Driving from Berlin to Gdansk. Advice?
 

Hello.
We will be driving from Berlin to Gdansk in mid-July. We are getting different driving advice from the various 'route planner' sites.

ViaMichelin: suggests a northern route, via Szczecin and Koszalin, for 7 1/2 hours.
Another suggests an interior route via Poznan, for 6 hours.
Go Mapper suggests going via Szczecin and Pila, for 6 hours, 46 minutes.
Somewhere else, we read that it would be much longer than any of these.

Would anyone care to offer us some actual advice? Should we plan for longer than 7 hours?

Also, we will be stopping midway for a night, perhaps at a castle or near a lake or something nice for the kids between cities. We welcome your suggestions!

Thanks!

this question was also posted on some of the Polish forums as well and the answer was Szczecin, Koszalin. By taking this route you be near baltic sea - so many places for a break - Kolobrzeg maybe a nice stop - and then stop at the port to see some navy ships and get some good fish and chips there as well - good fish and chips place in Kolobrzeg near port and beach is http://www.rewinski.pl/jedzenie.htm ... as far as where to stay and maybe that being a castle maybe this place? -> https://www.podewils.pl/en/***_Hotel...astle_in_Krag/

Thank you for your response! It sounds great.

When we drove across northern Poland, we had an average speed of about 80 kph. So, my advice is to be patient and enjoy the scenery. Poland is a lovely country.

When I use route planners I always factor in 25% longer for driving times, exclusive of rest stops.

I've not been to Gdansk or that area but I have been to Poznan and loved it. The town square is charming and everyday at noon 2 billy goats come out of the clock tower and butt heads. Great fun! It only happens once a day though. There's a civic museum inside the town hall (small and interesting) and a musical instrument museum on the square (also small and interesting). Some of the instruments were unusual and I had no idea what they were for.

Here are my photos of Poznan if you'd like to see the square. If you click on the photos there is a name that tells you what they are.

http://modigliani.shutterfly.com/poland2011

And here's a link to my trip report (last fall). You can search for Poznan to get my opinions. We spent 1.5 days there.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm