London to Poland and Ukraine by Train + Chernobyl Extension

Our trip begins this morning at London's St Pancras Station, the home of the Eurostar. Here you'll meet a representative from Explore to assist you with check-in and answer any last minute questions, before you board your (unaccompanied) Eurostar train to Brussels.

We meet our Tour Leader off the train at Brussels Midi/Zuid Station, and locate our onward train to Koln, which takes just under 2 hours. We have a connecting journey in Koln to Berlin, flying through the German countryside and saying 'Guten Abend' to Berlin after arriving around 8pm this evening.

We've left this morning free for you to explore Berlin on your own time. Those of you who haven't visited this captivating city before may wish to visit the key sights of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, all located conveniently within walking distance of each other, and of our hotel. Or if you're more of an art and architecture fan, visit the UNESCO Heritage Site of Museum Island. This collection of museums dates from the Age of Enlightenment, and is just about the best preserved 'historic' area of the city. Tickets are available to purchase online or on site.

Alternatively, the excellent Berlin Wall Memorial is a fascinating and sobering 1.4 kilometre walk that ends at Bernauer Strasse U-Bahn. Walking along the former border strip, the memorial really conveys how impressive the fortifications were between East and West Germany, and the trials of communities on both sides of the wall. If you have time, head to the East Side Gallery first - an S-bahn journey away from the hotel, this open air art gallery is the longest continuous stretch of the Berlin Wall in existence.

In the afternoon we'll meet back at the hotel to pick up our bags, and return to Hauptbahnhof where we catch our three-hour train across the Polish border to Poznan.

The under-the-radar town of Poznan is the perfect place to start our time in Poland. It contains everything that makes Polish cities so fascinating - history, architecture, good food - but with some interesting quirks. Our orientation tour this morning will introduce us to several places of importance, including Ostrow Tumski - Cathedral Island - which is widely held to be 'the birthplace of Poland'. Here, we'll find Poland's oldest cathedral, where the first king of Poland was baptised, causing the nation to be formally recognised as such by the Pope.

The orientation tour will end at Poznan's Old Market Square. Lining one side of the square is a collection of colourful and intensely photogenic townhouses that were, once upon a time, home to traders. The narrow halls upstairs would have been dwellings, while the merchants traded their wares - everything from fish to candles - in the doorways below. Just beside these houses is the Town Hall from which, every day at noon, two mechanical goats emerge from a door above the clock tower, and proceed to butt heads. This bizarre tradition dates back to the 1500s, and no doubt our Tour Leader will share the accompanying legend with us during our tour.

After lunch, we're free to stroll around Poznan at our leisure. You may wish to visit Cytadela Park and the Armory Museum for an introduction to Poland's long wartime history. Or visit one of the town's museums. One of the most visited is the Croissant 'Museum' (more of a live baking show with English tours at 2pm) - in celebration of one of Poland's few DOP (legally protected) foods! In contrast to the French croissants, the St. Martin's is folded 81 times, enveloping poppy seeds, raisins and almonds within the layers. Glazed with sugar and nuts these enormous pastries are delicious. If you just wish to taste the croissant, there are several designated bakeries in the city which are licenced for its sale - enjoy it with a cup of black coffee.

We'll take an early train out of Poznan this morning, trundling across Poland on a five hour journey to Krakow, calling at Wroclaw and Katowice. Krakow, Poland's capital until 1596, is still the country's most charming city, a picture-postcard city of narrow medieval streets, grand buildings and al-fresco cafes just begging to be explored.

This afternoon we take a tour of Nowa Huta, a town designed in 1949 as the 'ideal' Communist city, in total contrast to 'bourgeois' Krakow. Originally built as a separate town, it's now been swallowed up by the city itself - yet has a completely unique character. Created as a workers paradise, the urban project was a hefty piece of Communist propaganda, with underground bunkers, wide roads that could withstand the spread of fire, and an enormous steelworks that would provide jobs for the entire population. Classic Polish milk bars still exist, with locals eating pickled cucumbers with vodka and other such Eastern European delicacies! We'll explore with a local tour guide, who will bring this seemingly ordinary district of Krakow to life.

This morning we'll take take a trip to Oswiecim, the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp; an eerie and haunting place that drives home the terrible atrocities which took place here during World War II.

