I will be staying in Warsaw for sure, because of family. I might go for 2-4 weeks, depends how life pans out and will be booking Jan 2014 for the summer.
I was considering visiting Krakow, Lublin and maybe Szczecin (location of my ex, it'll depend on her).
I know I am planning quite early, and wanted to visit this July, instead I'll be working throughout those weeks and focusing on my studies.
Do visit Lublin: it's probably the most under-rated cities in Poland, I love it. And don't miss Zamosc (two hours south-east of Lublin), that town is one of the three best places in Poland.
Don't visit Krakow at the weekend (it's full of drunken British/Irish idiots).
If you are going to see Krakow, I would definitely do trips to the Wieliczka Salt Mines and Aushwitz nearby. Other points of interest in the SE of the country would be Rzeszow (and the Lancut Palace Estates) and Przemysl. Further away Torun, Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia, Wroclaw, Poznan are the major cities worth a visit. A lot of people enjoy the nature in the NE corner: Europe's last primeval forests in Puszcza Bialowieska, and the undeveloped Suwalszczyzna would be my recommendations. In the north there are Kaszuby and the Tuchola Pinewoods. In the South you will find numerous mountain/hilly areas with pictoresque trails, palaces, castles, ruins... And the Baltic Coast with the sand dunes is not bad when the weather is good... As there are loads of places worth visiting, it all really depends on what you would like to see and how much time you've got - we would also be able to give you more detailed info then.
Thanks for the info, if i have 4 weeks i'll have more options, but the ones i mentioned i'll surely visit in a 2 weeks span. I still have over 1 year to plan it all, so it's not like i am in a rush.
If i visit Poland this year i would start with Warsaw, Manifestacja- Polacy na rzecz serbskiego Kosowa, 15 lutego 2014 (sobota) - godzina 17:00, Ogród Saski - Róg Marszałkowskiej i Królewskiej
Qype /ˈkwaɪp/ was a Hamburg-based web 2.0 company centred on social networking and local reviews. They operated websites in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Italy and Brazil, and had approximately 22 million monthly unique European visitors.[2]
Competitor Yelp announced their acquisition of Qype[3] in October 2012 and Qype reviews were merged into the Yelp site by October 2013.
/wiki/Qype
So there was a Polish 'branch' of Qype, and now Yelp also operates in Poland. You may additionally check tripadvisor website which also has its Polish version.
Thera are many places in Poland, worth to visit. I like Szczecin the most, for its climate and places such as the Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes. At the same time it's definitely worth to stay there at the Dana Hotel, where we can not only relax in a comfortable environment, but also enjoy the excellent cuisine.
I'd like to go to Poland in a few years, does anyone know the best places to go for first time visitors?
Definitely Gdańsk. The greatest place in Poland!
We are used to Russian visitors - for many years we had a no-visa open cross-border movement with Kaliningrad District and many Russians came here for shopping and sightseeing. I don't know much Russian but on many occasions I managed to communicate with them in what I call an "overall-slavic" language :D
I don't know why they stopped the visa-free movement - maybe someone didn't want the Russians to see that Poland is an ordinary European country, friendly to visitors and with no russian-eating cannibal hordes roaming the streets. :)
Kolobrzeg used to be popular with russians. I once stayed at a hotel there with a lot of them. They spent the time drinking vodka and fighting.
Among Polish seaside resorts, Kołobrzeg is one of the nicer ones, however I'd recommend staying near the starówka rather than the blingier beach hotels.