Poland

Arriving by Plane.

The largest airport in Poland is Warsaw. This is located half an hour from the city centre by bus. Scheduled flights arrive here from all over the europe, with a few intercontinental flights for good measure. Generally speaking, economy flights arrive at Warsaw Etudia Terminal, which is about five minutes walk from the main terminal (from the main terminal walk past the domestic terminal and keep walking. It is not particularly well signposted). Etudia is an appalling travesty of a building with almost nothing in the way of facilities either before or after security, so you might want to hang around the main terminal for a while if you are early for check-in.

Other airports likely to be of interest include Krakow (25 minutes from the city centre by normal transit bus), Katowice, and Gdansk. These are served by three eastern-european budget airlines - Central Wings, Sky Europe and Wizz Air. In addition Easyjet run a few flights into Warsaw. Ryanair also run flights to some out-of-the-way places which might well be in Poland.

Arriving By Train.

Several international routes into Poland. The most important of these are the following:

• PKP (the Polish national railway) run the Berlin-Warsaw express three times a day from Berlin to Warsaw. This takes approximately 6 hours, and costs just 35 euros.
• Through trains run from Brussels to Moscow through Warsaw (although these are more expensive for getting from Berlin than the express).
• PKP run trains to Kaliningrad from Warsaw and Gdansk.
• Trains run from Warsaw to Lithuania
• PKP run trains from Warsaw via Katowice to Bratislava and Budapest (1 day 1 night, 8 hours to Bratislava, 11 hours to Budapest). This train passes through the east of the Czech republic, with connections to Prague.
• Day and night Eurocity trains run from Warsaw to Prague (2 day, 2 night, 8 hours) and Vienna (2 day, 2 night, 6.5 hours)
• A night train runs from Krakow and Katowice to Prague
• A day and a night train link Krakow and Katowice to Berlin
• Services run over the border from Krakow to Slovakia
Other local services run over the various borders, such as the Szczecin to Germany service. The best summary of international train services across Europe is the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable. Alternatively timetable and price information for most of Europe is available on the Deutsche Bahn website. Generally, the main station in a city is called Glowny (pronounced something like gwovny and meaning main). The main station in Warsaw however is Warszawa Centralna.

Arriving By Coach.

Eurolines run coaches to Warsaw from as far away as Edinburgh, and as close as Munich.