Touring in Poland

My Garmin etrex was great, even without the maps. It was enough just to know which towns were coming up. I reckon I might still get the maps but it worked really well and I don't think I really got lost at all which makes a nice change.

Nice one! Big respect for doing the Podhale.

That's an adder by the way. Aussies are immune to them, I suppose.

Mal's old man said it was poisonous. I laughed at him.

I'm looking forward to going back and riding some more routes. There's meant to be a 120k cycle loop in Slovakia to ride. I spoke to a guy at the border (after earlier leaving him in my dust, of course) and he said it started just over the crossing past Korbielow:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Korbiel%C3%B3w,+Poland&aq=0&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=20.909591,57.084961&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Korbiel%C3%B3w,+%C5%BBywiec+County,+Silesia,+Poland&ll=49.552278,19.392757&spn=0.089316,0.222988&z=13

Does żywiec taste better in Żywiec? I quite like the porter.
Need to go back to the Tatras - they are so much more spectacular than any of the Sudety.

The only exciting part of Sudety is Gory Stolowe (Table Mountains) near Kudowa.

That's about 340k west of where Mal's folks live. Bit much of a hike for a day trip unless we were to train over.

I'm a regular in Duszniki zdroj, It's my mushrooming spot come September. Great for mild walking or for running, not so great if you like the big climbs.

I was in Swieradow Zdroj last year. Boring. Flat. Germanised.

Hippy, do you have a map of the route you took?

I have Garmin routes at home.

The ride to Zakopane was like this, with a detour into Slovakia near Jablonka.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Mak%C3%B3w+Podhala%C5%84ski,+Poland&daddr=49.5841909,19.6047832+to:Ko%C5%9Bcieliska+to:Route+958+to:3+Maja&hl=en&geocode=FfrP9gIdFj8sASmhlKWhWnkWRzH-IFXCikjDRA%3BFT6Y9AIdLyUrASmf7x2c2dYVRzGo8X6r4NSJWA%3BFeI08AIddmIwAQ%3BFf298wIdzHUvAQ%3BFWDJ9gIdSFgsAQ&mra=dme&mrsp=4&sz=10&via=1&sll=49.61249,19.855042&sspn=0.521441,1.454315&ie=UTF8&z=10

I finished writing up the week in Poland here, last night.

Ace. Cheers, mate. I can't believe I haven't ridden in Poland yet. I have tons of relatives over there - just never brought a bike over. This summer I reckon.

I enjoyed it. Not sure how busy the roads get in summer but they were very quiet over Easter.
Also, I only had base maps so couldn't use a lot of smaller roads, lest I be forever lost in the mountains.. I've since ordered Garmin Europe maps so will be better able to explore the smaller roads.

Yeah I was wondering why your route involved what looks like mainly main roads. I suppose getting lost and ending up on dirt tracks that lead nowhere ain't much fun. :) Did you hear of any cycling clubs out that way? Bet the club run out that way would be pretty epic.

I tend to prefer faster, main roads anyway (even over here). Mostly because I'm too lazy to explore smaller lanes or spend time plotting maps and on rides wasting time navigating breaks up my rhythm. These roads were almost dead over Easter though which was good. There's some clubs around but I'm not sure where. I can't find the krowa.org site that had some stuff nearby.

http://www.enduroriderz.pl/

I ended up flying to Riga and cycling down through Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad and then on to Gdansk in Poland. Much of the route was in the Baltic States rather than Poland. Terrain is pretty flat as Hippy suggested. If I'd have had more time I'd have liked to make the whole route along the coast, but instead I cut through to Mazeikiai and then on to Klaipeda, along the Curonian Spit down to Frombork then ferry ride back across to the spit and eventually Gdansk. Weather was good except for time in the cities so I can't complain too much although would have loved to have done more riding in the region around Gdansk. People in Poland were really friendly, and the cycling infrastructure in the city is definitely good (although given the state of some of the city roads, that's probably just as well).

People were pretty understanding when it came to my lack of knowledge of any of their native languages. Russia was not quite as challenging as I'd feared although didn't really enjoy Kaliningrad city (should have organised accommodation prior to arrival although wasn't sure about timings).

Spent much of my time wild camping on route with the exception of a night in a hostel at Klaipeda.

Like I wrote before, Kaliningrad ain't Koenigsberg anymore. There's nothing left from the* proper* multicultural Prussia, as it was severely destroyed during the war and after land-grabbed by the Soviets only to turn it into heavily fortified naval base.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Kaliningrad goes down as one of those 'interesting' but not necessarily pleasant experiences. The area is the least developed of the countries I passed through with roads that varied widely in quality and no particular infrastructure for cyclists. There are also some restricted areas in Kaliningrad where you are not supposed to visit which had me worried whenever I passed by any military infrastructure.

That said, the locals were always friendly (even if knowledge of English was limited to non existent), there were always corner stores where you could pick up some basics so you are never going to be caught short and the relatively undeveloped nature of Kaliningrad made wild camping a breeze. Cyclists were seen but it appeared these were people travelling by cycle by necessity rather than design.

Kaliningrad the city was harder work. Riga and Gdansk both gave ample allowance for cyclists but you couldn't say the same for the city of Kaliningrad.

Getting through the borders was a relative breeze on a bike given that i was able to filter through to the front of queues - not so much an issue at the Lithuania-Russia border on the Curonian Spit but more of an issue at the Russia-Poland border at Mamonovo.

So I'm looking at a preliminary route in and around Poland. The idea is to get the cheapest 9 days summer bike packing tour as possible.

My buddy lives in Poland and suggested touring his country but I'm more inclined to visit a few different countries.

It's important to tour in the summer as we want to avoid the cold/wet weather as much as possible, and so cut down on packing.

My initial thoughts are to start of in Tallin and spin down to Gdansk.

What do you recon...any thoughts, experiences and places of interest would be appreciated.

That'd be a cool ride. No idea about the terrain but the bird watching will be glorious.

Hi, I'm from Poland and I highly recommended trip in Summer :) Best places for me is Mazury lakeland (with many bike roads) and Bieszczady mountain. I made in last summer small trip from Bieszczady to Mazury (eastern Poland) You can find many interesting places for example: Zamość with old Market Square & bastions
many small & quiet town's, like This: or
Eastern Poland is good for riding, Roads is safe, and people is hospitable

Also You can find many road among forest... If You want I have my map trip. I chose only small roads and small town's
Regards from Poland

and here is Zamość :)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Zamosc_pierzeja_polnocna.jpg

Planning a 7 day Poland tour in April. Was considering maybe flying into Gedansk to start. Looking for mixed surface touring, want to do some off road/gravel but won’t be on mountain bikes. Keen to find some mountains and forests

Would want to do A-B and fly out and back from different airports, can include some a train here and there to make a slightly better route. Obviously already some good thought in this thread, has anyone done anything like this recently? And what sort of weather to expect in early April? Where’s best to explore over a weeks riding?

I did Świnoujście (Seaside resort town close to German border) to Hel (Gdansk) in May. Was a nice mixture of mostly tarmac and dirt roads/gravel/cobble. It's not a mega distance but meant we could have plenty of stops. Plenty of forest but definitely no mountains.

Funnily enough, just read on Wiki last night about the Trail of Eagles Nests which is a route that takes in 25 castles. Ends in Krakow so might be a good one although its less than 200km so might need to be extended.