Driving from Prague to Krakow

I was looking for best routes, length, is it hard to rent a car to cross the border, is it difficult to get across the border. Any help would be great!

Lisa,

Go to www.viamichelin.com for driving directions and estimates of driving time.

Call Autoeurope.com for info about driving a rental into Poland. 1-888-223-5555

We found it was cheaper to hire a driver than rent a car - drop off charges were over $500. We used Mike's Chauffeurs in Prague. If I did it again I'd take the overnight train. Mike's was great and we stopped at Auschwitz on the way but the trip is long - we left Prague at 7:00 am (maybe 6:00 am??) and arrived in Krakow around 3:00 pm with an hour and a half stop at Auschwitz. I think we paid around $600 for the trip and this was last June.

Not sure how attached you are to the idea of driving, but you are looking at a big drop fee for renting the car and dropping it in a different country. You can get a flight on Polish Airlines for a reasonable price, probably less than what the drop fee would be.

So I drove that segment two years ago and here's what I can say. Driving the distance in Czech Rep. is a breeze, nice three lane highway and clear road ahead all the way to Poland. No problems there, just like driving across the USA. When you get into Poland then it becomes hairy. Poland's "highways" are actually just two lanes. One lane going one way, one lane going the other, and are a full passing zone free for all area. I would personally not recommend driving around in Poland as an American. Americans aren't ready for this type of crazy no rules driving and it would be quite honestly dangerous. I'd recommend flying or taking the train instead. If you choose to drive, exercise extreme caution, and rent a car with automatic transmission.