Finalizing my Germany / Czech / Poland Itinerary

From Gdańsk, definitely go to Malbork (great example of a Teutonic Castle). If you're interested in old churches with organ concerts, there is a nice one called Oliwa Cathedral (Oliwa is not far from Gdansk and you can get there by public transport).

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g274725-d2409004-Reviews-Oliwa_Cathedral-Gdansk_Pomerania_Province_Northern_Poland.html

I really like Łódź and it's an easy trip from Warsaw by train, if you have extra time.

Download the In Your Pocket guides for each city, they're helpful.

Really not possible to fly home from Gdansk? That would save you backtracking. A quick check shows you can get an early flight out of Gdansk to Amsterdam and direct home to Seattle. I did it the opposite way on my trip - direct from Portland to Amsterdam, then a flight on to Gdansk. Not sure about open jaw options into Berlin out of Gdansk.

Yeah, I loved Torun, but it is pretty small (at least the old town area is), so you don't really need to give it a lot of time. It could be done as a stop off the train between Wroclaw and Gdansk or Gdansk and Warsaw. The problem is that the train stations aren't central. The one that the through trains use is, as I recall, on the other side of the river from the old town. I don't recall if there is luggage storage there or not - I'd guess not (I spent a night). There are local buses from the station to the old town across the river; you could take your bags on the bus and leave them in the old town at a hotel or something for a few hours. An overnight in Torun would be nice but isn't absolutely required.

Five nights seems like an overly long time in Dresden for me personally. It's not a town I fell in love with, and it is far smaller than Berlin where you have the same amount of nights, plus Berlin is your arrival city. I visited Saxon Switzerland, Meissen (day trips), and Görlitz (where I spent a night) and still spent only two nights in Dresden. I'd think four would be plenty if you are going to dive into the museums more than I did.

I don't mind backtracking, just depends on the individual details involved. There is a flight by Wizz Air from Gdansk to London, if you want to consider that option.

WOW, please do a trip report when you return!

Thanks all for the suggestions. As I start researching flights, I might consider starting in Prague and ending in Gdansk. Seems I can juggle the order of things pretty easily once I've found the best flight itinerary.

Agnes, thanks for the tips on day trips from Gdansk. I'd already read about Oliwa Cathedral, but I had not heard about Malbork, and it does seem like a great idea for a day trip.

Andrew, I'll give some thought to shortening my time in Dresden. I added a day there because there are quite a few interesting day trips. If I spend a full day in Leipzig, a full day in Saxon Switzerland, and half a day each in Meissen and Görlitz, that really only leaves me one full day in Dresden (plus evenings and the arrival day). If I decide to spend the night in Torun, I will probably subtract a day from Dresden.

Fred, Wizz seems to service secondary airports (Luton in London), which isn't really convenient for getting home from Gdansk. But thanks for the suggestion.

Julesmenssen, I'm a travel blogger (link in my profile), so I will definitely do regular trip reports while I'm on the go in the form of blog posts. Feel free to sign up to follow my blog and you can get an email notification whenever I add a post (only occasional except when I'm traveling).

True, Wizz Air flies to Luton. A friend of mind flew some years ago SFO to Heathrow, then Luton to Gdansk on Wizz Air.

My wife and I returned from a similar though shorter itinerary, a few weeks ago--here is my trip report.

We spent three nights in Gdansk including the day of arrival, and that city is just a real gem. Malbork Castle is a worthy visit but ended up taking most of a day, due to local holidays it was a total zoo there and we stood in line for over half an hour just to buy a ticket. I might consider adding a night to Gdansk.

I would go earlier than we did and risk cooler weather. We had low- to mid-seventies or more every day on our trip, arriving in Gdansk in late April, and ending in Berlin in mid-May. The mention in Rick's book about May being busy in Poland is very accurate. The upside is the locals are not going to museums as much as tourists, the downside is you can run into crowds of locals in unexpected places.

Also for Krakow, depending upon your time of arrival on the first day, with day trips you will find four nights is not a lot. We found Auschwitz and the salt mine to be very worthy day trips. (The sights were great, the guides not always so great on the tour company trips we took).

Dresden and Berlin are both big museum cities, it's tough doing those two back to back. I might shave a day off of Dresden. We reluctantly skipped Saxon Switzerland because our time in Dresden was so brief, but my research suggested it is very worthwhile.

Goerlitz is a great opportunity for a vacation from your vacation. These are all big cities, you might need a break. Considering staying overnight for a couple of nights. It's a very magical town.

