the grand tour chernobyl

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The Grand Tour

Jeremy, Richard and James embark on an adventure across the globe, driving new and exciting automobiles from manufacturers all over the world. Jeremy, Richard and James embark on an adventure across the globe, driving new and exciting automobiles from manufacturers all over the world. Jeremy, Richard and James embark on an adventure across the globe, driving new and exciting automobiles from manufacturers all over the world.

• Jeremy Clarkson
• Richard Hammond
• 398 User reviews
• 6 Critic reviews
• 2 nominations

Episodes 46

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• Trivia The opening scene cost 3.4 million dollars to produce. In total 150 cars participated, worth 26 million dollars.
• Connections Featured in Good Morning Britain: Episode dated 18 November 2016 (2016)
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• Nov 17, 2016
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• November 18, 2016 (United States)
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Jeremy Clarkson has revealed why it’s the end of the road for The Grand Tour . Clarkson said he and co-hosts, James May and Richard Hammond, decided to quit the Amazon Prime Video show after running out of steam.

In an interview with The Times of London , Clarkson said it was becoming increasingly difficult to conjure up outlandish adventures for the show and that the presenters were all showing their age.

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He added that The Grand Tour missions are “immensely physical” and had become increasingly difficult when “you’re unfit and fat and old.” “If you’re Bear Grylls you go to a hotel — there aren’t any hotels in the Sahara desert,” Clarkson said.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May confirmed last November that they had filmed their final installments of  The Grand Tour . Two final episodes of the motoring series were recorded in Mauritania and Zimbabwe and will premiere on Amazon Prime Video.

Fozia Khan, Amazon Studios’ head of unscripted in the UK, said the brand could survive with another set of presenters. “It’s come to its natural end,” she said, adding that her team was “thinking about” how the show can live on.

Clarkson will continue to host Clarkson’s Farm for Amazon after the series has become the streamer’s highest-rated UK original. Filming on Season 4 is set to begin this year. Clarkson is also hosting more Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for ITV.

The Times interviewer Ed Potton wrote that he was told not to ask Clarkson about his reviled The Sun newspaper column about Meghan Markle. Clarkson wrote that he imagines the day Markle is paraded “naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.” The piece was retracted and Amazon made clear its fury at the article.

Asked if he feels under pressure to be controversial, Clarkson said: “No! I like being controversial. Some people who see a still pond find that peaceful, but I cannot resist throwing a stone in it.”

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How to Visit Chernobyl: The Ultimate Guide (Updated 2021)

A n abandoned kindergarten room strewn with toys. The hollows of an amusement park that was never even used. An eerily vacant high school with its desks still draped in school work. These are the remnants of Chernobyl – a town blasted with 400 times the radiation of the bomb of Hiroshima, over thirty years ago. Today, it lures curious tourists in the tens of thousands. But why ?

When my husband and I were planning out our itinerary for Eastern Europe a few years back, we decided to include Kiev, Ukraine, purely so that we could visit Chernobyl. Dark tourism intrigued us, and we were keen to learn more about this abandoned place and the disaster story behind it.

For those of you who aren’t very familiar with Chernobyl, here’s the basic story:

Chernobyl was a nuclear power plant located in the USSR (now Ukraine) which had a steam explosion in April of 1986. The nuclear radiation released in the days after the accident was truly catastrophic. The nearby town of Prypyat, which was home of many of the power plant workers, was evacuated the day after the explosion and the 50,000 residents were never to return to their homes.

Nuclear Reactor no. 4 (the site of the explosion) was covered with a temporary sarcophagus to confine the radiation in the weeks after the explosion, and a new sarcophagus, which has been designed to confine the radiation for another 100 years, was built by the EU and placed on site in October 2017.

We chose to see Chernobyl on a 1-day, small group tour which departed Kiev at 8:00 AM and returned around 6:00 PM. We had an English speaking guide, and a driver who transported us via minivan. On the way, a documentary was played to give us a deeper insight into the disaster and prepare us for what we were about to see. Even though I had expected to visit a mostly abandoned and derelict place, the reality was shocking. There were a handful of stops on the tour, including a small town with empty houses being swallowed back up by the forest, an abandoned kindergarten in the Chernobyl township with books and learning materials still scattered about on the desks, and an amusement park in Prypyat that was sadly never used as the town was evacuated before it could open. These confronting scenes are something that I will never forget.

• 1 Chernobyl: An Overview
• 2 Why do tourists visit Chernobyl?
• 3 Is it safe to visit Chernobyl?
• 4 Can you visit Chernobyl without a guide?
• 5 How much does a Chernobyl tour cost?
• 6 Getting there
• 7 Where to stay
• 8 1. Choose the best Chernobyl tour type
• 9 2. Choose a tour company
• 10 3. Be prepared for your Chernobyl visit
• 11 The Thrifty Gist

Chernobyl: An Overview

Chernobyl is located about 100 km (62 mi) north of the city of Kiev, Ukraine. It takes around 2 hours to drive to Chernobyl from Kiev.

The exclusion zone is an area of 2,600 km 2 (1,000 sq mi) around the nuclear power plant. This area is considered hazardous and is off-limits to the general public. There are multiple checkpoints that you have to pass through inside the exclusion zone. The area inside the checkpoint closest to the nuclear reactor has the most dangerous levels of radiation.

When tourists talk about visiting Chernobyl, we’re generally referring to the power plant itself, but the exclusion zone actually includes a few towns and a large forested area. Tours to Chernobyl will stop by many different places of interest within the exclusion zone.

Why do tourists visit Chernobyl?

Chernobyl has many appeals for tourists. For me, it was the decay. I was intrigued to explore a place that has been completely abandoned by humans for nearly 30 years. I wanted to find out what an apocalyptic world might look like.

My husband’s appeal was the modern history aspect – he wanted to see a place that is frozen in time from the soviet era. Walking through remnants from a culture that no longer exists is a fascinating thing to experience.

Others might be interested in the disaster itself, or maybe learn more about the dangers of nuclear power and the effect it can have on the environment if something goes wrong, like it did at Chernobyl. This is perhaps the only place in the world that you can see this first-hand.

Is it safe to visit Chernobyl?

I was asked this question by many people after my visit to Chernobyl. It’s a valid concern.

Radiation sticks around for a very long time, and the exclusion zone is not expected to be safe for humans to live in for the next 20,000 years. However, radioactivity can be considered mostly harmless in small doses (like when you get an x-ray, or even take a long-haul flight), and the day tours into the exclusion zone mean that you’re only exposed to low levels of radiation for just a few hours.

There are around 400 people that actually live inside the exclusion zone, and another several thousand that work in and around the power plant, decommissioning the retired reactors and constructing the new sarcophagus. They manage the radiation exposure by limiting their time in the most hazardous areas, and are also required to take longer breaks away from the site so that their bodies have time to recover.

On the way out of the exclusion zone, everyone is required to go through an old soviet radiation control checkpoint. The device required each person to place their hands on either side while it checks your radiation levels.

Regardless of the trip you take, it's always worth getting travel insurance in case of an emergency. We use World Nomads because you can sign up or extend your trip any time (even if you've already left your home country), over 150+ adventure activities are covered (i.e. less fine print and loopholes), and most of all, there are plenty of successful claim stories online – so it actually works! For more info, and our story of when insurance saved us $2,000 at a foreign hospital, check out our travel insurance guide here .

Can you visit Chernobyl without a guide?

Tourist entry into the exclusion zone is only permitted with a licenced guide. There are many areas inside the exclusion zone that are still considered very dangerous, and a guide will have the expertise to keep you safe at all times.

