Warsaw Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Warsaw is home to two Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa (PKS; www.pks.warszawa.pl in Polish) bus terminals. Warszawa Zachodnia bus terminal (022 822 4811; Al Jerozolimskie 144), west of the city centre, handles the majority of international routes and domestic routes south, north and west. Warszawa Stadion (Stadium Bus Terminal; 022 818 1589; ul Zamojskiego 1), on the east side of the river, deals mainly with domestic and international bus traffic eastbound. Bus tickets are sold at the respective terminals. Some international services depart from the Warszawa Centralna bus terminal on the north side of Warszawa Centralna train station.

PKS operates several buses a day from Warszawa Zachodnia to Gdańsk (42zł to 48zł, five to seven hours), Częstochowa (35zł, 3½ hours), Kazimierz Dolny (22zł, 2½ hours), Kraków (38zł to 43zł, five to 5½ hours), Olsztyn (22zł to 34zł, 3½ to four hours), Toruń (32zł to 54zł, four hours), Wrocław (46zł to 50zł, five to 6½ hours) and Zakopane (54zł, 7¾ hours). Services from Warszawa Stadion include a few daily buses to Lublin (21zł to 40zł, three hours), Białystok (26zł, 3¾ hours), and Zamość (32zł, five hours).

Polski Express (www.polskiexpress.net, in Polish) coaches depart from Warsaw’s Frédéric Chopin airport and pick up passengers at its own bus stop (Al Jana Pawła II), next to Warszawa Centralna train station. Tickets for Polski Express routes are available from either of its offices – the main office Centralny Punkt Informacji i Sprzedaży Biletów (Central Information & Ticket Sales Point; 022 854 0285; 6.30am-9.30pm) is beside the bus stop – and from selected Orbis Travel outlets and Almatur (022 826 2639; www.almatur.com.pl; ul Kopernika 23; 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-3pm Sat). Polski Express buses travel to Białystok (41zł, four hours; one daily), Gdynia via Gdańsk (45zł to 59zł, seven hours, two daily), Kraków (83zł, eight hours, one daily), Lublin (41zł to 50zł, 3½ hours, seven daily), Szczecin (69zł to 83zł, 10 hours, two daily), and Łódź (36zł to 39zł, 2½ hours, seven daily).

Car

All the major international car-hire companies have offices in Warsaw, many of which are based at the airport. Polish companies offer cheaper rates, but may have fewer English-speaking staff and rental options. Dependable local operators include Local Rent-a-Car (022 826 7100; www.lrc.com.pl; ul Marszałkowska 140), which offers an Opel Corsa in the summer months for €44 a day, or €238 a week, including tax, collision damage waiver (CDW), theft protection and unlimited mileage. Gromada Rent a Car (022 846 5404; Plac Powstańców Warszawy 2), at Hotel Gromada, is another local option, with cars for as little as €30 a day.

Train

Warsaw has several train stations, but the one that most travellers use almost exclusively is Warszawa Centralna train station (Dworzec Centralny, Warsaw Central; Al Jerozolimskie 54); it handles the overwhelming majority of domestic trains and all international services.

Remember, Warszawa Centralna is not always where domestic and international trains terminate, so make sure you get off the train sharply when it arrives.

The station’s spacious main hall houses ticket counters, ATMs and snack bars, as well as a post office, newsagents (where you can buy public-transport tickets) and a tourist information desk. Along the underground passages leading to the tracks and platforms are a dozen kantors (one of which is open 24 hours), a left-luggage office (7am-9pm; per 24hr 5-10zł), luggage lockers (4zł per 24 hours), eateries, several other places to buy tickets for local public transport, internet cafés and bookshops.

Tickets for domestic trains are available from counters at the east end of the main hall (but allow at least an hour for possible queuing), and international train tickets are available from either the helpful information office (022 474 1760; 9am-8pm) at the west end, one lonely counter at the east end, or from any major Orbis Travel office. Tickets for immediate departures on domestic trains are also available from numerous, well-signed booths in the underpasses leading to Warszawa Centralna.

Some domestic trains also stop at Warszawa Śródmieście train station (Al Jerozolimskie), which is 300m east of Warszawa Centralna, at Warszawa Zachodnia train station (Al Jerozolimskie), next to Warszawa Zachodnia bus terminal, and at Warszawa Wschodnia, in Praga, on the east bank of the Vistula.

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Air

Airport

Warsaw-Frédéric Chopin Airport (Port Lotniczy im F Chopina; 022 650 4220; www.lotnisko-chopina.pl) lies in the suburb of Okęcie, at the southern end of ul Żwirki i Wigury, 10km south of the city centre; it handles all domestic and international flights.

In the Terminal 1 international arrivals (odloty) hall, there is a tourist information desk (8am-8pm May-Sep, 8am-6pm Oct-Apr), which sells city maps and can help visitors find accommodation. You will also find some currency-exchange counters (24hr), half a dozen ATMs, several car-hire agencies and a left-luggage office (per bag per day 5zł; 24hr). You can buy tickets for public transport from Ruch newsagency (5am-10pm).

The upper level of Terminal 1 houses international departures (przyloty), which has airline offices, a bank (8am-6pm Mon-Fri, 8am-1pm Sat), and a post office (8am-8pm Mon-Fri, 8am-2pm Sat).

Budget airlines, including Wizz, German­wings, Ryanair, EasyJet and SkyEurope, use Terminal Etiuda, a separate building that’s a few minutes’ walk south of the main terminal building. It’s a basic, overcrowded place with few amenities, aside from a tourist information desk (8am-8pm May-Sep, 8am-6pm Oct-Apr).

Terminal 2 was still under construction at the time of writing, and will hopefully be open by the time it receives flights.

Flights

Tickets can be booked at LOT (Polish Airlines; Map pp88-9; 0801 703 703; www.lot.com; Marriott Hotel, Al Jerozolimskie 65/79; 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-3pm Sat) or at most travel agencies. The LOT timetable lists international flights to and from Poland on various airlines, along with LOT’s own international and domestic flights.

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