Best route for driving Berlin to Leszno, Krakow, and Vilnius

My mom flies in to Berlin in October and wants to rent a car and drive around Poland and Lithuania with me and visit the following cities. Which of the these routes would be best?

Drive from Berlin to Leszno (near Poznan) and stay 2 nights in Leszno..
- Drive 3 or 4 hours to Krakow -
Krakow for 3 nights, including an excursion to Auschwitz or Gross Rosen.
- Drive 3 or 6 hours to Lodz, or Biyalistok or Lomza - (Which is best?)
Overight in one of those 3 places (Whichever is best)
- Drive 3 hours to Kaunas -
Kaunas for 2 nights
- Drive 2 hours to Vilnius -
Vilnius for 2 nights
- Drive all the way back to Berlin via Warsaw and stay overnight in Warsaw on the way.

Or would it be better to park the car in Warsaw on the way to Lithuania? Then we could fly from Warsaw to Vilnius, stay in Vilnius for 2 nights, visit Kaunas by train or coach and stay 2 nights there, then train/coach back to Vilnius to fly back Warsaw and pick up the rental car and drive it back to Berlin. (I figure that would save quite a lot of driving time and prevent us from having to see all the same scenery again between Vilnius and Warsaw.)

Or do you also have a suggestion of your own to offer?

Probably best to not hire a car and instead go by train. Also, a night or two in Berlin on the way might be worthwhile. Driving standards are low in Poland accident rates are very high and the train service is both excellent and cheap. To Vilnius, there are cheap and quick flights from Warsaw on LOT.

Looking at itineraries, Berlin to Leszno is a long drive, several hundred km. I'd stop off on the way.

Those itineraries involve a serious amount of driving and look very tiring.

After posting the inquiry just above here, I've since figured out an itinerary that would make more sense and would allow my Mom to see Dresden and where I live too. It would basically be to go from Berlin to Dresden to Wroklaw to Krakow, and after a couple of nights in Krakow, leave the car at the airport and fly to Lithuania. Then when we fly back to Krakow from Lithuania, we would drive from there to Leszno (a must stop because of family history) and then back to Berlin after 2 nights in Leszno. Any reason why that might not be a good plan?

@EricDDR
Dresden is a very good idea. After all, a Polish king once lived there.

in my opinion this is a very good idea it's all motorways/Autobahn between these cities - the best way to drive from Kraków to Leszno would be heading back to Wrocław on a motorway and then heading north on a similar highway to Leszno - from Leszno to Berlin I would go north to Poznań to get on a motorway/Autobahn that will take you straight to Berlin

Thanks Jon357. Is what you said about driving in Poland applicable even if I stick to major highways?

I'm thinking now of staying 2 nights in Berlin for my mom to get over jetlag, and then instead of going to Leszno, we drive a rental car south to Dresden and also visit the village where I live there nearby. Then we would go to Wroklaw for a night, then Krakow for 2 nights, leave the car in Krakow, fly to Lithuania, fly back 4 days later, pick up the car, and then finally drive to Leszno. Google says Krakow to Leszno is only 4 hours, so maybe we don't need to overnight somewhere in the middle. After 2 nights in Leszno, the drive back to Berlin is said to be 3 and a half hours according to Google (via Poznan). But I'm still considering the possibility of going by train to all the same places.

Thanks also to gumishu and Alien for your replies. It looks like I'll do the rental car if the whole route is major highways, but like I said to Jon above just now, I'll check the price and schedule of trains just to make sure that's not a better option.

Thanks also to gumishu and Alien for your replies. It looks like I'll do the rental car if the whole route is major highways, but like I said to Jon above just now, I'll check the price and schedule of trains just to make sure that's not a better option.

They're safer than some of the older roads but still have their moments. It's worth having a look online for accident stats Europewide. Poland is high on the list.


This is a good idea. Driving long distances after flights isn't pleasant, and Berlin is a nice place to be.


This is a good idea.

It sounds a very thorough vacation with lots of places to see. Personally I'd find it interesting but tiring. Doing the journeys by train is a good way to mitigate that and certainly more relaxing.

You mention a visit to the Auschwitz Memorial. That's a heavy place to go. What you see stays with you for ever and it's good to clear your head a bit afterwards by relaxing. After a first visit there, if I was driving afterwards my mind wouldn't be on the road.

Edit

You also mention Poznan. That's a lovely place to visit and worth a day/night. The Beekeeping Museum in Swarzędz (next to Poznań) is great.

Great to see your answers to those specific questions, Jon.
I'm thinking we could even leave the car in Wroklaw and take the train to Krakow before going to Lithuania.

Do the intercity trains in Poland ever get so crowded that people have to stand? Perhaps we could get assigned seats in advance if this is a risk.

Beekeeping museum, interesting. Would Poznan be the best place to overnight between Leszno and Berlin? I'm hoping we can make it in one day (Google says it's only 3 and a half hours by car).

OK, I just read searched the internet about dangers of driving in Poland, and it sounds like it's dangerous even on the big highways, even more dangerous because people drive so fast and aren't careful even at such high speeds.

A train from Wroclaw to Krakow is about 3 1/2 hours but comfortable.

The trains that sometimes get crowded tend to be just before or after a public holiday or at the start/end of university terms. These tend to be the cheaper 'TLK' and 'Interregio' trains. The normal intercity ones are pretty good for space. For one to be very crowded, you'd really have to have caught it at a bad time.All intercity trains have reserved seats and there's usually plenty of room, though of course Fridays and Mondays will be a bit busier.

Incidentally, when booking trains (I use the booking service intercity.pl), always have a look at first class. Because of dynamic ticketing, if seats in second class are selling well and seats in second class aren't, the first class tickets can sometimes be cheaper.

Poznań is a pleasant place to stay. There are some good quality hotels at a fair price near the seventeenth century Old Town Square (it's a gem) and some big hotels near the conference centre by the railway station on the edge of the city centre. Looking at booking.com etc, just a minute ago there seem to be a few new ones in the old town, in nicely restored buildings. There's also the Puro and the Radisson which are in great locations. One thing that Poznań does well is restaurants, especially around the Old Town.

I'd avoid some of the hotels around ul.Sw. Marcina and ul. Ratajczaka, particularly the larger, older PRL-era ones that look as if they're good value. Most are a bit more run down than the pictures of them online suggest.. One charged my Amex card twice and tried very hard not to refund the money. If we hadn't both spoken Polish well and threatened them with the courts for weeks, I'd still be waiting for the refund. They assumed we were naive foreigners who didn't speak Polish and could be ripped off. Well-known chain hotels are fine though.

Thanks for those extra details, Jon. I'm gonna look into train prices and reservations options. Good to know that some hotels might try to rip us off if we're not careful.

@EricRDD
95% of hotels in PL are OK in fact. That was maybe just unlucky.