How much does a Chernobyl tour cost?

Tours from Kiev cost between $100-$500 USD per person, depending on the type of tour that you choose. The day tour that I booked starts at $105 USD each, and it's worth every cent. You can browse a variety of tours along with prices, reviews, and booking with immediate confirmation on GetYourGuide and Viator .

Getting there

Flying into Boryspil International Airport (KBP) is the easiest way to get to Kiev, with direct flights from many major cities in Europe including Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, London, Prague, Frankfurt, Zurich, and Warsaw. If you are already in Ukraine, there are intercity trains that will take you from Lviv to Kiev. Budget airlines are plentiful in Eastern Europe. The easiest way to find cheap flights is to search Skyscanner and select “Entire Month” to visualize prices across a one month period.

It's also worth signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card . You'll get a 60,000 point bonus just by spending $4,000 in the first 3 months on your everyday purchases in the first 3 months. That's worth $750  when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards, saving you a significant amount on your flight. Alternatively, you can transfer the points directly to a number of other frequent flyer programs if you are already collecting points. The card also has no international transaction fees (where most cards charge 2-3%), making this card cheaper to use overseas than any ATM or currency exchange booth.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

• 60,000 reward points (worth $750 ) after meeting the minimum spend of $4,000 in the first 3 months
• $50 annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit, 5x points for purchases on Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3x points on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, and 2x points on all other travel purchases.
• Points are worth 25% more on airfare, hotels, car rentals, and cruises when booking through Chase Ultimate Rewards (e.g. 60,000 points worth $750 toward travel)
• Includes trip cancellation/interruption insurance, auto rental collision damage waiver, lost luggage insurance and more.
• Can transfer your reward points to leading airline and hotel loyalty programs
• No foreign transaction fees
• Annual fee: $95

Where to stay

There are plenty of central accommodations to choose from in Kiev. Being in Eastern Europe, hotels and AirBNBs are surprisingly affordable. When you book your Chernobyl tour, check the confirmation to find your meeting point. My tour departed from Maidan Square, so I booked us a room in a hostel nearby. Many tours will depart from Kiev Central Railway Station, so a hotel closer to the station may be a better choice. Some tours (especially the private ones) offer hotel pickup.

1. Choose the best Chernobyl tour type

When booking a visit to Chernobyl, there are a few different tour types to choose from:

1-day Tours

The 1-day tours generally last from 10-12 hours, of which 4 are spent driving to and from the Chernobyl site from Kiev. The 1-day tour was packed with activities, however, I didn’t feel as though it was overly rushed or that anything was skipped over.

From Kiev: 1-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl ($100 USD)

Chernobyl Tour from Kiev ($105 USD)

Full-Day Tour of Chernobyl and Prypiat from Kiev ($114 USD)

2-day or 3-day tours.

For anyone wanting to experience the exclusion zone at a slower pace, there are 2-day, 3-day, or even longer tours available. I personally think that 2 days would be enough time to see the area.

From Kiev: 2-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl ($251 USD)

The Ultimate 2-Day Chernobyl Tour from Kiev ($321 USD)

3-Day Extended Tour to Chernobyl and Prypiat Town from Kyiv ($429 USD)

Private tours.

Many people are interested in visiting Chernobyl for the photography aspect, and in this case, I think a private tour would be the best option as you can explore the area at your own pace. This would allow you ample time to set up shots and get great photos.

From Kiev: Private Tour of Chernobyl ($78 USD)

From Kiev: Chernobyl & Pripyat Private Day Tour with Lunch ($130 USD)

Chernobyl Private Tour from Kiev ($105 USD)

2. Choose a tour company

When I was choosing a tour company, I used online reviews to make a decision. SoloEast Travel was one of the highest rated companies on TripAdvisor, and while they weren’t necessarily the cheapest, the price was reasonable. They were an excellent choice.

Things to look for when choosing a tour:

• Group size: Small group tours are definitely best for the Chernobyl experience. We had 10-12 people on our tour, which was perfect.
• Inclusions/Exclusions: Hotel pickup, meals, entrance fees, taxes, and geiger-counter rental may or may not be included in the price of some tours.
• Flexibility: 1-day tours are really great value, but if you want more time at each place or more options for photography, then consider booking a slower-paced tour for more flexibility.

3. Be prepared for your Chernobyl visit

Tours to Chernobyl can be booked year-round. We visited in late November, which was extra special as there was a thick layer of snow which gave the place an eerie vibe. It was also a quiet time to visit – we only ran into one other tour group on our day trip, but for the most part we were the only people in sight.

Many people will prefer to visit Chernobyl in the warmer months. The trees in the area are apparently beautiful in fall/autumn, so this might be a great time to go.

What to bring:

• Comfortable, closed walking shoes.
• A rain jacket in case of bad weather.
• Sunscreen and a hat.
• A camera. You can use a smartphone for photos, but if you have a mirrorless camera or DSLR, even better! The photos you get around Chernobyl will be mind-blowing.
• A geiger-counter to measure radiation levels. We rented one from our tour company, which cost an extra $10 but it was so worth it.

For winter tours:

• Quality winter jacket/parka. You’ll spend a lot of time outside in the cold.
• Scarf, beanie, and gloves to stay warm.
• Waterproof shoes suitable for walking through snow.

The Thrifty Gist

• Chernobyl is located about 2 hours drive north of Kiev, Ukraine.
• The exclusion zone has a range of radiation levels, but is safe to visit on a guided tour. It's always a good idea to have travel insurance regardless, and we use World Nomads .
• You must book a tour to visit Chernobyl. 1-day, 2-day, or longer tours are available from Kiev. We took this tour , but there are plenty more to choose from with reviews on GetYourGuide and Viator .
• You can find cheap flights by searching by “entire month” on Skyscanner . You can also get the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card and hit the minimum spend to receive 60,000 points worth $750 , saving you a ton on your flight.

Thrifty Nomads has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Thrifty Nomads and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author's alone. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Disclosures Many of the listings that appear on this website are from companies which we receive compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). The site does not review or include all companies or all available products. Thrifty Nomads has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Thrifty Nomads and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Tours and holidays to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone

Visiting the exclusion zone isn’t everyone’s idea of a holiday, but it really is a trip that should be taken to understand the scale of the 1986 disaster which left this small corner of Ukraine and Belarus uninhabitable. Tight controls on who can enter the zone mean that a guided tour is the only legal way to enter. There is a vast range of options and since the HBO Chornobyl series was aired in 2019 the prices and numbers of tours have increased dramatically.

Things have changed in Chornobyl since this was written. Hopefully, one-day peace will return and visiting this special region of Ukraine will be possible .

Things to consider when planning a trip to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone from Kyiv

Booking in advance.

When you decide to travel to the exclusion zone, it cannot be done in the moment. If you turn up at the Dytiatky checkpoint on your own you will not be able to enter the exclusion zone. You will need to book in advance and provide the tour company with your full passport details as well as other information required for the documentation. They will be issued with a permit for your entry which will be checked at the entry point as well as at various times during your stay even if it is just for one day. It takes about 10 days for documentation to be processed although some companies can get things organised much quicker than this.

Length of time in the zone

One day is barely enough with travelling times included, can you manage longer to make the most of the available time? This is a real consideration. There is so much to see in Pripyat and the surrounding area that even with two days there is not enough time to do it all. The drive from Kyiv to Dytiatky takes two hours and it is then a further hour to Chornobyl town before continuing on to Pripyat. This all adds up. 6 hours of the day tour is spent travelling which if you spend longer in the zone is made more worthwhile.

