How Safe Are the Polish Cities?

Don't you think this is the sign the Polish police does something to even more increase the safety?

Polish cities are safe! I live in Wroclaw and never felt uneasy walking in the evening not to mention day time. We have wonderful transportation system and great planning makes it very walkable. People are literally everywhere, walking, biking, rushing from place to place. I love the fact that it is so urban and culture oriented. Many beautiful parks, bike paths, sport complexes, cinemas, shopping center, restaurants, night clubs !

Even the roughest areas of the city can't be compared to American unsafe neighborhoods aka "ghettos". You can look for such a "war zones" in Poland but the true is you will never find it. I'm proud of my beautiful country! and one more think.. you can't just walk into a gun store and get armed as it is in USA!

Check Gdynia, Gdnask, Sopot aka Trojmiasto... wonderful as well. Don't forget Cracow.. the list can go on...

As for the cars and apartments.. don't live them open. Use common sense as you would in any big city. It would be a challenge to find such a paradise where there is no theft at all. Let's be realistic and focus on real danger like violent crime, rapes, murders etc. Overall Polish cities are very safe compare to Western Europe or US.

I agree.I have been living/visiting Poland for last 12 years now never had a problem once! even drove all around poland never a problem and dont speak Polish either and nowhere look like one also and drive cars with foreign plates.Poland is very safe and in my opinion safer then New York.If you want to flash then you are vulnerable in any city of the world.Generally Poland is very safe and lol in my opinion so are polish criminals:)I have seen shoplifters being confronted by security guards and they wait for the police uncuffed patiently and then also police will walk with them to the car.AMAZING! let a criminal/shoplifter wait for police in States,ha ha ha he will punch you and be gone b4 you can blink!POLAND IS SAFE.

You are comparing the whole Poland with a city, New York. Why don't you compare a city with a city. Besides, you're off topic because we aren't talking about American cities here.

Maybe we aren't talking about American cities here but to properly evaluate the situation it is always good to provide some comparison based on the experience. I didn't realize how safe is our country before having the opportunity to live in the States for a few years. I'm glad I did so now I can appreciate Poland even more.

I visited Poland also. And I would still feel safer in American cities

Polish cities are much safer than American ones

I saw an interview last week with an Afro American who said that he would feel safer walking around a KKK rally with a rope around his neck than he would feel going to his local store after dark

So, that's his opinion. Doesn't mean everyone thinks that. It depends what cities you talking about in the US, and which ones in Poland.

So why hand over your money?

It might be a complaint about the ticket price

i have been to poland 3 times, twice to krakow travelling as a single female. knowing i would be on my own i just took precautions. i never travel looking as if i have money(i havent anyway).just wore jeans and t shirts, no jewellery etc,then you dont stand out from the crowd.krakow has a very high police presence anyway...they are everywhere! only time i felt slightly apprehensive was when i decided to walk from kazimierz to see oskar shindlers factory. the area is industrial and i had to walk through an underpass..lets just say area wasnt the best, and it was late afternoon. however no problems! last time i was in krakow someone tried to take my cigarettes from the table i was sitting at, but i managed to snatch them back. police turned up in a couple of minutes because he started harrassing other customers. i would say krakow seems to be pretty safe, but obviously you could just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. only word of advice i would give to anyone travelling, is to repect the fact that you are not in your own country and dont behave like an idiot in somone elses.

Merged: Is it safe to stay in Poland now?

Hi all,

I am Indian(an HINdu by religion) and will be coming to Warsaw for Studies this Month. Lately I heard about lot of protests against the Immigrants from Syria in Warsaw. I wonder if its safe to be there , my skin color(Tan skin) matches with syrian people :P. Please don't be rude!

What you expect? Assurance. Yes it is safe. No it isn't safe. Probably it is safe in the daylight as was three months ago.

No one can guarantee the safety of another individual, whether they are Polish, German, Swedish or from any other country. people get killed, have fatal accidents, get attacked. This happens to all people, of all colours, all religions, in all the countries in the world.

@Terri: of course! :). I have personally lived (not on vacation ;)) in 7 different countries and the only place where I was a victim of violence was in ... Centrum Warsaw. Some 4 or 5 years ago, on a bus at 3 pm (in August so full daylight), I had my necklace snatched from me. According to the (Warsaw) police, it happens often. I know someone who had her ring removed from her finger while on the bus again in Warsaw; she was on the phone so she did not realize it. When very young, I walked through American ghettos and in the ... Bronx several times and nothing ;).

What I'm saying is that anything can happen even in Poland and no one can guarantee 100% safety ;)

Not a good idea. Consider going to school in India.

What country is this you are talking about? Germany or Austria maybe?

Poland is safer than all of usa by 10 times. There is heaps of outdoor spaces and yes the transport is great. The poster above is probably is not polish and has no clue.

@Marsu: I understand that you don't live in Poland because "great" is not the word to qualify ..... transportation ;). I personally travel through Warsaw for work using public transportation several times each day (normally a minimum of 8/10 times per day) and believe me, most often it's a nightmare. This afternoon, I need to travel from Centrum to Willanow by bus and it's going to be an average of 1hour (normal). Last week, I waited for 1 hour (from 9 to 10:05) at a bus stop in Centrum and no bus for my route although according to schedule the bus should have come at 9:22 and 9:52. These are not exceptions but rather sort of normal..... Driving is of course not any better since awful jams in most places....

It's the large urban areas in the US that are the dangerous areas. That's because the large cities have undesirable demographics. If you go to rural areas where mainly White people live it's very safe.

we cannot compare American cities with Polish "cities" which are rather small towns by American standards.

Recently, on my last visit to Krakow, the small 'village' (by American standards) I saw just 3 people who had obviously come from India to work.

Yes. Warsaw is very safe. There was one minor demonstration that most people didn't notice (and these things are rare and very heavily policed). There are quite a few students from India in Warsaw, it's an increasingly cosmopolitan city and you shouldn't worry.

There are idiots everywhere however people in Warsaw are fairly civilised. Please ignore the poster called 'White Europe' - despite his name, he's not from Europe and has never even visited.

You shouldn't worry too much; just exercise the same caution as you would anywhere else, and there will be other Indian students who you will be able to talk with about their experiences. Good luck.

There are heaps of derelict waste sites and the transport is non-integrated and over-crowded - fixed it for you. Obviously you don't live here. Utopia it ain't.

No utopia there but it isn't bad. I dont catch public transport usually I drive everywhere but I did a few times and it was ok.

I have lived in 3 cities and visited some other cities in a few years. Krakow is the safest from my point of view. Especially south part of Krakow would be my first choice. For Trojmiasto I could say mostly I felt safe however, I have faced 3-4 times skinheads in 2 years which were really aggressive. But I can say mostly I feel safe.

@Dougpol: yes, something I forgot about although it pis..es me off: Public transportation is also most often over crowded. Whatever the time of the day, I have most often to stand, for at least part of the trip and it is really exhausting. As to trains, on most routes, it takes for ever to go from one place to another.

Obviously when using transportation on a regular basis in Poland, we cannot find it "great" ;).

As to driving around, according to some EU studies published last year, Warsaw is the worst city and Krakow the 3rd worst city in the EU. Warsaw is a real nightmare....

And - if you drive on Katowice plates there the police keep on pulling you over.

The only time in my life I ever gave in to temptation and told the police to simply **** off.

Pure scum.

This years polls put Warsaw Poland as the 47th safest city in the world.
It went on to say Poland's Warsaw has a safety index of 73.70.
Very impressive.