Last summer I rediscovered the capital of my homeland, Ukraine. I’ve spent most of my adult life outside Ukraine, in Moscow, Berlin and now New York, all of which have accessible naturist beaches, so I was pleased to find that Kiev has its own beautiful naturist beaches in the very centre of the city! Kiev boasts the mighty Dnieper River with some forested islands, that are luckily protected and not used for mansions of the nouveau riche. A couple of neighboring clothing-optional beaches at Hydropark (Gidropark) are located most centrally and have pretty amazing views.
This is how it looks from the bridge on the way from Gidropark subway station.
You cannot really see if it is a nudist beach at the other bank of the river, but trust me, it is! So after the bridge you need to continue till one of the typical city style beaches and take a “canoe-ferry” for 5 hryvnias (approx. 50 cents); from there, you can already see where you should head to 😉
First time I went there on a weekday, so it was relatively empty, and I stayed at the part known as a local gay beach, as my friend advised (he was at work that day).
It was nice and relaxing, except that the music from the opposite beach bar was quite loud, but I actually liked it. It is also possible to go a little upstream and find some small secluded spots.
There is a shaded kiosk where you can buy beverages without having to put on clothes. In the afternoon, I decided to explore the area a little more and went to the southern tip of the island, and it turned out to be clothing-optional too!
I actually liked that part more, as it was more spacious and had a great view with some of Kiev’s landmarks: Motherland monument, Kiev Pechersk Lavra (monastery), and a restaurant styled as Noah’s Ark.
So when I went to Gidropark beach next time with my friends Sergey and Sveta, we headed directly to the tip part. I couldn’t resist mocking the Motherland monument by posing with a bottle of water instead of the sword and a frisbee instead of the shield 🙂
Since it actually was the Independence Day, main themes were quite patriotic and Ukraine-inspired. I had our coat of arms (trident) painted on my chest, but frankly, Sergey did not do a great job, so you can hardly see it on photos.
Sergey himself had sunflowers painted saying ‘Support homegrown’, which referred to Ukraine being the biggest exporter of sunflower oil.
Sveta had hearts colored as the national flag and altogether looked very artistic.
And Petya was arguably the most popular model with the watermelon painted on his buttocks :p The “price-tag” said that the watermelon was sold at 2 hryvnias per hour (whatever that meant!) and that it did not contain GMO 🙂
Having a real knife in the not-so-real watermelon, Petya was probably the most daring model too!
On the other (literally) side, the Independence Day was taken also ironically, as despite the patriotic spirits, it was clear that the country was facing too many troubles.
So instead of wishing a Happy Independence Day, it read ‘Happy Inability Day’, as Ukraine is hardly able to cope with its economic challenges (I could translate it as ‘impotence’ as well, but I assure that is not our problem).
But on such a day, it was hard to think of anything gloomy, so the optimistic side took over!
Active Naturists 
I have been to this lovely beach several times and love to take my clothes off and enjoy the sun with other people.
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Reblogged this on Naturalian's Blog and commented:
Nice to see Naturism is alive in this troubled country!
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Reblogged this on Penis's Nudist Life.
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Reblogged this on Naturist Holidays in Europe and commented:
Perfect !!! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Clothing Optional and commented:
This is cool, Kiev is definitely on my nude itinerary!
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Great story. Thank you so much!
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very nice video from the beach! http://activenaturists.tumblr.com/post/80846901277/i-love-this-beach-in-kiev
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I hope you are doing okay with the situation there in Ukraine.Are there any nude resorts or beaches near Lugansk? How are gay or bisexuals treated in Ukraine? Would a woman think bad if her man told her he had a sexual encounter with another man?
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Thanks for your concern, Paul. I’m personally not affected at the moment, neither my family, but the possibility of civil war is of course very daunting! I don’t know of any resorts or specifically designated beaches near Lugansk, there are just some secluded locations that I’ve visited. As to your question about gays and bisexuals, I think the society overall is becoming more open-minded, but Ukraine remains homophobic to a large extent.
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Nice post/blog. I was there too with my wife a few times! We discovered it quite by accident because we took a boat ride “to the other side” as we could see a beach with people on it. We are not naturists, so we kept our clothes on. But the atmosphere of “relaxation” and “fun” compared to the other beaches is far superior.
Also adding to that is the great view of “Mother Ukraine” and percheskaja lavra which is not seen from other beaches. And theres usually no crowding either. It really is a little “pearl” amongst the concrete jungle of Kiev.
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Hello,
I am interested in Naturism in the Ukraine. Is it common ? I live in the USA and we have a phobia about the nude body which is sad. I would like to know all about nudism in the Ukraine. Is it common for multi generational families to go nude together? Is the attitude there that it is natural and no big deal? Please let me know. Sincerely, Paul
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It’s not very common, but people are more accepting towards nudity. There are no strict regulations about it: nudist places are rather simply ‘known’ than specifically identified by authorities. Different places attract different crowds. Some have more families, some have groups of young people and singles.
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are there any nudist places or groups in Uman Ukraine?
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I don’t know 😦
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Thanks for your post. But I believe this did not really happen in February in Kiev.
I’ve ben to Gidroprak,and the nude beeches before, and loved every minute of it!
Marseil
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of course it was during summer time (as I wrote in the post). Due to the fact that my blog used to be at google’s blogger, where it got deleted all of a sudden, and it took me a while to move it here, I have a huge lag with posting stories. I wish I had more time for it
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Great coverage (no pun) thanks for the artical and many photos. Love your blog.
Budd Thompson in Sweden
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