Pidkowy square), Atmosphere (Brothers Rohatyncy street), Kult (7 Czajkowski street), Liryj Bereh (In the Opera’s underground), Millenium (2 Czornowola street), Metro (14 Green street) and Szokolad (2 Petruszewicza square)