The other bonus to staying in the zone is that you get time before the day trip buses arrive. The checkpoint is closed from 6 pm until 8 am so only people staying in the zone at the single hotel will be there at the beginning and end of the day. This means that buildings are empty and you are not racing for the checkpoint at the end of the day.

This is really important. Find out the maximum group size. Do you want to be experiencing this with 6 other people or 30 other people? All of the tours have different group sizes. These range from a small private tour in a private car with your own guide, to large group tours on a bus with thirty others. This is fine, but if you want to take photographs then having 30 others milling around is not very helpful. Ask about maximum group sizes before you book and get it confirmed by email.

Departure point

Where does the tour leave from? Is this easy to get to early in the morning? This may seem like a mad thing to think about but the Chornobyl tours depart from all over Kyiv and usually early in the morning. Check the departure point before booking to make sure it is easy to reach either on public transport or by Uber (this is the easiest way to book taxis in Kyiv). The city is slow to wake up and a 7 am departure on a Sunday morning needs to be planned in advance.

Key places you want to visit

There is no point in booking a tour if your primary location isn’t included. All of the tour companies list their locations and there are similarities. If you stay for two days the list is extended. However, some places, such as the Nuclear Power Plant aren’t on all of the tours.

If you want to visit a specific location make it really clear to the company when you book. We found that the tour guide was willing to amend our route to suit the group as we went along.

There were set places for meals as these were pre-booked, but beyond that, they were really flexible and accommodated our desire to visit certain locations.

Do remember however that tour companies cannot allow you to enter buildings. Lots of the photographs you will see both in my blogs and online were either taken before building entry was banned or by visitors entering buildings against the advice of the tour company.

Main Language of Your Tour

There is so much to learn from the tours and guides that you need to make sure that you will understand what they are telling you. Most companies work in a range of languages, but you do need to make sure you will have a productive trip. English is spoken by the majority of guides and from our experience it was excellent. We also had Slovaks and Belgians in our group and they had no problem at all.

The cost of a trip to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone varies for the tours and you need to check what is included in your tour. Some include everything and all you need to bring is snacks and water, others are less inclusive. There is nowhere to buy food within the zone with ease so do check that meals are included or ensure you have provisions. All of the tour buses stop at a service station just outside of Kyiv for coffee and provisions.

When looking at the inclusions on the tour lists some appear to include a lot more, but do check that it isn’t just listing things that are compulsory such as entry permits, dosimeters or radiation screening.

Passport Validity

You need to have a valid passport to enter the exclusion zone and you need to ensure that you have it with you at all times. At each checkpoint, passports are checked along with documentation. This is a slow process but is essential for safety.

Now, this may seem weird but if you are young then you may want to consider entry, especially if you are trying for a family. Whilst doses are low to non-existent it isn’t a risk I would want to take. A foetus is most susceptible to radiation in the first trimester, just when you don’t know you are pregnant. If there is any chance then I would say, save this trip for another time.

Similarly, children are more susceptible to radiation and whilst the risk is low, why take them somewhere that can wait until they are older? My teen kids still haven’t forgiven me for going without them as they are obsessed after playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, but I would rather avoid any potential problems in their future. A lot of the tours are advertised as 18 and over for this reason.

Chornobyl Tour Operators Association

As with all tours some are good and some are not so good. Trip Advisor and Google reviews are your friends when booking trips to Chornobyl. There is also the Chornobyl Tour Operator Association. Companies that belong to this association strive to bring a deeper meaning to the visitor’s experience and guarantee the best possible experience for each visitor.

How to book a tour of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone

The easiest way to book a tour is well in advance. This will ensure you get the dates you want and the group size you want. Many of the tours are booked well in advance. The booking process is fairly easy but the company that will be taking you in has various documents they need to complete and questionnaires that you need to fill in in advance of your visit.

Make sure you complete everything by the deadlines set and give all the correct details. You will not be getting past the checkpoint if your details are incorrect. It takes 10 days to process applications for entry and booking after this time does not guarantee you will be able to enter the zone.

It takes 10 days to process applications for entry and booking after this time does not guarantee you will be able to enter the zone.

Ideas for tours and holidays in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone from Kyiv

Below are some examples of trips to the exclusion zone from Kyiv. We have fully researched a number of tours and recommend Chernobyl X for any visit to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Having used them to explore the exclusion zone they provide small group tours with fantastic guides and drivers who listen to your requests for your tour. They have lots of tour options to choose from including some unique adventures beyond Chornobyl and will tailor the day to suit your requests.

Before you book make sure you read the trip descriptions carefully and do your own research on the company and its current reviews. While I hopefully chose well, companies change as do current reviews.

Chornobyl tours

A holiday to the exclusion zone is not your low-key lazy holiday. It is intense and harrowing, but worth the journey. A number of larger tour companies incorporate the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone into a larger adventure around Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. These are fantastic ways to see the countries beyond the disaster zone. Some Chornobyl tours include flights from the UK which makes the whole trip a little easier.

Have a look at this holiday which includes time in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and book

Private tours to Chernobyl

Sometimes it is better to visit the exclusion zone on your own. This gives you a chance to visit the locations you want at your own pace. This is really good if you are a photographer and want to spend time in a specific location or have places to yourself. It is also good for a small group of friends who want to do it their own way. These tours are a little more expensive but also include pick-up from your hotel in Kyiv making everything a little easier. You can even go in a vintage vehicle with the fantastic Chornobyl Welcome company.

A two-day tour of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone with private options – view and book

Photography Tours to the Exclusion Zone

Chornobyl Photo offers amazing packages for professional and enthusiastic amateur photographers in the exclusion zone. They can organise everything including helicopter flights over the zone and scheduled trips for journalists.

Another option for a photography trip is to find a private tour that you can tailor to your own needs. This means that you will have time to explore and find the most haunting locations in the area.

A private tour that can be tailored for photography – view and book

Two-Day Tour to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone

Two days is the best way to explore Chornobyl. It gives you plenty of time in each place and also allows you to experience Ukrainian hotels and food! The tours all include the sites from day one, but then take you to additional locations that need that little extra time. It also means you can explore buildings and areas within Pripyat on foot rather than hopping in and out of the bus.

A two-day tour of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone with a night in a hotel – view and book

One-Day Tour to the Exclusion Zone

There are lots of one-day tours to the Exclusion Zone. The tour you choose is a matter of personal preference and where you want to visit. The key places to visit are Pripyat, the Nuclear Power Plant, Chornobyl and the Duga Radar. Remember to check departure times and return times to ensure you maximise your trip.

A range of tours to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone – view and book

Tours that include the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station

For many people entering the power plant is the highlight of their trip. This hasn’t been possible until very recently but slowly more areas are being opened to visitors. If this is where you want to visit make sure that a tour of the actual power plant is included. Many companies take you to the power plant but this is just to see the memorials and the canteen.

A two-day tour of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone that can include the Nuclear Power Plant – view and book

HBO Themed Tour to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone

Many people became interested in the disaster after watching the amazing HBO mini-series in 2019. This has led to a number of longer tours that visit the Ignalina nuclear power station in Vilnius as well as other locations featured in the series before heading into the exclusion zone. This is for the hardcore fans of the series!

See what you could be doing and book

I'm Suzanne the traveller and photographer behind Meandering Wild. With over 30 years of experience travelling to different corners of the world in search of wildlife and remote locations nearly all of the advice on this website is from my own exploring.

