How much does it cost?

Warsaw is definitely the most expensive city in Poland, it still however remains cheaper than most European capitals. Personally, I do always check the price range of most important products before going abroad therefore I expect that also some of you, Warsaw visitors, is interested in the subject. In this post I will try to present prices of some exemplary products that may interest an ordinary tourist. All prices are in Polish local currency (PLN) and are actual as per April 2015.

The average exchange rate of EUR/PLN is 4,2. 

Eating outside:

Big Mac - 9,60 zł

Shish kebab (popular street food) - 13-16 zł

Espresso - 8 zł

Capuccino - 12-15 zł

Water (in a restaurant) - 7 zł

Beer (in a restaurant) - 8-12 zł

Burger - 25-30zł

Main course in an average restaurant - 40-60 zł

Groceries:

Bread - 3 zł

Water (1,5 L) - 2 zł

Orange juice (1 L) - 5 zł

Chicken breast (1 kg) - 15 zł

Cheese (1 kg) - 25 zł

Milk (1 L) -  3 zł

Other: 

Cinema tickets - 25-30 zł

Taxi (1 km) - 1,80-2,50 zł

Public transportation - please refer to  the post

Supermarkets are generally open until 9 or 10 p.m. including Saturdays, and closing a little earlier on Sundays. Within the city center small groceries dominate the mercantile landscape, there are also liquor stores available - some of them operating 24h/day and offering basic groceries products as well.

Payments by card are widely accepted. In some shops and restaurants it is also possible to pay directly in EUR, albeit I strongly advise checking the exchange rate that is offered as it may be significantly different from actual numbers.

Polish zloty - banknotes

Public transportation

Warsaw is well communicated, offers expanded network of subway, trams, buses and local trains at affordable price. For buses there are bus passes dedicated so during rush hours public transportation is much more effective than getting around by car.

In the daytime

At the moment there is one subway line connecting northern and southern parts of the city, however the second line is to be opened in 2015 linking east and west. Current line includes 21 stations and it takes approximately 45 minutes to travel from first to last stop.

ztm.waw.pl

Świętokrzyska and Ratusz Arsenał stations are located near The Old Town area while Centrum is best to reach main railway station (5 minutes walk or one tram stop), Palace of Culture and Science, National Museum. If you want to save some money on accommodation but still don't want to waste too much time in means of transport look for places loacted outside the city center but alongside subway line - you will be able to reach city center easily and within 15-20 minutes.

Buses and trams cover the whole city tightly and will be useful for reaching e.g. Warsaw Uprising Museum, Royal Łazienki, Wilanów, Invisible Exhibition (more about it here) or National Stadium. Lines numbers starting with 1, 2 or 3 are regular ones, 4 or 5 - rushed ones, 7 and 8 - suburban. Local trains provide connection with suburbia; there are few operators (SKM, KM WKD) and main rail hub is Warszawa Centralna/ Warszawa Śródmieście (central railway station).

At night.
Buses, trams and trains operate generally between 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Beyond these hours there are 43 night buses lines running, reaching not only all Warsaw districts but also suburbia. Signage of night buses always starts with "N". It is important to know that they stop on bus stops on demand - you need to wave your hand when you see a bus arriving at a bus stop.

Subway operates from 5 a.m. until:

• Sunday - Thursday: 12:10 a.m. (last train leaving from Kabaty and Młociny)
• Friday - Saturday: 2:30 a.m. (last train leaving from Kabaty) and 2:45 a.m. (last train leaving from Młociny)

Tickets
Warsaw is divided into zones 1 and 2 in terms of public transportation ticket prices. As tickets for zone 2 are significantly more expensive than dedicated to zone 1 only, always make sure that you are buying appriopriate ticket. Most probably you will not need tickets for zone 2 because it covers pretty distant, suburban areas, rarely visited by tourists. As I've written above, buses with numbers starting with 7 and 8 are suburban but unless you cross the border of second zone, you can travel in those buses with zone 1 tickets.

