Planning for a 3-4 week trip to Poland in Mid-September

Cindy, what a great destination! You are experienced travelers and it looks like you really know how to do your research. Since you asked, I would recommend less time in Gdansk. It is a wonderful destination that is compact and easily discoverable in 3-4 days. Cameron Hewitt has put out great content on Gdansk on his FB page and I assume it's also on the RS site. The nearby Malbork Castle and the charming city of Torun are easy day trips from there.

You can add your extra days to more adventures in southern Poland and maybe extend to Prague, Berlin, Dresden.

I would recommend less time in Gdansk. I think 4 nights is more than adequate even with a day trip to Malbork. Of all the cities we went to, I liked Warsaw the least. I would think 3 nights would be more than enough. We loved Krakow and there are enough day trip possibilities to keep you busy for 7 days.

Poland is a wonderful destination. You can definitely fill your time. We had about 3 weeks and there was more we wanted to do. We exclusively used trains to get around. Wroclaw could keep you busy for 2-3 days. I would highly recommend a day trip from Wroclaw to Swidnica Peace Church. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. Torun was absolutely charming and I'd absolutely recommend a daytrip to Bydgoszcz to see the very beautiful and unique cathedral. Torun is a good 2 hours by car and about 2.5 hours by train from Gdansk, so better to spend a couple nights.

If you do a search of the forum you will find lots of information and trip reports. There are a lot of people on the forum that would be good sources of information. Carlos is one I recall off the top of my head. I also found the Rick Steves guide helpful.

Here is a link to my trip report https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/poland-trip-report

Thanks for the replies, Julie and jules m. That is what we were looking for. I read your trip report, jules m, and it was awesome; going to have to take notes!! We definitely want to take trains on this trip. We used public transportation in Budapest, Vienna and Paris and it was amazing! Wish we had that option here.

The one thing we tried to focus on for our 2023 trip, was to eliminate the 2 night stays that we had on the RS tours. We totally understand the reasons; we got to see a lot in a short amount of time, but since we control what we are doing, we want to absorb the town we are in and take a breath some times!
Cindy

You can definitely to 3 nights each in Torun and Wroclaw, possibly 4 in each.

Here is my trip report from my month in Poland in September, 2022, in case it helps.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/poland-north-to-south

It sounds like you have plenty of time, so I can’t see any reason to hurry. With help from Carlos, who has tons of good Poland info here, I had the same list of cities. I have to admit I travel slowly - so plenty of people could do and see faster than me and might get bored with my pace. That being said, looking back at my trip, I would give Gdansk an extra night (I had 5); Torun maybe cut a night (I had 3); Warsaw I now can’t imagine running out of things to see or getting bored with 7-8 nights (I had 4 because I thought I wouldn’t like it); Wroclaw 3 is great; and 7-8 is lovely for Krakow. I also had 5 for Swidnica but if redoing I would cut to 3 or 4.

On a return trip last summer, I rented a car and spent a couple of days driving to and seeing both some of the wooden churches south of Krakow and some of the mountains - lovely!

Also check out CWsocial’s trip report for Warsaw.

Poland is easy to do on your own and worth the time.

Thanks to TexasTravelmom for linking my Warsaw trip report. I thought I would glance at it to remind myself before responding to your questions. I ended up re-reading my entire report and smiling as I remembered each fabulous day.

So now I will answer "Is 7 or 8 nights too much for each city?"

I spent 8 nights in Warsaw and it was definitely not too much for me. I loved every single day, and will happily fill another week with all the things I have on my "next visit" list.

To understand my enthusiasm for Warsaw, I should also say that I enjoy long city stays, and have happily spent 8 nights in Lisbon, Budapest and Sofia. I get a charge out of all there is to see and do in big cities, and I really fell in love with Warsaw.

