Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10!

I've been, and your judgement is completely wrong. Paris is unique and beautiful. France is the most popular tourist destination in the world and deservedly so, its a beautiful country.

Are you French Peterweg?

Nope. Half Polish/English with a bit of Irish.

I have visited France, a lot. Criss crossed the country several times on my motorbike, skied there a dozen weeks.

That's a very good mix.

And btw, you're 100% right with France..

bberlin62
no need to be rude , i'm sorry if you have any doubts that i'm telling the truth.

Teffle

absoutley they do !!

I spent 4 months in paris and it is very dirty ! Krakow is so much cleaner

and yes the other medieveal french towns and villages are beautiful but so are the the one's in Poland. On the other hand we cannot comapre these two countries because their so much different from one another , france is in western europe and has different history and climate while poland lies in east europe and also has a completely different climate , topography and history. Both countries are beautiful and enchanting in their own way. Personally , I find Poland to be more appealing to me , from the scenery , medieavel towns , culture etc.

delphiandomine

Poland is making amazing progress ! And more and more tourists are visiting and falling in love with poland. ( sorry for sounding so dramatic and descriptive )

with the European soccer championships coming up soon , Poland will have a major opportunity to advertise itself. ( Poland is hosting the soccer championships this year )

bullfrog

yes that is the main reason why i love the country . For it's deep-rooted culture and tradition . I love it !

I give it a 1 in the food department.

polmed

i agree 100 %

but poland is improving :)

but won't.

the cities that host the games may do something. the rest of the country will be ignored.

quality of life: ok.

culture and people: good.

food: as stated earlier by me... bland.

Teffle

I think Poland is just as beautiful ( or even more beautiful ) than Paris. When people say grey buildings i don't think of Poland ! What you said is untrue ! The main reason people don't speak as much about Krakow is because Poland has not been advertising itself as much as other countries. I've been to Paris and i found it to be very dirty and unsanitary. Krakow is so clean and organized !

The whole Paris and romance thing is just a stereotype. Krakow is very beautiful and romantic.

I agree, Allie. Kraków is highly presentable, if a bit boring for some.

Although paris is very elegant and charming too ... depending on WHERE you go in Paris.
If you'll follow the tourist routes you won't come across the rest of the cities ummmm ... "beauty" ( if you didn't notice i'm being sarcastic with the whole " beauty" thing )

is there any danger of u mentioning Poland... as it is the topic of this thread.

Seanus

It most deifnatley is very beautiful . Poland just has to work on advertising itself and we can quickly see Krakow becoming the new Paris ;)

yeah Paris is fine but very commercial... krakow is still not so famous as it should be but this could be an advantage

to Allie

too late, the spot has already been taken up by Prague...

[quote=Alllie I think Poland is just as beautiful ( or even more beautiful ) than Paris. When people say grey buildings i don't think of Poland ! What you said is untrue ! [/quote]

I'm a Pole and I should be happy to hear your compliments but I have to agree with Teffle. It is what it is, great and beautiful for us here but I understand when people who are not emotionally involved with Poland like we are, can have a totally different and mostly realistic impression about Poland and everything Polish. Don't get me wrong, I love this country but I'm not gonna lie about anything here just to prove that I'm a "good Pole".

bullfrog

prague and krakow are very similar to each other

I can't comment on Paris but Kraków has a stunning rynek. Kazimierz scores high for cultural value but not for aesthetic appeal. Great to see the Jewish remnants. They were well catered for. Very plain buildings tho

just a few pictures of krakow if some of the users don't know the true beauty of this city :)

and i'm sorry but i just get very protective of Poland . It is absoltuley beautiful here and the people here have been very friendly and welcoming :)

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Krakow is beautiful but you cannot compare it to Prague. The latter is in the same league as Paris, not Krakow. Just look at the numbers of tourists visiting each city, and don't tell me its a matter of advertising, the czechs are not better at it than the poles

