gnggng

We are planning to travel to Poland in late August into early September 2020. Since we have previously traveled to Krakow and loved it, we are looking to explore a little more of Poland. We were thinking of visiting the following cities.
Wroclaw, Warsaw, Torun and Gdansk.
We are also planning to take a cheap flight to Amsterdam for a visit to The Netherlands and some of Belgium.
What would be a good airport to fly into for Poland and a good route to visit the above cities? If we take the train between Polish cities is there any option to stop in between for seeing other places? Are there luggage facilities at the train stations?
Thanks for any help on this and any feedback on my choice of Polish towns?

AlicorporateUK

AlanInDC

From a tourist point of view, I found Gdansk to be more similar to Krakow -- basically everything you'd do is in the central old town area and is within walking distance. Warsaw has an old town but it is a much more spread out city. However it does have a subway system, which helps to get around. So Warsaw will be a different experience as you will be required to see more of the regular city. I really enjoyed my time in Krakow, Warsaw, and Gdansk. If you get immersed at all, though, you do get haunted with the history as today's Poland has had challenges and grief for centuries, and notably during the Nazi and Soviet times. It is hard history, but you learn a lot about the Jews in the 20th century by visiting Krakow and Warsaw in particular.

gnggng

Thanks for the replies. I will look into Rzeszów and Szczecin as options and see if they fit into easy train travel from the other cities.

theSaladDays

Not sure how many days you have, but keep in mind that these places aren't exactly close to each other (not that this is how you'd plan it necessarily, just to give you a sense of scale), by train from Rzeszów to Szczecin is 10-12 hours travel. If you have loads of time then no problem, but otherwise I'd pick a quadrant of the country, for example if you want to do the southeast then in addition to Rzeszów there's also Przemyśl, Tarnów, Sandomierz, Zamość, and Lublin. All worthy of a visit in my opinion. Or the coast, plenty of nice towns there also.

Fighting words by Alicorporate there (it's my hometown) Incidentally quite a number of trains from Rzeszów to Szczecin pass through Wrocław, so you can get out and decide for yourself.

AlicorporateUK

Sorry, tSD – nothing against your hometown, but you'll probably be pleased to know that my tastes when it comes to places never fail to raise a few eyebrows (e.g. I would rather spend some time in Wałbrzych or even Rybnik and I don't actually mind Zabrze, despite its reputation as ugly town ). Good that my partner (Gdańsk born-and-bred) is pretty much used to it

G

gnggng

[QUOTE=theSaladDays;Or the coast, plenty of nice towns there also.[/QUOTE]
We are open on time, but thought about 2 weeks in Poland would be a nice pace. I am just trying to get a sense of a nice route by train that will give us a sampling of different towns and found the ones I listed as most mentioned.
I would love suggestions of other towns to visit as well.

If we do stick with Warsaw, Wroclaw, Torun and Gdansk, what would you suggest as days needed to do them justice?

As a reference, we are into photography and like to spend time strolling the streets and enjoying the history of a place. We are not into museums, partying, or the bar scene.

AlicorporateUK

If you are able (i.e. depending on flights) to start off with Wrocław, you could stay there for a couple of days (perhaps 3 or even 4 if you are willing to head on a couple of day-trips to Wałbrzych/Jelenia Góra i.e. mountains or even Opole) before getting on the train to Katowice (1 day's stay), train to Warsaw (3/4 days and you could squeeze in a day trip to Toruń, which is more than enough), train/plane to Gdańsk where you could easily spend 5 days between the cities (i.e. Gdańsk/Sopot/Gdynia), day trips to Malbork and the stunning Hel Peninsula. An extra day in Warsaw would probably allow a brief visit Lublin/Świdnik on a day trip (or 1 night's stay, even better). Plenty of history and photography opportunities in all the above mentioned places.

G

gnggng

Thank you, I will check out some of those other places to visit.

theSaladDays

No worries, was just surprised more than anything else, most visitors seem to rate it fairly highly, but to each his own ^

I haven't been to Wałbrzych in ages, but I do recall liking it as well, at the time it had a decidedly post-industrial feel and certainly rough around the edges. Not sure if that has changed or if it's been spruced up since then. Can't speak for Zabrze as I've only been to the philharmonic and M1 shopping centre, same for Rybnik, this despite my other half being from Pszczyna and us spending lots of time in the area. Always wanted to check out Raciborz for the brewery.

theSaladDays

Good itinerary overall, to the bit above I'd just add that as you're starting out in Amsterdam, KLM flies to Wrocław these days.
Also worth considering the Kłodzko valley as an add on to Wałbrzych, lots of scenery and numerous spa towns (any town that ends in 'Zdrój' essentially).

gnggng

We are actually doing Amsterdam, part of Belgium after Poland, but may be able to do the flight in reverse? I will check on it when looking at flights. It may be a bit complicated getting from BNA to somewhere in Poland and then to Amsterdam or Brussels and back to BNA.

We don't fly a lot so, will have to do my research before trying to book flights.

Thanks for the heads up on KLM.

krispy84

gnggng

Thank you, I will certainly check the open jaw opportunities. I have even thought of roundtrip AMS with an internal flight upon arrival from AMS to Warsaw roundtrip. I think I am going to have to keep my options open to find a reasonable itinerary and flight.

malgudi

I liked Lublin and Kazimierz Dolny as well