Advice for Poland driving trip
 

Hi,
I will have lots of time to research later but I need to book tickets soon for a June trip to Poland and need to work out roughly how much time this itinerary would take:
Warsaw - Mikolajki (lake region) - Gdansk - Torun - Wroclav - Krakow - Warsaw
Could it be done in a week? We don't mind driving 4-5 hours per day but have no idea what the roads are like. Is it easy to navigate? Does it sound like a good route?
We don't have any specific things we want to see, just want to get a feel of the country.
Thanks for any help or advice,
Elisa

From my recent experience, road conditions were good. For more precise information on your itinerary, you could try http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/

Hi,
I've been to Poland only once, but you won't be able to see all those places in one week. You want to see 6 places in a week, or 9 days at the most. We spent 3 days in Krakow alone. We didn't go to the other places you mention but we did drive close to the Ukraine border and stayed in a castle. The driving was fine. The roads were in good condition, and we didn't have any problems. Krakow is gorgeous and well worth a visit. Also consider that if you drive 4 - 5 hours per day, you won't see much at all. I would suggest seeing 3 - 4 places at the most: maybe a night in Warsaw, 3 nights in Krakow, then maybe Wroclaw and/or Torun. You also have to look at a map to see logistically what is possible.

Driving time between Warsaw and Gdansk is about 5 to 6 hours. There is a toll high speed highway between Gdansk and Torun reducing travel time between those cities to about two hours.

Driving time between Gdansk and Krakow is about 9 to 10 hours. The worst spots for delays and lousy road directions are Bydgoszcz, Lodz, and Warsaw.

In June there will be heavy traffic in the Masurian lake region.

In general roads are good, well marked, with heavy truck traffic. Speed limit is 90 kph with a lot of photo radar, average is about 60 kph. On Sundays, trucks are replaced with little underpowered cars, build for four persons and carrying six with fully loaded roof racks, pulling fully loaded homemade trailers.

On the major truck routes, especially outside of major cities there is some roadside prostitution. Watch for trucks stopping and turning unexpectedly.

Watch out for Russian registered trucks at all times.

How did you come up with this itinerary ?

Mark

Thanks everyone. I would obviously need more time if I were to do this. But we already need to spend 5 days in Warsaw before the road trip and I don't think I can take 2 weeks off for Poland. Also the traffic situation sound horrendous.
Mark, I just came up with the itinerary by looking at Google Map and thinking of places in Poland I had heard of....not very professional but as I mentioned I only have a few days in which to get the tickets, then months ahead to plan. So I just needed to get an idea of driving times and how long it takes to move around.
All replies have been very helpful.
Thanks

In July I rented a car and drove from Warsaw to the small town in northeast Poland (near Suwalki) where my father was born. The roads were in good condition and are as well marked as any in western Europe, however, in that part of the country at least, once I got outside of Warsaw it was mostly two lane driving, there are a lot of trucks, which makes passing difficult at times, and there was a fair amount of construction on the main road from Warsaw to Bialystok as they are turning it into a freeway, I believe. It took 5 hours (with just one brief stop) to cover 300 km, so based on my experience, don't plan on covering much more than 60 km/h when you are using mainly two lane roads.

We've driven across Poland several times. It isn't horrendous, but it can be slow. The state of the roads is generally good (paving etc), but there aren't a lot of highways. I do find it a beautiful country.

Agree on the passing, but if you just take a zen approach and don't worry, it works out. :P