Advice on Poland

Hi Guys

I have searched the travel threads on the forum regarding trips to Poland and have read the great advice,some positive and some not so positive.I wanted to throw the question out there again!

Mid August will see me taking a solo trip to Europe. I have worked out the schedule.I have booked the ferries -Train and most of the hotels. Part of the trip will include Poland and Krakow. The highlight and the reason for going to Poland is to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau.

My concern is bike security.According to the Rough Guide, car related crime especially cars with westen plates,is a problem in Poland.I have heard the usual second / third hand horror stories and I have tried hard to ignor them however, I was hoping somebody on this forum would be able to give me some up to date first hand experiences?

I will be parking the bike in the hotel underground car park and will be leaving it there to visit the concentration camps rather than taking it with me. All I can do is take the usual precautions regarding bike security. As the great Ted Simon says,if you go with the the frame of mind that you will have problems ,then that's what you will find! I will only be in Poland for two nights and one full day. Any positive advice would be very much appreciated.Cheers

shouldnt av any probs , all the poles are over here, it,l be empty

what digger said the place was empty when I went there last year.

go with gutt instinct if the places looks shit then it'll more than likley be shit all the palces I stopped in where really okay but i was up at the coast.

Just loads of nothing...appart from a few bits and pieces

I would use the bike to visit the museum if you want to see all parts of the camps. They are spread out over a very large area, kilometers between them, and the bike is handy to go from one to another. The parking at Auschwitz-Birkenau is safe, loads of bikes there when i went and you can leave your helmets in the parking attendant huts.
They say watch out for pickpockets, but then thats the same for all attractions in all countries.
Its not a bad ride from Krakow to Birkenau either much better than sitting on a coach.

Russ-AFC said:

I would use the bike to visit the museum if you want to see all parts of the camps. They are spread out over a very large area, kilometers between them, and the bike is handy to go from one to another.

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Sorry Russ, but I wouldn't use the bike to see the camps. There is a regular free bus service between the two camps and the last thing you want to do is walk for about 6 hours in full bike kit. My advice is leave the bike in the hotel, allocate a whole day to visiting both camps and even then you won't see all of them. I stayed at the Hotel Galicja (N50 02.277 E19 14.682) which was superb with brilliant food and BBQ area. Highly recommended.

Zanussi, I'm dead jealous of your trip. If you're into WWII history, have a look at my WOLFS LAIR write-up. You may find it interesting.

I did quite a lengthy report in 2006 on the whole trip (inc the Wolfs Lair, Auschwitz / Birkenau etc) for the family - I didn't post it on here for some reason. I still have it saved as a "Word" document if you want me to e-mail it to you.

Taff said:

Sorry Russ, but I wouldn't use the bike to see the camps. There is a regular free bus service between the two camps and the last thing you want to do is walk for about 6 hours in full bike kit. My advice is leave the bike in the hotel, allocate a whole day to visiting both camps and even then you won't see all of them. I stayed at the Hotel Galicja (N50 02.277 E19 14.682) which was superb with brilliant food and BBQ area. Highly recommended.

Zanussi, I'm dead jealous of your trip. If you're into WWII history, have a look at my WOLFS LAIR write-up. You may find it interesting.

I did quite a lengthy report on the whole trip (inc Auschwitz / Birkenau) for the family. I still have it saved as a "Word" document if you want me to e-mail it to you.

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Thanks everybody for the great advice.Taff ,I have sent you a pm .cheers

I visited Nordhausen, stayed in the youth hostel in Colditz Castle and visited Auchwitz in late June / July 2007.

I used the Lonely Planet Guide to Eastern Europe as my winter planning guide as this provides high level info for a number of countries and simply plotted a rough route which joined up the dots. Stayed in Bad Lautenburg to visit Nordhausen - stayed Colditz - visited Festung Konigstein overlooking Danube & Church of Bones @ Kutna Hora - stayed in Auschwitz - stayed in Zakopane (see below) - visited Lake Balaton, east Austria, Cortina, Italy, Garmisch - Cochem before back to the Ijmuiden ferry.

Nordhausen daily tours at 1100 (except Monday) into the mountain where the V rockets were assembled. Guess which day I was there! Small on-site museum open 7 days is fine for an hour or so, however there is not much else left of the camp & original camp as this was flattened after the war and the tunnels themselves sealed until re-opened about 10 years ago.

Good biker only pension with garage @ Bad Lautenburg run by an english couple; Gregory Niven. Some lovely rides in the surounding Harz mountains & approx 20 miles from Nordhausen. www.harzbiker.co.uk

Colditz has a Deutsch Youth Hostel located in what used to be the German guards billets. Cost about 20 euros a night, however there is also a B&B in a cul de sac at the foot of the main square below the castle. I turned up on-spec in late June and got a room to myself. Guided tour of the castle & museum takes an hour or so. There is not too much of the original internal structures left as the castle has had various uses since the war (hospital) however it is possible to see some of the tunnels. .

