Travel Guide: Cheap flights to Poland
Poland Airlines and Airports
Airline and airport information plus insider tips for Poland
The Republic of Poland is one of the newest member states of the European Union. Tourists step off cheap flights to Poland and into a different world - a country with a troubled recent history that came under Communist rule at the end of World War II. The Party's grip on power began to loosen in the 1980s, however, when increasing labour unrest gave rise to the trade union Solidarity. Increasingly political and led by future president Lech Walesa, the movement triumphed in parliamentary elections held in 1989.
Despite the devastation of World War II and years of Communist rule, modern-day Poland is a forward-looking nation. Take flights to Poland and you'll find that the Poles are proud of their cultural and natural heritage, and have rebuilt many of their cities to their pre-war glory.
Several major carriers and budget airlines now offer cheap flights to Poland. A favourite city for visitors is the lovely old imperial capital of Krakow, which escaped severe damage during the war and has preserved its enchanting medieval character in enclaves like the elegant Market Square. Hopefully your cheap flights to Poland will enable you to take advantage of everything the beautiful city has to offer. The old Jewish Quarter still echoes with the culture that once pervaded it, before the inhabitants were taken to the nearby Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.
Find the best flight prices to Poland
When to fly to Poland
The climate in Poland is a tourist's dream: warm summers, blue-skied autumns and snowy winters.
Peak season:
May to September are the peak months for visitors, with July and August the busiest. At these times you'll have to work hard to track down cheap flights to Poland.
Off season:
Poland's cold and snowy winter months aren't an ideal time to visit unless you are a skier, although you can find cheap flights to Poland at this time. The resorts of Szklarska Poreba, in the western part of the Karkonosze Mountains and Szczyrk and Zakopane in the foothills of the Tatras, south of Krakow, are the best known. Elsewhere, the winter months can be very dreary and very cold, though you may be able to pick up cheap flights to Poland as a result.
Getting Around
LOT, the national carrier, provides internal Poland flights. Flights serve airports in Gdansk, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Poznan, Zielona Gora, Wroclaw, Lodz, Katowice, Krakow and Rzeszow.
All the major car-rental companies (Avis, Budget, Hertz and Europcar for example) are represented and you should be able to hire a car from the airport when you step off your flights to Poland, but road quality varies somewhat.
Polish State Railways (PKP) offers services on three types of trains: InterCity, EuroCity and Express. The country is well connected with good services from Warsaw.
The Polish Car Transport Company (PKS) offers intercity bus services. There are also lots of private bus companies that offer services throughout the country.
Warsaw has a good underground train system. Trams operate in several cities including Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, Poznan, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Katowice.
Flying to Poland
Major airports in Poland include:
Warsaw Fryderyka Chopina Airport (WAW)
Krakow (KRK) (Balice John Paul II)
Wroclaw (WRO) (Strachowice/Copernicus)
Katowice (KTW)
Gdansk (GDN) (Lech Walesa Airport)
Airlines offering cheap flights to Poland include:
LOT Polish Airlines
Centralwings
easyJet
Ryanair
British Airways
In-flight Reading
The Pianist
by Wladyslaw Szpilman
A wonderful memoir of the pianist's survival in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War. Although he lost his family and underwent many, many hardships, Szpilman's story is ultimately uplifting and a great way to pass the time on your flights to Poland.
Poland
by James Michener
In this sweeping saga, Michener spans eight centuries, and three families living against the drama of a country often under siege.
Insider Information on Poland
Several other of Poland's old towns are on the UNESCO list and make great destinations for your discount flights to Poland, including Krakow (see the Royal Castle and Cathedral on Wawel Hill as well as the medieval Old Town); Warsaw, painstakingly and beautifully reconstructed after the Second World War; Wroclaw, another old town that was reconstructed after 1945. Gdansk has a postcard-perfect old town and is also home of the Solidarity movement. The town of Torun, about 200km from Warsaw, is the birthplace of Nicholaus Copernicus, Poland's famous astronomer and mathematician. After Krakow, it is the city with the largest number of Gothic monuments and architecture in Northern Europe. Torun is also famous for its gingerbread, and for its leaning tower, which has a vertical deviation of 1.40 metres.
Sun and sea. Book cheap flights to Poland and bathe on the Baltic coast. Poland has several popular beach resorts including Sopot, which has Europe's longest pier (500m/1640ft). Off-season, between November and May, it is still possible to pick up amber on the beaches in the Gulf of Gdansk.
Zakopane, in the alp-like Tatras mountains, is Poland's winter capital. The most popular areas are Kasprowy Wierch and Gubalowka. Snow lasts until May, after which hiking is a popular pastime. You'll feel like you're in a different world, even though flights to Poland are just two hours long.
Natural Poland can be enjoyed in the Bialowieska Forest and Miedzyzdroje, where the bison and deer roam free. The Slowinski National Park, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, has moving sand dunes. The wind pushes dunes along by up to 10 metres each year. The Masurian Lakes Plateau has more than 4,000 lakes and is one of Central Europe's largest forested areas. A lot of people take flights to Poland just to visit this beautiful region.
Travel Tips
- Finding Cheap FlightsOur golden rules for finding a cheap flight
- Airlines with low-cost ticketsAn essential guide to how the main carriers operate
- Before You GoAdvice on everything you need to do before you set off
- Regional UK and Irish AirportsFlying from the four corners of the UK and Ireland
- Glossary of Flying TermsAn A-Z of common terms you’ll need to know
- Travel Sickness and DVTHow to stay happy and healthy in the air
Travel links
- Currency converterFind the current exchange rate
- WeatherThe weather in Poland today
- Destination GuideLonely Planet's guide to Poland
- MapPoland Map from Multimap