London to Poland by train

Wulge · 7 July 2015 at 9:37PM

Apologies if this is in the wrong sub-forum.

I'd like to go to Poland by train (the person I'm going with is afraid of flying, but I quite like the idea of going by train anyway), probably in the spring next year. I've never been abroad by train so wouldn't really know where to start. I was hoping someone here could help me in terms of the best route to take, the best companies to use, etc.

I'd like to go to Wroclaw as I have family from there and I guess also Warsaw and/or Kracow. I can provide any more information if needed.

Thanks.

dondo · 7 July 2015 at 10:19PM

Can't offer any direct advice but have heard good things about this website http://www.seat61.com/ as a good source of info

casepuma · 7 July 2015 at 10:25PM

I was just about to recommend seat61! A truly brilliant website with a section on Polish trains and all sorts of useful info. I used it last year to plan a train trip around Europe.

Cornucopia · 7 July 2015 at 10:28PM

Start at St Pancras in London.

Eurostar to Gare du Nord in Paris, and IIRC, the Warsaw trains also leave from there (so no need to go anywhere by Metro).

I once went from Gare du Nord to Berlin. Fantastic trip.

You should be able to get train info here:

http://uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/

PolishBigSpender · 8 July 2015 at 11:07AM

Unfortunately, many of the decent connections have now gone. But I can advise -

Eurostar from St Pancras International to Brussels-Midi. From there, I think there's a DB ICE to Cologne, where you can pick up the Polish sleeper train Jan Kiepura. Take that to either Warsaw or Poznań depending on where you wish to start.

Within Poland, only use trains belonging to PKP Intercity, and avoid "TLK" class trains. IC, EIP and Koleje Dużych Prędkości (literally High Speed Train) are fine.

When going from your local station, you want to buy a CIV ticket to London International. But I think your best bet would be to use an agency to book it all for you - I can highly recommend http://www.polrail.com - they will be able to make all the bookings for you and will guide you through the whole process.

Any questions, feel free to ask. Trains in Poland aren't that fast, but reliable and comfortable and aren't expensive.

Voyager2002 · 8 July 2015 at 1:23PM

Cornucopia wrote: »

Start at St Pancras in London.

Eurostar to Gare du Nord in Paris, and IIRC, the Warsaw trains also leave from there (so no need to go anywhere by Metro).

I once went from Gare du Nord to Berlin. Fantastic trip.

You should be able to get train info here:

http://uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/

If you can use the French language version of that site you will get much lower fares.

However, I suggest that you explore DB (German Railway) site and perhaps telephone their excellent London call-centre to see if they can offer any good fares.

PolishBigSpender · 8 July 2015 at 1:36PM

DB offer a thing called the "London-Spezial" which will get you from St Pancras International to Cologne for as little as 49 (or is it 59 now?) Euro.

There are other ways, of course - it is quite possible to obtain a ticket from St Pancras to Frankfurt (Oder) on the German/Polish border for instance by using day trains. I'd really recommend Polrail for the fact that they quite like this sort of thing - and they've always been excellent with me when booking quite esoteric train journeys.

Wulge · 8 July 2015 at 8:38PM

Thanks to all of you for the input - I'll check out all the options you've suggested.

PolishBigSpender, I assume that there's extra to pay for using Polrail? If so, how much?

London to Poland by train

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free