Poland Discovery Guide

Poland offers more history per kilometre than almost anywhere in Europe, and at a fraction of western European prices.

Kraków came through the Second World War almost intact and has the largest medieval market square on the continent, with Wawel castle above it and the Wieliczka salt mine and Auschwitz-Birkenau both within an hour. Warsaw is the opposite: destroyed deliberately in 1944 and rebuilt from paintings and photographs, which is exactly why UNESCO listed it.

Beyond the two: Gdańsk on the Baltic, where the Second World War began and where Solidarity started; Wrocław with its islands and its bronze dwarves; the primeval forest at Białowieża with wild bison in it; and the Tatra mountains rising to two and a half thousand metres in the south.

Add a food culture that is more interesting than its reputation and a cafe and bar scene in every city that is genuinely good value.

If you have a week

Three nights in Kraków — with Wieliczka and Auschwitz as day trips — and three in Warsaw or Gdańsk. The trains between the main cities are comfortable and fast.

If you want the mountains

The Tatras above Zakopane, shared with Slovakia, rise to 2,499 metres at Rysy and are proper alpine terrain in a small compass. Below them, the Podhale region has its own highlander architecture, dialect and smoked sheep’s cheese.

If you want wilderness

Białowieża on the Belarusian border is the last substantial fragment of the primeval lowland forest that once covered northern Europe, and holds the largest free population of European bison in the world. The Biebrza marshes nearby are among the best birdwatching in Europe.

If you want water

The Masurian lakes — more than two thousand of them, linked by canals — are where Poland sails in August. The Baltic coast has long sand beaches and the shifting dunes of the Słowiński park.

If you want the twentieth century

Warsaw’s Rising Museum and POLIN, the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial.

Poland disappeared from the map for a hundred and twenty-three years and was destroyed again in the twentieth century, and the culture that came through both is correspondingly attached to continuity.

Catholicism as identity

The Church carried Polish identity under partition and under communism, which is why it occupies a position here that it does not in most of Europe. Church attendance has fallen sharply among the young, and the resulting argument about the Church’s role in public life is one of the country’s central divisions.

History as a live subject

Poles know their history in detail and discuss it constantly. The partitions, the Warsaw Rising, the Katyń massacre and the Solidarity years are not academic topics; they are part of how people explain the present.

Hospitality

A guest in a Polish home will be fed until they resist. The old saying — a guest in the house is God in the house — is quoted approvingly and acted on.

Formality

Titles are used, the formal pan and pani are expected with strangers, and older men occasionally still kiss a woman’s hand in greeting. Reserve with strangers gives way quickly to considerable warmth.

Name days

The imieniny is often celebrated more than the birthday, and the calendar assigns a name to every day of the year.

• Greater Poland
• Lesser Poland
• Masovia
• Podlachia
• Pomerania
• Silesia
• Warmia-Masuria

Kraków carries most of Poland’s visitors, and the old town in summer is at capacity. Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Toruń offer comparable architecture with a fraction of the crowds, and the trains between them are cheap and quick.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is a place of murder and a cemetery, not a sight. Entry is free but requires a booked time slot, an educator-led tour for most visitors, and appropriate dress and behaviour. Photography is restricted in parts and prohibited in others. Go early, allow at least three and a half hours, and do not treat it as a stop between other things.

In Zakopane and the Tatras, stay on marked trails — the park is small, heavily used and fragile, and erosion is a real problem.

Buy from the markets and the bar mleczny, the subsidised milk bars that survive from the communist period and still serve cheap, decent Polish food.

May, June and September are the best months: warm, long days, and the cities before or after the summer peak.

July and August are the warmest and busiest, with the Baltic coast and the Masurian lakes full of Polish holidaymakers and Kraków at its most crowded. Temperatures are usually pleasant rather than hot.

December brings Christmas markets to every main square, and Kraków’s is among the best in Europe. It is cold — often below freezing — and the light is short, but the cities look their best under snow.

January to March is the ski season in the Tatras, cheap elsewhere, and grey. Spring arrives late and quickly in April.

One date to know: All Saints’ Day on 1 November, when families visit cemeteries and light candles on every grave. The sight of an entire cemetery under candlelight is extraordinary, and transport is very busy around it.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the country

Poland is among the better-value countries in the European Union, and the gap is widest in restaurants and transport rather than accommodation.