Ukraine is a rather non-trivial choice as a vacation destination. Therefore, travelers who are going there have many questions, including those related to the currency circulating in the country.
Currency in Ukraine
Ukraine is an independent state on whose territory the national currency - the hryvnia - is the legitimate means of payment. It officially received the status of the national currency in 1996, when Leonid Kuchma, who was then the country's President, issued a decree "On Monetary Reform in Ukraine."
In Ukrainian, the hryvnia is correctly called "hryvnia", but in the international classifier of currencies it is usually denoted by the symbol UAH. Each hryvnia is divided into 100 smaller units called kopecks, and on the territory of the country, kopecks are represented exclusively by coins that have denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25 and 50 kopecks. In addition, 1 hryvnia is also issued in the form of a coin. Larger denominations of hryvnia are issued by the Bank of Ukraine in the form of notes in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 hryvnias.
Currency for a trip to Ukraine
It is rather difficult to acquire hryvnia on the territory of the Russian Federation: only a few banks are engaged in the sale of this currency. Therefore, a traveler is unlikely to be able to stock up on hryvnias at the stage of preparation for a trip to Ukraine: he will need to take with him the types of currencies that are more common in the world.
However, when going to Ukraine, one should not be afraid of special difficulties with the exchange of currencies: this is a modern state with a developed banking system, so it will not be difficult to exchange the available currency for national payment units. In addition, in large cities, for example, in Kiev, there are a large number of exchange offices.
The most common currencies that such organizations offer to exchange for hryvnia are the same monetary units that act in this capacity in most countries of the world - US dollars and euros. Therefore, if you go to Ukraine with dollars or euros with you, you can easily exchange them for hryvnia. Considering that there is no shortage of exchange offices in the country, experienced travelers recommend changing a small amount of money to the national currency, and, if necessary, make an additional exchange. This will allow you to avoid a situation where you have unspent hryvnia, which will have to be exchanged for international currency again, thereby losing money on bank fees.
However, besides this, it should be borne in mind that Russian rubles are no less popular currencies in exchange offices than dollars and euros: they can be exchanged for hryvnia in almost any such organization. Therefore, for Russians who are going to visit Ukraine, it is cash rubles that can become the most convenient currency for exchange. This will give the traveler the opportunity to save money. avoiding additional costs for double conversion of rubles into hryvnia, for example, through the dollar or euro. However, it is worth making sure that during the trip you always have cash hryvnia with you, since a situation in which money may be required may arise unexpectedly.
