About Victoria — Best Kyiv Guide
Hi, I’m Victoria, a Ukrainian travel writer and former private tour guide from Kyiv, now based in Sweden.
I created Best Kyiv Guide in 2016, when I started working as a professional private tour guide in Kyiv.
For the next six years, I introduced visitors from around the world to my city — its history, architecture, culture, traditions, and everyday life.
I didn’t become a guide by accident. My interest in Ukrainian history and identity grew through the years in which I witnessed some of the defining events of modern Ukraine, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Orange Revolution, and the Revolution of Dignity.
The six years of guiding gave me not only professional experience but also a new perspective on my own country.
Meeting international visitors showed me what people were curious about Ukraine and how differently the same place can be perceived by someone visiting it for the first time.
In February 2022, Russia’s full-scale invasion changed my life completely. My son and I were in Kyiv when the war began, and eventually we had to leave Ukraine.
Today I live in Sweden and currently do not work as a tour guide. But Best Kyiv Guide continues.
What I Write About Today
While Kyiv remains an important part of this website, Best Kyiv Guide has evolved along with my own life and travels. Here, you’ll find my Kyiv guides alongside stories and articles about Ukrainian history, culture, language, and everyday life.
I also share personal travel guides to Sweden, Norway, the Baltics, and other parts of Europe, based on my own travels and first-hand experience. Each guide is shaped by my own photography and the research I do along the way.
I explore places with the mindset I developed as a tour guide: not simply asking what I should see, but what is the story behind it?
Work With Me
I’m open to collaborations with travel brands, tourism businesses, destinations, hotels, tour and activity providers, and other partners whose work is relevant to my readers.
I am available for brand and destination partnerships, sponsored and editorial content, affiliate collaborations, guest contributions, travel content creation, and consulting.
With six years of experience as a private tour guide and years of developing my own travel platform, I am also happy to share my expertise with businesses and individuals who may find it valuable.
For collaborations, partnerships, or consulting enquiries, please contact me at myukraine4u@gmail.com.