Gdańsk
Poland
A merchant city rebuilt brick by brick after being flattened, on the Baltic where the war started
Photo by Sebastian Huber on Unsplash
Photos by Krzysztof Kowalik, Giuseppe Gurrieri, Eduardo Casajús Gorostiaga and Lidia Stawinska on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Poland
May to September — the Baltic summer is short and the winters are long and grey
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 80mm in Jul
Where it is
54.35°N, 18.65°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk Długi Targ early, before the day trips from the cruise ships
- Give the Solidarity Centre two hours — it is one of the best museums in Europe
- Take the SKM to Sopot and walk the longest wooden pier on the Baltic
- Buy amber on Mariacka from a shop, not a stall
- Eat herring properly, with vodka, at lunchtime
Gdańsk travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Poland
Good valuePoland is not in the euro and shops that accept them do so badly — pay in złoty. Change at a kantor, never at the airport; the kantors in the old town post their rates in the window and are competitive.
ATMs & cards
PKO, Pekao, Santander and ING machines are the ones to use. Always refuse the conversion — Poland has a heavy Euronet presence and their rate is among the worst in Europe. Decline, take złoty, and let your own bank convert.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines around Długi Targ
Use these instead
- PKO
- Pekao
- Santander
- ING
Always refuse the conversion. Poland has one of the heaviest Euronet presences in Europe and their rate is among the worst.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Poland
Very safeVery safe and easy to walk at any hour. The old town is busy with stag groups on summer weekends, which is loud rather than threatening. The Baltic is cold enough year-round to matter and the beaches at Sopot fly flags for a reason. Taxis from the rank outside the station overcharge; use an app.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Sopot strip at night in summer — Monte Cassino street is where the drinking is, and it is loud more than anything else
- the beach at Stogi and Brzeźno after dark — empty, unlit and a long way from anything
- the Baltic in June — it is colder than the air by a long way and the shelves drop off suddenly
Very low crime, and a tourist centre that is small enough to walk end to end..
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Poland visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Poland
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for forest areas in the east and north-east
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Private clinics are inexpensive and much faster than the public queue for anything non-urgent.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodPierogi, obviously, but the Baltic ones are filled with fish as often as with cheese. Herring a dozen ways, żurek — a sour rye soup served in bread — and gołąbki. Goldwasser is a local liqueur with gold flakes in it and has been made here since 1598.
Nightlife
A rebuilt old town of cellar bars in winter and a beach resort next door that turns loud in summer.
- Długi Targ and the lanes off it — cellar bars under the merchant houses
- Monte Cassino, Sopot — the summer strip, ten minutes by train
- the Granary Island waterfront — newer, and where the city goes now
- Wrzeszcz — students, and the cheapest round in the city
Closing: Bars to 02:00 or later, clubs until five. The SKM train to Sopot runs through the night on weekends.
A beer in a bar: 15–22 zł
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- From the airport
- Kraków airport to the old town 50–70 zł; Warsaw Chopin to the centre 40–60 zł
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than a street taxi, and far cheaper than one waiting outside a station.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Warsaw — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Poland
Why these are Poland's numbers and not Gdańsk's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.7× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at about the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Gdańsk, so these are medians for all of Poland. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Poland, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Polish
- HelloDzień dobryjen DOH-bri
- PleaseProszęPRO-sheh
- Thank youDziękujęjen-KOO-yeh
- Yes / NoTak / Nietak / nyeh
4 more phrases
- Excuse mePrzepraszampsheh-PRA-sham
- How much is it?Ile to kosztuje?EE-leh to kosh-TOO-yeh
- The bill, pleaseRachunek, proszęra-HOO-nek
- Cheers!Na zdrowie!na ZDRO-vyeh
Religion
Catholic
One of the most observant countries in Europe, and it shows: churches are full, roadside shrines are everywhere, and religious holidays close everything. Dress modestly in churches.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say dzień dobry on entering shops
- Accept hospitality — refusing food or vodka repeatedly can offend
- Give flowers in odd numbers, and never chrysanthemums, which are for graves
- Dress respectfully at churches and memorial sites
Don't
- Do not say "Polish concentration camps" — they were German camps in occupied Poland, and the phrasing causes real offence
- Do not treat Auschwitz-Birkenau as a sightseeing stop; dress and behave as at a cemetery
- Do not mix vodka or drink it slowly in company; it is taken neat and together
- Do not be loud in churches, which remain in active use
Where to stay in Gdańsk
No Holistay rentals in Gdańsk yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Gdańsk on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Lech Wałęsa GDN
30 minfrom the airport· 12 km as the crow flies
30 min by train.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
