Car rental information

I was really happy with Autoeurope, the prices were great and they are based in the U.S., I believe, with English speaking and helpful agents. I also rented with Europcar and had no difficulties.

Hi,

I agree with looking at autoeurope/peugeot/renault/citreon. All this car company usually rent in Europe and if you're there long enough they will lease you a car (i think better deal than renting less insurance hassle and better rates cause youre there longer???)

Please be sure to look at all public transportation options at places you want to visit. I am not familiar with Poland but sometimes smaller private rail companies/buses may travel between a network of small towns. This might change how long you rent a car for (maybe you only need it for a particular leg of your journey). Plan your rural itinerary and do the research.

I hope I could help <3

Autoeurope is a third party consolidator so the actual car you get could be from any of the common rental agencies there. The advantage is that autoeurope is set up to deal with international visitors who may not be comfortable dealing directly with a foreign agency.

(edit) I see I gave similar answer as below to your previous post. Since Rick Steves doesn't cover Poland well, we found the Lonely Planet Guide to be very helpful.

Places to visit? Any particular interests? Day trips or touring? Smaller towns worth a visit - Kazimierz Dolny, Sandomierz. There's the shrine at Czestohowa which has great historical and cultural significance to Poles. The nature preserve at Bielowiesza (home of the last wild European bison). Of course there are the concentration camp memorials and then the mountain resorts in the south, Malbork castle, the Masurian lakes, etc. Krakow is worth a few days if you want to go that far.

Thank you for all the information. As we like flexibility. Our choice would be to rent a car last minute when we are leaving Warsaw. Appreciate your comments on this. Feasibility??

Appreciate your information
Here is a itinerary question.

2 choices
Rent a car Warsaw to Warsaw. Or
Train to Bialystok from Warsaw rent a car there and tour that area return car and take train to Gdansk and tour around that area.

Thank you
Appreciate the information re road work. What route would you take then to go up to the forest?

Could you tell me about the expressways in Poland is there a toll? If so how does one pay?
We were trying to stay off the expressways as much as possible.

Also check ViaMichelin, which is generally considered to give more accurate (though still optimistic) driving times. The times don't include stops, getting lost, searching for parking, etc. Often VM gives multiple routes, and what I especially like is that particilarly scenic sections of road are marked in gree. (You'll need to zoom in go see that.)

I'm in Poland now (without a car) and have visited four pretty smaller cities north of Warsaw. None is a tiny town, and I haven't seen any scenery yet that was great enough to make a point of traveling to. From my reading of guidebooks, it's my impression that Poland's best scenery is mostly around its borders. I trust that Agnes will see this thread and will comment.

• Plock has a nice museum with an exceptional art nouveau and art deco collection, plus more traditional holdings. The museum is locatedmin three buildings, but two of them are contiguous. I caught a temporary exhibition of some current watercolors that I loved. The historic center is older than the art nouveau period, and handsome. There's a museum focusing on Jewish heritage as well, but It closes at 5 and I missed it. Very helpful tourist office.

• Torun seems to have the most really old buildings. It's a lively and walkable city with a lot of tourism (mostly not Americans). It has a good museum with some archaeological oddments, some 14C church windows, items from later centuries, and some nice 20C Polish art. The museum is free on Wednesday, and I think the Copernicus museum (which I skipped is free then as well. There's a place to have a hands-on gingerbread experience. The tourist office is very helpful and can provide maps of some of the nearby towns.

• Bydgoszcz has lots of pretty architecture. The center is the oldest, but just to the north is an area that has quite a lot of striking art nouveau buildings. Many have been restored, but not all of them. The city museum is in multiple buildings, which was confusing to me, but there is a brochure describing the contents of each, and the tourist office can explain. I was impressed by the art museum (modern Polish). Tnere's a separate contemporary art museum outside the center which is smaller, and with what I would call odder art (typical of contemporary museums). Some of the museums are free on Saturday. There's also a soap museum that includes hands-on activity, but you should expect a lot of kids there. It needs to be pre-booked, at least on weekends. You might be able to walk right in during the week. I think I only ran into one other American when I was there; it's off the US tourist track for sure, but a worthwhile destination.

• Chelmno is another town with an attractive center. There is a city museum, but I feared that it would have no English labels and skipped it. The tourist office had no English speaker when I stopped in. This is the least touristy place of the four, but it seemed to have somewhat less to see. However, I'm not into something-historic-happened-here sites unless there is substantial English explanatory material.