MaryG100

My daughter is planning to visit Poland in September and needs to travel from Krakow to Jelenia Gora. Can anyone tell us what the easiest and cheapest way to do this? We've tried looking at the Polish train site but we are finding this quite difficult as we have had little experience with trains where we live in Australia. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

adrienne

You may not be able to get both the easiest and cheapest way. So you have to decide which is more important to you.

For me, the easiest way is to take the train. There's one that takes about 8 hours (Polish trains make many stops), leaving at 9:24 and arriving at 17:34 (this is the current schedule so the schedule may vary a bit in September).

I used the German train site for the schedule as this is the easiest one. The Polish site has the same information but it's not as straight forward to figure out.

When you're looking for information it's best to describe the problem you're having rather than be ambiguous. I can't help you with the Polish train site since I don't know what the difficulty is. Using a web site has nothing to do with train experience. It's just a web site.

The German site is bahn.de and you can change the language to English.

I can give you a price for a first class ticket from Wroclaw to Krakow to give you an idea of what the ticket will cost. It was 141.50PLN plus a seat reservation fee of 16PLN.

The bus may be cheaper but I could only find bus schedules in Polish. I once figured out a schedule but it took me a long time.

Once your daughter is in Krakow she can ask for the train and bus prices and then compare and decide which one she wants to take. The train station and the bus station are next to each other and both are about a 10 minute walk from the main square.

She should bring food and water with her on either the train or bus. The train may have a buffet car but the food will be more expensive than buying something in town. You cannot drink the water on trains.

MaryG100

Thank you so much for the information! The train looks like a good option for her.

PeterB

I think what Adrienne meant was that you should not drink water from the train sink ( WC ) or any other public sink. Drinking water or any other non-alcoholic beverages is permitted on the train.
Also doing a quick check

http://rozklad-pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/en?
http://pks.jgora.pl/index.php?p=rozkladjazdy&s=search

looks like bus and train be similar price and similar duration.

Having a choice I would personally choose a train - where on this fairly long journey she could stretch her legs ... Also consider a 1st class which be with seat reservations and always less packed.

Bringing food and drink for duration of this trip is a VERY GOOD recommendation (bus or train).

adrienne

You're right - what I meant is the water on trains is not potable. You should also brush your teeth with bottled water.

MaryG100

Thanks Peter! She's decided to take the train as it sounds much more comfortable.

adrienne

Now I'm curious as to why your daughter is going to Jelenia Gora. Are there some tourist attractions that should not be missed? I looked on the internet and didn't see much of a reason to go there but I probably missed something.

I'm looking for some different places to go the next time I visit Poland.