We did not visit Warsaw but based upon my research you might do fine with two nights there. Did not visit Torun but with the amount of time you have, I would try to do so.

Wroclaw we visited as a stopover between Krakow and Goerlitz, just for a few hours. It's a nice visit but two nights would probably be plenty. We were happy with a few hours. Bautzen as a stopover on the way is skippable, the train station is closed for renovtion and you have to lug your bags to the tour office to store them, quite a hike.

Also: the territory you are covering has a disproportionate share of heartbreaking WW II related history. Cities leveled by wartime bombing, concentration camps, the footprint of Nazism overall. Be prepared for the emotional impact of that. We have seen WW II sites before, and Holocaust sites, so I was not new to this. Still, the aggregate impact of this itinerary did not entirely hit me until I was home. We've been back for a few weeks but it's still on my mind.

Andrew, I'll give some thought to shortening my time in Dresden. I
added a day there because there are quite a few interesting day trips.

That's why 5 nights aren't too long, especially if you also visit Leipzig, which is not one of the usual day trips from Dresden, but of course easily doable. Saxon Switzerland is a full day (especially if you want to see Königstein fortress too), Görlitz is a full day (maybe you can squeeze in Bautzen here), if Meissen doesn't take the whole day you can see Radebeul on your way back (former wine village, vineyards, villas etc.). Another interesting day trip are the Ore Mountains, whose towns and villages were shaped by mining. Freiberg, the biggest town of the mountains) has a nice preserved old town, a interesting cathedral, and one of the world biggest mineral collections (more interesting than it sounds).

If you are interested in museums Dresden requires two days.... one day for the museums of the Zwinger (Old Masters, Porcelain Collection, Physical Instruments), one day for the museums of the castle (Old and New Green Vault, Armory with the Turkish Chamber).
What'a also very nice is a trip with a paddle steamer to Pillnitz castle (and back to Dresden by tram (to save time))

And since Andrew said that Dresden "It's not a town I fell in love with": that's understandable, since the area most tourists visit was leveled in WW2, and only a very small part was reconstructed. Most locals prefer the suburbs, which weren't destroyed in the war. The most popular area is around the Blue Wonder Bridge, once the most expensive residential quarter of Europe.

Thank you, vftravels, that's a lot of really helpful guidance. I would really prefer to stay in different places (like Görlitz), but not at the cost of packing and unpacking multiple times. It's a trade-off, I know. And I may consider moving my trip a couple of weeks earlier and do the entire thing in April, because I prefer to travel in cooler weather (and smaller crowds).

And thank you, Martin, for the many great suggestions of day trips from Dresden. It's very likely I will be saturated by museums by the time I leave Berlin, so these will be good alternatives to overdosing on museums there.

Just want to thank everyone who offered so much helpful advice. I've finalized my itinerary and thought I'd share it with you.

I moved my trip to April after looking at weather reports for this past April/May. I saw a lot of temperatures in the upper 70s and 80s and even hitting the 90s. As someone who considers temps in the 50s perfect travel weather and anything above 60 starts to get unpleasantly warm, I may still suffer, and I suppose there's more likelihood of rain, but I think this suits me best.

And I got the best flight itinerary flying into Prague and out of Gdansk (on Lufthansa via Frankfurt both ways), so I reordered things accordingly.

And I have decided to spend a night in Torun, but I'm subtracting it from Wroclaw and sticking with 5 nights in Dresden.

So here it is:

• 4 nights Prague
• 5 nights Dresden
• 5 nights Berlin
• 2 nights Wroclaw
• 4 nights Krakow
• 3 nights Warsaw
• 1 night Torun
• 3 nights Gdansk

Thanks again for all the helpful input. Now to start planning lodging!

If you're ok with possibility of rain, then April may be better. Personally I prefer May partly due to the Chopin concerts in Warsaw that start that month, but you are generally right about the lower temps in April. Airfare should be fine too, it's definitely not peak season. Watch out for the Easter holidays.
https://www.inyourpocket.com/warsaw/Chopin-in-the-park_221e

Do you really plan lodging that far out? You have plenty of time...

Hi,

Unless I missed it somewhere, which airline are you using for SeaTac to Berlin? That is a very good connection, very convenient from SFO to Berlin via SeaTac That would save me the night train connection to Berlin after landing in Frankfurt.