In the afternoon we visit the UNESCO listed Jewish Podgorze District, the location of the Jewish Ghetto in World War II and the setting for the film 'Schindler's List'. Along the way we will grab a 'zapiekanka', an open faced toasted baguette sandwich, which is a popular local fast food option. Whilst in this area you'll have the opportunity to visit the Old Synagogue, Schindler's Factory and the Museum of Jewish Life, which provide fascinating insights into the life of Krakow Jews and the war years.

In the evening we spend our final night in Poland enjoying a traditional Jewish dinner accompanied by Klezmer music with its expressive melodies, said to be reminiscent of the human voice. Following dinner, if you wish, your Leader will point you towards to a few local bars and pubs to give you the chance to try the typical Polish beers and the extensive local vodka varieties.

Today we have a free day in Krakow. As we haven't spent a lot of time in the city centre, you may wish to visit fabulous Rynek Glowny, Europe's largest medieval square. The square is still now very much at the heart of Krakow local life. Quirky town houses and historic buildings adorn the square with the most famous being the Sukiennice, a vast cloth hall where goods would have been sold in medieval times, which is still in use now as a covered market. Inside you'll find vendors peddling a multitude of local wares from wooden toys to beautiful amber jewellery.

Alternatively, there is the option to visit the Wieliczska Salt Mines. At up to 300 metres underground, the incredible mines are home to a 400 year old chapel, a subterranean salt lake and chambers large enough to take the Eiffel Tower! The mines are reached by local train, about a 20 minute journey each way.

We'll meet back up as a group in the early evening, before setting off for our overnight train from Krakow to Lviv, departing around 9pm.

The sleeper train into the Ukraine is a collection of old 'Soviet' style carriages, set out in 3-4 person berths. Linen is included, and each cabin has a washbasin, with toilets located along the carriage.

We cross the border into Ukraine in the early hours of the morning, and border guards will board the train to check and stamp passports. After the formalities, we'll get a couple of hours additional sleep before alighting in Lviv just after 6am. In fact, our bodies will be telling us it's just after 5am due to the time difference - and we'll have to remember this when setting our wake-up alarms!

We'll go straight to the hotel on arrival, where we have early check-in arranged to freshen up and eat breakfast.

In the late morning, we'll take a guided walking tour through the stunning old quarter of the city. As a small university city with some ornate architecture, Lviv has an elegant air of cool. It's known for its coffee culture, cobblestoned streets and European-flair, which contrasts massively with the Soviet-style brutalism we'll see in Kyiv. The walking tour will visit the highlights, including the Old Rus Quarter and the pink and yellow buildings on the Rynok Square.

In the afternoon, we're at our leisure to relax and enjoy one of the many coffee shops. Lviv is well known for both its beer and chocolate, so you may choose to visit the Brewery Museum or join a chocolate making masterclass with a professional chocolatier.

Lviv is getting quite a reputation for home-grown produce on Ukraine's 'craft' food scene. This morning we'll take a journey to the rural outskirts of Lviv, to the Garbuzo Vyjraj cheese farm. This cheese farm is one of the many that have sprung up in Ukraine around the last decade, inspiring cheese and wine festivals in both Lviv and Kiev, as well as an annual cheese awards! We'll learn from the masters how cheese is matured and ripened, and use this knowledge to make our own cheese, from the pasteurization stage to the finished product. The farm owners will also take us through a tasting of their range of cheeses, along with some locally-made bread and salad.

Returning to Lviv by vehicle, we go directly to the train station where we catch our final train to Kiev, arriving at approximately 11pm.

It's all change today as we say goodbye to some of our rail companions, who are leaving the tour in Kyiv, along with our Tour Leader. All those extending to Chernobyl will be joining together with other travellers, who arrived yesterday for their short break in Chernobyl.

We have a busy day ahead, as we aim to explore a selection of Kyivs many historic sights and to get a feel for this great city. We'll start with a guided walking tour of Kyiv, which is situated on the banks of the River Dnipro. This ancient city has been inhabited for almost 2000 years and it was once the capital of the Kyivan Rus State, from which all later Russian states were descended. Although Ukrainian nationalism is stronger than ever, you will still hear Russian spoken here today. During our tour we'll see the onion domed exterior of Santa Sophia Cathedral, the Golden Gate which was once the main entrance to the city, Saint Andrews Baroque church and Mother Motherland, a 100 metre high statue to honour the heroes of the Soviet Union. We also visit the Chernobyl Museum. Exhibits are designed to teach us of the scope of the nuclear disaster and to ensure that the lessons learnt from this terrible accident aren't forgotten.

