Someday we will visit Chernobyl or begin to dream about going there! However, for now its not on our radar. Let us know in the comments if you think that should change!

Chernobyl (Ukrainian: Чорнобиль, Chornobyl) is a town in Central Ukraine, and known infamously for the accident in the nearby nuclear power plant on 26 April 1986. The scale of remediation efforts (officially the liquidation of the accident aftermath) and subsequent engineering challenges such as construction of the iconic reactor sarcophagus, have drawn the interest of many curious travelers over the following decades. Nowadays Chernobyl is visited by ca. 60,000 tourists annually. Radiation from the accident remains around the site, making access severely restricted, and leaving no doubt that the area is a dangerous place and decidedly not an amusement park. A visit to the area is a unique experience however, and offers an insight into the scientific, technological and humanitarian aspects of the disaster.

Chernobyl was originally part of the land of Kievan Rus′. The first known mention of Chernobyl is from an 1193 charter, which describes it as a hunting-lodge of Knyaz Rurik Rostislavich. In the 13th century, it was a crown village of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The village was granted to Filon Kmita, a captain of the royal cavalry, as a fiefdom in 1566. The province where Chernobyl is located was transferred to the Kingdom of Poland in 1569, and later annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793. Prior to the 20th century, Chernobyl was inhabited by Ukrainian peasants, some Polish people and a relatively large number of Jews.