Any good experiences with car rental companies to rent a car in Poland? Anyone use Kaizen Rent, which is a Polish car rental company? I am planning to rent a car as I leave Wroclaw to explore Klodzko Valley, Zakopane, and Zalipie before dropping off the car at Krakow.
Also, if you have any experience driving in these places, I'd love to hear them. This is my first visit to Poland.
Thanks.
Polish car rental companies sometimes have some strange rules in their terms and conditions, make sure you read them before booking. Otherwise book from international companies.
We just got home from our first trip to Poland. While we’ve often rented a car for at least part of a trip, we didn’t rent this time. We used trains and buses to visit Wroclaw, Krakow, and Zakopane. among other locations. So I don’t have direct experience with renting a car in Poland, although it looked like parking in several cities involved buying tickets to display on the dash, from a machine on the sidewalk. I saw some people studying different machines for quite some time before making their purchases, so it might be confusing/complicated, even for Poles. Maybe there’s an English translation option, but I can’t assure that that’s the case.
Roads seemed to be in good condition in the countryside, from what I saw. Cities have lots of cobbles, both for streets and for sidewalks!
Good point, figuring out parking rules and parking meters is more complicated than driving. Road sings are basically the same as in other countries that follow the Vienna Convention but parking rules are not and do not expect them to be written in English. Kraków in particular is a nightmare in terms of driving and parking. Zakopane is not much better.
Our hotel in Zakopane, the Sabała (“Sa-baw-wa”), had a parking garage for an additional fee, but of course without a car, we didn’t use it.
Thanks for all the feedback. My driving plans are just for visiting the countryside and small towns. In Zakopane, I am staying in a place with parking outside of the busy town center and plan to drop the car off when I arrive in Krakow, so I don't have to deal with parking hassles there.
@qq, I will bear your suggestion in mind about the strange requirements of Polish rental car agencies. Can you give me some examples of the requirements?
Sorry, I have my own car so never rent in Poland. I'm just commenting based on what I've read on other forums. They should have T&Cs on their websites (use google translate if it's only in Polish) but often they do not and this is where your problems start.
My experience is from 2022. Here are the places I parked: my hotel with designated space in Swednica; Klodzko Fortress (I can’t remember where I parked, but it was not problematic); Jawor Peace Church (easy); Ksaiz Castle (easy, designated parking); Jasna Gorna (easy designated free parking - donation requested).
In 2023, I went to Zalipie (no parking issues that day); then I hit 5 of the wooden churches, which all had free roadside parking. The only place I hit crowds was at an unplanned stop in Niedzica, a charming lakeside town, on a Sunday (parking was available and easy to understand - I just had to backtrack some to get to an open lot).
I almost always search for parking ahead of time and mark it on my Google maps - then use that as the destination for my directions. I just didn’t find rural Poland difficult to find parking. Hope that helps!
Thank you very much for all the information, @TexasTravelMom. I will be visiting several of the places you mentioned, and it's good to know about parking not being difficult.
