Warsaw

Introduction

Warsaw Old Town side street

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On the banks of the River Vistula lies Poland's capital, Warsaw, a bustling metropolis with a population of around 3 million. Warsaw's Old Town (Stare Miasto), a UNESCO World Heritage site, was rebuilt to perfection after being flattened in the Second World War. It serves as a somewhat eerie reminder among the noticeably more modern buildings in the rest of city. Warsaw is a rapidly changing city, with an upwardly mobile population.

Neighbourhoods

• Centrum - Śródmieście, Wola, Mokotów, Żoliborz, Ochota, Praga Północ, and Praga Południe
• Northern Warsaw - Bielany and Białołęka
• Western Warsaw - Bemowo, Włochy and Ursus
• Eastern Warsaw - Targówek, Rembertów, Wawer, and Wesoła
• Southern Warsaw - Ursynów and Wilanów

Sights and Activities

Museums and Galleries

• The National Museum was founded in the 19th century to be primarily an art museum. There are over 780,000 pieces of art from several different periods of times and locations around the world.
• Zachęta National Gallery of Art is one of the best art galleries in Warsaw. There are several amazing paintings and works of art housed in the museum that are worth seeing.
• Centre for Contemporary Art
• Museum of Modern Art
• Polish Army Museum is one of the largest museums in Poland and has the largest collection of military objects found in Poland. It traces a thousand years of Polish military history from the 10th century to World War II.
• Warsaw Uprising Museum is a museum dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The museum has several artifacts and items that belonged to the people that organized the uprising. It also tells the history of what led up to the uprising, what happened during the uprising and what happened afterwards. One of the main missions of the museum is to collect the personal histories of people involved in the uprising that are still alive.
• Copper-Roof Palace is an 18th century palace that is now home to a nice collection of oriental carpets.
• Fryderyk Chopin Museum located in the rebuilt Ostrogski Castle this is a very nice home and museum to visit.
• Historical Museum of Warsaw
• Polish History Museum was established in 2006 to help promote education and the study of Polish history. There are also several scholarships meant for foreigners interested in studying more about Polish history.
• Museum of Independence
• Museum of the History of Polish Jews traces the thousand-year-history of Jews in Poland using multimedia and interactive exhibits.
• Museum of Sports and Tourism has collections of sports memorabilia ranging from uniforms to medals.

Other Sights and Activities

• Royal Castle was the home of the Polish kings for many generations. The castle was completely destroyed by the Germans in World War II and was not reconstructed until the 1970s. Today the castle has been restored using much of the original stones and a nice place to visit.
• Great Theater and Polish National Opera was built in 1833 and has been remodeled several times. During the battle of Warsaw in 1939 the building was completely destroyed except for the façade. It was rebuilt from 1945 to 1965. Today it houses many great performances every year.
• Palace of Culture and Science is the tallest building in Warsaw and very impressive.

Events and Festivals

Weather

Straddling the Vistula River Warsaw is located in the heart of the Masovian Plain giving the city an altitude of only 100 metres (330 feet). This gives the city a continental humid climate. In January the average temperature is -2 °C (just above zero during the day and around -4 °C at night) and during July it is 18 °C, however sometimes it can get up to 30 °C during the summer and average daytime temperatures are nice with around 24 °C from June to August. The yearly rainfall is around 680 mm (26.8 inch) with most of the rain falling during the months of June and July, though usually in the form of some heavy showers. Winters are driest, with some snow possible.

Getting There

By Plane

1. LOT Polish Airlines is the national airline of the country and is based at Warsaw Frédéric Chopin Airport (WAW), formally Okęcie International Airport, located in the Okęcie district of Warsaw and the main international and domestic airport in Poland. Several other airlines serve Warsaw and Norwegian Air Shuttle uses the city as a focus place throughout Europe. Other low cost airlines are SkyEurope (to Vienna) and Wizzair (about a dozen places in west of Europe).
The airport has connections to most European cities and few other cities outside of Europe with the most common international flights being London, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam. Some other main cities served include Moscow, Rome, Dublin, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Reykjavik, Barcelona, Chicago, Istanbul, Madrid, Milan, New York, Toronto and Lisbon. A few summer charter flights exist as well, mainly to destinations in southern Europe.