There does not appear to be too much in the way of accommodation in Auschwitz itself, with the town itself being unappealing and dominated by chemical industry. I arrived late evening after a long ride and struggled to find anywhere to stay as there only appeared to be 2 hotels in town and one was fully booked. I ended up in a polish travel lodge type hotel (clean & comfortable, lovely receptionist) which was just opposite the main gate / car park to the Auschwitz museum. I paid 160zloty (£32) for single room. I left my bike gear at the hotel when I visited the museum next morning. I do not have the address or contact number. There is also a cash machine opposite the hotel or you can exchange £'s at the museum itself.

I had also read the stories about vehicle crime in Poland and had taken my heavy Abus chain and shackle lock tucked into the bottom of the panniers however everything was fine. I generally have more concerns about parking my bike in some English cities than abroad.

Most people seemed to arrive @ Auschwitz in coaches from Krakow. The Auschwitz 1 camp was rather congested when I was there as the guides (there are english speaking guides) took everyone to the same main points of interest. After a couple of hours I broke off from the tour and visited many of the exhibits at my own pace; there is certainly a lot more to see than the guides take you too. I then made my own way to the Birkenau camp which is shown in the photos previously posted. I spent a good 6/7 hours looking at both sites. The attached links give some idea of the history & events at the camp:
http://www.remember.org/auschwitz/aus.php?id=2
http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/start/index.php

Tatra mountains is one of the more scenic parts of Poland. Pensjonet Janosik in Zakopane, £50 for 3 nights B&B was also rather good value. Lovely street market and the restaurants are also good value.

I was in Poland last week - just a two days to Gdanyia to see the destroyer there - I had no problems and the bike was parked up in the hotel outdoor car park, and when I visited the ship was parked on the side of the road. I tend not to use chains etc and took my tent etc which stayed on the bike.

The riding was "interesting" though - single lane roads mostly - just keep an eye out for oncoming traffic.

Zanussi said:

Thanks everybody for the great advice. Taff, I have sent you a pm. Cheers

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I've e-mailed you the report, but having just read it, there are no photos on the "Word" document. The photos are on a separate file, and from memory, it was only e-mailed around the family and sent to the local bike club for their news-letter, as I owed the club Secretary a big favour.

It bought back lots of happy memories though. I'm sure you will love it there.

hi,

i have been used poland as a transit country many times and never had any problem. quite sure those "crime storyes" ended existing in late nineties.
i dont believe that there exists criminality more than in other countrys.
the main roads are quite frustrating because of the "zero traffic culture" and many many big trucks. in other hand, passing thru the smaller roads, u may have a village 50km/h between every 10 km and next 200 km.

have been used camping places to put a tent. everything has been just fine


the seaside of the poland is very beatiful, small villages and nice roads. people are very friendly. most of them does not speak english

Russ-AFC said:

.. There is of course much more to the concentration camp of auschwitz, many satellite and work camps which the free bus does not travel to.

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I knew there were more camps than Auchwitz main camp and Birkenau, but I didn't know that the public could visit them as I assumed the smaller "satellite" camps had been cleared years ago. If / when I ever go back, have you got the co-ordinates?

Just got back

Hi just got back from trip round poland, travelled along baltic from Swinoujscie, lots of small resorts to stay in and loads of camping, we stopped in Pobierowo, Ustka nice seaside resort and leba like going back 30yrs before dropping into gdansk a superb hotel in the old town is haus gotyk ( oldest house in gdansk ) gdansk is a superb city to visit, loads of history and not to big, from there set of past melbork, big castle, followed river wisla where ever we stopped managed to find good accomodation although a lot of small town / villages have no places to stay, on a bike you will be a bit of a spectacle we were. We stayed at the hotel europski in krakow spot on and travelled on bike to salt mines and auschwitz from there did both journeys in jeans cos of heat left bike next to kiosks inside and used free shuttle bus to go between camps we were glad we went on bike cos at moment there is a lot of road works / improvements so avoided long queues. Most of the traffic you will hit will be on approach to big towns cities People are nice roads are rubbish lots of very large ruts, loads of lorries in big cities never had problem with bike security though and it was regularly left in open. Zakopane is also worth a visit another decent hotel in krakow in old jewish quarter is hotel ester good luck it was hard work but you will enjoy it

if you go further east

I visited a friend's family in Lublin, in easten Poland, (in a citreon AX, thats another story). There is a less visited but very well preserved death camp there. Walking around can not help to move you, there is so much that happened there. During the soviet occupation (correct me if I'm wrong but didnt britain join WWII to preserve Polands independence? ) my friends father-in-law was part of the labour that built a monument to those murdered at the camp. He and other carried the ashes of thousands of people by wheelbarrow to place them in this monument. It is interesting to talk to someone who have lived through such difficult times in poland.

I crossed Poland three week ago on the way to Garmisch and back. Did the same route past year. The roads became much better. Stayed overnight in different places - it's wise to look for guarded parking lot/ underground or just locked place/. The rest was the same as anywhere - there is bike theft in UK as well as in Amsterdam and so on. Credit cards are accepted at gas stations everywhere but to have some small cash in local currency is good idea too. And there is BMW Motorrad dealer in Warsaw now.
Good luck!

Bloody hell I thought it said Advance

H.R.H. OONYACK said:

Bloody hell I thought it said Advance

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They obviously did!

easyman05 said:

And there is BMW Motorrad dealer in Warsaw now.

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