Looking at the RS trip to Poland. Right now, a simple travel question. Any thoughts on the best way of traveling to Gdańsk, the starting point for the tour? Would one fly from the US to Warsaw and then a connecting flight to a Gdańsk? Or fly to Warsaw and then take a train (or bus) to downtown Gdańsk? Or fly through another European gateway city (Frankfurt, Paris et al.) into Gdańsk?
Also, any experience with, thoughts on LOT? Good fares, premium economy right now.
Thanks in advance!
We’ve flown LOT from the States to Warsaw twice and the flights have been fine. Nice new planes. Fun to start your foreign trip before you’ve left the ground.
You could easily connect to Gdańsk through another European gateway city.
If you decide to take the train from Warsaw to Gdańsk, you’ll want to have a cushion of time in case your Transatlantic flight is late. We were once delayed 5 hours (not LOT). The transfer from the Warsaw airport to the main train station is easy. You have a number of options and the distance is short. If you have time to spare, you could spend the night in Warsaw and take the train to Gdańsk the next day.
If you don’t want to dawdle, I would fly directly to Gdańsk, but any of the options you have outlined would work.
I had been looking at flight itineraries for some time, and saw several options to Gdansk, connecting in Munich, Frankfurt (Lufthansa) or Amsterdam (KLM), ticketing through United or Delta, respectively.
We flew LOT to/from Warsaw once, on 787s direct from Chicago. It was as good as any major airline we've been on. The choice to me would be totally based on convenient scheduling.
My trip to Poland was in 2017. I flew int'l on El Al to Warsaw and connected to Lot to Gdansk - on separate tickets. I checked with El Al and found out that they would route my luggage to Gdansk and I got both boarding passes in Tel Aviv. Everything went very smoothly. I had a 2.5 hour layover and it only took me about 30-40 minutes to go through the Warsaw airport. The plane to Gdansk was a small prop jet, maybe 20-30 seat capacity. It was fine.
BTW I hope you're allowing for extra time in Gdansk before the tour. I loved it (on my own) for 4 nights and wished I'd had more time. I spent hours at the Solidarity Museum and didn't even get to the WWII museum.
I'm doing the RS Poland trip this September. I'm flying into Frankfurt and then use LOT to fly to Warsaw. I'm spending 2 nights in Warsaw to start my vaca. Then taking the train to Gdansk the day before the tour starts. After the tour, I spend 2 extra nights in Krakow and then use LOT to fly to Frankfurt. I'm very excited for this time in Poland! You should book it.
We did this tour in May ( 2023). We booked on United from our home airport ( PDX) to Gdańsk. We flew to SFO, then to Frankfurt, connecting to a flight operated by Lufthansa into Gdańsk. We got a taxi at the airport to take us to our hotel. Official taxi stand is to the right as you exit the airport. Just line up, they are regulated fares and you just wait a short while for your turn despite the long queue. Very efficient, very reliable. We stayed at the Hilton on the waterfront just around the corner from the Admiral where the tour begins. We tried to book two extra nights at the Admiral but got no response to our email requests. Both hotels are just fine in great location to the waterfront with lots of shopping and eating choices.
I cannot recommend this tour enough. It is a remarkable experience at a pivotal time in history.
I have done both international EWR-Warsaw-Gdansk on Lot in 2022 (one ticket) and a hopper Krakow to Warsaw in June this year and it was just fine. I would say take the best fare and time combination. As others have said, it is always a bit of a risk to buy separate tickets unless you plan to spend a day or two in your first city. If you end up flying in to Gdansk, I called Uber, just because it was easy.
And just because thinking about it still makes me smile, here’s from my trip report of that arrival: “Upon arrival I called Uber from the Gdansk airport. In 4 minutes, Andrei, in his blue Skoda, was there. He hopped out, popped my small bag in the car, a touch sternly said “ Sit down” ( meaning “get in”), and we were on our way to the old town. We sat in silence for about 10 minutes, Andrei with his earbuds in, till I couldn’t stand it any longer and said “This is my first time to Poland.” Andrei pulled his earbuds out and had me repeat.
Then he said he had small English, to which I replied I had no Polish - which made him ask where I was from. I replied “The U.S.” and his face lit up. He said “I love USA!” And while we didn’t win awards for language skills, Andrei talked (and I listened lol) the rest of the way. He is from Belarus, made sure I knew the geography (Poland, Belarus, Russia), pronounced Lukashenko crazy, then pronounced Putin crazy, and told me a couple of things about Gdansk I didn’t quite understand. 🤣 (about Danzig, I think)
At this point, we arrived at my apartment and he made me wait till he opened the door for me, offered his hand to help me out, and then carefully handed my bag to me. We both smiled and went our ways: an ending not at all the same as the beginning.”
TTM I love your story!