Great information; thank you everyone!
What I have gathered (still need to read all the trip reports as I LOVE details!) is we can visit these cities: Gdansk (5-6 nights), Torun (3 nights), Warsaw (7-8 nights), Wroclaw (4 nights), Krakow (7-8 nights). At this point we are wanting to figure out the fly in/fly out part and then fill in the in between stuff. If I go with the most days above, it is 29 days and that is just a little over by a few days what we were thinking but oh well! We are already there! Haha!!
We are "carry on" people so this trip we were thinking of an apartment so we could do laundry. Not every town, just the longer stay ones would be good. Any thoughts on that? We have never rented an apartment, so this will be a first.

We went mid-September last year and lucked out on weather. We are looking at that again this year so those of you that have travelled in Poland and this range of towns (north to south), did you find the weather ok? (I know no one can predict the weather but thought I would ask).
Thanks again everyone and now to those wonderful trip reports!
Cindy

We went to Poland in September and temps were cooler than the averages you will see on your favorite weather app. COVID was still going rather strong, so we ate all our meals outdoors and needed to bundle up. I believe we had just one evening of rain and that was in Torun. Warsaw, I think because of all the concrete, etc. was fairly warm and Krakow was quite comfortable, likely because we went there first. So there is one datapoint for you.

I think your time proposals are reasonable. This is what I did in 2018 (without a car) as someone with an off-the-charts interest in WWII and Cold War history, a propensity to visit every art museum in every city, a reluctance to take any taxis and a love of walking from sight to sight even in large cities like Warsaw.

Warsaw: 10 nights, including a day trip to Treblinka (via RR and taxi). I read every word in English at the many WWII and Cold War sights. POLIN and the Warsaw Rising Museum are very large and potentially extremely time-consuming (as in full-day visits, or multiple long visits).

Plock: 3 nights

Torun: 4 nights (separate day trips to Chelmno and Bydgoszcz)

Gdansk: 9 nights with separate side trips to Oliwa, Gdynia and Sztutowo). I spent a full day at the Solidarity Museum and 20 hours at the WWII Museum.

Poznan: 2 nights

Wroclaw: 6 nights

Krakow: 10 nights, including separate daytrips to Auschwitz and Tarnow.

Perhaps the way I distributed my time will be a bit useful.

Not sure how I initially missed this topic but what a fun little puzzle you have Cindy! 4 weeks gives you enough time to beyond the main must sees in Poland. Most the cities and big towns are connected via public transportation, but for me the most rewarding travel in Poland has been in the Polish countryside where you feel like you are an adventurer exploring these amazing historical places and beautiful landscapes without really any foreign tourism, that's best done with a car, even if you rent it for just a few days.

I'd break down my recommended destinations like this, including the number of nights needed:

Must see main cities (train accessible)
Krakow (5)
Warsaw (4)
Gdańsk (4)
Wrocław (3)

Secondary towns and cities (train accessible)
Poznań (3)
Toruń (2)
Lublin (3)
Gniezno (2)
Katowice (3)

Polish countryside escapades (car recommended but not a must)
The Masurian Lakes District - area between Olsztyn and Ełk (4)

Polish Royal Renaissance Towns - Kazimierz Dolny, Sandomierz, Chełm, Zamosc etc (5)

Wild Baltic Coast - Gdynia, Hel, Słowiński National Park, Wolin National Park (3)

Sudeten Mountains - Kłodzko Valley, Polanica, Książ Castle, Świdnica, Stołowe National Park (4)

Tatra Mountains - Ustroń, Wisła, Zakopane, Tatra National Park (3)

Once you have seen the 4 must see cities you can start tacking on the extras like secondary cities or countryside escapade, until you get to 29 days. If anything peaks your interest let me know and I can add further context. Don't want to overwhelm with too much info initially :-)

Wow! I have gone from maybe we could fill some time in Poland to now how can we get it all in with a timeline we were thinking! Carlos: Your list is awesome as we do love checking out sights/towns that are not the normal route for a tourist. (I will definitely take you up on your offer to ask questions as we go along in planning; thank you) We now have our Poland map on the wall ready to start pinning our route. However, I see the first step for me is to learn how to pronounce the names! Yikes!
We would much prefer to train as much as possible so will figure that out as we plan.
I am very excited about this trip thanks to everyone that has replied.
Really appreciate it.
Cindy