Poland interrail suggestions

[Merseysider]

Hi all, I have a 4 day Interrail for Poland (1st class) bought during the recent sale.

I arrive into Gdansk late on Monday 16th February and am staying there overnight.

The 4 days will be Tue 17 - Fri 20; I want to be in Warsaw by 6pm on the Friday as my return flight is early on Sat 21st February from WAW.

I want to spend 3-4 hours in Wizna at some point, but besides that, my trip is pretty much a blank slate.

Any and all suggestions of cities / places to visit are welcome! Any must-do scenic routes or locomotive hauled journeys especially welcome.

Cheers

FWIW I have recently visited Auschwitz and don't want to include it on this trip.

 

[railfan99]

Have you considered staying in Poznan and visiting Wolsztyn to travel on teh weekday only steam train to Zbaszynek?

I did this in 2024: it is shorter than the previous steam-hauled route, but remains very enjoyable.

Poznan is like many Polish cities with a good tramway network: by looking up TripAdvisor, I found a good, not overly expensive hotel not far from the Old Town.

Another excellent destination is Gdansk, where you will stay overnight: again, a great, extensive tram system plus a touristy, large Old Town. You can do a rail day trip to Hel, which again was an excellent day out. There was an excellent bakery on the way back from the seaside at Hel town. I visited the maritime museum. The railcar on the outbound journey from Gydnia was coupled to a trailer, so the motor car had to run around its trailer at Hel.

 

[BazingaTribe]

In terms of railway history, Bialystok. I went there directly from Gdansk and it took me most of the morning, but it was incredible to travel straight through lakeland Mazuria and effectively go island-hopping through the marshy terrain. I went in summer when there were lots of tourists about, but if this winter is a good one I'm sure the frost and snow might make for some incredible vistas.


Białystok itself is the site of a station originally placed far out of town as punishment for it being a hub of Polish nationalist revolution against the tsars. I went there in 2000 and it wasn't exactly a tourist centre, but I hooked up with some local students and spent the evening in the pub with them as well as having a look round at the Radziwiłł pałace and new-build orthodox churches (as the region is home to a lot of Orthodox Christians suppressed under the PRL and but for a stroke of a pen may well have been ceded to the USSR and subsequently Belarus after the war. (It was the only major town, that was taken by the USSR in 1939 but returned to Poland afterwards, given the minority Belarusian and Lithuanian populations. Suwałki of 'Suwalki Gap WW3 potential flashpoint' fame, just north of Białystok and also connected by rail, was incorporated into East Prussia from the get-go.)


Go not because it's exciting and packed with attractions but because it would be on my version of any Greatest Railway Journeys of the World show and just showcases the wild beauty of that part of Europe. I'd love to do it again, perhaps this time going all the way to the border at Kuźnica Białostocka and over it if our relations with Russia and its puppets ever recovers.

 

[JRT]

Just a couple of points on the previous posts.
Currently the winter service is a Gdynia – Hel shuttle (frequent services Gdańsk – Gdynia). Bear in mind that many attractions are closed in winter.
Many stations in the former Soviet bloc were built on the outskirts of the town centre for various reasons.

 

[Segedunum]

Depending on where you're going, it may be useful to know that Koleje Śląskie is now included with Interrail passes as of January 2026 and appears in the list of operators on the Poland page:

Trains in Poland

Find out how to travel by train to Poland and its neighbouring counties.

www.interrail.eu

 

[AdamWW]

Currently the winter service is a Gdynia – Hel shuttle (frequent services Gdańsk – Gdynia). Bear in mind that many attractions are closed in winter.
Many stations in the former Soviet bloc were built on the outskirts of the town centre for various reasons.

When I visited the year before last the summer services were almost all Gdynia - Hell too.

I think there was one regional service a day from/to somewhere beyond Gdansk (I forget where) plus some Intercity services.

 

[TCDD]

I like to get a sleeper journey in. There are usually services from Gdynia and Gdansk down to Krakow and Zakopane. Or my personal favourite, the Szczecin - Przemysl 'Przemyslanin' overnight service, which also conveys a dining car as well as a sleeper and couchette car, thus giving you the full dining and sleeping experience. However the sleeping cars book up fast. I've always booked the sleeper supplement on Ceske Drahy website www.cd.cz - it never seemed to work with www.intercity.pl (although that may have changed).

 

[Brush 4]

For a lasting experience, it has to be Auschwitz, which is the German name. The town is called Osweicim and there are 2 camps, which can be walked to although there are buses. I walked because I wanted a solitary experience, not arriving in a coach party. Obviously not a fun outing but, it will move and shock you at the same time. It needs all day to take in both camps. Both have a cafe and a shop outside the camps.

The post-camp relics are protected by the Museum created in 1947. The Memorial today is i.a. the Archive and Collections as well as research, conservation and publishing centre.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Birkenau is the one with the arch, which you can go up in. Auschwitz 1 is the other one, where the gas chambers are and the victims possessions can be seen. You will never forget it.

 

[Merseysider]

Thank you all - hardly been on the forum the last week due to work - but some brilliant ideas

Sleeper train in particular - I had almost forgotten Poland had them - will look into that now!

Next time you're at a Forum meet I'm at I'll buy youse a beer! Poland is one of those countries I've visited so many times but always want to come back to.