As per March, 2015 types and prices of available single and short term tickets ar as presented below:

• 20 minute ticket (unlimited number of journeys for a period not exceeding 20 minutes), zones 1 and 2: 3,40 PLN
• Single fare transfer ticket (unlimited number of journeys for a period not exceeding 75 minutes), zone 1: 4,40 PLN
• Single fare transfer ticket (unlimited number of journeys for a period not exceeding 90 minutes), zones 1 and 2: 7,00 PLN
• One-day ticket (unlimited number of journeys for 24 hours from its validation), zone 1: 15 PLN
• One-day ticket (unlimited number of journeys for 24 hours from its validation), zones 1 and 2: 26 PLN
• Weekend ticket (unlimited number of journeys from 7:00 p.m. on Friday till 8:00 a.m. on Monday), zones 1 and 2: 24 PLN
• Group weekend ticket (entitles a group of up to 5 people to unlimited number of journeys from 7:00 p.m. on Friday till 8:00 a.m. on Monday), zones 1 and 2: 40 PLN

All tickets need to be validated immediately after boarding bus/tram/train or at the entrance gate before entering subway platform. For short term tickets validation is to be performed during first journey.

Public transportation is free for people over 70 years old. Unfortunately there is no discount for children, with a single exception for students possessing a valid ISIC card (entitlement to 50% discount).

The easiest way of purchasing ticket is using a stationary ticket machine. They are located in the whole city: at every subway station, Chopin Airport, railway stations, many of bus and tram stops. All machines are able to function in English and it is possible to pay either by cash or by card.
Ticket machines are also located in all suburban trains and part of buses/trams (e.g. you will for sure find one in bus no 175 running to/from Chopin Airport). The tricky part is that you never know whether the vehicle you are planning to board does possess a machine or not (with the exception of bus no 175), so it's better to purchase ticket in advance. Teoretically also drivers sale ticket on board but they offer only one type of ticket, you always need to have the exact amount of money and they may refuse sale if they are too occupied. All in all - they are generally reluctant to do it.
If you prefer eye contact you may buy tickets in one of stationary points of sale: ZTM passenger service points or post offices. Finding a closest tickets sale point is possible here.

Useful links

• jakdojade.pl - the best journey planner. If you need to find the easiest way of travelling from one point to another in Warsaw use it to schedule your trip, check which means of transport to use and where to change. Available in English.
• ZTM - official portal of municipial public transportation. timetables, search engine, maps of day and night transportation, ticket tariffs. There is also a subpage that gathers all information regarding getting to/from the airport. Available in English.

Good to know: major colors of public vehicles are yellow and red, it's really difficult to overlook them!

Source: ZTM Warszawa

City sightseeing bus

City sightseeing Warsaw bus is good solution for tourists looking for quick and easy way of moving between most important sites in Warsaw. If your journey time is limited or you don't like long city walks this post is for you.

The ogranizer of tours belongs to City Sightseeing Worldwide group which operates in many cities around the world therefore the service provided is of high quality and probably well known to most travellers. Buses are well identifiable as they are colorful double decker vehicles moving around Warsaw city center. They have a sliding roof and may carry up to 70 people which ensures comfort during the drive.

http://www.city-sightseeing.pl/en

The route of the bus covers some of important sites in terms of Warsaw tourist attractions although it could be far more expanded, reaching attractions located outside the city center. The list of stops includes ten locations:

Palace of Culture and Science (near Main Railway Station), Pilsudski Square, Chopin Museum, Bank Square, Old Town, Castle Square, University, Foksal, Royal Lazienki, City center.

The full route is presented below:

http://www.city-sightseeing.pl/en

Another flaw of the bus is its cost: regular ticket price is PLN 60 for 24 hs and PLN 80 for 48 hs ticket which is rather expensive comparing to average prices range in Poland and taking into account that the route of the bus is rather limited and its frequency is one drive per hour. However, as I've already written here, if you decide to purchase Warsaw Pass card the City sightseeing bus line will be for free.