Jeremy Clarkson Confirms The Grand Tour’s Final Episode on Amazon Prime

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has confirmed the end of The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime after next year. This announcement marks the conclusion of a series beloved by fans since its inception in 2016.

Key Takeaways:

• End of The Grand Tour: Jeremy Clarkson, along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May , will no longer film new series of The Grand Tour after next year, following a decision by Amazon Prime’s executives. This marks the end of a popular show that started in 2016 and quickly garnered a devoted fanbase.
• Fan Reactions and Future Prospects: Fans expressed their disappointment and gratitude on social media, reflecting on the impact the show had on their lives. Despite the end of this era, there’s speculation that Amazon Prime may revive The Grand Tour with new hosts, a move reportedly welcomed by the current presenters.
• Clarkson’s Future Endeavours: Clarkson mentioned a focus on his other project, ‘Clarkson’s Farm’, and there are two more special episodes of The Grand Tour slated for release, featuring travels to Mauritania and Zimbabwe.

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, renowned for his role in the popular car show The Grand Tour alongside Richard Hammond and James May, has recently spoken about the future of the series. The show, which began on Amazon Prime in 2016, has been a fan favourite but will see no further series after next year. This decision, made by the streaming platform’s bosses, brings an end to a series that has been both entertaining and influential for car enthusiasts.

Clarkson shared his thoughts on Instagram, stating:

“Been a busy day. No more Grand Tour after next year but a LOT more Clarkson’s Farm. Which, this evening, is looking extremely lovely.”

This post quickly became a hub for fans to express their feelings about the series ending. The emotional reactions ranged from sadness over the show’s conclusion to appreciation for the years of entertainment it provided.

One fan commented:

“Please start a podcast with the three of you, it can just be called the news and you rant for an hour about cars.”

Others expressed their gratitude:

“The end of Clarkson, Hammond and May in whatever it’s called is a sad day. Thank you for everything you did for petrolheads. And now farmheads!”

The influence of the trio was evident in another fan’s words:

“It’s really nice coming to the comments and seeing how these 3 impacted the lives of so many. These lads got me through countless dark times with laughter and endless banter. We all knew the day was coming, and the truest of fans will wish you, Hammond, May, and indeed all of the crew that made the magic happen the absolute best in the next stage. Thank you for inspiring countless enthusiasts around the world.”

Despite Clarkson’s announcement, there’s talk that Amazon Prime might continue The Grand Tour with new hosts. An insider revealed:

“It’s a surprising decision and everyone realises it very much marks the end of an era for the three presenters.”

This potential revival aligns with the presenters’ acceptance of passing the torch to a new generation.

“The Grand Tour is one of Prime Video’s most watched shows and Jeremy, James and Richard have a devoted following. But the guys have made no bones about the fact they’re all advancing in years and they have lots of other projects to pursue,” a source informed The Sun. “They just felt like the time was right and wanted to go out on a high when the show remained popular.”

As fans prepare to bid farewell to this iconic trio, they can look forward to two more special episodes of The Grand Tour, showcasing the team’s adventures in Mauritania and Zimbabwe. This farewell follows their departure from Top Gear in 2015, after a disagreement with producers.

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Your guide to visiting the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

How long can you stay in the chernobyl exclusion zone.

There are two exclusion zones in Chernobyl; a 10km inner and 30km outer Exclusion Zone. It is safe to stay in the outer Exclusion Zone overnight. There is a small hotel in Chernobyl town where our trips spend the night.   

On our  trips to Chernobyl  you'll spend two days exploring the abandoned ruins and the towns and villages that nature has reclaimed. Today there are around 200 people living within the outer Exclusion Zone.

Is Chernobyl safe to visit?

Chernobyl is now safe to visit, with very low radiation levels similar to those on a trans-Atlantic flight, but it is subject to very strict regulations. It is only possible to visit the Exclusion Zone with an official Chernobyl guide. Visitors to Chernobyl are scanned on entering and leaving the Exclusion Zone to check radiation levels. Occasionally - rarely - a reading will come back higher than recommended and in those cases you may need to leave behind an item of clothing in the zone.   

During the two days we spend in the Exclusion Zone you'll receive a dose of radiation comparable to a small dose from an X-ray scan: in numbers, you'll receive 5-7 micro Sieverts of gamma radiation, which is a non-harmful dose of radiation.

What do I need to pack?

Pack closed toe and comfortable walking shoes or boots. You'll be doing a lot of walking, and we recommend using older shoes that can be easily washed or thrown away in unlikely case they have a radiation reading on leaving the zone. In the Exclusion Zone there is often broken glass on the floor, so it is important to have shoes with sturdy tread.

Take long trousers and long sleeved shirts. July and August tend to be the hottest months so lightweight cotton clothing would be advised. In winter, temperatures can be as low as -10 to -15oc, so warm winter / ski gear is needed. We'd also recommend taking older clothes that can be easily washed or possibly thrown away and avoid clothing with lots of zips or metal poppers.

Make sure you have your camera or smartphone to capture some great photos. Keep a reusable water bottle handy for use outside the Exclusion Zone.  If you don't have one, you can purchase one of our  Explore Water-to-Go bottles  and save 15%.  

Can I take photos and videos?

What is the weather like in Chernobyl?

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Dark tourism: when tragedy meets tourism

The likes of Auschwitz, Ground Zero and Chernobyl are seeing increasing numbers of visitors, sparking the term 'dark tourism'. But is it voyeuristic or educational?

Days after 71 people died in a London tower block fire last June, something strange started to happen in the streets around it. Posters, hastily drawn by members of the grieving community of Grenfell Tower, appeared on fences and lamp posts in view of the building's blackened husk.

'Grenfell: A Tragedy Not A Tourist Attraction,' one read, adding — sarcastically — a hashtag and the word 'selfies'. As families still searched for missing inhabitants of the 24-storey block, and the political shock waves were being felt through the capital, people had started to arrive in North Kensington to take photos. Some were posing in selfie mode.

"It's not the Eiffel Tower," one resident told the BBC after the posters attracted the attention of the press. "You don't take a picture." Weeks later, local people were dismayed when a coachload of Chinese tourists pulled up nearby so that its occupants could get out and take photos.

Grenfell Tower, which still dominates the surrounding skyline (it's due to be demolished in late 2018), had become a site for 'dark tourism', a loose label for any sort of tourism that involves visiting places that owe their notoriety to death, disaster, an atrocity or what can also loosely be termed 'difficult heritage'.

It's a phenomenon that's on the rise as established sites such as Auschwitz and the September 11 museum in Manhattan enjoy record visitor numbers. Meanwhile, demand is rising among those more intrepid dark tourists who want to venture to the fallout zones of Chernobyl and Fukushima, as well as North Korea and Rwanda. In Sulawesi, Indonesia, Western tourists wielding GoPros pay to watch elaborate funeral ceremonies in the Toraja region, swapping notes afterwards on TripAdvisor.

Along the increasingly crowded dark-tourist trail, academics, tour operators and the residents of many destinations are asking searching questions about the ethics of modern tourism in an age of the selfie and the Instagram hashtag. When Pompeii, a dark tourist site long before the phrase existed, found itself on the Grand Tour of young European nobility in the 18th century, dozens of visitors scratched their names into its excavated walls. Now we leave our mark in different ways, but where should we draw the boundaries?

Questions like these have become the life's work of Dr Philip Stone , perhaps the world's leading academic expert on dark tourism. He has a background in business and marketing, and once managed a holiday camp in Scotland. But a fascination with societal attitudes to mortality led to a PhD in thanatology, the study of death, and a focus on tourism.

