Ukraine's richly historic capital is looking forward to a bright future as a European nation. An open and leafy city, Kiev stands on a series of steep wooded hills above the Dniepr, a river so broad that it is like an immense lake. Its hilltops provide spectacular settings for outstanding historical buildings; every ridge crammed with a monastery or church. You can go to the opera for a fraction of London prices and eat good food in modestly-priced restaurants. Visit now before the hordes discover it.

PREMIER PALACE HOTEL
Boulevard Shevchenko 5-7 (00 380 44 537 4500; www.premier-palace.com). A top-flight five-star hotel in the heart of the historic centre. It dates from before the Communist revolution and aims to recreate an atmosphere of fin de siècleluxury. ££

VOZDVYZHENSKY HOTEL
Vozdvyzhenska 60 (00 380 44 531 9955; www.vozdvyzhensky.com). A friendly hotel halfway down Kiev's most charming street, Andriivsky Uzviz. The stunning church of St Andrew is a short walk away, and the art stalls and galleries are on its doorstep. £

GIMALAI
Kreshchatik 23 (00 380 44 462 0437). This is a good Indian restaurant, opposite the TsUM department store on the main street. The chef and the head waiter are both Indian. With tasty food, this is a reasonably authentic take on an English curry house, only swisher.

KOZAK MAMAI
Prorizna 4 (00 380 44 279 9046). A Cossack-themed restaurant just off the main drag. There are lots of furs on the walls and the waiters wear boots and baggy trousers, although none of them looks anything like a Cossack. A cheap business lunch menu includes a starter appetisingly named 'Mother-in-law's tongue'. With its long tables, hearty food and high-quality local beer (Slavutich), this is a good place for a boisterous night out.

MACCABI KOSHER
Rustaveli 15 (00 380 44 235 9437). This is the no-frills canteen of Kiev's resurgent Jewish community. The entrance is right next to the synagogue (which during the Soviet era was a puppet theatre). You choose from a buffet of hot and cold kosher dishes, which are simple and delicious. The clientele consists largely of people who drop in from the synagogue, so you are as likely to hear Hebrew spoken as Russian or Ukrainian. The coffee is great.

PASSAZH
Kreshchatik 15 (00 380 44 229 1209). A Viennese-style coffee house under the arch on Kreshchatik, offers dozens of variations on alcoholically enhanced coffee, including Coffee Blue Bottle (with cognac, honey and cream) and Coffee Bora-Bora (banana liqueur). It's probably a good idea to stick with an espresso and one of the lovely dainty pastries, which you can enjoy on the veranda, watching wealthy Ukrainians cruise by in their four-wheel-drives.

PID OSOKOROM
Mikhailovska 20 (no telephone). 'Under the Poplar' offers good, honest Ukrainian food served by waitresses in mock-peasant dress. Does a fine borshch that is served as it should be: with a thick blob of sour cream and a large handful of chopped dill. Family atmosphere at weekends: businessmen enjoying good, solid lunches during the week.

SVYTLITSYA
Andriivsky Uzviz 13B (00 380 44 416 3186). A cosy restaurant on Andriivsky Uzviz. It seems to be trying to be nautical and French, but the only French thing about the place is the waitresses: all uniformly dressed in drainpipe jeans and black sweaters, they look like they should be in a film with Jean-Paul Belmondo. This is the place for bliny, both sweet and savoury, with accompaniments as diverse as caviar, berries, mushrooms and jam. A great stop for a light lunch after souvenir shopping. And the pepper steak would put most Parisian brasseries to shame.

CATHEDRAL OF ST SOPHIA
One of the most ancient religious sites, this dates from a time before the rise of Moscow, when Kiev was the capital of the Russian state. Kievan Rus, as it is known, was a European superpower; the princes of Kiev were linked by blood or marriage with Saxon England, Scandinavia, France, Hungary and Constantinople. It was Prince Vladimir's son, Yaroslav the Wise, who began the construction of St Sophia, nearly a thousand years ago. The cathedral was originally a close copy of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, but centuries of rebuilding have left it much altered. Instead of the austere, egg-shaped domes of Byzantium, the church is now crowned with the golden pepper-pot cupolas that are the hallmark of Ukrainian baroque. Inside the church you get a better idea of its great age. The plastered walls are almost translucent and there are faded images of the saints. There is a winding staircase leading up to the choir where Yaroslav and his family sat during services. The walls of the stairwell are painted with incongruously secular images: scenes taken from the court of a newly Christian nation. There is a royal banquet, a camel being led on a rein, a pair of jesters performing a mock fight and a bear hunt. St Sophia is no longer a functioning church: the complex is now a museum of Kievan Rus.

MAIDAN NEZALEZHNOSTI (Independence Square)
This used to be October Revolution Square, and on the spot where the inevitable statue of Lenin once stood there is now a monument to independence (declared in 1991). Independence Square was the focus of the Orange Revolution of 2004, when mass protest forced the government to order a re-run of an obviously dishonest election.

ST ANDREW'S DESCENT
This serpentine, cobbled slope marks the heart of arty Kiev. It is sometimes called the Montmartre of Kiev, both because it is a heck of a climb and because there is a magnificent church at the top. And like Montmartre, the street is full of art galleries and souvenir stalls. Climb to the top of the hill and you can feast your eyes on St Andrew's. This church is the last work of Rastrelli, the Italian architect who built the Winter Palace in Petersburg. Completed in 1762, the building is a lovely piece of Baroque fantasy, its walls the same powder blue as the tsars' palace. At the very bottom of the hill (at 2B) is the Museum of One Street, which documents the lives of some of the people who have lived in the houses on Andriivsky Uzviz during the past 100 years or so. It is an absolute gem of a museum: tiny, charming and atmospheric.

THE MONASTERY OF THE CAVES
It is one of the strangest and most sacred shrines in Christendom. The first monk to settle in this area of land was St Anthony of Pechersk, who left Mount Athos in Greece and in 1051 came to live in a cave scooped out of the side of a ravine above the river. Others joined him and soon there was an entire community living out their lives in meditation, in an anthill of underground cells. For centuries it was a beacon for pilgrims guiding them towards the hallowed walls from miles away. But the soul of the monastery complex is the subterranean network of caves.

GO TO CHURCH
The cathedral of St Vladimir at Universitet metro is the best choice. The interior is a gorgeous feast of icon painting done in the so-called 'Russian style' (a kind of Slavonic equivalent of Arts and Crafts); the wonderful painted saints seem like warm, flesh-and-blood people. And the liturgy is as magical as the art.

OPERA
Favourites such as Swan Lake and Madame Butterfly are often part of the programme at the Ukrainian National Opera and seats cost a fraction of London prices.

RIDE THE METRO
The Soviet-era part of Kiev's metro is almost as impressive as that of Moscow's. One of the few remaining effigies of Lenin is to be found on the platform at Teatralna, where a huge bronze of his head glares at the indifferent commuters. The central stations are phenomenally deep, making a ride on the escalators a journey in itself.

TAKE A BOAT TRIP
The views of the city from the River Dniepr are stunning. Take the funicular or metro to Poshtova Ploscha station, which brings you near to the River Terminal, where pleasure cruises start.

Ukraine has a typical harsh eastern European winter; however, it is shorter than most countries of this region. The northern parts see the temperature rise from an icy -10 to -4°C in January to a comfortable 59-77°F in July. Visit in summer when it is warm enough to explore.

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