Lviv Shopping

It is not really huge, but there you will find large assortment of true ukrainian national stuff - household things, clothes, carpets, towels, art, jewelry etc etc. And all /I guess so/ hand-made.

Also, there lots of USSR stuff, same as (if you know) Kyiv's Andrievsky Uzviz, but about 5 times cheaper.

What to buy: Embroidered shirts and towels, bright-colored belts and laces, bags, woolen blankets.

I am sure you will find something for you!

What to pay: Belts and laces - are about $3-4.
Towels - differ in price, about $20-50.
Shirts - $40-50.
Woolen blankets - 40-60$

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a popular place for souvenir and local crafts shopping conviniently located in the very center of the city (in a side street of the Opera across Zankovetska Drama Theatre)

What to buy: you can find authentic rags made of goat wool from Carpathians, Ukrainian beaded necklaces called gerdans, wooden boxes and plates, painted eggs and various embroidery items.

What to buy: There is plenty of Lviv plans in the shops, but in my opinion this one (with the bue-green cover) is the best one. It's only in Ukrainian, what helps you to get accustomed to the cirillic writing and it's easier to compare witht he original street names; what makes it different to the Western plans in latin alphabet.
Besides in the appendix you will find the schema of tram, trolleybus and bus/marshrutka's routes.
It's really useful and I recommand it :)

What to pay: Less than 8 hr ($2)

Grocery shops in Ukraine are mostly not self-service. They are shops where you approach the seller and tell him or her what to buy. Ukrainians who enter the shop usually just start talking and the seller responds. If you don't speak Ukrainian that shouldn't be too much of problem. I think it is the best if you start talking in your own language and if seller doesn't understand you point at what you are looking for.

Prices in Ukraine are low so so there are many thing worth buying. One of the things to try are Svitoch candies. Also votka is cheap in Ukraine - just don't buy the cheapest. Also in Ukraine there are many brands of beer well worth trying.

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Ukrainian currency Hryvnia (UAH) was introduced in 1996. It replaced Coupons (Karbovanets), temporary currency used after abandoning rouble. Ukrainin coins are kopiykas. 1 Hryvnia is 100 kopiykas.

Currency is easily exchanged at numerous exchange offices - there is no commision and for 1 EUR you get approximately 6 UAH. There is no difference in exchange rate for different banknotes - meaning if you get 600 UAH for 100 EUR note, you'll get 60 UAH for 10 EUR note. Also there are not big differences between exchange offices in Lviv but avoid changing many at the border because exchange rates may be significantly lower there.

There are plenty of shops to be found selling all the Vodka you could ever dream of!

What to buy: Vodka. From a massive selection, you can buy a bottle of fine Ukrainian Vodka superior to Smirnoff and other major brands for a fraction of the price. There are other Vodkas with added spices and flavours and various other drinks - just go and see for yourself! Don't leave Ukraine without a bottle!

What to pay: 10 EUROS will buy you the finest Vodka on offer, cheaper brands may set you back 3 or 4 EUROS for a litre!

You can buy many different kinds of things in these two shops, of which I forgot the name of one of them. If you like to just look around at things, this is perfect, because there's a lot to see in just one building.
They have things like clothes, shoes, stationery, electronics, gifts, and much more.

Rinok is a market. Its divided into several buildings (fruits and vegetable market, meat and salami market, fish market) and rows of kiosk.

What to buy: In summer, rinok is the best source of cheap and quality fruit and vegetable. Also home-made salami, various kinds of bread, sweets, chocolate. It may depend on what country you are from, but from Czech perspective, Ukrainian "local specialities" are for sure kvas (drink made from brad and sold from big tanks), local halva (chalva), some sweets.

What to pay: Look at various places and overview prices. When you know, what an item shoul cost, try to buy it. If marketeer tries some special "touristic" price, bargain.

What to buy: The first references to kvas was made in the 989 ! Kvas was the most popular beverages in eastern Poland, Ukraina and Russia.The Slavs made a kvas usually on bread.

If Kvas was kept incorrectly, had a terrible explosive force, it broke even the bottles.
That not so easy to make such delicious drink on bread, so it takes ca. 70 days after first water and boil the grain with malt and caraway oil.

So if you don't want to wait 70 days just buy a kvas during your stay in Lviv. You will be surelly astonished. It's much better to drink kvas when it's hot outside then mineral water...belive 1000 years of experience :)

What to pay: a little :)