I'm trying to put together a trip to surprise my husband, who was born in Wroclaw (and left in 1957). I'd like to visit there, but also to expand the trip into some nice relaxing sightseeing. Any suggestions, places to stay, things to see? thanks

hi, I just went there last summer and loved Wroclaw. Honestly, you can get all the info you want online as to what to do, as they have a good website www.wroclaw.com and there is also very good information on Inyourpocket's website which is one of my favorite guides for Poland/CR.

I just decided from those sites, but Wroclaw's main square is very nice, the old Town Hall, nearby Salt Square, and take a walk across the river to the area with a lot of churches. It's just a nice city.

http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/wroclaw/en/

I chose hotels from inyourpocket, I think, but ended up staying at the Qubus Wroclaw, which was just a wonderful hotel, one of the best I've stayed at in Europe. It is only a few blocks to the main square, but on a quieter side street (Mary Magdalene). Unless you are looking for a real cheap place, I can't recommend it highly enough (and a really nice hotel in Wroclaw is pretty cheap compared to other cities). They had a wonderful breakfast buffet, also.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking given the relative prices, that I would go for the very best hotel in town- any idea what that would be?

Did you do all your own travel arrangements? I'm very comfortable doing that in 'regular' Europe- not so sure with eastern europe. I was thinking to fly to Prague and then go to Wroclaw.

Any thoughts welcome.

yes, I do all my own travel arrangements. What is your concern about making arrangements in POland on your own? I think like a lot of places, the ease of doing that, and ability to communicate if you don't speak the local language to hotel staff, varies by the level of hotel and size of the city more than whether it is POland or France, for example. I wouldn't try doing it in some other places myself, like Albania or the "stans", but Poland isn't that backward a country.

I don't know what would be considered the best hotel in town. The Qubus was a 4* hotel and pretty nice, but imagine it's not the top.

oh, BTW, coincidentally I also had flown into Prague on that trip and then made my way to Wroclaw via train. I stayed in Dresden in-between the two for 3-4 days or so.

Thanks Christina. I think I'm just more comfortable when I can speak the language or I know the general area. I have spent plenty of time in France, Italy and Switzerland and fee familiar there. I can get by with my French in most places. I hate tours and being 'herded' so I will look into doing my own arrangements, based on your comments.

Do you know long does it take to get from Prague to Wroclaw? Change trains? Are time tables reliable- how clean are the trains? Did you book the trains here before you left? Any info is welcome.
thanks again. ilana

hi, well, I can tell you that I couldn't communicate that well with certain people in smaller places in Poland, which included some train station staff, and others, but I have traveled by train enough in Europe in general to have an idea of what to do and how things work. I wouldn't suggest doing that so much for someone who wasn't familiar with trains at all, so wouldn't even know the general procedures.

For example, the Wroclaw train station is definitely not as sophisticated, if that's the word, as some others. No staff in there could speak English that I had to deal with, but I didn't have to do much. I have studied Czech a little, and Polish is fairly similar (sometimes just different enough to be confusing), so could recognize signs and knew a few words for what I needed to do. Basically, I just exchanged some money there as I needed some POlish zloty (they don't use euros yet) and had to get rid of Czech koruna, so that was the best place to do it. I knew my hotel was too far away to want to walk from the train station with my baggage, so I just got out and found the taxi queue and took a cab. I was prepared and just showed the driver a copy of my hotel confirmation which gave the name and address in Polish. It was a wellknown hotel, of course, so he knew how to get there. That taxi was real cheap (equiv. of a few euro), and I was real glad I did that rather than trying to walk as it was farther than I had thought -- at least a mile. ANyway, I tried to tip the driver about 10 pct and he refused to even take a tip. Upon return when I left (I was going on to Krakow by train from there), I just had the hotel call a taxi to get to the train station. The staff at the Qubus were quite fluent in English and I had no trouble communicating there, nor in the emails when I reserved the room directly with them.

As for the train, it was clean, certainly. Of course, German trains are very fast and good, so I didn't get onto a Polish train until I had to transfer at the border (Gorlitz) between Dresden and Wroclow. That is a common point to transfer. The Polish train was comfortable enough and clean, but shabby, but was very very slow, so it took a long time. Sometimes it would just stop on the tracks for 10 minutes or so, I have no idea why. The train was full of mainly POlish people. I booked first class seats, so don't know how the rest was, as the fare was pretty cheap anyway, and that wasn't very deluxe, really. So it just took most of my day to get from Dresden to Wroclow, but it was pleasant enough. I supposed I finally got there late afternoon.

If you look at a map, you can see Wroclow is not that close to Prague nor is there a very direct route. Well, a rail map really shows you that, and I have a simple one. If you take the train from PRague to Wroclow itself, there are many possibilities of routes and transfers. There are limited runs that are direct and involve no changes, and I might recommend that for convenience and ease. It probably won't take much longer, anyway, and could be shorter.

ONe direct train takes about 6:45 hrs from Prague to Wroclow and leaves around 1:11 pm and arrives around 8 pm. It goes through LIchkov at the border between the CR and Poland. Czech trains are nice enough, better than the Polish ones I've been on. I think Poland generally doesn't have as modern trains as those other countries, maybe they will some day. Other trains with changes may take between 6 to 10 hrs total, but you aren't going to get much below 6:45 hrs anyway, so it would be easier to take the direct one.

I did not buy my train tickets ahead of time, but I was in Dresden for several days, as I said, and bought my time to Wroclaw there. Of course, they are pretty fluent in English there, so I didn't have a problem with that. I have bought train tickets in the CR at the station and at a travel agency and would recommend the latter. I know a little Czech, and there is an international line at the train station, but the line is long and it wasn't nearly as easy as doing it at the travel agency right in Prague. They speak English fluently, there was little wait, and the fee for doing that was extremely minimal. The main agency to use is Cedok, and there is one not far from Powder Gate that I used, and I think it is their main one in Prague, although there are several offices around town. That one is at Na Prikope 18. There is also one around Wenceslas square as I recall, or used to be, but the prior address may be the best and I know is good. It's the one they give on their website.

I am sure you don't need to reserve a ticket from Prague to Wroclaw ahead of time. I'd suggest you go to Cedok and they'll take care of you.
http://www.cedok.com/

You should check train schedules on www.bahn.de for times and changes, etc. I had a printout of that website of the ones I wanted, or alternatives, when I went to Cedok, and that was very useful.

As for Wroclow, I looked at some websites and think the 5* Radisson SAS is probably the top hotel. The Art and Sofitel are also rated 4*, as the Qubus. I think those are the best choices in the main Old Town area, which is where you want to stay.