To/from the airport
Buses 175 and 188 run all day from the city centre while bus N32 runs during the night for a reasonable price. There is also a train station under Terminal 2 in the airport that has connections to the Warszawa Śródmieście Station. There is also an additional line 148 that provides access to Ursynów (a southern part of Warsaw) and Praga (an eastern part of Warsaw). The fare is PLN 2.8 one-way for all the lines (day and night). Taxis and rental cars are available at the airport as well.

2. Warsaw Modlin Airport is an airport which is currently transformed from disused militairy airport into an airport for budget airlines, especially aiming for the expected crowds at the UEFA 2012 European Championships. Ryanair will fly to/from Budapest, but the bulk of flights will be operated by Wizzair, flying to/from Barcelona, Brussels, Cork, Sheffield, Eindhoven, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Liverpool, London, Madrid, Malmö, Milan, Paris, Rome, Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm and seasonal flights to/from Burgas.

To/from the airport
A new 5-kilometre-long rail spur branching off from the existing Warsaw-Gdansk line will be built with an underground station at the airport, providing a 30-minute trip to Warsaw's centre.

By Train

Warszawa Śródmieście Station is the main train station in the city centre. It is on the main west-east corridor between the Netherlands and Moscow. There are numerous domestic services as well as regular trains to Berlin and Minsk. One train per day runs to Kaunas and Vilnius in Lithuania, with a change of trains at the border.

By Car

Four European "E-roads" lead to Warsaw: E30 (A2), E77 (7),  E67 (A8), and E372 (17). Between brackets are the road numbers of Poland. From Warsaw, it's 390 kilometres to Gdańsk 390 km, 290 kilometres to Kraków, 310 kilometres to Poznań, 570 kilometres to Berlin and 700 kilometres to Budapest.

By Bus

There are many bus services throughout Poland, for example to Gdansk (7 hours) and Krakow (8 hours).
PKS Warszawa has similar routes.

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

It might be a good idea to buy a public transport travelcard, available for 24 hours, 3 days or a week. You can buy them at the Warsaw Transport Authority.

Metro
Warsaw's Metro System is one of the newest underground railway systems in Europe and opened in 1995. The system currently consists of only one line, which was designed to carry commuters from the new districts at the northern and southern outskirts into the city centre. As a result, the subway does not go to many tourist destinations, however several stations will take you in a general vicinity of some attractions. A second route is planned, which is supposed to link the center with the right bank of the river Vistula with a segment containing 7 stations now expected to be completed in 2013 at the earliest. It operates at 3 to 10-minute intervals, mostly until midnight or 1:00am, until 3:00am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Bus
Bus lines 100 and 180 are the best ones of travellers. Number 100 makes a route that links some of the most interesting tourist attractions while number 180 is the Warsaw Sightseeing Route between the Powązki Cemetery and Wilanów.

Tram
There are a number of tram routes and the special Route T which can be of particular interest to travellers, though they are not faster or better.

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

• University of Warsaw
• Warsaw University of Technology
• Warsaw School of Economics
• Warsaw University of Life Science
• Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw
• Medical University of Warsaw
• National Defence University in Warsaw

Keep Connected

Internet

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Post

Poczta Polska is the Polish public post service. Post offices are generally open from 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday. Some offices are open on Saturday until 2:00pm and the main post offices in major cities are open daily, 24 hours.
Services are generally ok, but don't expact it to be fast and it is not always reliable, though most letters, postcards and parcels will arrive at its destinations after a week or two. You can find the red post boxes dotted throughout the country. You can check this postal website to see how much sending a letter, postcard or parcels costs, both domestically as well as internationally.