UK, Ireland / Calling all Brits! Travel in England advice [32]

Within 2 hours of London (by train) there are a few coastal towns, within 4-5 hours there are loads as well as the Lake District and Southern Scotland, so if you're fine with that sort of travel that opens up the whole country.

As you're coming in the summer I'd be tempted to say, set aside a couple of days and visit Cornwall, or possibly the Lake District, both offer plenty of outdoors type activities such as boating, walking, climbing, kayaking etc. and the scenery is good too!

UK, Ireland / Calling all Brits! Travel in England advice [32]

It really depends how far you want to travel, here are a few suggestions:

Brighton (a town on the South coast, some nice bits, about 90 minutes by train from Central London)
Windsor (a town on the Thames, south west of London, about an hour out of Waterloo)
Poole (about 2-3 hours by train, again from Waterloo, but a nice coastal town, prettier than Brighton, also much quieter)

If you want to go further then some places worth looking into are:

Devon
Cornwall
The Lake District
The Cotswolds
Scotland
Wales

There are some quite big areas there, sorry for being so vague, it really depends how far you want to travel and what you want to see!

Most people from the UK have no problem with being described as Brits, the occasional nationalistic individual prefers to be referred to as English/Scottish/Welsh or Northern Irish, but most people are fine with being a Brit!

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

Also when the Warsaw to Gdansk section is complete..the overall saving in journey time is huge (in theory)!

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

Well the rail plans seem Warsaw centric and the motorway infrastructure is better than Krakow (which is basically what I'm comparing it to), but to be fair I was just assuming money is spent on Warsaw infrastructure rather than the rest of the country!

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

To be fair the road network needs work too, so its probably not right to focus on one or the other, they both need work!

Like the UK though I guess, the capital always gets the most attention, with the rest being neglected.

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

Well even modernising the old lines is a big step!

It amused me last week as we took some English friends of ours to Zakopane (via Krakow) and they couldn't understand how the bus could possibly be quicker than the train :-)

Travel / Where is the best place to snowboard in Poland? [8]

That's tricky at the peak times though as everywhere gets booked up quickly, not to mention the flight costs etc. which shoot up!

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

But aren't they building one, isn't that the whole point?

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

Does anyone have any updates on the high speed rail at all?

I saw this article last year:

thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/144058,Highspeed-Pendolino-train-arrives-in-Poland

Which (along with a couple of other newspapers) suggests that the line may be up and running by the end of this year...but its not specific as to which section(s)!

UK, Ireland / What's the best Polish restaurant in London? [26]

Sorry!!! I actually meant Patio not Tatra!

Patio is where we had our engagement drinks, Tatra is nearby and whilst nice, with some excellent self infused vodka I didn't think the food was as good as Patio.

UK, Ireland / What's the best Polish restaurant in London? [26]

Tatra (Goldhawk Road, Sherpherds Bush)- Great value, pretty consistently good, we had our engagement drinks there downstairs and they did a really impressive buffet for everyone.

Daquise (Thurloe Street, Kensington)- Generally good, but inconsistent, sometimes the food just seems to taste better than other times. They do takeaway which is great in theory, but it doesn't seem to travel well (but then that's not really their fault, as the food is meant to be eaten when served obviously). We go there every few months and have had no real complaints to be honest, a bit more expensive than Tatra and busier too, so you do need to book at peak times, most other times you should be fine.

Ognisko (Exhibition Road, Kensington)- Wow, excellent....but you pay for it and we went just after the refurb when the menu was still half price!!!

Polish Centre (King Street, Ravenscourt Park)- There are 3 restaurants in here, well one café on the ground floor which is pretty basic (nice enough, but not much choice), one canteen style place on the top floor, which is very good value and I think a better selection than the café downstairs (a much better drinks selection too). The restaurant however on the first or second floor is pretty nice, I've only been once, but I remember being quite impressed. Its priced similarly to Daquise and is pretty decent.

Travel / Ryanair cut charges. Poles to take advantage? [20]


Generally that's true, although I've had priority before and the second bus somehow opened its doors before ours!!!

Travel / Which parts of Poland are more beautifull? (North, South, East, West or center) [13]

I massively prefer Krakow!

Travel / Which parts of Poland are more beautifull? (North, South, East, West or center) [13]

So far I've been to Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow and a number of other smaller towns in the South. So far Krakow is the prettiest large city, then Gdasnk, then Warsaw...but I have a lot more to see! I've been to Hel (which is nice, but very small), but never Sopot, Gdynia or Mazury, so I have plenty more to see in the north! I'm off to Zakopane for the first time this winter and hopefully will get to see some of the southern lakes and dunajec river next summer!

