Paying with Maestro in shops and petrol stations is free of charge.
If I take money from an ATM it is 2 euro. So I don't take off 20PLN, but 300 or 400. And I pay as much as possible with the debet card in shops ... as I said, free of charge.
Exchange Rate Transaction Fee (ERTF). Probably depends on who you bank with. Some banks still charge on maestro card transactions. Best to check with your bank before leaving.
Youre both wrong exchanging before you leave or exchanging at the border will both incur excessive FX rates similar to that found at airports
No way - at least in the ones I'm familiar with (Slubice/Frankfurt, Swiecko/Frankfurt, Kostrzyn/Kustrin Kietz and Gubin/Guben) - the rates at the border are about as competitive as it gets. The spread was no more than 5gr - which is perfectly acceptable.
Heck, I changed some money in the old Customs terminal in Swiecko and got 3.97 (the interbank rate was 3.95) on the Euro - can't complain about that!
From what I can tell, it's actually worse in the cities than at the border - probably because at the borders these days, there's a vast amount of competition.
Well as Avalon knows we are unfortunatley no longer coming to tarnow but know instead have to travel to Krosno, so does anybody have any advice of the best route to take? also does anybody know anything about krosno is there anything to do there?
Only two tolls in Katowice and Krakow but theyre only just over £1, if you take a wrong turn in France and get caught on the toll roads it can get expensive.
I've got 1.6 Renault megane.
So about 35 mpg? i would estimate around £140, it used to cost me about £300 in a 4.3 V8 @ 24 mpg.
hi folks! i've been reading this forum and its great, my wife is polish and her parents live in bierun near auchwitz, we have looked at flying over for xmas but the prices are around £1000 as we have 3 kiddies now, i'm seriously thinking of driving it from portsmouth, i'm used to driving long hours, i,ve got a 02 range rover td6 to take, it will do around 600 miles to a tank cruising, ive got snow tyres for it, sat nav says 16 hours?? i'm looking at getting the otherside of the water early evening as the kids will hopefully sleep through most of the drive? has anybody got any tips? ie routes? stops? safety? i'm thinking the weekend of the 16th dec? the long range weather isnt predicting any white stuff yet? or should i bite the bullet and fly????
Hey...if you have a Range rover , and you know how to drive it on snow , you will have no problem at all to drive over here...
There are plenty of safe places to stop and rest , some great places to eat , and if your wife is Polish you won,t have any trouble with the language...
Poland is not a dangerous place , but in some of the small villages you may be seen as a rich and vunerable visitor with maybe something worth stealing , just use the usual precautions when parking your car...
Just one point... Auswitch is the name the Germans gave to the extermination camp built near the town of Oswiem , the Poles don,t call it Auswitch...
I have driven from UK to Poland many times , not a problem....much more fun than flying , you see so much more and get to meet people...
many thanks for that, i've just been looking at flights again £1300 now!!! jeez, you have just put my mind at rest, i've been driving land rovers for the electric board over here, just i'll have the luxury of not as many rattles, do you reckon during the night at weekends best?? and from what i have read head for the a4?? i'm looking forward to it now just hope the kids bear it up, her brother has cleared out the garage to put the car away while were there,
for filling up is it best to use debit card or cash?? thanks again
Yeah , i gave up my Landrovers in favour of a Rangie....did a trip from UK to Belarus and Russia , via Latvia and Lithuania , and all in an old diesal Series 3 Landy...hard work...!
I myself prefer driving at night , less traffic , and more scope for driving slowly to suss out where to make your turns etc without a load of peeps tooting at you to get a move on....
On several of my trips in the old days , we used credit cards , mostly it was ok , but we did have some dodgy garage clone our card and spend a bit of our dosh for us...Its not a problem i have nowadays , i threw away all my credit cards before moving to Poland... Carry some cash with you anyway , credit cards can get lost or refused at the most inconveniant moments...
I have never done the trip with kids , so can,t advise you there , but maybe they will enjoy it , when they get bored i guess they will just fall asleep...
You might want to have a look at one of the threads on Polish driving , looks very scary at first , but you soon get used to it...its a bit different from driving in the UK , but not as bad as some will try to tell you...
I wish you a safe trip... have a good time in Polska...
So did mine say a similar the 1st time I drove from Portsmouth to Skawica (not to far from Oswiem ) Id take that with a pinc of salt esp as you have kids with you.Its not a bad journey just gets boring after the 1st 10 hrs
Done the drive from Manchester England to Gorlice in south east Poland many times, 1400 miles . Done it by myself and with the wife and lad. Driving a bmw & land rover and traier, but the best is a motorhome If you feel tired pull over and go to sleep..... for as long as you like. If the place looks interesting stay longer. If your hungry stop and fry a egg.
What I'm realy saying is "whats the rush ?" Take your time and enjoy the trip.
And don't go faster than your Guardian Angel can fly................. :0)