"I'm not even a person who enjoys going to these places," Stone says from the University of Central Lancashire, where he runs the Institute for Dark Tourism Research. "But what I am interested in is the way people face their own mortality by looking at other deaths of significance. Because we've become quite divorced from death yet we have this kind of packaging up of mortality in the visit economy which combines business, sociology, psychology under the banner of dark tourism. It's really fascinating to shine a light on that."

Historical roots

The term 'dark tourism' is far newer than the practice, which long predates Pompeii's emergence as a morbid attraction. Stone considers the Roman Colosseum to be one of the first dark tourist sites, where people travelled long distances to watch death as sport. Later, until the late 18th century, the appeal was starker still in central London, where people paid money to sit in grandstands to watch mass executions. Hawkers would sell pies at the site, which was roughly where Marble Arch   stands today.

It was only in 1996 that 'dark tourism' entered the scholarly lexicon when two academics in Glasgow applied it while looking at sites associated with the assassination of JFK. Those who study dark tourism identify plenty of reasons for the growing phenomenon, including raised awareness of it as an identifiable thing. Access to sites has also improved with the advent of cheap air travel. It's hard to imagine that the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum would now welcome more than two million visitors a year (an average of almost 5,500 a day, more than two-thirds of whom travel to the Polish site from other countries in Europe) were it not for its proximity to Krakow's international airport.

Peter Hohenhaus, a widely travelled dark tourist based in Vienna, also points to the broader rise in off-the-beaten track tourism, beyond the territory of popular guidebooks and TripAdvisor rankings. "A lot of people don't want mainstream tourism and that often means engaging with places that have a more recent history than, say, a Roman ruin," he says. "You go to Sarajevo and most people remember the war being in the news so it feels closer to one's own biography."

Hohenhaus is also a fan of 'beauty in decay', the contemporary cultural movement in which urban ruins have become subject matter for expensive coffee-table books and a thousand Instagram accounts. The crossover with death is clear. "I've always been drawn to derelict things," the 54-year-old says. As a child in Hamburg, he would wonder at the destruction of war still visible around the city's harbour.

That childhood interest has developed into an obsession; Hohenhaus has visited 650 dark tourist sites in 90 countries, logging them all and more besides on his website . He has plans to put together the first dark tourism guidebook. His favourite holiday destination today is Chernobyl and its 'photogenic' ghost town. "You get to time travel back into the Soviet era but also into an apocalyptic future," he says. He also enjoys being emotionally challenged by these places. "I went to Treblinka in 2008 and heard the story of a teacher at an orphanage in Warsaw who was offered a chance to escape but refused and went with his children to the gas chambers. Stories like that are not everyday, you mull over them. Would you have done that?"

But while, like any tourism, dark tourism at its best is thought-provoking and educational, the example of Grenfell Tower hints at the unease felt at some sites about what can look like macabre voyeurism. "I remember the Lonely Planet Bluelist book had a chapter about dark tourism a while ago and one of the rules was 'don't go back too early'," Hohenhaus says. "But that's easier said than calculated. You have to be very aware of reactions and be discreet when you're not in a place with an entrance fee and a booklet." Hohenhaus said he had already thought about Grenfell Tower and admits he would be interested to see it up close. "It's big, it's dramatic, it's black and it's a story you've followed in the news," he says. "I can see the attraction. But I would not stand in the street taking a selfie."

A mirror to mortality

An urge to see and feel a place that has been reduced to disaster shorthand by months of media coverage is perhaps understandable, but Stone is most interested in the draw — conscious or otherwise — of destinations that hold up a mirror to our own mortality. "When we touch the memory of people who've gone what we're looking at is ourselves," he says. "That could have been us in that bombing or atrocity. We make relevant our own mortality." That process looks different across cultures — and generations — and Stone says we should take this into account before despairing of selfie takers at Grenfell Tower or Auschwitz.

"I've heard residents at Grenfell welcoming visitors because it keeps the disaster in the public realm, but they didn't like people taking photos because it's a visual reminder that you're a tourist and therefore somehow defunct of morality," he explains. "We're starting to look at selfies now. Are they selfish?" Stone argues that the language of social media means we no longer say "I was here", but "I am here — see me". He adds: "We live in a secular society where morality guidelines are increasingly blurred. It's easy for us to say that's right or wrong, but for many people it's not as simple as that."

"Travel itself is innately voyeuristic," argues Simon Cockerel, the general manager of Koryo Tours , a North Korea specialist based in Beijing. Cockerel, who has lived in China for 17 years and joined Koryo in 2002, says demand has grown dramatically for trips to Pyongyang and beyond, from 200 people a year in the mid 1990s, when the company started, to more than 5,000 more recently. He has visited the country more than 165 times and says some clients join his tours simply to bag another country, and some for bragging rights. But the majority have a genuine interest in discovering a country — and a people — beyond the headlines.

"I've found everyone who goes there to be sensitive and aware of the issues," he says. "The restrictions do create a framework for it to be a bit like a theme park visit but we work hard to blur those boundaries. More than 25 million people live in North Korea, and 24.99 million of them have nothing to do with what we read in the news and deserve to be seen as people not as zoo animals or lazy caricatures."

More challenging recently has been the US ban on its citizens going to North Korea, imposed last summer after the mysterious death of Otto Warmbier. The American student had been arrested in Pyongyang after being accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster. Americans made up about 20% of Koryo's business, but Cockerel argues the greater loss is to mutual perception in the countries. "The North Korean government represent Americans as literal wolves with sharpened nails," he says. "At least a few hundred Americans going there was a kind of bridgehead against that. Now that's gone."

At Grenfell Tower, responsible tourism may yet serve to keep alive the memory of the disaster, just as it does, after a dignified moratorium, at Auschwitz and the former Ground Zero. Hohenhaus says he will resist the urge to go until some sort of memorial is placed at the site of the tower. At around the time of a commemorative service at St Paul's Cathedral six months after the fire, there were calls for the site eventually to be turned into a memorial garden. The extent to which Hohenhaus and other dark tourists are welcomed will be decided by the people still living there.

Five of the world's dark tourism sites

1. North Korea Opened to visitors in the late 1980s, North Korea now attracts thousands of tourists each year for a peek behind the headlines.

2. Auschwitz-Birkenau The former Nazi death camp became a memorial in 1947 and a museum in 1955. It's grown since and in 2016 attracted a record two million visitors.

3. 9/11 Memorial and Museum Built in the crater left by the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the museum, opened in 2014, has won plaudits for its portrayal of a disaster and its impact.

4. Rwanda Visitor numbers to genocide memorials have grown in Cambodia and Bosnia as well as in Rwanda, where there are several sites dedicated to the 1994 massacre of up to a million people. The skulls of victims are displayed.

5. Chernobyl & Pripyat, Ukraine Several tour companies exist to send visitors to the exclusion zone and ghost town left otherwise empty after the nuclear accident in 1986. All are scanned for radiation as they leave.

Published in the March 2018 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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Home » Travel Guides » Ukraine » 15 Best Chernobyl Tours

15 Best Chernobyl Tours

In late April 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat had a catastrophic accident that caused one of the reactors to leak radiation at an alarming rate.

The plant and town were evacuated, and other than a brave group of scientists and construction workers, the area has been abandoned ever since.

The site lies to the north of the country’s capital and is now open to tours, nearly all of which begin in Kiev.

Guided tours are the only way to see the site, and the running historical narration you’ll get will add a tremendous value to the amazing sights you’ll witness.

Below are 15 of the best tours of Chernobyl and Kiev.

