I was only 3 years old in 1986 when the incident at Chernobyl hit the headlines, so I have no real recollection of the accident happening. I don’t know when I became aware of the disaster, and the potential world changing impact that could have occurred, but for a long time I was interested in seeing the area for myself. The thought of going alone had always put me off, as well as the radiation, but for some reason I decided to suddenly book a flight to the Ukraine. I looked on sites like skyscanner to find cheap flights to Kiev (Borispol airport). For hotels I searched on booking.com for places to stay in Kiev, as I also wanted to explore the city as well whilst I was over there.

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So there I was, two weeks after my spur of the moment decision, stood outside of Borispol airport in the Ukraine on my own, at 2am trying to find a taxi to the hotel. After finally getting to the hotel I managed a few hours sleep before meeting with the small tour group for the long drive north to the exclusion zone of Chernobyl. Tour groups are the safest option when going to visit the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone which is relatively safe, as the guides know where the areas of high radiation are and avoid it. If you choose to go illegally then you may be in danger of going through pockets of forest that are very high in radiation - as the only way to get in without being caught by the checkpoint guards and police is via a long hard trek through dense forest, which I do not recommend - and even then you might still get caught and escorted from the area.

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After going through the various security check points along the road, I finally arrived in Chernobyl town, where I dropped my bags off before exploring the area. I decided to go for the most authentic soviet built hotel out of the ones on offer, because it helped give a true sense of what it was like back in the 80's to stay in the area. The Pripyat Hotel is the is actually in Chernobyl town and is the best of the two available in the vicinity for the pure feeling of being in the era just before the disaster. Beware that if you stay here that you might not get hot water in your (pretty grim) bathroom! I was prepared for this and took baby wipes with me and freshened up with those. I also stayed at the Desyatka Hotel on my second visit, which is slightly more modern and with shared bathrooms but it just didn't feel the same. There is a third option which is a modern cottage which lies outside of the area - so if you are posh, or just don't want to stay in an authentically grim, communist soviet style hotel you can stay at the Cottage "Chernobyl Hotel". I haven't stayed at this one so I can't really let you know what it is like, but from pictures online, it seems quite modern compared to the standards of the hotels I have mentioned.