Northern Poland self-drive
Northern Poland is flat, green, full of water and almost empty of visitors, and the roads through it are new.
The route.
Day by day.
Daylight is shown for a departure on 3 May, calculated for each day's own location. Ask us and we will run the figures for your dates.
The long street and the crane
Transfer in from the airport. No car today. The route book walks you down Długi Targ from the Golden Gate to the Green, out to the medieval crane on the waterfront, and into a milk bar for a first cheap lunch.
- Długi Targ, the merchant street end to end
- The Żuraw, the great medieval port crane
- St Mary's, the largest brick church in the world
- Amber workshops on Mariacka
Solidarity, and a pier
The European Solidarity Centre at the shipyard gate in the morning, which is one of the best museums in this part of Europe. Then the tram to Sopot, the longest wooden pier in Europe, and an afternoon by the sea.
Read the full day
The shipyard is where the strike of August 1980 started and where the Round Table talks of 1989 ended up leading. The museum is built into the gate itself, in weathered steel the colour of a hull. It takes two hours and most people come out quieter than they went in.
- The European Solidarity Centre at Gate No. 2
- The shipyard cranes, still standing
- Sopot's 511-metre wooden pier
- The Crooked House on Monte Cassino
Waterfront hotel, Gdańsk
Second night, same room.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
Malbork, then the lakes
The car is delivered after breakfast. An hour south-east to Malbork, three hours inside the largest brick castle on earth, then on into Masuria. About 280 km in all, most of it dual carriageway.
Read the full day
Malbork was begun in 1274 and grew into the headquarters of the Teutonic Order: three linked castles, twenty-one hectares, a refectory whose vaulting rests on a single palm pillar. The audio guide is genuinely good and takes about two and a half hours. Do not try to do it in one.
- The car delivered to your hotel door
- Malbork castle, UNESCO-listed and enormous
- The Grand Refectory and its single palm pillar
- Into the lake country before dinner
A day on the water
Out on the lakes: a small self-drive boat for half a day, no licence needed, with a marked route through the linked channels. Afternoon at the Wolf's Lair in the forest if you want the history, or a beach if you do not.
- Half a day on a self-drive boat through the linked lakes
- Storks on the chimneys of every second village
- The Wolf's Lair bunkers in the forest at Gierłoż
- Fish smoked at the jetty for dinner
Lakeside inn, Masuria
Second night on the lake.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
South to the capital
A straightforward 230 km south, with a stop in Treblinka if you choose to make it. Into Warsaw in the afternoon; the car goes back here, and you will not need it again.
- Empty roads south through Podlasie farmland
- Treblinka memorial, if you choose to stop
- Car collected at the Warsaw hotel
- First evening in the rebuilt old town
A city rebuilt from paintings
A full day on foot and by tram. The old town, rebuilt after 1945 partly from Bellotto's cityscapes. The Warsaw Rising Museum in the afternoon. Praga across the river in the evening, where the buildings are the ones that survived.
Read the full day
Eighty-five percent of central Warsaw was deliberately destroyed after the 1944 rising. What stands in the old town now was put back between 1949 and 1963, facade by facade, and UNESCO listed it in 1980 for the act of reconstruction rather than the age of the bricks. Praga, on the east bank, is the part the Germans never got to.
- The rebuilt old town and the Royal Castle
- The Warsaw Rising Museum
- Praga, the district that survived
- A Chopin recital in Łazienki park in summer
Grand hotel, Warsaw centre
Second night in Warsaw.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
One last museum, then out
A slow morning. POLIN, the museum of the history of Polish Jews, is the one to keep for last if you have any time at all. Transfer to Chopin airport, twenty minutes from the centre.
- POLIN, a thousand years in one building
- The ghetto wall fragments on Sienna
- Last hour in a milk bar
- Airport transfer, twenty minutes
Request your quote.
Tell us your dates and party size. We'll reply within one working day, with a private, fully-costed version of Northern Poland self-drive to follow within two.
within two working days
Prices shown in USD for reference. You're billed in EUR.
- Private trip: just your party, your pace
- Flexible dates, year-round departures
- No payment taken to enquire
- A $304 pp deposit holds your dates
- Protected under the EU Package Travel Directive
Priced by party size.
- Per person
- $1,346(≈ €1,150)
- Total for 2
- $2,691(≈ €2,300)
- Deposit to book
- $608(≈ €520)
- Balance, 21 days out
- $2,083(≈ €1,780)
Calculated from the same per-person rates as the table below. Final pricing is confirmed with your quote and moves with your dates, room choices and any day you change. Billed in EUR.
Per-person rates by party size
Prices shown in USD for reference. You're billed in EUR.
What's included.
- 6 nights in boutique hotels and a lakeside inn (twin or double)
- Compact automatic car, delivered and collected at your hotel
- Full insurance with zero excess, unlimited kilometres
- Motorway toll transponder
- Route book, offline maps and pre-loaded GPS waypoints
- Daily breakfast
- Airport transfer in Gdańsk on arrival and Warsaw on departure
- A local support number, 08:00 to 21:00, seven days
- International flights
- Fuel, parking and any traffic fines
- Lunches and dinners
- Travel insurance (mandatory; we can recommend providers)
- Castle and museum entry