This afternoon we take the metro to Arsenalna, which is the deepest station in the world. We continue by metro to the Lavra Historical and Cultural Reserve and visit the remarkable 'Monastery of the Caves' founded in AD 1051, where the labyrinths provide all the natural conditions needed for mummification. We have a guided tour of the caves and have time in either the Museum of Miniatures or the Museum Of Historical Treasures and the Holy Trinity Church.

This morning we set off on our exciting explorations to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is about two hours' drive from the city and close to the Belarusian border. Back on the 26th April 1986 the Number 4 nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded with catastrophic consequences. Since then an Exclusion Zone has been in place around the plant and nature has reclaimed the towns and vehicles left within this. The accident was the result of a flawed Soviet reactor, operated by inadequately trained staff that had been ordered to carry out a poorly planned test.

There were four reactors and a further two being constructed when Reactor 4 exploded twice, killing two workers and releasing at least 5% of its radioactive core into the atmosphere. A further 28 fire fighters died of radiation poisoning following the accident. At the time this was the largest uncontrolled radioactive release recorded.

The city of Pripyat was built three kilometres from the site to house the plant's workers and their families and, at the time, it had 49,000 inhabitants. Within a 30 kilometre radius of the power plant, there was a population of up to 135,000 people. All were evacuated after the accident and most of these towns and villages including Pripyat are now ghost towns.

Surprisingly after the accident the other reactors at Chernobyl were restarted. Their safety was improved but due to energy shortages the last reactor wasn't turned off until December 2000. In 2011 Chernobyl was declared safe enough to be recognised as a tourist attraction.

Reactor 4 was enclosed in a large concrete shelter which was erected quickly after the incident and contained around 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material. The old shelter only had a shelf life of 30 years and at the end of 2016 a huge 'New Safe Confinement' structure was built on the site and moved into place over the old shelter. It is the world's largest movable structure and inside a team of robotic cranes is taking the old shelter and radioactive core apart in an effort to make the area safe again.

On our first day of discovery with a local guide we will explore Pripyat including the fairground, hospital, hotel, bus station, fire station, football stadium, sports centre, elementary school, kindergarten, police station, Palace of Culture, church and the 'bridge of death'. We'll also see the Red Forest and the structure around Reactor 4. The attractions seen in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone may vary depending on local conditions and restrictions, but we'll see the most possible during our two days spent here.

This evening we will have the unique experience of staying within the Exclusion Zone in a small hotel within the town of Chernobyl. The bedrooms are simply decorated and there are two bathrooms shared between every five bedrooms. There is a restaurant and bar where we will enjoy a traditional Ukrainian meal this evening.

Please note that it is essential that you provide us with the correct passport information at the time of booking and that you check this is accurate on your booking confirmation/the online customer information gateway, as this will be required in order to request the permissions needed to enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Corrections and amendments may incur additional charges at your own expense or result in you being denied entrance to the Exclusion Zone. If you intend to renew your passport please let us know at the point of booking and ensure that you have your new passport no later than 10 weeks prior to travel. In order to be permitted to enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and to travel on this holiday you must be at least 18 years old.

Today we will most likely see Pripyat's swimming pool, grammar school and music school and visit the secret Soviet Duga Radar Facility. The radar military base was named Chernobyl 2 and didn't appear on any civilian maps and the trees were strategically planted to block the view from the neighbouring towns. There are two radars here that were constructed as part of a Soviet early missile detection system. The bigger of the two is almost 500 metres long and around 150 metres high. Also on the site are an abandoned fire station, small power plant, hospital and apartment buildings where the military personnel stationed here and their families would have lived.

We will also hopefully get the chance today to speak with people still living within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, who are known as self-settlers. A year after the accident over one thousand people returned to their homes and despite efforts from the authorities they kept returning until eventually being allowed to stay and they have been living off grid ever since. Many of the people who choose to return were retired at the time and since it has been over 30 years since the disaster many of these people have sadly now passed away, so many of the towns and villages in the Exclusion Zone now only have one or two people living there. We should be able to meet with a couple of the self-settlers to hear their stories of what their lives were like before, during and after the explosion.

Late this afternoon we drive back to Kyiv for our final free evening in the city.

The trip ends after breakfast at our hotel in Kyiv.

There are no activities planned today, so you are free to depart from Kyiv at any time. If your flight is departing later in the day, luggage storage facilities are available at our hotel. If you would like to receive a complimentary airport transfer today, you'll need to depart from Kyiv Boryspil International Airport (KBP).