All in all, this is an alternative worth considering and may considerably facilitate moving around foreign city. It is also a good option if you plan to spend only few hours in Warsaw and would like to see the most important spots in a short time. The whole route lasts approximately 1 hour (but is highly dependant on traffic).

For full details, timetable as well as ticket purchase please visit the official site of the line.

Short promotional film of the bus trip may be also found on YouTube: click here

Where to stay

Warsaw provides extremely vast range of  accommodation for tourists, suiting every pocket. As there is plenty of professional services available on the Internet, I am not going to rewrite here the content as this is not the aim of that blog. What I'd like to do, is to facilitate the proccess of looking for your perfect trip lodging by presenting in this post bunch of links to websites that will enable you to search for the most convenient accommodation, depending on your budget. 

For free

Couchsurfing - there is over 39 thousand of active hosts living in Warsaw or its close neighbourhood logged on the portal, so there is no doubt you will find someone corresponding your needs and eager to host you.

Low cost
Hostelworld, Hostels.com, Hostelbookers - hostels are popular and convenient accommodation for those looking for inexpensive place to stay. Prices per night in Warsaw hostels range from approx. PLN 30 to approx. PLN 100, depending on season and facilities.
Students' hostels (Akademiki) may be an alternative to hostels. They are usually located in more quiet surroundings and not as overcrowded as hostels are. During summer time finding a room should not be a problem, many of those hostels do not even require reservation. However, if you are going to visit Warsaw during school year you'd better ask for a free room in advance.
Airbnb - good choice for tourists preferring more intimate atmosphere or additional facilities such as equipped kitchen. On Airbnb you can find various accommodation offers, including high-standard elegant apartments, but there is also plenty of cost-effective sites made usually available as one room in a flat/house where also host lives.

Medium/High cost
Popular polish portals (available also in English):
StayPoland
eholiday
Bookwarsaw
nocowanie.eu

International portals:
Booking.com
Hotels.com
Airbnb

All the above mentioned portals are my personal subjective choice. I do also recommend using Trivago for easy comparison of hotel prices offered on different booking sites (as well as finding great deals) and TripAdvisor for checking reviews of hotels published by other travellers. Those two portals haven't let me down yet!

If there are any portals, tools you found helpful while looking for accommodation in Warsaw please let me know - I'll be happy to complement the list. As in my opinion good place to stay is an essential component of every fulfilling trip. Do you agree?

In Your Pocket - free city guide

Those of you who had already an opportunity to visit Europe, especially Central and Eastern regions, probably heard about In Your Pocket city guides series. For those who hadn't, today few words about the idea.

The founders of In Your Pocket series are four men who got stuck in Vilnius, Lithuania, one day in 1991 with no idea on how to spend the evening. This is how they came up with the idea of Vilnius dedicated city guide which shortly developed and spread to other cities of the region. This initial intention remained the main theme of the concept as besides standard information on how to get to the city, where to sleep or what to see there is also wide range of other popular spots presented, such as restaurants, pubs, night clubs, gyms, theaters, cinemas. But, what in my opinion is the most distinctive and most valuable at the same time, is actual information about on-going events, concerts and any other cultural attractions. So, you can easily check what is going on in the city you are planning to visit (which is not always easy if you don't know the town and where to look information about current events) or even adjust arriving dates to events you are interested in.

At the moment, the guide is published for more than 100 cities in over 30 countries, located mostly in Central and Eastern Europe. Among others there is of course Warsaw - that's why I'm writing about it here :) First good news is that the guide is regularly updated every two months in order to provide the most current data. And second good news is that it is available for free, in few formats: it may be downloaded on your mobile device either in PDF format or as an app, printed,  picked up in Warsaw tourist information offices or in some of hotels. You may also ask for a printed copy to be sent to you, however there is an extra cost of EUR 5 for that. 

