The last drop of strong sweet coffee – and off we go. The rustic scenery in the Cherkasy Oblast is simply breathtaking. The small picturesque villages along the way are teeming with roadside markets selling brooms, home-baked cakes and cold sodas in plastic bottles. The main thing is to not miss the turnoff to the village of Oleksandrivka (40 km after Smila), otherwise you will have to drive an extra 60 km through the town of Znamenka.
Since the city of Kirovohrad offers no points of interest to travelers, we can simply bypass it on the ring road. Beyond that you are on a seemingly endless and unpopulated stretch of highway through the steppes. The trip would be rather boring if not for the 18-wheel trailer convoy that forces you to think twice before deciding to overtake them.
When you get to the village of Semenivka, it is worthwhile turning off the highway to check out one of the few remaining stretches of original steppe known as the Yelanetska Steppe Nature Reserve Scientists say that before the ice age this was a sub-tropical region like the Argentinean pampa, where the southern elephants, the ancestors of mammoths, rhinos, bisons, wild horses and deer roamed. Later on they were replaced by hares and roes that to this day run wild through the steppes. A herd of bison still roam the steppes and one can see rare species of birds. 
The steppes breathe in herbal aromas, the rare woods are like a desert oasis and the territory is inhabited with a cornucopia of small creatures. Botanists can stay here for ever, while the average tourist can simply marvel at the beauty of nature, choose a place to have a picnic, relax and make a note about this place on their tourist map.
After a stop in the steppes an 80-km drive along a standard highway will take you to the seaside port of Mykolayiv – the city of shipbuilders and the most beautiful girls strolling along Radyanskiy St., the longest pedestrian thoroughfare in Ukraine (1.5 km).
There are a number of places in Mykolayiv that will satisfy a tourist’s curiosity. One of them is the Shipbuilding and Marine Museum located in a prerevolutionary building that was the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Navy Fleet. The Museum of Fine Arts is also a must see. Mind you, it will take several hours to admire the nearly 10,000 exhibits in its collection. But there is a choice – you can either visit the museum at a staccato pace or take your time and stroll through the century-old Mykolayiv Zoo, which is considered to be the best zoo in Ukraine.

Desert sands of Kherson
A busy 60-km stretch of highway connects Mykolayiv with Kherson. Just an hour’s drive and you are in Kherson, a city founded 300 years ago in the barren steppes with the construction of the military fortification Oleksandr-Shants. Kherson was destined to be the southern outpost at the gates of the Ottoman Empire. Today it is a quaint seaside city with a population of under a million with its own character and culture that is worth checking out.
The downtown area has narrow streets lined by old 4-storey buildings that are quite becoming for a tourist from the nation’s bustling capital. The city structure is quite simple with all streets leading to the Dnipro River. The main traffic goes through Ushkova St, which leads to the kilometer long pedestrian zone on Suvorova St.
Not far from there on Perekopska St one can see the remnants of the fortification walls and the Cathedral of St. Catherine, where the tomb of Prince Potemkin is preserved. The best views of Kherson are on Naberezhna St. from the cannon, the monument to the first frigate Catherine’s Glory and the yacht marina. The owners of yachts, speed boats, long boats and other water vehicles earn their keep taking people on boat rides for UAH 25 per person, which includes a brief narrative of the city’s maritime history. You can spend the night at the Fregat Hotel right on Naberezhna St.
Early in the morning we rush to check out the beauty of the Prychornomorskiy steppe and sands. The Oleshkivski Sands are located 20 km from the town of Tsyuryupynsk along Route 2206. This is the only desert in Europe that has attracted the attention of tourists as it was a military base where bomber pilots were trained that was top secret for many years. So what is so eye-catching about the new point of interest? Five-meter high sand dunes, traces of snakes left in the sand and, of course, the hot sand reminding one that the sea is nearby.
     
Thru the isthmus
to the seaside
Tourists are welcomed to Crimea by concrete blocks and strict guards at the entry to the peninsula. In thirty minutes we arrive at the county center of Krasnoperekopsk. Upon entering the town the road separates into two. One road takes you to Simferopol and the second one goes to Dzhankoy, which is better to overtake on the beltway and further practically all the way to Feodosia along the Northern Crimean Channel. By the way, this is a great place to go for a swim before reaching your final destination.
In Feodosia you can escape the typical hustle and bustle of a vacation resort by slipping in to Aivazovsky Gallery located a hundreds meter from the sea. The famous artist’s tomb is located near the Armenian Church of St. Serhiy in the city’s downtown district with an epitaph in Armenian saying: “He who was born in mortal flesh left behind an immortal heritage.”
The best way to see the city scenery is from Mt. Mitridat. This is where Aivazovsky built the Antiquity Museum that was destroyed during WW II.  At the foot of the mountain you will find several medieval churches: the Church of the Iverskaya Icon of the Virgin Mary and the Church of St. George the Victorious built by the marquis Aslan, a Muslim that adopted Christianity. The St Dmitriy Cathedral boasts beautiful frescos by Theophan the Greek, who was the teacher of Andrei Rublev. Finally, the Armenian Church of St. John the Evangelist is famous for its amazing acoustics.

Endless sea off Kerch
After Feodosia our route takes us along a relatively straight 99 km highway. You should hire a local guide to take you on a tour of Kerch. The local holy landmark is the St. John the Baptist Cathedral, one of the most ancient monuments of the early Middle Ages of architecture in Ukraine. The cathedral is crowned with a flat dome supported by four columns made of dark grey marble with Corinthian column caps and is classified as one of the masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. Right in the city center is another landmark of ancient times – the tomb of the Greek Earth Goddess Demetra dated back to the 1st century A.D.
The acropolis of Panticapaeum outlasted majestic Greek temples having stood atop of Mt. Mithridate for eight centuries since the 5th century B.C. The Palace of the Bospor Kings of Sparta was unearthed here. Next to it you will see the temples of the Greek goddesses Aphrodite and Dionysius.
One can get to the top of the mountain by foot up four hundred stairs on the Great Mithridate Stairway. It was built in 1833-1840 according to the blueprint of Italian architect Alexander Digbi. There is also a winding road leading up to the top of the mountain.
But everything on the surface is merely the colorless remnants of Roman grandeur. Failure to go down into the famous catacombs when visiting Kerch is a sin. Adzhymushkaiski limestone mines represent a special page in the history of WW II. The residents of the city and soldiers who defended the city from enemies hid in the mines from May to October 1942.
This place features many natural wonders. In the village of Bondarenkovo there are unique mud volcanoes in the so-called Volcano Valley. The Cape of Zyuk, which is the northernmost point of the Kerch peninsula, is home to the ruins of the antique country estate Chokrakskiy Cape. Here there is a church of old believers and the Chokrakskiy Lake with curative mud that at one time was exported to Italy and France during the times of the Russian Empire. 
The coastline of the Azov Sea and south from Kerch are ideal for relaxing on a beach. Or you can go further to the Caucasus Mountains by ferry, to the West, or to the East. In short, you are behind the wheel!