Commuting from Kraków to London?

Hi, I'm an Englishman who's been living with my Polish girlfriend for 5 years now and we have a beautiful little 18 month old boy together. She really misses Poland so I've been looking into the possibility of living over in Kraków and commuting to work. I work as a Fire Fighter so work on a 4 days on then 4 days off basis so it could be done. Does anyone have any experience of this kind or work/life senario? Could it work?

My girlfriend is actually from Warsaw but I'd have to fly into London Gatwick for work so only Kraków would work.

Hey just go for it fire guy, who knows how it will work until you try it, great to know you care for her so much, Wroclaw fly's to stanstead if that helps.

Yeah cheers it's been something I've been thinking about for a while. Gatwick is really the only airport that would work for me for work which is a shame as I really like Gsansk but Luton is just the wrong side of London for work.

Slightly changing the subject but I would be worried about bringing up a family in Kraków with the terrible pollution there. Would it out many people off moving there?

Just take things slow, spend some time , year or two to see if you think its the place for raising your family , the reality is , there is a big difference between living in and just visiting Poland.

I am the opposite to you I have an English wife who came to Poland with me, you will find some adjustments need to be made in terms of culture.

Air is bad in Krakow in winter sad but true.

Im from Surrey but my parents are from Warsaw, One thing I would say is that it would be worth, for your child, to bring them up in England rather than Poland, I find that I have so many more opportunities in England than my cousins do in Poland.

Obviously it would be highly recommend to make sure they have dual nationality due to Brexit, but for the child's sake an English education and upbringing benefits them more.

Ok thanks , yeah that is something I was thinking about. To be honest I am so angry about the UK voting for Brexit (but that's another story). Our son at the moment only has a British passport and I do want to give him the best start in life so that's something to think about. What is the education system like in Poland?

Check out the flight prices - they can be well over £100 in each direction in peak season, which can mount up.
Winters are long and pollution is only a problem for 6 months of the year ;)

The Mods have linked your question to an old thread from 2015 but since then educational reforms have taken place which would have a direct impact on your child if you move to Poland. Basically the present government PIS undid a number of educational reforms that had been put in place after the end of Communism and have returned the system to the old form which existed under Communism. Here's a couple of articles that will get you up to speed:

ft.com/content/d2927cfe-e222-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb

visegradrevue.eu/the-reform-of-polands-education-system-if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/

Consider very carefully what you're doing in making a decsision, as an Englishman,to raise your family in Poland. Inform yourself about what's going on in Poland regarding politics because you'd be coming to a country that is not a long established democracy and there is no guarantee that they will even remain in the EU. They've had nothing but conflict with Brussels in the last three years.

Also consider that your wife may initially agree to live in Kraków but will probably ultimately want to move close to her family and your son's grandparents. You may well end up seeing your kid once a month because it's simply not practical to go backwards and forwards every weekend. Even if you can do the weekly commute, it'll be exhausting for you and you won't be a part of your child's life on a daily basis.

Anyone regularly flying between Poland and Uk these days?. I'm flying with Wizzair twice a week. Only on time 30% of the time with delays on average 1.5 hours. Other alternative is Ryanair but not sure if any better....