When the world went into lockdown in March last year, travel came to a standstill. A year later, as vaccine distribution ramps up, travel is coming back. As travel begins returns in a post-Covid world, it will have changed. It will be more sustainable and ethical.
Posters tell the stories of the USSR. But not the whole story. The rest needs to be experienced. Over the past two years, I’ve had several customers of Comrade Kiev ask for advice on travelling to the former Soviet republics. In my own experience, I’ve found that travelling to many of these countries is often difficult - filled with friction and uncertainty. I wanted to change that.
Introducing Comrade Kiev Travel
I've partnered with Joro Experiences to create sustainable, ethical and design-led tours to the most extraordinary and often overlooked destinations across the former USSR. The first two tours are Architecture Across the Ages and Roads to the Roof of the World.
Architecture Across the Ages takes travellers to some of the most important – and most often overlooked – architectural sites across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Visit Uzbekistan’s towering turquoise mosques, see how Georgia shook off Soviet rule with cosmic-inspired superstructures, and witness the rebirth of Turkmenistan with its audacious white marble city.
Roads at the Roof of the World offers travellers soaring views across jagged peaks, steep-sided valleys and high plateaus in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Get a rare glimpse of lands largely untouched ideological undulations, and the people who call them home.
Our Commitment to the Environment
There is no better way to understand other cultures than to visit them. But, ultimately all travel has an impact on the environment. Each of the tours we offer creates between 6.5 and 9.31 tonnes of CO2e per person. Working with Joro Experiences, who founded the Conscious Travel Foundation, we’ve reduced the average footprint of each tour by 7-12% so far. All remaining unavoidable carbon emissions are offset through our partners at Chooose. Chooose uses that money to capture the equivalent carbon emissions from the atmosphere and store it in stable ways.
Our Commitment to Freedom & Equality
We’re respectful of being guests in other countries with different cultures, but won’t stand silent when human rights are violated. In some of the countries I visit, the authorities regularly crack down on the media, harass peaceful protesters, engage in smear campaigns against political rivals, and ban independent foreign organisations. We donate 1.5% of the price of each tour to local community projects, and a further 1.5% to Human Rights Watch, an independent, non-profit NGO that exists to give voice to the oppressed and hold those responsible accountable.
We’ll release more tours in the coming months. Each tour is bespoke and built to fit your budget, timeline and interests. If you’ve been wanting to follow in the footsteps of legendary polar explorers, climb smoking volcanoes in the remote Far East, or cross the endless Gobi desert on camelback, get in touch. We’ll take you there, we’ll get you closer. Get in touch to plan your next trip.
