Driving to Lublin from Cork in Ireland

I want to drive to Poland this Summer from Cork in Ireland,with my family.
Has anybody done this? As i'll be with two kids i thought of taking a week out,
treating it as a holiday. Has anybody got any advice?

Cheers

Mark

I live in Lublin and drove from Manchester.

It's a very long drive. If you have a dvd player in your car that would be better.

I am driving back from Lublin to Manchester on Friday.
I'll be stopping in Hannover. Hannover to Lublin is around 12hours drive.

What info would you like to know about driving? Best way, fastest way or best place to stop over?

From Cork, you'll definitely need 2 nights of stopovers to be safe. I drive regularly from Northern England to Lublin, and it's borderline whether we need 1 or 2 nights. If you've never done it before, it can be easy to fall into the trap of feeling that you're practically there when you've reached the Polish border. You haven't - it's still a good, long drive from there. However, there's a good stretch of motorway open now from Nowy Tomysl, and I recommend you get onto that and stay right to the end of the motorway and look to cut across to Lublin, rather than going further north and through Warsaw.

Thanks for this,

Yes, if you have any suggestions about to stay over that would be great.
I have two options of getting to Roscoff or Lehavre in France. From there i
thought to break the journey up with even three stop overs, one in France,
one in Germany. A good idea about taking the Nowy Tomysl motorway and
yes a DVD player in the back!

I'd actually recommend doing Le Harve to Western Germany in one day (it's an easy run) and then stop for the next night just across the Polish border. That would leave you fresh to tackle the Swiecko-Nowy Tomsyl section of road, and Lodz to Lublin isn't so far.

An interesting alternative could be to head across from Le Harve towards Charleroi, going past Lille on the south side. Then Liege, Aachen, Cologne, Erfurt, Dresden, Gorlitz, Wroclaw, Krakow and Lublin.

This would have the benefit of spending the maximium amount of time on motorways, though I have no idea how it would compare to the Hannover/Berlin/Poznan route.

I've done Cork to Lodz. Took the Roslare to Le Harve Ferry overnight and landed in early afternoon. Drove to Neuse, Rhur Valley and stopped at 9pm (6-7 hours). Made it to Lodz in about 10/11 hours then (9am to 7-8pm). This is not an option with kids. The roads are generally very good and you should be able to keep at the speed limits of 120-130 until you hit Poland. There is a stretch from Frankfurt-Oder to the start of the motorway near Poznan that is terrible, do not do it in the dark.

I drove Lodz to Lublin last weekend. There is a good road from Lodz to Piortkow Trybunalski (A1 i think) but thereafter is average. You will be slowed in places like Radom. Busy road too with regular 70kph stretches.

With kids you will need to take 2 nights/3 days. Stay first night around Belgian border. Cross Germany day 2 and stay southeast of Berlin or just over border. Cross Poland day 3. Plan your stops and hotels if you can. I drove past a rest stop at German border with a cheap hotel and petrol. Nearly ran out and ended up staying in an overpriced hotel in Neuse as I needed petrol. The rest stops can be sporadic and are rare in the old east Germany, loads in Poland. In Germany you have a legal obligation to carry a first aid kit (including latex gloves), reflector and fire extinguisher. I'm told cops can be pricks about it.

Thanks for this, terrific directions. With Ash on the horizon this summer, think it might be the only way to go! M