1. Private tour in Chernobyl

This convenient one-day tour begins in Kiev and includes the services of a professional guide, transportation to and from the site, and all the fees and permits you’ll need to visit the different exclusion zones.

In addition to the eerie but intriguing grounds of the power plant, you’ll enjoy a traditional Ukrainian lunch and a tour of the abandoned town of Pripyat the Kopachi Village, where the streets are empty – making it seem like the set of a post-apocalyptic movie.

When the tour is over and you’ve passed through the mandatory radiation control, you’ll be taken back to your Kiev hotel.

2. 1-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl from Kiev

The disaster area of Chernobyl is one of Ukraine’s most mysterious sites. It’s been shrouded in myth and secrecy for more than 30 years.

Before venturing into the exclusion zones, guests will watch a brief introductory movie that’ll set the stage for all the amazing sights you’ll see while inside the Chernobyl exclusion zones and the town of Pripyat.

In addition to learning pretty much all there is to know about radiation safety, you’ll visit a museum, church, and post office in the town that, although once-abandoned, is now the home of construction workers and even a small police force.

All permits and transportation are included but lunch isn’t.

View Prices & Reviews

3. 2-Day Tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat

This two-day tour is a great option for those who’ve got the free time and would like to get a thorough look into the area’s troubled past.

In addition to round trip transportation to and from your accommodations in Kiev, the tour includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and an overnight stay at a hotel in Slavutych.

You’ll visit the Chernobyl Power Plant for an exclusive behind the scenes look at the facilities, and hear a first-hand account that will describe how things went so tragically wrong so quickly in 1986.

The tour price includes all the fees and permits necessary to visit the sites as well.

4. Private Guided Tour of Kiev Pechersk Lavra

The Kiev Pechersk Lavra Monastery Complex is one of Ukraine’s most iconic and historically significant sites, it’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The grounds include a church and bell tower that offers visitors who are willing to climb a few stairs the most panoramic and unobstructed views of the surrounding town.

After you’ve had your fill of the world above ground, you’ll have the opportunity to descend into the site’s subterranean cave complex that has a fascinating history in addition to its geological beauty.

This tour is pleasant and a convenient change of pace from the somber atmosphere of Chernobyl.

5. Day Trip to Chernobyl Zone and Pripyat with Lunch

Considered by many to be one of the greatest ecological disasters in the history of the world, the Ukrainian city of Pripyat and the nearby Chernobyl Power Plant are still popular destinations for brave visitors interested in experiencing a fascinating voyage into the past.

At one time during the Soviet reign, the city and plant were considered models of order and efficiency, but that all ended in 1986 when things went terribly wrong.

The full-day trip includes all transportation, and stops at the area’s most significant sites. You’ll get in-depth historical background from your professional local guide all along the way.

6. Chernobyl Tour from Kiev

From your hotel in Kiev, you’ll be transported to the Dytyatky Checkpoint, where you’ll receive a brief safety orientation. From there, you’ll head to the site’s famous exclusion zones to tour the facilities which were the disaster’s epicenters back in 1986.

Visits to Pripyat and Kopachi Village are included; though they’re nearly abandoned now, you’ll see and explore a crumbling kindergarten, hospital, and Soviet-era movie theater that are now overrun with weeds and animals that have recolonized the area.

Before heading back to Kiev after lunch, you’ll see an old Soviet radar station and pass through the mandatory radiation control facility.

7. Private City Tour of Lviv

The quaint and historic town of Lviv is one of Ukraine’s gems, and is best visited with a local guide who knows the places you’ll want to see.

The town’s most prominent attractions are the Gothic Latin Cathedral, Golden Rosa Synagogue, and High Castle Hill, which sits on a bluff overlooking the town.

The town’s old-world charm and architecture are a pleasant contrast to the stark and macabre scene at Chernobyl. The tour includes stops at the Lviv Opera house, a military academy, and an army museum that’s full of interesting artifacts, exhibits, uniforms and weapons from decades past.

8. Two-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl

Group tours are great ways to meet interesting travelers from all over the world. This two-day group tour to Chernobyl from Kiev is all-inclusive, which means you won’t have to worry about all the annoying details like lodging and transportation.

Day one includes a guided tour of the power plant and surrounding towns, and after a pleasant night in a local hotel, the tour will have a variety of options to choose from, which will determine what’s included on day two.

Two-day tours offer a more relaxed and customizable itinerary than one-day tours, so take advantage of it.

9. Shooting Gun Range in Kiev

Shooting guns is a lot of fun, and when you’ve got access to high-powered military-grade weapons that are usually off limits to all but professionals, it’s an even more exhilarating experience.

Whether you’re a seasoned gun lover or not, before sending bullets down range, you’ll get a thorough safety briefing from a professional; you’ll even have a few packages to choose from.

You’ll get all the safety gear you’ll need, like ear and eye protection. Previous guests have commented that it was one of the most memorable and exciting things they did while in Kiev, so don’t miss out.

10. Chernobyl Power Plant and Pripyat 2-Day Tour

In 1986, a massive fire sparked a chain reaction that would lead to the world’s greatest nuclear disaster. Though some say that title now goes to the Fukushima facility in Japan, visiting the Chernobyl Power Plant is one of the most poignant things most previous guests have ever experienced.

You’ll go near the control room and reactor on this two-day tour and will spend the first evening in a comfortable hotel in the nearby town of Slavutych.

The tour includes round-trip transportation to and from Kiev, lodging and meals as itemized on the itinerary, making it a convenient package.

11. Kiev Nighttime Private Tour

Kiev is a beautiful capital city that’s full of history and distinct architecture, drawing visitors from all over the world.

For those hearty travelers who want to experience the city from a unique perspective, this private nighttime tour would be a great way to do just that.

The tour includes a private guide and is limited in size, so guests will get a more intimate and personalized experience than they would with a mega-tour.

Stops include the Lacra Monastery, Paton Bridge, and other significant sites that are breathtaking when illuminated at night. Tours are customizable so you can see and do the things that interest you.

12. Ultimate 2-Day Chernobyl Tour from Kiev

The Chernobyl disaster is one that’s been cloaked in myth, legend and misinformation since that fateful day in 1986.

Though accounts can vary widely, seeing the facility and nearby towns with an experienced local guide will shine new light on the whole thing. This two-day tour gives guests an opportunity to delve into the region’s perplexing past in a way that few others will.

You’ll visit the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the town of Pripyat, and the reactor that malfunctioned causing a fire that sparked the whole incident. Unlike many tours, you’ll meet locals who will give first-hand accounts on how things played out more than 30 years ago.

13. Kiev Key Attractions Private Sightseeing Tour

With so much focus on ecological disasters and human tragedy, taking a short break from the Chernobyl disaster might be a good idea while visiting the Kiev area.

Ukraine’s most scenic city is full of wonderful sites that are best seen with a guide, and it’s possible to see all the hotspots in one day.

This private tour is a great option for those with limited time who’d rather sit back, relax, and let someone else handle all the pesky details.

The capital city is full of museums, cathedrals, galleries, historic areas and great restaurants, so don’t hesitate to tell your guide the things that you’re most interested in seeing.

14. All-Inclusive 2-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl from Kiev

This all-inclusive two-day tour from Kiev is the perfect option for travelers looking to immerse themselves in the fascinating – if ecologically depressing – event that occurred in Chernobyl more than 30 years ago.

Upon arriving at the site, guests will watch a historical documentary and learn about safety regulations while visiting the exclusion zones.

The procedures at Dityatki checkpoint can seem a bit spooky, but it’s all just precautionary. After that, guests will be taken to the largely abandoned city and village located near the power plant.

