Lviv

Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, Polish: Lwów, Russian: L'vov Львов, German: Lemberg) is a city in Western Ukraine, about 70 km away from the Polish border.

Hitchhiking out
If heading towards Poland, choose carefully which of the several border crossings you want to take.

Northwest towards Rava-Ruska, Zamość (PL), Lublin (PL) M09
Take bus #45 from near the Shevchenko monument in the city center. Ask the driver to let you out at the stop for Avtostantsiya Nomer Dva (АС-2 - Автостанція №2), a bus station in the northern suburbs of Lviv. The driver will drop you off on a busy, wide road, where you just continue walking in the same direction for about 1 km until the beginning of road M-09 (E372) going to Rava-Ruska (Рава-Руська) and the border with Poland. This road is clearly signposted and once you turn off onto it, it's easy to find room to stop a car.

You can also take a minibus from behind the Opera. There are a few lines going to AC-2 and some even further. If they turn left at the roundabout next to the big bus station stay, because then you don't have to walk. Best is to take a bus going to Мурованое, then you can stay until the very beginning of the road M09 (you can recognize it easily, because there is a bridge).

This direction leads to the Hrebenne-Rava Ruska border crossing.

Northeast toward Rivne, Kiev M06
Take marshrutka (minibus) #8, #14, #36A or #39 from near the Shevchenko monument in the city center. Go till the last stop Halytske perehrestya (Галицьке перехрестя) (except for #14 which goes a bit further, so ask the driver to stop at Halytske perehrestya). All the buses stop in the middle of kinda market square. Look around, there must be a bus stop and a gas station hundred meters leftward and a bridge. Go under the bridge and walk 100m ahead. The hitchhiking spot is in front of the gas station.

West towards Shegyni, Przemyśl (PL) M11
From the central train station, you have two options. First lazy one is to take the minibus, which costs 15 UAH (Nov 2009) and might be on the road for some 2 hours. For more, check the information below. Second option is to walk down the road from the train station, at the crossing walk to the right, pass the small local train station, follow the road for another 500m (along a gas station), and walk right again at the next crossing. There you'll find a bus stop which is easy and fine to hitchhike rides out of town, which otherwise would be some 2 or 3 km of walking at least. Let you bring to the "Metro" shopping center thing, there you'll find a huge roundabout which roads going all directions, including Shegyni. There's also a very nice hitchhiking spot 100m further off the roundabout, with a restaurant next to it and satisfying light installations for night hitchhikers.

This direction leads to the Shegyni-Medyka border crossing.

East towards Ternopil, Vinnytsia (H-02)
Take marshrutka (mini bus) #36, #68 or #75 to Vynnyky (Винники). You can hitch within the city limits or walk east along the main road for about 1 km and start hitching after the bypass.

South towards Mukacheve, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Slovakia, Hungary, Transylvania (RO) M9
Take a bus from the city centre to the shopping mall King's Cross–Leopolis. (As of May 2014, this is bus number 10 and its starting point is the railway station) The mall is located just a few hundred metres north of the Lviv ring road. Walk south, cross the ring road, and hitch from alongside the first petrol station on your right; you can also ask drivers at the petrol station if you see a truck or car with a Czech or Slovak number plate. Only accept lifts that will take you as far as Striy (Стрий). Writing Striy on your sign can also give fast results.

Mukacheve (Мукачеве) is where to turn if you are going towards the northwestern part of Romania.

Also this direction is OK if go to Ivano-Frankivsk (Івано-Франківськ). In that case just reach Stryi and then hitchhike through Dolyna (Долина) and Kalush (Калуш) to Ivano-Frankivsk.

Southeast towards Zvenyhorod, Stare Selo, Ivano-Frankivsk (H-09)
Take marshrutka (minibus) №160 or trolley №11 from ploshcha Petrushevycha to Kiltseva (Ring road). Start to hitchhike behind the Ring road.

But because of bad quality of this road there are not many cars with far destination point. A lot of people going to Ivano-Frankivsk (Івано-Франківськ) by car use E50/M9 reaching Mykolayiv (Миколаїв) or Stryi (Стрий) and then turning directly to Ivano-Frankivsk. For more details see Southern direction.

Mini bus to Polish border
Not exactly hitching, but you can get a marshrutka (minibus) from the train station going to the closest Polish border point, the Shegyni-Medyka border crossing, which is not far from Przemyśl in Poland and along the E40/M11 road. It costs 23 UAH (Jan 2014). Look or ask for one that says Lviv - Shegyni (Львів-Шегині). It is allowed to cross the border on foot. There might be a long queue, as cigarette smuggling is a big problem so they have to do random checks. If you are not Polish or Ukrainian let the border guards know and they will move you to the front of the queue. (Update Jan 2014: there is now a separate entrance for eu/swiss passport holders next to the entrance for 'all passports' so hopefully the waiting time will be reduced).

Lviv Львов