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The garden is beautiful all year round and especially welcoming in late spring, when it blooms and is filled with hundreds of birds’ voices, the buzzing of bees and bumblebees and smells sweet. The garden is luxurious in late summer and early autumn (later than elsewhere in Ukraine), when all its fruits ripen and it invites you to pick them. All you have to do is to come here… The road to the garden will amaze you no less than the garden itself – 10 kilometres of road, contemplating the majestic Chornohora range, stopping to drink tea on the lawn of the settlement, enjoying complete peace and nature. The purpose of the trip is meeting the garden in the highlands, delicious food, sleeping close to the sky and the stars, a sunrise in the garden, real and fictional stories told live, it will be difficult to distinguish where there is more magic...

Highlights of the tour:
A family/company trip to the alpine garden. Contemplation of authentic nature and settlements of Verkhovyna;
Easy and calming work in the garden: learning the culture of gardening by the whole family, discovering the resistant species of trees that can survive and bear fruit in the highlands;
Delicious organic food and staying overnight at the campsite at a luxurious polonyna (a mountain meadow);
Observation of farming processes surrounded by majestic landscapes;
The history of the Hutsul family, that closely resembles the history of the Hutsul ethnic group. An acquaintance with the historical figure – Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv.

DAY 1. Arrival and Focusing on the Trip

Arrival at Verkhovyna by own transport. Option 1: checking-in at the ‘U Hannusi’ guesthouse. Option 2: checking-in at the Verkhovyna hotel. Dinner in family peace, which will contrast with the harsh everyday rhythm. Planning a trip to the garden. Getting to know pets.

Day 2. The Road to Balance and Joy

Driving by an off-road vehicle to the farm and garden in Synytsi. A stop in the settlement of Ploskyi. Make a vatra (bonfire) and boil fresh tea. Nearby there is the well, which belonged to the inhabitants of an abandoned khata-pustka (a household of spouses who did not have children or other relatives). In front of you there is the Chornohora range. An impressive background for photos – Mount Bila Kobyla and Mount Synytsi. This is exactly this Synytsi where Peak Dovbushevi Komory is hidden, where, according to the legends, he was bringing looted treasures. Head to the Synytsi hamlet. Observing the recently built highest mountain church of Verkhovyna district at the altitude of 1010 m above sea level; the site of the estate with a small garden of the noble Hutsul – Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv, the author of the bestseller ‘Dido Yvanchyk’ written in Hutsul language. Arrival at the estate in Synytsi. Lunch in the garden. A daytime rest in hammocks. An acquaintance with the hosts. Observation of the owners’ livestock, garden, green polonynas (mountain meadows) (in winter the livestock are fed apples from the garden). You can watch them, mow or rake hay and stack it in Hutsul style according to the instructions of the staff/hosts, pick apples, make jam, take pictures in the blooming garden (depending on the season). Barbecue dinner at the camp. Food is worthy of the Olympian gods. Staying overnight at the campsite in Synytsi. Right now, you are in balance, which is followed by the necessary peace and confidence.

DAY 3. Uniting with Nature

You can see the sunrise and walk barefoot in the dew. The polonyna Skupova on the Hryniavskyi range can be seen right from the garden. Continuation of the garden story – breakfast surrounded by trees. Morning homemade kefir or yogurt or Hutsul guslianka (fermented boiled milk). Recharge your batteries with energy from the consumption of one hundred percent homemade organic products in the open air. The hosts’ fun lectures on how the body of the garden functions in the subalpine climate: recipes for the health of trees from the grandfather Papasiuk, the story of breeding own unique varieties. Stories of the 95-year-old owner about the peculiarities of apple varieties that can grow in the highlands. Why are precisely these apples grown here and not others? What do apples ‘burachynka’ have in common with well-known garden beetroots? And how does the oldest, authentic Carpathian variety of apples, derived from European crab apple, the fruits of which are called ‘reberka’, look like? Find answers to these and many other questions from the field of gardening. An excursion to the family farm. Degustation of organic dairy products. Getting ready for a trip home. Take an easy walk to Verkhovyna. The return journey to the settlement of Slupiika lasts the maximum of one hour. From there there will be a transfer by car to Verkhovyna. 15 minutes and you are already in Verkhovyna, at the house of the garden owners. Lunch at the ‘U Hannusi’ guesthouse. Hannusia, who knows how to cook hundreds of tasty dishes, will share the secrets of simple and delicious homemade food you have tried this weekend, the melody of the violin from the head of the Makivnychuks and plans for the next visit to Verkhovyna. Latest packaging. Before leaving, visit for a photo the monument to Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv, whose manor house you passed on the way to the garden. Buy an audiobook and listen to a story full of Hutsul signs – a few aspects about Hutsul life that you have just learned from your own experience at the Papasiuks’ guesthouse. Departure.

Journey through an Alpine Garden