All in all, In Your Pocket is a great help for visitors looking for some additional attractions. It should rather not be seen as major guide for historical places and typical must-sees, as descriptions provided are basic, but if you want to feel like locals for some time, eat lunch in popular restaurant or go to an interesting concert this is something you should definitely read before your trip.

Current issue of In Your Pocket city guide for Warsaw may be downloaded here.

How to get to Warsaw. Part II.

Continuing this short practical guide about arriving to Warsaw let's concentrate today on remaining means of transport. For those who are not great fans of planes, don't worry - you may visit this interesting city as well! :)

By train.

Train may be good solution for travellers planning to come to Warsaw from different European cities. There is good, direct connection with many capitals, just to mention few: Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Moscow. International trains are generally in good condition, branded as Euro- or InterCity, include buffet car and couchette for longer distances. If you plan to spend some time in other Polish cities (e.g. extremaly popular and beautiful Cracow) then you may consider using trains as well, as they offer good connection in wide range of prices - InterRegio and TLK being the cheapest ones. The search engine of all train connections may be found here.

The main station is Central Warsaw (Warszawa Centralna) located at the crossroad of Jerozolimskie avenue and Jana Pawła II. The building was fully renovated in 2010 and now offers a wide range of services including coffeehouses, bars, boutiques. From the building there is also a direct entry to one of Warsaw's biggest shopping centers - Złote Tarasy (official site). It's worth knowing that the station is open 24 hours a day.

You will find taxi rank in front of the building, as well as city bus station.  There is plenty of bus and tram stops located within a short walking distance, including subway station (Metro Centrum) situated approximately 600 m from the train station. The walk to the historical center would take approximately 30 minutes.

Besides Central Warsaw most of international trains stops usually also at Warsaw Western (Warszawa Zachodnia) or Warsaw Eastern (Warszawa Wschodnia) station. So, depending where you plan to stay it may be more convenient to get off a train on one of above stations. There is also main coach station located next to Warsaw Western station (national and part of international bus lines).

By car.

Road infrastructure has improved significantly over last few years, many dual carriageways and highways was put at public disposal. While considering travel by car you must remember that highways are subject to charge. At the moment fee for cars under 3,5 t amounts to 0,10 PLN/1 km. Calculations for exact routes may be found here (Polish language only). As for petrol, prices are rather not high comparing to other European countries; actual information about average costs is presented on economic web portal wnp.pl. For more data please click here (in Polish).

By bus.

Out of selected locations it is possible to reach Warsaw by international bus lines. The journey will last longer but price can be significantly lower. If you travel from Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Berlin or Vilnius Polski Bus is highly recommended as if you are lucky you may pay only EUR 1 for a single trip (first seats price)!  To keep updated with all discounts I suggest following the company site on Facebook or signing up for a newsletter at Polski Bus official site.

For travellers from Baltic States, by contrast, as well as Prague and Berlin, Simple Express line is worth considering as they offer competitive prices and - likewise Polski Bus - first seats discounts. Their official site may be found here.

Polski Bus: stops map. Source: http://www.polskibus.com/en/bus-stops

Simple Express: stops map. Source:http://www.simpleexpress.eu/en

 For long-distance journeys to Warsaw from various European locations Ecolines is to be considered as offering the most complex  and diversified connections map, although their prices may be a little bit more expensive (Ecolines official site).

Alternative forms of transport.

For adventures lovers I propose:

- bicycle trip, which is a wonderful way of exploring not only Warsaw, but also smaller towns and picturesque countryland. Apart from its southern regions, Poland is lowland country so unless you decide to come here in winter it may be a very pleasant journey;

- hitch-hiking; Poland is highly used as transit region between Western and Eastern countries (Ukraine, Russia, Bielarus). Therefore it is not difficult to bump into lorry driver eager to enhance their long trip.

