Lonely Planet Poland

by Lonely Planet, Neil Wilson, Neal Bedford

Discover PolandDescend to the Dragon's Den beneath the grandeur of Krakow's Wawel CastleEnjoy guilt-free calories eating Pope John Paul II's favorite cream cakeLearn how to determine real amber from fake with a cigarette lighter

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Poland, Guidebook

564 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

OUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.

Reviews

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trips I have taken this book on:
June 2019 - Warsaw

As with every Lonely Planet country guide, this is a wonderful choice for any traveller. There is a wealth of information here on many places throughout Poland, as well as a lot of practicalities for travelling in the country too. I found it accessible, and so well set out.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

We actually only used one small section of this book, the part on Zakopane and a little bit on Krakow. When it says to use the bus between Krakow and Zakopane instead of the train, heed that advice! We did not at first and had a long, hot afternoon on a train system that hasn't been updated since before the Cold War. In that part of Poland, the roads are newer and more direct and by bus the trip is 2 hours; by train it's 4 hours.

[Yaotl Altan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lonely Planet published this book, which was very useful during my vacations in Poland last year.

"Poland" is a 456 pages guide that describes the best places to visit in that country and how to get to them. It's not the typical laconic guide, but a very detail-oriented book with historic and art texts for all those marvelous museums, restaurants and towns.

I liked Kraków's (Cracovia in Spanish) tram and train systems s a lot, because they are clean and punctual, Oh! And don't forget to read those entries on gastronomy if you want to try Zurek, the most magnificent hot soup with that poetic floating egg inside it!

Warszawa (Warsaw in English), the capital city offers a lot of attractions. It was great to check the accuracy of this guide while walking in the musems zone because the main sites are easily located. I enjoyed a lot my visit to the Muzeum Fryderyka Chopin (Frédéric Chopin Museum) and to the Centrum Nauki Kopernik (Copernicus Science Centre), with many exhibits for kids too.

Don't miss Szczawnica (shab-neet-za), which is a beautiful mountain town close to the Slovakian border. Ypu can hike in the forest or warm your legs if you prefer the bike. Unfortunately, there was no snow in April, so I couldn't ski, but the guide was a great help again to find more sights and activities.

You can go to the Baltic sea beaches, the Ukraine, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad or Germany by train, the best way to move in Poland.

This 7th edition was written by Tim Richards, Mark Baker and Marc di Duca and published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd in April 2012.

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Esta guía me fue extremadamente útil durante el viaje que hice a Polonia 🇵🇱. Pude conocer varios de los museos y sitios de interés que hay en Varsovia, Cracovia, Szczawnica y Auschwitz.

Los mapas son precisos, como también lo es la información sobre el transporte local. Es muy recomendable leerlo antes de viajar para tener cierta familiaridad con el lugar.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My copy of 'Lonely Planet Poland' is the 8th edition, published 2016, so it is as up to date for my trip as I'm going to get. Most of this book has been perused and not read cover to cover as I am only visiting Krakow, but what I have studied is most informative and comprehensive. Plus the guide comes with a fold out map of Krakow, so for me that is a bonus.
I have also looked at D.K.'s book on Poland and comparing the two I would say both are adequate to provide help and inspiration to the traveller to this beautiful country.

[H M Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provided great background for me when I went on a trip to Poland with friends in the summer about three years ago.

Although our itinerary had already been researched by someone else, I still found it a useful book for exploring culinary choices and it was handy for recommendations of restaurants in Zakopane where we were staying.

Enjoy reading these books before a trip as they give an enticing flavour of a country which gets you excited about going there.

[Martin Witchard]

I think I have every country guide for my trip to Europe later this year. Poland was the last mainly because I had downloaded the relevant sections of the guide. However, I wanted tot know more about the country that gave rise to notables such as Chopin, Curie and Copernicus. Alas, I won't have time to visit Torun where the eminent astronomer was born and whose name has been recently given to element 112 (Copernicium) of the periodic table.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My travel bibles...I never go anywhere without them. The Poland volume is one of the best...I wore it to the bone on my 2009 trip with my mother. It never failed us, and this one in particular was full of beneficial advice and spot-on accuracy.

[Bartolocr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy completo, con mapas y bonitas fotos.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the authors is distinctly funnier than the other two.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

🖋️ Useful and entertaining with colorful photographs and suitable charts. The author misses a lot with explaining and describing the culture, but if you travel to Łódź, you will learn what was missed in this book. Also, this was published in 1993, and there are vast updates that are needed to be made in this guide to bring it to the current time. I like that this guide is organized by region and city.

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🔲 Excerpts of note:

🔹 Łódź Pop 706,000 Poland's third-largest city grew fabulously wealthy in the 19th century on the backs of its massive textile mills – and on the labour of the thousands of workers who toiled inside them.

🔸Before WWII, Łódź was Poland's second-largest Jewish city, after Warsaw, with a community numbering some 230,000.

🔹Chleb (bread) has always meant more than sustenance to Poles. It’s a symbol of good fortune and is sacred to many; some older people kiss a piece of bread if they drop it on the ground.

🔸Teatr Wielki OPERA (Grand Theatre . . . www.operalodz.com; Plac Dąbrowskiego; . . . The city's main venue for opera and ballet also stages festival events and touring shows.

●▬●🔷●🔷●▬●

[Trashed Panda Brew Co · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read on a lazy Sunday afternoon after booking a trip to Krakow for Christmas ....

I sometimes find some of these guides a little lacking but this one is about as comprehensive as they come with lots of food for thought.

[Laurie Sand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved having this guidebook downloaded on my phone during my recent trip to Poland. The sightseeing suggestions for specific cities were helpful and up-to-date.

[Liz C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good guide book but coronavirus has put paid to my travels.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent guide to Poland.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful with great maps and tips about transportation and accommodations.

[Niccolò Petrilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultima edizione molto molto datata..da aggiornare urgentemente.

[Joel Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough

[Kei · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book that's highly informative and useful. Definitely a great resource to help plan my road trip to the country.

[E G Melby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Research is starting

[Leniwa Wenus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find Lonely Planet guides on Eastern Europe very subjective and often neglecting or commenting smugly on the cultural differences. For example, they often use expressions like "this place can never be beautiful" or "their cuisine is a not the healthiest one as they eat a lot of pork" and alike completely missing the point that beauty (and other things) are in the eye of the beholder and societies beyond the english-speaking world were not created to satisfy that world.
The guide on Poland was disappointing as it did include all the familiar stereotypes and quite a few dismissive comments about architecture, culture, cuisine and such.

[Lord Beardsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never can go wrong with a Lonely Planet book!

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice guide to Poland. Good general information. I used the guide to find restaurants and shopping locations to bookmark in Yelp for my trip.

[Miriam Chiovetta]

Need more days !!!