It’s a fascinating snapshot of an era that came to an abrupt end, and includes museums, schools and other Soviet-era buildings that have fallen into disrepair over the last few decades.

15. Full-Day Tour to Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

The Ukrainians are fiercely independent people. This tour is run by pleasant but outspoken guides who want to get the true story out as it relates to the Chernobyl disaster and the conditions that existed under Soviet rule.

The tour begins and ends in Kiev and lasts a full day, giving guests a unique view into the country’s past.

Your local guide will speak English and will be able to give you and your fellow travelers unique, first-hand accounts that are both intriguing and surprising.

This tour is great value for those with two days to dedicate to exploring the area.

15 Best Chernobyl Tours:

• Private tour in Chernobyl
• 1-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl from Kiev
• 2-Day Tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat
• Private Guided Tour of Kiev Pechersk Lavra
• Day Trip to Chernobyl Zone and Pripyat with Lunch
• Chernobyl Tour from Kiev
• Private City Tour of Lviv
• Two-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl
• Shooting Gun Range in Kiev
• Chernobyl Power Plant and Pripyat 2-Day Tour
• Kiev Nighttime Private Tour
• Ultimate 2-Day Chernobyl Tour from Kiev
• Kiev Key Attractions Private Sightseeing Tour
• All-Inclusive 2-Day Group Tour to Chernobyl from Kiev
• Full-Day Tour to Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

THE 10 BEST Chernobyl Tours & Excursions

Chernobyl tours.

• Historical & Heritage Tours
• Multi-day Tours
• Cultural Tours
• Sightseeing Tours
• Walking Tours
• Private Tours
• Ghost & Vampire Tours
• Movie & TV Tours
• Up to 1 hour
• 1 to 4 hours
• 4 hours to 1 day
• 5.0 of 5 bubbles
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• 3.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• 2.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• The ranking of tours, activities, and experiences available on Tripadvisor is determined by several factors including the revenue generated by Tripadvisor from these bookings, the frequency of user clicks, and the volume and quality of customer reviews. Occasionally, newly listed offerings may be prioritized and appear higher in the list. The specific placement of these new listings may vary.

1. Chernobyl and Pripyat ALL INCLUSIVE 2 Day Tour

2. One-day Tour to Chernobyl Zone from Kyiv

3. Chernobyl Tour with Gift

4. Full-Day Private Tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat Town from Kyiv

5. Individual tour to the Chernobyl Zone from Kyiv

6. Group Tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat

7. 1 Day Chernobyl Tour including Body Contamination Scan

8. Full-Day Private Chernobyl and Pripyat Tour from Kiev

9. Private Tour inside Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

10. Private Tour to Chernobyl from Kiev with Lunch

11. Private one day tour to Chernobyl Zone of Exclusion with Lunch

12. Full-Day Guided Tour of Chernobyl from Kiev

13. Two-day group Tour to the Chernobyl Zone from Kyiv

14. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 2-day tour

15. Chernobyl HBO full-day tour − filming locations and real experience

16. Two-day exclusive tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat

17. Private Tour: 2-Day Tour to Chernobyl and Pripyat from Kiev

18. Chernobyl LIVE-stream

19. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 1-day tour

20. Private tour to Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

21. 2-days Group Tour To The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

22. Shared Group Tour To Chernobyl From Kyiv

23. Safe Visit to Chernobyl | One-day Chernobyl Group Tour |

24. Private 2-Day Abandoned Places Tour in the Chernobyl Zone

25. Private Full-Day Chernobyl Zone Urbexing with Hotel Pick Up

26. Private Day Tour To Infamous Exclusion Zone "Chernobyl"

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The Grand Tour Will Reportedly Be Rebooted, Who Do You Think Should Host?

With Clarkson, Hammond, and May bidding adieu to the show, The Grand Tour is getting ready for a reboot, complete with fresh faces and a revamped format

by Michael Gauthier

• Studio Lambert has reportedly won a contract to create an updated version of The Grand Tour.
• Little is known about the retooled show, but it’s expected to feature new presenters as well as a revised format.

With Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May leaving The Grand Tour , many thought the show was dead. However, a new report suggests that might not be the case.

According to Broadcast , Studio Lambert has been awarded a contract to “develop a fresh version” of the show. Details are limited, but the publication said the studio beat out rival pitches from Shine TV and Orchard Studios.

More: Jeremy Clarkson Says He’s Too “Unfit, Fat And Old” To Keep The Grand Tour Going

The show reportedly hasn’t been formally greenlighted at this point, but Studio Lambert is said to be working on an updated format. The reboot is also expected to have new presenters, although there’s no word on how many or who might get the role.

The latter is obviously the biggest question as the bond between Clarkson, Hammond, and May was almost as interesting as whatever they were doing on screen. It’ll certainly be hard to replicate that as Top Gear found out following their departure.

The Sun quoted an unnamed industry insider as saying, “The Grand Tour is one of Prime Video’s most watched shows and Jeremy, James and Richard have a devoted following, but the guys have made no bones about the fact they’re all advancing in years and they have lots of other projects to pursue.” They added the trio wanted to go out on a high note.

While there are more questions than answers at this point, the show isn’t exactly a stranger to reboots. While it initially had a Top Gear -like feel and roughly a dozen episodes per season, The Grand Tour was eventually retooled to focus on a handful of road trips.

It remains unclear if the latest evolution of the show will stick to this format or try to find its own path. However, with Top Gear taking a “rest,” there might be an opportunity to return to that style format.

With all that being said, what would you like to see out of a Grand Tour reboot and who do you think should host?

Lead image YouTube/The Grand Tour

Dark tourism: when tragedy meets tourism

The likes of auschwitz, ground zero and chernobyl are seeing increasing numbers of visitors, sparking the term 'dark tourism'. but is it voyeuristic or educational.

Several tour companies exist to send visitors to the Chernobyl exclusion zone and ghost town left otherwise empty after the nuclear accident in 1986.

Days after 71 people died in a London tower block fire last June, something strange started to happen in the streets around it. Posters, hastily drawn by members of the grieving community of Grenfell Tower, appeared on fences and lamp posts in view of the building's blackened husk.

'Grenfell: A Tragedy Not A Tourist Attraction,' one read, adding — sarcastically — a hashtag and the word 'selfies'. As families still searched for missing inhabitants of the 24-storey block, and the political shock waves were being felt through the capital, people had started to arrive in North Kensington to take photos. Some were posing in selfie mode.

"It's not the Eiffel Tower," one resident told the BBC after the posters attracted the attention of the press. "You don't take a picture." Weeks later, local people were dismayed when a coachload of Chinese tourists pulled up nearby so that its occupants could get out and take photos.

Grenfell Tower, which still dominates the surrounding skyline (it's due to be demolished in late 2018), had become a site for 'dark tourism', a loose label for any sort of tourism that involves visiting places that owe their notoriety to death, disaster, an atrocity or what can also loosely be termed 'difficult heritage'.

It's a phenomenon that's on the rise as established sites such as Auschwitz and the September 11 museum in Manhattan enjoy record visitor numbers. Meanwhile, demand is rising among those more intrepid dark tourists who want to venture to the fallout zones of Chernobyl and Fukushima, as well as North Korea and Rwanda. In Sulawesi, Indonesia, Western tourists wielding GoPros pay to watch elaborate funeral ceremonies in the Toraja region, swapping notes afterwards on TripAdvisor.

