The Carpathians curve across western Ukraine through the Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions. They are not high by alpine standards but they are extensively forested, sparsely built and culturally distinct from the rest of the country.
Hoverla
At 2061 m, the highest point in Ukraine, in the Chornohora range. The standard ascent from Zaroslyak takes three to four hours up and is a walk rather than a climb, though the weather at the top changes quickly and people get into trouble in winter. The ridge walk from Hoverla along Chornohora to Pip Ivan, with its abandoned Polish observatory of 1938 on the summit, is the classic two-day route.
The Hutsuls
The highland people of the eastern Carpathians have their own dialect, dress, music and craft: brass-inlaid woodwork, kilims, embroidered shirts and the trembita, a wooden alpine horn up to four metres long. Kolomyia has the Pysanka Museum, housed in a building shaped like an Easter egg, and a museum of Hutsul folk art. Verkhovyna and Kryvorivnia are the villages where the traditions are strongest.
Beech forests
Ukraine holds a large share of the UNESCO-listed Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, a transnational site spread across eighteen countries. The Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh massif in Zakarpattia is the largest remaining primeval beech forest in Europe, and the trails through it are quiet and unmanaged in the best sense.
Synevyr and the lakes
Lake Synevyr at 989 m formed behind a landslide and is the emblem of Zakarpattia, with a bear rehabilitation centre nearby that takes animals from circuses and private captivity. The Shypit waterfall and the mineral springs around Skhidnytsia and Truskavets are the other draws.
Skiing
Bukovel is the largest resort in eastern Europe outside the Alps, with over 60 km of pistes at 900 to 1370 m, and it transformed the local economy after 2000. Dragobrat, higher and rougher, is where Ukrainians who ski seriously go.
Practicalities
The region is reached by train to Ivano-Frankivsk, Rakhiv or Uzhhorod, and by narrow-gauge line in places. It is the safest part of Ukraine and has absorbed many displaced people since 2022. Mountain rescue exists but is thin; register your route, and be aware that some border areas require permits.