Lonely Planet Poland: Travel Survival Kit

by Krzysztof Dydynski

Written by a local author, this guide provides the information to make the most of a visit to Poland: background on history, culture and the arts; a Polish language section and glossary; details of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0864423551
• ISBN13: 9780864423559
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.0" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Without this book Poland wouldn't have been so much fun!

I'd wonder how much time and frustration it would take finding out all this in depth information about the country and it's attractions myself. Especially since we didn't know much about Poland in the first place. It was a true blessing having this book around, especially since many Poles at places you need it most often don't speak English or German. Only price information should need some adjustment (which might have something to do with EU membership related inflation?). I used the print which was updated in Jan 2005, but some prices already doubled!

Very good Poland travel book

I recently went to Poland for the first time and found this book to be an absoutely wonderful guide to Warsaw, Krakow, and the Auschwitz concentration camps. All too often guide books that cover an entire country lack the kind of detail a traveler needs, but this book did not suffer that problem at all. The section on Warsaw was actually better organized and contained more detailed factual information than the DK book dedicated solely to that city. This was the only book I needed to help me get around Krakow and Auschwitz as well. I can't speak for the hotel and restaurant recommendations in the book because I never used any of them, but as far as information about historical sites and points of interest this is an outstanding book. Update: In planning for my second trip to Poland, I recently purchased the Rough Guide to Poland, and I have to say it is even better than the Lonely Planet book because it includes quite a lot more detail. If you only buy one book, get the Rough Guide. But if you buy two, the Lonely Planet book is also very good.

-EXTREMELY HELPFUL-

Over the last several years eleven members of my family have made trips to Poland. Each time, we've visited a different part of the country. Our most recent trip was in April/May 2002. We all have several different travel books about Poland that we've purchased over the years. However, without consulting one another, three of us carried their copies of this book with them, and pulled them out when we met in Warsaw. We all agreed that this is the best book on traveling in Poland. As we toured through the country, we would read about the places that we would be visiting the next day. The book's information was always good and easy to locate. Even now that we've returned, we're still exchanging phone calls with advice to read a certain page in the LONELY PLANET- POLAND book for some information that we'll need for our next trip.This is the only book you'll need for seeing Poland. By the way, Poland is a wonderful place to visit with gracious people, historical buildings, great restaurants, beautiful cathedrals, and ancient cities with remarakable towns squares.

Even the Poles were Impressed

This book was my primary guide through Poland in January 2002 and was wonderfully up to the task. My personal bias tends to be in favor of Lonely Planet's level of detail and thorough research, but even my long-time Polish friends were amazed at its accuracy, comprehensiveness, and "insider information". When at a loss for places to eat in Warsaw or Krakow, this book provided a wealth of suggestions close to wherever we were at the moment. Some eating establishments and places of interest my friends had forgotten, but they later identified them as "must sees" once the guide brought them back to memory. One such restaurant was found in the back of a courtyard in Krakow which catered mainly to locals but served some of the most hearty, wonderful food I have had in some time. Finding housing in smaller Polish towns in winter can sometimes be a challenge, but I still found plenty of options in this guide. Thanks to this book, I ended up with a cozy private room with bath in the archdiocese of Lublin for $8 a night. Prices in the guide were still accurate and helped me gauge whether or not I was being charged the "tourist fare". Much of my travel involved visiting former concentration camps, and I found plenty of information here to guide me to my destinations. However, things can and have changed in the few years since the publication date (e.g. the Treblinka memorial is no longer accessible by bus from Malkinia). The good news is that Lonely Planet posts updates to their guide books on their website which you can print out and stick in your book. I submitted my own updates to them via email. You may well be able to get around Poland's major destinations sufficiently well with Lonely Planet's guide to Eastern Europe, but for longer jaunts through the country, you'll probably want this one with you.

If you go to Poland, buy this book!

I'm staying in Poland for three months and the Lonely Planet-book gives me so many suggestions of things to see that I will return in a short time to see more of the country because three months are not enough. It is my first Lonely Planet book, but I am sure I will buy more. The guide never disappointed me. There is information in it for all types of persons! Latest information can be found on Internet so your guide is always up-to-date. You just should buy one when going to Poland.