For more details please contact me or post a comment and I will do my best to provide an explanation.

Cheers,
Warsaw Traveller. 

How to get to Warsaw. Part I.

I guess that subject of the first post is not surprising as usually (at least this is what I always do while planning my trips) mapping out of how to reach our destination is the first step of every journey. Sometimes it may even determine what place we will decide to visit. So, today I will talk over various means of transport and show all of you that besides Warsaw is usually being considered as a place located outside popular tourist trails it is definitely easly reachable.

By plane.

This is the easiest and the fastest way of reaching the city. Warsaw is well connected with many European as well as non-European cities. You can choose from regular lines, e.g. Polish national airlines PLL LOT (LOT official site) , or low-cost ones, such as Ryanair or Wizz Air. It is good to know that every week LOT offers a special promotion called Crazy Wednesday where it is possible to buy tickets for selected routes (different every week) at special prices. Therefore I recommend following LOT site on Facebook or subscribing to a newsletter in order to keep track of current discounts. 

The important information is that there are two Warsaw airports:

• Warsaw Chopin Airport (airport official site) which is located within the city (8 km from the city center) and is used by most air carriers. The close proximity makes it easy to get to the city center (approx. 20-30 minutes depending on traffic) and you may choose from:

1. Taxi - there is always plenty of cars in front of the entrance, however please make sure you are using the licensed taxi service (the tariff should be displayed in the window). The regular fare for transport to the city center is approximately 40 PLN but if you happen to use non-licensed driver your short trip may be significantly more expensive;
2. Car hire - car rental desks are located in the public area of the Terminal A arrivals hall. The full list of car rental companies available may be found at the airport official site;
3. Public transport: bus - airport is served by few bus lines, including night bus. Bus fares, timetables and routes may be found at ZTM site who is an organiser of city public transport (ZTM official site). More detailed information about public transport will be also available in the next post on this blog;
4. Public transport: train - an urban railway service is operated by two companies: Szybka Kolej Miejska – SKM (Fast Urban Railway) and Koleje Mazowieckie - KM (Masovian Railways). At the moment SKM offers two (S2 and S3) and KM one (RL) line linking Chopin Airport with other destinations. Using train is a good idea especially if your destination is not Warsaw but other Polish cities that you plan to reach by train, as SKM or KM will transport you directly to any of Warsaw railway stations. For more information regarding fares, timetables and routes please click here.

• Modlin Airport (airport official site) which is located 35 km from Warsaw and currently is used by Ryanair. The journey to the city center takes approx. 40-80 minutes and is possible via:

1. ModlinBus - private operator linking Modlin airport directly with Warsaw, however only one stop in Warsaw is available (across from the main entrance of the Palace of Culture). Timetable is correlated with planes arrival/departure hours and tickets can be bought online on the ModlinBus site (ModlinBus official site). Advanced purchase is recommended as if you are lucky you may buy tickets for 9 PLN (few first seats in every coach), fares reach to the level of 28 PLN (last seats);
2. Public transport: train - a service is operated by Koleje Mazowieckie - KM (Masovian Railways). It is possible to reach city center (Warszawa Śródmieście), as well as other Warsaw railway stations and Chopin Airport. Modlin railway station is remote from the airport therefore short bus ride is necessary. Buses are labelled and run every 20-30 minutes linking airport with station. Single ticket for the bus costs 5 PLN however if you travel using both bus and train you can buy special Airport ticket that costs 17 PLN and allows you to use public transportation in Warsaw for additional 60 minutes;
3. Taxi - the available companies include SAWA Taxi or Taxi MODLIN and journey to Warsaw center takes approx. 40 minutes. Fares are fixed and range between 119 PLN - 249 PLN depending on time and destination. Full pricelist may be downloaded here;
4. Car hire - car rental desks are located in the public area of arrivals hall. The full list of car rental companies available may be found at the airport official site.