Good Places to Live in Warsaw

Hi All,

Is there anything like a good or bad neighbourhood in Warsaw. Moving there for the first time with wife and need some pointers. I had some bad experience in US, so being extra careful

I will be working out of some place close to Swietokryzka.

Please suggest affordable acco for 2 in the vicinity

Cheers,
Maddu
PS: Post not meant to offend anybody

Ask Harry, he is a member on the forum and lives in Warsaw.

We are living in Bielany.... 50 metres from a a metro station. Bielany is basically a bluecollar area (I think). But safe and green.
No expats here. For that you would need Mokotów I guess. Or Wilanów.
I would stay away from Praga though....

I'll also move to Warsaw after 3-4 months. My office will be around Domaniewska. I started to look for some apartments from internet. Suggestions about safe, easy-to-travel (to Domaniewska) and cheap areas will be highly appreciated.

I myself am not so familiar with Warszawa public transportation yet but I suggest you to try find an apartement within a walking distance from your office OR to find an apartement close to metro anywhere in Warszawa. Both will bring you close to Domaniewska in decent time no matter the horrible traffic plus you'll avoid buying/renting a car.

It just might be wise idea to pay a little more for a location to avoid the jams.

but domaniewska isn't necessary so close from metro station... keep in mind - it is quite long street... I haven't check that and had quite long walk one day to reach my destination... :D

This is so true concerning how lenghty Domaniewska actually is. Heading from M-Wilanowska you might need a bicycle/taxi to reach most adressess at Domaniewska.

In Warszawa just everything seems to be located a taxi ride away.

As I said, I'm not too familiar with the Wawa Transportation System yet, but in case you are really relocating to Wawa and looking for an affordable place to stay in, I still suggest you to either choose the walking-to work -option OR to choose a home close to Metro. In case you are capable to ride a bike and have some "adventourism" in your heart, so try it.

I have no idea if they allow you to take yor bike indoors in M during the rush hours but what the heck: you can always have two ugly discoloured unattractive rusty bikes at both ends of the M-line locked with chains just as people do in every other European cities.

I stayed in a good hotel in the centre. I can imagine the rent being sky-high tho. Better avoided!!

Yes you can take a bike in the metro at anytime.

I live in Ochota and it's quite good and not that expensive. No metro but enough bus and trams to move around.

As far as I know the worst part is Praga (specially the bad Praga, further away from the river) and Ursus some years ago, but now Ursus is not so bad it seems.

Actually I find the public transport system in Warsaw very good. Wherever you need to go, you never need more than two connections to get there.

That said, in the city centre I would stick to trams or the metro. Buses get stuck in the rush hour traffic.
Praga is in many ways (despite all these websites which describe it as a cool place) a no-go area, except for Saska Kępa of course.

No, we live in Bielany and we like it there. No fashionable restaurants or pubs... not prominent in any place-to-be guide.
It is just a safe place to live, close to the city centre and with normal people around.

compared to american cities warsaw is extremely safe. i have been here for almost 2 years feel free to ask me questions. here is the link for the public transit you can find maps on there

ztm.waw.pl/schematy.php

much of where you live depends on your taste and demands. i live in wola and like it very much

Does a rent of 2500 PLN check out fine for a furnished studio near MARSZALKOWSKA check out fine? or is it too expensive?

depends on the size of the flat and condition. but since that is in centrum thats not so far off probably. i prefer to live a bit outside centrum myself. more peace and quiet

Studio meaning one room (i.e. combined living/bed room)? If so, it is way too expensive. A friend of mine rents a 45-metre, newly-renovated two-room apartment on the corner of Jana Pawla and Solidarnosci (i.e. three tram stops north of central station and two tram stops west of old town) for 1900zl plus electricity and phone/internet. That's maybe 100 below market rate. Another friend rents 40m in decent condition just round the corner on ul Chodna for 1700zl.

Another friend rents a 30-metre, recently-renovated one-room apartment just off plac Zbawiciela (south end of Marszalkowska, close to plac Konstytycji, a superb location) for 1600zl per month plus electricity and phone/internet. The same money would get you a 45 metre place in fairly good condition in near Wola (about 15 minutes by tram from the centre).

Personally if I was going to be working on or close to Swietokryzka, I'd be looking at Muranow. That's a superb neighbourhood but cheaper than Zoliborz or Mokotow and about the same as the trendy parts of Praga, although its closer to the centre than all those places. There are two north/south tram lines plus one east/west and access to the metro line. No further south than Grzybowska (too close to the central station means too many drunks), no further north than Pawia (the housing turns into 1960s' concrete slab rubbish), no further east than Marszalkowska (nice but gets more pricy that direction) and no further west than Zelazna (certainly no further west than Okopowo, that's about as far as I'd want to travel). For Domaniewska I'd be thinking of either Stare Mokotow (but that would mean relying mainly on buses) or Muranow and using Metro Ratusz.

Good places to look for apartments are oferty.net and domiporta.pl. Both are in Polish but have fairly good search engines and lots of offers. Some words of advice: check them both twice a day and call as soon as anything you like the sound of is listed, view those as soon as possible, be very nice, look presentable/respectable and make sure you take enough cash for the first month's rent and the deposit (i.e. another month's rent) with you, if you like the place offer cash immediately (be prepared to settle for a hand-written receipt for the cash until a contract is drawn up, get them to handwrite it & make sure their ID card number is on the receipt). Good properties do not stay on the market for long but cr@p hangs around for ages because the landlords are too stupid to drop the price to market levels.

good advice harry. I live in Kolo, wola and pay 1300 for 54sq metre flat overlooking the park. its well worth it to look around. gumtree is a good one also

Thank you Harry, Really good advice.

wow Harry,
that's some research u have there... thanks a ton!!
only issue with the sites you mention is that none of them open in English... gumtree included...any suggestions to circumvent that?
i am mainly picking up from craigslist.com and expatriates.com

jezykownia.pl

With oferty.net, click on "Mieszkania" on the first page.
On the search engine page enter the following:
Województwo Gminy / Dzielnice "mazowieckie"
Powiat / Miasto "Warszawa"
wszystkie = your choice of neighbourhood ("Śródmieście" = central Warsaw)
Rodzaj transakcji "wynajem" (type of transaction "rental")
Powierzchnia mieszkania od do (size of apartment, in square metres, from to )
Cena mieszkania od do PLN (price of apartment, in PLN, from to )
Liczba pokoi od do (number of rooms, from to )
Filtruj wg daty ciągu 7 dni w ciągu 30 dni zaktualizowane (filter by date advert was placed, within 7 days or within 30 days)

You can use this auto-translation page to get some idea of what the ad says: translatica.pl

I still think Bielany is a great place to live.
- Very green
- Metro line connects you to the centre
- All necessary shops nearby
- Still an ordinary area, not snobbish
- Safe

We live in an ordinary "kamienica', not guarded, with typical graffiti on the walls (would never make it into any expat magazine) but the place is OK, we have nice non-expat neighbours...Just your average Jan Kowalski...

That said and done, I will be happy to move to £omianki, once our house is finished..
Will be nice to lit the bbq after work - and being only 12 km from Plac Wilsona.