Agnes, I live in Seattle, so I guess I will be okay with the possibility of rain. It will be a shame to miss the free Chopin concerts in Warsaw, but everything is a trade-off, I guess. I will actually be in Warsaw on Easter Sunday, and although I'm not a Christian, I hope I will be able to enjoy that holiday there. I will be in Krakow during Holy Week, and I know some things may be closed, but I am pretty adaptable.

Fred, you may indeed have missed it somewhere, but I'm not flying into Berlin, and I'm not sure what flight you were thinking of from SeaTac to Berlin. To the best of my knowledge, there is no direct flight to Berlin from SeaTac. In any case, I'm flying SEA - FRA - PRG, and home GDN - FRA - SEA.

Yes, of course re: the rain. When folks travel I automatically assume they want something really different from home...that's not always the case and I get it. The weather in Poland has been so unpredictable that who knows what April 2019 will look like. But there's something wonderful when finally it gets warm enough outside that everyone just revels in it...that's what Warsaw feels like in May...lots of flowers and concerts and people outdoors. After some brutal winters, they can't wait to get outside. I was there in April 2013, I believe, and it was surprisingly nice, very comfortable temperatures (60s).

Agnes, here's a graph of this year's temperatures in May in Warsaw:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/pl/warsaw/274663/may-weather/274663?monyr=5/1/2018

They had 12 days in the 80s, and only 7 days where the temperature never got above 70. I know every year can be very different, but I'd rather cool and rainy than hot and sunny. And maybe I'll be lucky and it will be cool and dry.

Hi,

I was going by your statement, "I will be flying open jaw from Seattle to Berlin and home from Warsaw to Seattle."

Sati is right. You'd have to look at 5-10 years of data (timeanddate website has historical data) to get a more accurate picture, I wouldn't count on one oddball year. As I said, the weather's been really wacky in Poland in prior years. My family lives there so I know from them.

Yes of course one year does not make a trend, and when the time comes I may wish I'd waited until May, but my flights are booked and I'll make the best of it.

We are in Croatia now after spending two weeks in Poland. I will do a trip report when we return to the states, but just wanted to let you know we travelled from Wroclaw to Gdansk and Gdansk to Warsaw by train. The trains are wonderful. The train from Wroclaw was 6 hours, but it was a delightful, restful 6hours. We caught up on some sleep, did some journaling, and cleaned up our pictures. The train from gdansk to warsaw was an express which took 2.5 hours. Since we were in first class and had an early train they gave us a snack and breakfast. They had stewards just like a plane. We purchased first class for both trips just because the tickets weren’t that much more and we wanted a little treat. Just a note, we were travelling on a Sunday from Wroclaw to Gdansk and did not prepurchase our tickets. The 12:30train was sold out and we ended up with the 6:35 am. We purchased our tickets when we arrived in Krakow at their train station.

Lane, I would take at least one night from Dresden and give it to Prague. Not only Prague is bigger and more to see but you plan to land there so first day you have to count with inevitable jet lag and you will not be able to see as much as after recovery.

We have visited all these places and it seems that your itinerary actually has a bit too many nights in some places.

Dresden for five nights is definitely a bit too much, even taking in day trip outside the city.
When we did our Polish Bus tour in 1989, we spend 7 days total in Poland. The gem of the cities was Krakow.

Barbara, thanks so much for the tips on train travel in Poland. I will definitely have to look into the option of first class tickets!

Ilja and geovagriffith, your suggestions definitely make a lot of sense. However, I have three separate day trips I'm planning for when I'm in Dresden, which is why I decided to make it five nights there. I'm planning to go to Leipzig, Görlitz, and Saxon Switzerland. So that only leaves me one full day in Dresden. I will probably plan on a late afternoon train from Prague so I have can make the most of that day in Prague for last-minute sightseeing.

One of the interesting and enjoyable aspects of sharing ideas on this forum is the diversity of opinions. Martin tells me 5 days in Dresden is not too many. Others tell me it is. I love having the variety of viewpoints to draw from in making my decisions. One thing I have learned is that there's really no bad itinerary. You just have to make the most of what you see.

Poland has changed a great deal since 1989. To begin with, Warsaw did not have the POLIN museum or the Rising Museum (at least not in their current configurations) and Gdansk did not have its Solidarity Center or World War ii Museum. I've been in Poland since June 21 and haven't gotten to Krakow yet.

Lane, I am not saying that 5 nights in Dresden is too many but that 4 nights in Prague is too few especially if you are giving 5 nights to Dresden. More is almost always better than less but if your days there are limited then something must give up.