Today it’s time to tell about the second way, how you can get to the Chernobyl exclusion zone. We know that this way is not quite for you, our lovely stalkers, but we still want to share with you this opportunity.
Last time we wrote how to get to the Zone completely free and legally. This time, we’ll tell you how to get there legally, but for the money.
History
Get legally into the exclusion zone became possible in 2010, but only as part of the tourist group. Several studies have shown out that within a specially developed tourist route in a 30-kilometer zone, you can stay up to 4-5 days without harm to health, and in a 10-kilometer zone you can stay without harm to health just for one day.
Rules for visiting the Zone
Of course, when you visit the Zone as part of a group, you will be very limited. Before entering, you will be asked to sign a document with the listed rules. First of all, you will need to always be with the group and not go far; secondly you will not be able to go into any buildings (however, some guides ignore this rule), you can not take photo of some objects.
When you leave the zone, you will go through the dosimetric control. It will allow you to check that you don’t carry with you any dirt out of the Zone. If the radiation level is above normal, you will be forced to wash your things. If even after that you do not pass control, then you will be asked to leave things inside the Zone.
Types of tours
There are one-day tours that are most popular, as well as 2-day tours, and even 3-7-day tours.
What is included?
A one-day trip includes the following sites:
-Chernobyl. This is a city located at a distance of about 12 km from a nuclear power plant with a population of about 14 thousand people before the catastrophe. This city has never had much to do with nuclear power plant. All employees of the station lived in the nearby town of Pripyat. Today the city of Chernobyl is in the Exclusion Zone, but people live in it. In addition to 88 self-farms, there are about 3000 employees of the power plant. There is a cafe, a post office, a shop, and also dormitory for workers there. The radiation level in the city is two times lower than in Kiev.
-Chernobyl-2. This is a secret city that is hidden from all maps. The inhabitants of this town (military garrison) were engaged in “space espionage.” It was then monitored to track the launches of ballistic missiles from the territories (military bases and submarines) of the probable enemy.
-Chernobyl NPP. During the tours, participants are brought to the memorial, and the sarcophagus. Here you can also feed huge som-mutants floating in the cooling pond.
-Red forest. The forest which surrounds the power station. It was this forest which, after the accident, assumed the largest share of radiation. After the disaster, the needles, affected by radiation, acquired a rusty hue. Today, on the site of the old forest, a new, already green, but still storing a lot of radiation has grown up. This is the most dangerous place in the Zone.
Pripyat. This is an abandoned city! There are many places to visit, as an amusement park, a kindergarten and a school, a city pool, Prometheus cinema, a wharf with a flooded jetty, the Polissya Hotel, a supermarket, a hospital that took the first victims of the accident and its liquidation… You can enumerate a lot and a long time, everything is interesting here!
According to the sensations, a one-day trip is very little in order to experience the full beauty of the Zone. So, the most interesting place in the Zone – the city of Pripyat – you will be able to see just for an hour.
The two-day tour allows you to slowly and leisurely visit all the interesting objects that are presented in the first day. Also for the second day you will have the opportunity to talk with self-citizens, people who returned to their home after the Chernobyl disaster.
Three-seven-day trips also represent a more in-depth visit to interesting objects, as well as a deeper visit to the zone itself, acquaintance with its inhabitants, visits of museums.
Cost of excursions
The cost of excursions will depend on your citizenship. For citizens of Ukraine and Belarus, the Zone visit is much lower than for citizens of other states.
So one-day visit to the Zone for foreigners at the weekend will cost from €75 (with the company CHERNOBYL TOUR ®) or from €95 on weekdays. With other companies (go2chernobyl) you can visit the Zone for €75 also on weekdays.
The two-day tour will cost about €285 (with CHERNOBYL TOUR ®). With Chernobylzone, the two-day tour will cost about €200. The three-day tour will cost you €400.
Pros of visiting the Zone as part of the tour
The tour can be an excellent introduction before visiting the Chernobyl zone illegally. You can assess the situation, understand where all the posts are, how the zone is protected, understand that it would be interesting for you to visit more, and what would not be interesting to visit at all.
The trip in the tour is completely safe. Therefore, if you are afraid of radiation – this trip is for you. The site of CHERNOBYL TOUR company says:
“For one day of a full-scale excursion to the Chernobyl zone, you will receive a dose of radiation exposure approximately as much as 1 hour of flight in an airplane, which is 160 times less than the dose obtained for one fluorography, and 3600 times less than in one CT scan of the whole Body! “
Also, upon exiting the Exclusion Zone, you will be checked for the level of radiation that you received. That is how, you can understand whether everything is in order with you or not.
We advise you to visit the Zone as part of the tour, in order to understand in general how the Zone looks like. And for those who want more – we suggest going there illegally. About the trip to Chernobyl illegally, we will write in our next article. Stay turned!
