Pripyat tour

Pripyat Tours Reveal the History of the Ghost Town

Once this small town was bustling with life: residential buildings were being built, kindergartens and schools welcomed children, hospitals received patients, cultural centers organized cultural events and entertainments, and the locals had plans for the future. But that one day has changed everything forever.

Now, Pripyat is considered to be a ghost town with desolate streets where wild animals roam, where military vehicles used in the liquidation of the Chernobyl disaster are slowly rusting in the boneyard, with people as part of Pripyat guided tour groups wandering here and there.

Where Is Pripyat Located?

The abandoned town on the banks of the Pripyat River is located about 112 miles north of Kyiv and only two miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Being a typical Soviet town, it had residential complexes and apartment blocks, kindergartens, schools, hospitals, a cinema, as well as a variety of sports facilities. It had everything a community could want and more. But there was even more than that. Because of their status, the nuclear power plant workers had a better quality of life than many other residents of the Soviet Union. Thus, Pripyat was a place for people who worked for their future and had certain privileges which were very much enjoyed.

What Was Pripyat Built For?

It was established in 1970 together with the neighboring Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In the beginning, the settlement housed construction workers. Once the NPP was up and running, the town began to grow becoming a place of residence for the workers of the nuclear power plant. Scientists and engineers moved with their families to the brand new town with much joy.

What Happened to Pripyat after the Disaster?

In 1979, Pripyat became a city as the number of residents was constantly increasing, just like the number of apartment blocks, and reached 50,000 people. When the Chernobyl tragedy struck in April 1986, life in the city changed completely. The residents were unaware of the catastrophe. Even though the explosion had occurred, the government didn’t initiate an emergency evacuation at once and waited for over 24 hours. A thousand buses swarmed the streets of Pripyat on the morning of April 27 to announce that an accident had occurred at the nuclear power plant and that everyone was required to leave as soon as possible.

People were told that the evacuation was temporary, so families took no more than a suitcase full of necessities and many of them were relocated to the new town of Slavutych, 30 miles to the east. But they never knew they wouldn’t return to their homes.

What to See in Pripyat

Nowadays, tours to Pripyat have become a popular activity among local and foreign tourists, and there is actually a plethora of things to see there, including the following:

• Palace of Culture. It was a massive community center that included a theater, cinema, dance halls, gym, swimming pool, and library, dancing halls. Young people were frequent visitors at the discos, which made the Palace of Culture a prominent gathering place for amusement. Now, it looks like any other shattered building in the city, full of broken furniture.
• Amusement park. The park was built not long before the explosion in Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It is one of the most popular sights in Pripyat, and during a full-day tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat from Kiev tourists visit this place and admire its apocalyptic looks.
• Self-settlers. Some locals chose to return to their houses after being relocated from the Exclusion Zone. Only a few of them are still around, and they’re living on their own, with minimal assistance from the government. Visiting self-settlers may be part of a Ukraine Pripyat tour as it is often interesting to hear first-hand experiences of the explosion, evacuation, and life in the years that followed.
• Wildlife. In a strange twist of fate, the absence of people has benefited the animal world. There was no visible evidence of mutations in deer or boar populations, even though radiation levels were hundreds of times greater than usual. The number of animals rose dramatically, and deer and boar populations recovered nearly quickly. Wolf and lynx returned to prey on deer, elk, moose, and boar once the animals returned to their natural habitats. Today, the wildlife population is more like that of a national park than a containment zone for radioactive materials. As it turns out, for animals, a nuclear apocalypse is better than regular human existence, so during a Kiev Pripyat tour, you may be lucky to see some of them crossing the streets.

Pripyat Tour Price

Every tourist who has dreamed of visiting the ghost town is wondering about the Pripyat tour cost. It depends on the company that organizes a Pripyat tour. Average prices range between 40 and 90 USD and don’t include special clothing, food and drink, and rental of radiation checkers.