Ports in the Ukraine

[Alice1203]

Has anyone been to the Black Sea ports of Yalta and Odessa and taken private shore excursions without getting a visa? It appears that cruise passengers are exempt from getting a visa whether they take a ship excursion or go on their own. Let's hear from you.

Alice

[Aussie Gal]

We were told here in Australia, that in order not to pay the high cost of a visa, we would have to do the ship's excursions while in Odessa and Yalta.

 

By the way Alice, what ship are you on and when are you going? We are on the Prinsendam in October.

 

Jennie

[Alice1203]

We are on the Regatta. Oceania Cruises no visa needed.

 

Alice

[Judith02]

When we were in St. Petersburg, we needed a visa unless we went on a tour with the ship's shore excursion people or a guide "authorized" by the government. Red October is usually cited as one of these in St. Petersburg.

 

We will be going to Odessa and Yalta in the Ukraine as well as Nessebur, Bulgaria and would be interested in knowing more about those ports, tours, visas, whatever.

 

Judith

[Alice1203]

Hi Judith,

 

On which ship will you be cruising? As far as I can tell you do not need visas for the ports on the Black Sea. According to Oceania Cruises the only Euopean port that they visit that needs a visa is St. Petersburg. If you are on the Sep.t 14 Insignia let me know.

 

Alice

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Hi,

 

I'm just back the Black Sea trip on the Radisson Diamond. Yes, you need a visa, but it is arranged on the ship (at least for RSSC). We had to carry out passports for the three ports (Yalta, Sevastopol, Odessa), and they contained the visa stamps, which were checked coming and going.

 

But that's all. The whole thing was fairly casual, and people certainly could go off on their own using the same method, they did not have to use the ship's excursions.

 

Hope this helps.

[shmabbies]

If I could just stick my two cents in here, the questions and answers regarding visas are being posted by cruisers from three different countries! What's OK for one might not be OK for another so be sure you get accurate information from someone other than each other!! That said, we were in Yalta and Odessa in 2000 (seems like another age, doesn't it?) and did ship's tours in both places. At that time I don't think the tourist infrastructure was that easy to negotiate & it didn't seem that alot of people spoke English so I think, at least at that time, that that was the right way to go to see things efficiently. We had time with both tours to walk around the cities afterwards, have a drink/snack etc. If there were any visas involved (we're American) there was nothing WE had to do personally to procure them but things have changed dramatically post 9-11 so it may be different now. We loved both ports!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

What I said applied to the US passengers too. I know that, because there were very few Canadians on this particular cruise!

 

But of course your advice is good! It's always good to be sure!

[shmabbies]

You made me curious when you mentioned visa stamps, so I checked our passports and we have nothing in ours even indicating we ever were in Yalta or Odessa or the ports in Bulgaria & Romania. We were on Renaissance when we were there in 2000, not that that matters. I like stamps and visas so that's kindof disappointing!!