Poland: How high do you rate it for touring?

cycladelic
cycladelic Posts: 641
edited July 2007 in Tour & expedition
A friend has suggested touring Poland next summer, but I fancy Norway.

If you've been there: How fab is it?
It's an uphill climb to the bottom

Comments

  • jc4lab
    jc4lab Posts: 554
    Off there in four weeks time.Maybe Check my own posting on the Tatras mountains I made last month.If you click on my name link JC4LAB it will bring it up

    jc
    jc
  • mnbvcxzcp
    mnbvcxzcp Posts: 8
    Poland - Beautiful place, friendly people, appalling roads. I went over the Tatra from Slovakia to Zackopane then up to Krakow before heading back west to the Czech border and loved it.

    On balance though I prefer Norway although the beer is a whole lot cheaper in Poland.
  • 105champcp
    105champcp Posts: 67
    Rate it very very very highly for touring, flew in and out of krakow - beautiful city, good quality roads, the Tatras are very nice and there's plenty of very affordable places to stay - beer and food also cheap, the weather can be very nice too and there's intersting history to the country. JK
  • cpeachey
    cpeachey Posts: 1,057
    Did the Dunajec Gorge tour with Birds Tours last September. Then Krakow to Sanoc and Rezow (near Ukraine border), back by train on our own. Cheap, Freindly,
    good roads, even the minor ones but they do have some rough bits. Accomadation ok but not too frequent except in popular areas.
    Chris
  • Rob4
    Rob4 Posts: 75
    the north west bit around Kolobrzec is totally flat and extremely boring. The other bit I've seen is the south west near germany, where i did some great mountain bikign on good tracks and lanes.

    But polish drivers are renowned for being lawless maniacs - taxi rides I've had there have been quite an experience!

    And the women alll look like prostitutes if you like that kind of thing...
  • DPV
    DPV Posts: 108
    Some friends and I had a fantastic week south of Krakow last September (Zakopane, Tatras in Slovakia then back up via Nowy Sacz). Road surfaces were generally excellent, traffic was very low (avoiding main highways, especially in immediate vicinity of Krakow where roads are narrow and traffic can be quite nasty). Good food, good drink, decent hotels, all remarkably inexpensive. Although I guess the best parts of the ride (scenery-wise anyway) were on the Slovakian side.

    There are some photos & more details at roadbikereview (linky).
    YOR A IDIOT
    IMA IDIOT
    YOR A IDIOT
  • jc4lab
    jc4lab Posts: 554
    Doing the same in three weeks time.Did you by any chance extend your tour to include Auschwitz which is near Krakow..Has any one any information about cycling there from Krakow.?
    jc
  • Eurostar
    Eurostar Posts: 1,806
    Rob4 wrote:

    And the women alll look like prostitutes if you like that kind of thing...

    My ex girlfriend is Polish - she's gorgeous! Lives in Krakow now, so I'm never going there. :cry:
    <hr>
    <h6>What\'s the point of going out? We\'re just going to end up back here anyway</h6>
  • DPV
    DPV Posts: 108
    jc4lab wrote:
    Did you by any chance extend your tour to include Auschwitz which is near Krakow..Has any one any information about cycling there from Krakow.?

    We didn't go there (this time) but it's definitely cycle-able. Probably best bet is to get a cycle route map at the tourist office -- your biggest challenge will probably be getting out of Krakow. It looks like some of your route could follow the Wisla river, but I've no idea how far the riverside path goes. Rte 44 goes straight from Krakow to Oswiecim but I'm sure you'd be safer on smaller roads.
    YOR A IDIOT
    IMA IDIOT
    YOR A IDIOT
  • shawn
    shawn Posts: 62
    I'm looking for route advice in heading over the Tatra mountains from Zakopane. Which is the better route - to head east or west into Slovakia?
    I had thought of going East over the Tatra then looping west and then south onward to Budapest.
    How do-able is this? Seems like most people head West....

    We have a cycle holiday planned heading from Krakow south via Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and then to the coast of Croatia. Any tips gratefully accepted!
  • paulontheroad
    paulontheroad Posts: 33
    I did a very similar route last year starting in Gdansk and finishing off in Trieste.
    We took the easier option of going over the mountains to the West of Zakopane - the road over from Zywiec (home of fine polish beer). Oravsky Podzamok is worth seeing just for its incredible castle though the road we took from there to Martin was narrow and full of trucks at times.
    From Martin there's some great cycling down to Banska Bystrica and Banska Stiavnica, Stiavnica is particularly picturesque.
    From there we headed for the Danube and down to Budapest and then turned West to Balaton and Slovenia, again lovely cycling particularly the wine growing region in eastern Slovenia.
    We got a couple of trains in Slovenia as we were short of time and wanted to go up to the Julian Alps as well. No regrets about that decision as again fantastic scenery, great weather and lovely people.
    If you're interested we've got lots of photos posted here - http://www.photoblog.com/paulandnaomi
    August 6th to September 5th 2006 are the trip photos.
    Have a great time, we're off to Alaska on Monday!

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