I lived in Southern Poland as an expat 10 years ago, but never made it further north than Warsaw. I'm considering a trip to the Baltics potentially in 2025 (Finland, Latvia, Estonia) and was considering adding on these Polish cities. What's the minimum timeframe you'd recommend for them, assuming I'm not trying to make it to other areas of Poland?
Posted by
Southeast of Seattle
700 posts
We visited Gdańsk and Sopot on a day trip from Warsaw in 2017, so we had at least 8 hours or maybe a bit more. It wasn’t quite enough. Gdańsk itself could easily be one full day alone, so maybe two full days would be good. We went to Sopot for lunch and ate at Meridian Molo at the end of the pier on a very gray, rainy day. Very good meal.
Adding in Gdynia may mean 3 full days. It depends on how you like to travel. We’re more on the slower, see it all rather than quicker hit the high points. There were quite a few Scandinavians visiting which meant to us that travel was pretty easy between the countries.
Baltic jellyfish at the end of the pier were especially interesting.
Posted by
Washington DC
27122 posts
Gdansk has been gorgeously rebuilt but is very popular. Understand that the historic core will feel a lot more touristy than Warsaw. The two biggest attractions for me were the Solidarity Center, where I spent about an entire day, and the World War II Museum, where I spent twenty hours. Yes, I am odd, but that is one time-consuming historical museum! It really does take 20 hours if you want to read all the information posted in English and watch all the English-accessible videos. I also enjoyed a much quicker visit to the Amber Museum. If you're bothered by crowds and have no particular interest in 20th-century history, you could see the beauty of Gdansk in one full day and might be ready to head to a less mobbed city. If you're into WWII and Cold War history, you'll need at least 3 nights for Gdansk alone, and that will not allow you to absorb everything in the WWII Museum
I didn't go to Sopot for lack of time. I popped over to Gdynia to see the Emigration Museum. It's very modern and would be especially interesting to people with a family history of emigration (even if not from Poland) recent enough that it's part of the family lore. That is not my situation, but I was still glad to see the museum. I recall a long walk from the train station to the museum; I imagine a bus would have taken me at least part of the way, but I like to walk. I'd say the Emigration Museum is skippable if you have limited time and no strong interest in the topic. I'm afraid I don't know what else there is to see; I spent a lot of time in Poland in 2018 and a bit more this year, but it was impossible to see everything.
Finland (more expensive) and the three Baltic countries (don't forget Lithuania) are great destinations. There, too, I spent a lot of time indulging my interests, which include Art Nouveau architecture and art as well as 20th-century history. I ended up spending 9 to 13 days in the various capital cities, plus extra time in some very nice secondary cities. It's a very interesting area. Ground transportation between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania isn't very fast, so changing cities will take more time than you might expect from the short distances involved.
On my 2023 Nordic/Baltic trip I headed from Lithuania to Poland, but to Bialystok rather than the north. With the current situation involving Russia and Belarus, I didn't have a lot of ground-transportation options. The annoyance that is Kaliningrad may be an issue for you as well.
Posted by
ft lauderdale, florida, usa
34 posts
I am such a museum person i love that you spent 20 hours in the ww2 museum. I adore that. I am spending five nights there. Will all three museums that you mentioned. Emigration, solidarity and ww2. Plus Marlbork castle and then do some massages and little museums like the National Gdańsk museum and art. Thanks for the reinforcements
Two of the days are travel so the st Mary’s basilica also will be a travel day. Looking forward to a new place i have not been
Posted by
Philadelphia, USA
246 posts
I would say minimum 3 nights to explore Gdańsk and make it out to Sopot, add an extra night if you want to take a day trip to Malbork. I would also highly recommend seeing Turin as well, which can work as a stop over on your way to Warsaw (assuming you’re flying out from there)
Posted by
37 posts
We've booked the RS Best of Poland tour and planning on heading into Gdansk a few days earlier to recover from jet lag...thinking about visiting SOPOT once we arrive...fresh sea air and all.
Any thoughts or recommendations?
Posted by
1 posts
I found the Emigration Museum quite interesting, especially if you speak Polish as some panels are just in Polish.
If the weather is nice, a walk or bike along the beach between Gdansk and Sopot might be nice.
Posted by
Washington DC
27122 posts
The Emigration Museum is relatively new and I thought it was very well done. Poland has many historical museums that are highly accessible to English speakers, and this felt like one of them to me. I don't remember specifically about the Emigration Museum, but it's very common for historical museums to have among their displays newspaper clippings, government proclamations and other text-intensive items that aren't translated, while all the explanatory material created by the museum itself appears in two or more languages. I have often stared at a wall full of propaganda posters and wondered what they said, because there just isn't time for a visitor to translate a lot of material like that.