Step by step, Kyiv is starting to look more sports-oriented — and the COVID‑19 pandemic appears to be speeding this process.
Kyivans are now looking for a better way to pass their time in self-isolation and people seem to have started renting more bikes, scooters, canoes and kayaks.
Kyiv authorities, in turn, have created more bike lanes across the city and cleaned up some of the parks and lake or river beaches in the capital to encourage the trend.
Now, there are more places in Kyiv where one can rent bikes and other means of leisure transport to enjoy the summer weather. The Kyiv Post has compiled a list of the most popular rental services in the city.
Popular bike rentals
The most obvious type of rental in Kyiv — and probably in any other European city — is a bike.
A rental company called Bike Now (rebranded from Next Bike) has the most widespread network of rental stations in Kyiv: it has 302 parking stations and 2,000 bikes.
In order to rent a bicycle, one needs to download the Bike New mobile application, which can be found on the company’s website. Then, a person has to open it next to the company’s parking station — usually parked on the street — and scan a QR code on the bike. After that, the lock automatically opens and the bike can be used.
The app has a map with all the bike stations across the city. One can take a bike at any station and leave it at any other.
Renting Bike Now bikes costs Hr 20 ($0.75) for 30 minutes.
It is also possible to buy monthly, three-month, and seasonal subscriptions. They cost Hr 400 ($15), Hr 1,000 ($37) and Hr 1,400 ($52), respectively. But the first 30 minutes of each trip are free of charge.
If you are interested in mountain, tandem or other types of bikes, search for Veliki.ua stations on both the right and left banks of Kyiv.
The most popular one is located on the territory of the Expocenter of Ukraine in southwestern Kyiv. There, one hour costs at least Hr 100 ($3.70).
The Veliki.ua rental stations work through a franchising business model, which means that they all have different working hours depending on their owners. For that reason, check out working hours and availability of bikes for every station on the website.
The one condition for all stations is to leave a deposit of from Hr 3,000 to Hr 8,000 (roughly $110–300), an ID or a driver’s license on top of Hr 250–500 ($9–18). At some stations, it is possible to rent an electric bike, an electric scooter or a kick scooter.
A man rides a self-balancing personal transporter in Kyiv’s Mariinsky Park on July 24, 2017. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Electric scooters
While in many countries — especially in the European Union — e-scooters rental services are everywhere and often integrated into Google Maps, this type of transport is only just gaining popularity in Ukraine.
Half a year ago, a company called Bolt rolled out its e-scooter rental services in test mode. Today, one can rent a Bolt e-scooter through the company’s app on the territory of Unit.City, an innovation park in Kyiv.
There are only 20 of them, but the company promises to bring in more soon.
The Bolt e-scooters work like Bike Now — through a mobile app. The only difference from Bike Now is that a scooter can be left anywhere within the zone indicated in the app.
Employees of the service collect the scooters around the city themselves to charge them and return them to the stations.
Currently, the service is free but, by autumn 2020, the company plans to roll out its full-fledged version. According to preliminary information, unlocking a scooter will cost about 1 euro and then Hr 1 for each minute of the trip.
Other options
A tandem bike, a runbike, a stunt scooter, a gyro scooter, a gyroboard, an electric unicycle, a Go Kart Ninebot, a drift cart and a baby car — these are all the other options available at Citrus Rental at Kyiv’s Expocenter of Ukraine.
At the moment, the service only works at the Expocenter, but it will soon launch at the Dream Town 2 mall in Obolon, a district in northern Kyiv.
The price varies from Hr 70 ($2.60) per hour for a bicycle to Hr 600 ($22) for a Doohan electric scooter. One needs to bring an ID and leave a deposit of Hr 500–2,000.
Water sports
And then there are water vehicles for rent like kayaks and canoes.
One popular option is located at the X-Park, a sports and entertainment complex that’s based on the Yuriyivska Bay of the Desyonka River on the territory of the Kyiv’s Muromets park.
X-Park works every day from 8 a.m to 10 p. m. In the 150-hectare park, one can rent a wakeboard, a wakesurf, a sup board, a jet ski, a skimboard, a dragon boat, a canoe, a kayak, a catamaran and a hydrofoil.
Renting a kayak there costs Hr 90 per hour, a sup board — Hr 120 per hour. Find more details on their website.