I see what your saying . Krakow and Prague are highly similar in many aspects though

Well, Prague don't have a Dragon, but they do have Knedliki - I'm torn ;-)

bullfrog wrote:


precisely. it's simple. people don't go to poland for a reason. and no, the however many germans that come in for a few days in the western cities of Poland to see where their grandparents lived before getting kicked out of their house when the borders changed doesn't count as significant "tourism". neither does the small handful of brits, americans and australians that come to drink beer and chase polish tail for a few years while posing as "an english teacher".

delphiandomine wrote:


lezzbianest. and who the hell would choose the Baltic Sea over the Med or the ocean for that matter. the Baltic is GHETTO.

people look at poland, then look at other european countries, and when they click the button to buy their flights for vacation, Poland very rarely wins and for good reason.

Fuzzy I understand you have some initial thesis you are trying to defend but don't exaggerate. There are milions of foreign tourists in Poland every year:

nationmaster.com/graph/eco_tou_arr-economy-tourist-arrivals

In 2010 there was about 12,5 milion of visits of foreign tourists (number of total foreign visits in 2010 was 58,3 mln). Sure, colder and more cloudy Poland hardly can compete with France. But don't forget that typical holiday calendar in Europe for regular folks consists of couple of different holidays in the year. So, yes two weeks in some hot place, but also one week or couple of days somewhere else - Europe is small... By the way, have you ever been at the French Mediterranean coast in August? It is pure nightmare, it is terribly hot, there is no place at hotels or campsites, and on the beaches there is not one metre of free space... Baltic sea and white sand at Polish coastline is heaven compared to that (obviously if you are lucky enough to hit the sunny days ;) ).

Btw. there is about three times more visits of foreign tourist in Poland than it is in USA... I understand though that internal movement in USA is big enough.

jwojcie wrote:


we're not discussing the USA, but this "statistic" you just came up with is absolutely useless. if a german drives a few miles and crosses the border into Poland....tick, 1 tourist. if a Czech guy does the same, tick, 2 tourists. For anyone to go to the USA, excluding Canadians and Mexicans.....gotta spend a whole lotta money on a plane ticket and take a lot of vacation time to do it and it's thousands of miles of flying.....one way. you're comparing apples and oranges.

imagine what kind of number you would come up with if you tracked how many americans that live in state X visited state Y throughout a year. a US state is as big, often times even bigger than an entire country in europe.

jwojcie wrote:


"heaven" and "Baltic" shouldn't be in the same sentence.

and yes, the weather there, along with the cold sea water.....not suitable for summer getaways.

Not really, in that way those 58,3 milions are counted. Those 12,5 milion are visits with at least one night in Poland. It goes the same for other countries - short weekends trips are quite popular in Europe.


Well, you underestimate Baltic coast... The trick is that it is not the coast for lying on the beach but for biking. With that concept in mind 20 degree instaed of 30 is advantage. I told you, with Poland you must know where, when and what for ;)


I understand that, still the number seems to be small - probably all this security issues at US airports don't help tourism, I remember sometime ago I watched on msnbc some tourism industry representant in US who was complaing a lot about that.

From my own experience, I'm sure there is an impact. Since the post 9/11 security measures I haven't returned to the states and will not do so. Many people I know have taken the same position.

We have to change our ratings?? ;) ;)

Quality of life? It has definitely gotten better for many. It's still lagging behind due to the disproportionality between salary increases and the cost of living. GDP may have risen but not everyone gets a slice of the pie. In European terms, Poland maybe gets a 6.

jwojcie wrote:


haha, oooh man. that's.......haha.

jwojcie wrote:


explain.

Teffle wrote:


completely unjustified if that's your only reason. trust me, you along with the others you speak of boycott trips to the USA for other reasons. our security paranoia is just something else to add to the list.

seanus wrote:


which is why tourists visit the 7's, 8's, 9's and 10's instead.