Along the increasingly crowded dark-tourist trail, academics, tour operators and the residents of many destinations are asking searching questions about the ethics of modern tourism in an age of the selfie and the Instagram hashtag. When Pompeii, a dark tourist site long before the phrase existed, found itself on the Grand Tour of young European nobility in the 18th century, dozens of visitors scratched their names into its excavated walls. Now we leave our mark in different ways, but where should we draw the boundaries?

Questions like these have become the life's work of Dr Philip Stone , perhaps the world's leading academic expert on dark tourism. He has a background in business and marketing, and once managed a holiday camp in Scotland. But a fascination with societal attitudes to mortality led to a PhD in thanatology, the study of death, and a focus on tourism.

"I'm not even a person who enjoys going to these places," Stone says from the University of Central Lancashire, where he runs the Institute for Dark Tourism Research. "But what I am interested in is the way people face their own mortality by looking at other deaths of significance. Because we've become quite divorced from death yet we have this kind of packaging up of mortality in the visit economy which combines business, sociology, psychology under the banner of dark tourism. It's really fascinating to shine a light on that."

Historical roots

The term 'dark tourism' is far newer than the practice, which long predates Pompeii's emergence as a morbid attraction. Stone considers the Roman Colosseum to be one of the first dark tourist sites, where people travelled long distances to watch death as sport. Later, until the late 18th century, the appeal was starker still in central London, where people paid money to sit in grandstands to watch mass executions. Hawkers would sell pies at the site, which was roughly where Marble Arch stands today.

It was only in 1996 that 'dark tourism' entered the scholarly lexicon when two academics in Glasgow applied it while looking at sites associated with the assassination of JFK. Those who study dark tourism identify plenty of reasons for the growing phenomenon, including raised awareness of it as an identifiable thing. Access to sites has also improved with the advent of cheap air travel. It's hard to imagine that the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum would now welcome more than two million visitors a year (an average of almost 5,500 a day, more than two-thirds of whom travel to the Polish site from other countries in Europe) were it not for its proximity to Krakow's international airport.

Peter Hohenhaus, a widely travelled dark tourist based in Vienna, also points to the broader rise in off-the-beaten track tourism, beyond the territory of popular guidebooks and TripAdvisor rankings. "A lot of people don't want mainstream tourism and that often means engaging with places that have a more recent history than, say, a Roman ruin," he says. "You go to Sarajevo and most people remember the war being in the news so it feels closer to one's own biography."

Hohenhaus is also a fan of 'beauty in decay', the contemporary cultural movement in which urban ruins have become subject matter for expensive coffee-table books and a thousand Instagram accounts. The crossover with death is clear. "I've always been drawn to derelict things," the 54-year-old says. As a child in Hamburg, he would wonder at the destruction of war still visible around the city's harbour.

That childhood interest has developed into an obsession; Hohenhaus has visited 650 dark tourist sites in 90 countries, logging them all and more besides on his website . He has plans to put together the first dark tourism guidebook. His favourite holiday destination today is Chernobyl and its 'photogenic' ghost town. "You get to time travel back into the Soviet era but also into an apocalyptic future," he says. He also enjoys being emotionally challenged by these places. "I went to Treblinka in 2008 and heard the story of a teacher at an orphanage in Warsaw who was offered a chance to escape but refused and went with his children to the gas chambers. Stories like that are not everyday, you mull over them. Would you have done that?"

But while, like any tourism, dark tourism at its best is thought-provoking and educational, the example of Grenfell Tower hints at the unease felt at some sites about what can look like macabre voyeurism. "I remember the Lonely Planet Bluelist book had a chapter about dark tourism a while ago and one of the rules was 'don't go back too early'," Hohenhaus says. "But that's easier said than calculated. You have to be very aware of reactions and be discreet when you're not in a place with an entrance fee and a booklet." Hohenhaus said he had already thought about Grenfell Tower and admits he would be interested to see it up close. "It's big, it's dramatic, it's black and it's a story you've followed in the news," he says. "I can see the attraction. But I would not stand in the street taking a selfie."

A mirror to mortality

An urge to see and feel a place that has been reduced to disaster shorthand by months of media coverage is perhaps understandable, but Stone is most interested in the draw — conscious or otherwise — of destinations that hold up a mirror to our own mortality. "When we touch the memory of people who've gone what we're looking at is ourselves," he says. "That could have been us in that bombing or atrocity. We make relevant our own mortality." That process looks different across cultures — and generations — and Stone says we should take this into account before despairing of selfie takers at Grenfell Tower or Auschwitz.

"I've heard residents at Grenfell welcoming visitors because it keeps the disaster in the public realm, but they didn't like people taking photos because it's a visual reminder that you're a tourist and therefore somehow defunct of morality," he explains. "We're starting to look at selfies now. Are they selfish?" Stone argues that the language of social media means we no longer say "I was here", but "I am here — see me". He adds: "We live in a secular society where morality guidelines are increasingly blurred. It's easy for us to say that's right or wrong, but for many people it's not as simple as that."

"Travel itself is innately voyeuristic," argues Simon Cockerel, the general manager of Koryo Tours , a North Korea specialist based in Beijing. Cockerel, who has lived in China for 17 years and joined Koryo in 2002, says demand has grown dramatically for trips to Pyongyang and beyond, from 200 people a year in the mid 1990s, when the company started, to more than 5,000 more recently. He has visited the country more than 165 times and says some clients join his tours simply to bag another country, and some for bragging rights. But the majority have a genuine interest in discovering a country — and a people — beyond the headlines.

"I've found everyone who goes there to be sensitive and aware of the issues," he says. "The restrictions do create a framework for it to be a bit like a theme park visit but we work hard to blur those boundaries. More than 25 million people live in North Korea, and 24.99 million of them have nothing to do with what we read in the news and deserve to be seen as people not as zoo animals or lazy caricatures."

More challenging recently has been the US ban on its citizens going to North Korea, imposed last summer after the mysterious death of Otto Warmbier. The American student had been arrested in Pyongyang after being accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster. Americans made up about 20% of Koryo's business, but Cockerel argues the greater loss is to mutual perception in the countries. "The North Korean government represent Americans as literal wolves with sharpened nails," he says. "At least a few hundred Americans going there was a kind of bridgehead against that. Now that's gone."

At Grenfell Tower, responsible tourism may yet serve to keep alive the memory of the disaster, just as it does, after a dignified moratorium, at Auschwitz and the former Ground Zero. Hohenhaus says he will resist the urge to go until some sort of memorial is placed at the site of the tower. At around the time of a commemorative service at St Paul's Cathedral six months after the fire, there were calls for the site eventually to be turned into a memorial garden. The extent to which Hohenhaus and other dark tourists are welcomed will be decided by the people still living there.

Five of the world's dark tourism sites

1. North Korea Opened to visitors in the late 1980s, North Korea now attracts thousands of tourists each year for a peek behind the headlines.

2. Auschwitz-Birkenau The former Nazi death camp became a memorial in 1947 and a museum in 1955. It's grown since and in 2016 attracted a record two million visitors.

3. 9/11 Memorial and Museum Built in the crater left by the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the museum, opened in 2014, has won plaudits for its portrayal of a disaster and its impact.

4. Rwanda Visitor numbers to genocide memorials have grown in Cambodia and Bosnia as well as in Rwanda, where there are several sites dedicated to the 1994 massacre of up to a million people. The skulls of victims are displayed.

5. Chernobyl & Pripyat, Ukraine Several tour companies exist to send visitors to the exclusion zone and ghost town left otherwise empty after the nuclear accident in 1986. All are scanned for radiation as they leave.

Published in the March 2018 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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