So in short, for me, the south...so far, but I will definitely be visiting other places in the north too!

As for Warsaw, I wasn't overly impressed, more flights go there from the UK, which is handy and it seems very lively at night, but not a very pretty city!

Travel / How does wizz air compare with ryanair? [32]

On some routes they charge for hand luggage, so watch out for that, but when we've flown with them we've had no problems (other than the fact they don't fly from London to Krakow)!

Travel / Southern Lakes in the South of Poland for sailing / boating [22]

Yep, I have the RYA Intermediate Powerboat and Dayskipper (sail) certificates, but I have no problem doing another course if required!

Yeah a bit late for this year, but am keen to finally work out where to go for next year as it didn't quite happen this year!!!

Travel / Southern Lakes in the South of Poland for sailing / boating [22]

I have a 'licence' in the UK, I'd be happy to do the qualification in Poland too if mine wouldn't be accepted, its more about finding somewhere to go for weekends in the summer, that's not too far from Krakow.

Would ideally like to get a small powerboat and maybe something like a hoibie cat or laser and sail some weekends, power other times.

Roznow looks interesting from the powerboating point of view as I believe you can even go down the Dunajec river (to a point), Czorsztyn looks like the best for sailing. Zywiec is interesting too, but I'm told it gets very croweded in the summer!

Real Estate / Help to buy a flat - for Poland's first time buyers [11]

That is interesting!

Do you have the (presumably Polish) source for that, would like to find out more details!

Real Estate / Help to buy a flat - for Poland's first time buyers [11]

I've not seen anything about assistance, however I believe there are new government guidelines coming in to enforce what I believe most banks have already voluntarily implemented anyway, e.g.

-No foreign currency mortgages
-Max tenor of 35 years (with the majority being 25 years or less)
-Min deposits required

I read this in an FT article, but it was a bit unclear as it suggested a min deposit of 5-10%, but then a max LTV of 85%, which sort of doesn't add up!

Travel / Jezioro Roznowskie [3]

I do indeed! Thank you, I will take a look at those links right now!

Does anyone know where to get buses from? Can't seem to find any timetables, which makes me think its probably the mini buses that are round the back of the Galeria, but I can't seem to find any information out!!!

Travel / The Magnificent Beauty of Nature's Landscapes in Poland [44]

If you could live anywhere in Poland where would it be?

I am trying to find somewhere with a lake that actually allows speedboats in the South, which appears to be easier said than done!

But that aside, the pictures on here are amazing, so where would you live and why?

Travel / Southern Lakes in the South of Poland for sailing / boating [22]

I've been looking at Czorsztyn lake, which seems to be a pretty good location and great scenery, but I'm a bit confused by the speed limits!

I've seen videos of plenty of people waterskiing on youtube, but somewhere I (thought I) read that there was a speed limit in place, which would presumably stop water skiing.

It may be that I didn't translate very well and misunderstood the speed limits, but does anyone know if there is a speed limit in place for powerboats and/or can you get a permit to exceed it?

Or am I completely misunderstanding and its just the case that certain engine types are not allowed!

Has anyone by chance been there over the summer and sailed/powerboated there?

Also, I believe there are no restrictions on Lake Róznów, but can anyone clarify this?

Travel / Just visited Poland - here is my random rant [154]

That actually sounds quite fair, but it should be x years or x zloty...if someone ends up being an Investment banker in Warsaw and pays it off in year 1 then they shouldn't be forced to stay for x more years if they're already paid their tax bill in effect!

Travel / Just visited Poland - here is my random rant [154]

Possibly the worst customer service (other than airlines) I've ever experienced is in (and around) Krakow! I'm amazed some businesses actually manage to stay open they way they treat customers!!!

Law / Getting married in Poland (documentation, church) [42]

We're getting married in just under 2 months now in Poland, however we opted for a civil ceremony rather than a church one....believe me however that doesn't make it simple!

We went to the registrar in Poland and they told us we needed a certificate of no impediment that must be dated no more than 6 months before the day of the wedding, they also told us it would not be a problem booking a registrar for the ceremony...

In the UK we got the certificate of no impediment displayed in the town hall of the borough I was born in...that had to stay up for 21 days, upon which it was signed and we collected it.

We flew back to Poland the next day (i.e. 6 months less 1 day) and virtually all the slots had gone already!!! Luckily we managed to persuade them to do an extra slot, but we had to wait quite a while and a lot of phone calls were made!

In short...its massively bureaucratic and from what people told me, more work than doing the religious route!

That said it does mean you can pick from a different set of venues, so it really depends on what you like...also it means you don't have to take religious vows if you don't believe in them (of course if you do it makes sense to have a church wedding anyway).

Hopefully that helps you a bit!