Poland, like every country in the world, is full of travel options. And yet, you can narrow it down to basic two: private or public. By private, I mean having your own car. Owning a car in Poland is very useful: within a few hours you can travel from one city to another, and in one day you can transport yourself from one corner of the country to another. For someone from America or Asia, that idea is unimaginable! On the other hand, you have public transportation, which you can divide into three categories: fast, easy and cheap.
Travel fast
The fastest (and statistically speaking the safest) way to travel is obviously by plane. In Poland, you have plenty of low-cost airlines, which operates both domestic and international, like Ryanair, Easyjet, polish LOT and many more. There are 13 civil airports in Poland. The main airport is Chopin Airport in Warsaw. Duration of domestic flights in Poland is between 50 and 80 minutes. But the geographical position of Poland makes it an interesting place not only for inner-country explorers. If you would like to combine your studies with international traveling, Poland is a perfect base. It takes only two hours by plane to visit Rome, Oslo, London or Moscow, and a bit longer to reach Paris or Athens.
Travel easy
Except for airplanes, the rest mobility happens on the ground, where trains are still the easiest way to travel through Poland is still by train. The largest company is PKP (Polskie Koleje Państwowe) which means “Polish State Railways”. Founded in 1926, PKP is still the most common way of transport in Poland. Since requirements laid down by the European Union, the company was divided into several units. With hundreds of stations, anyone can get to almost every city in the country. Obviously, polish train transportation has its flaws, like everywhere in the world, but it’s incomparably more accessible than a plane. And way cheaper.
Cheap travel
If you don’t have a car or traveling by plane or train exceeds your finance means (because are a student, perhaps) DON’T WORRY, there are other options!
Coach
Poland has an extensive network of coach connections. The best example and most common is a company called FlixBus. It’s one of Europe’s leading coach companies with the extensive route network of over 350,000 connections to over 2,000 destinations in 28 European countries. Due to Poland’s location as a gateway between the East and the West as well as North and South, Flixbus have 137 stops in Poland. Trips may be a bit longer than a plane or a train, but prices of coach tickets start from just 5€, both domestic and international! Doesn’t matter if you are a student or if you just looking for a budget ways to travel. Flixbus is the best idea for a spontaneous city escape for the weekend, or a longer trip exploring Europe.
Blablacar (carsharing)
BlaBlaCar is a website and mobile apps connect drivers and passengers willing to travel together and share the cost of the journey. The platform has 70 million users in 2019 and is available in 22 countries, almost all in Europe, including Poland. The company does not own any vehicles and monthly fees are 12zł (around 2/3€). It’s impossible to scale routes and destinations because it all depends on the drivers. Nevertheless, it’s one of the most popular ways to travel because of the possibility of drop-of almost “from door to door”.
