By Car

Poland is one of Europe’s leading nations in road fatalities, a statistic that will surprise few who have had the pleasure of using the roads here. A lethal combination of poor road surfaces, networks unsuited to the volume of different traffic and, most of all, frustrated and aggressive driver behaviour result in the common sight of mangled wrecks around the country. While the road quality issue is being addressed with EU directives and funding, the size of the country’s road network means that it will still be years before results are seen in many places. Almost all roads outside of urban areas are a single lane in each direction, meaning traffic is inevitably bogged down by the fleet of lorries that traverse Poland as well as the routine family in a horse-cart. This results in impatient drivers overtaking each other at high speed and then braking sharply to avoid oncoming traffic. Be cautious and keep a safe distance between you and the vehicle in front. 

The speed limit in Poland is generally 50km/hr in cities (60km/hr between 23:00 and 05:00),90km/hr outside urban areas, 120km/hr on dual carriageways and 140km/hr on motorways. All cars must have their headlights switched on at all times and carry a red warning triangle, first aid kit, replacement bulbs, a national identity sticker and proper registration and insurance documents. Poland also has strict drunk-driving laws: 0.2‰ is the maximum blood/alcohol limit, so forget about having even a single beer. EU citizens may use their home driving licenses as long as they are valid, however citizens of countries that didn't ratify the Vienna Convention (tsk, tsk Australia and America) will find their licenses invalid (though that hasn't stopped anyone we know from driving their girlfriend's car). Carry your license and passport at all times when driving.

With that out of the way, how to get here? For the time being there’s only one major highway leading into Krakow via Katowice, the A4, and its smooth asphalt doesn’t come free. An 9zł toll is paid when you enter and again when you exit the motorway. Still, it’s one of the best stretches of road in the country until the bottleneck begins outside Kraków near Wieliczka. Driving around the city is incredibly frustrating with constant roadwork being done, one-way streets and seemingly available streets requiring a permit to drive down: violate this rule and the chances of getting a fine are incredibly high, whether you’ve realised your infraction or not. Kraków’s road network is not at all adequate for the volume of cars on its roads and parking is yet another challenge. To say nothing of horse-drawn carriages full of tourists and trams, the lack of bicycle paths in the city centre also means sharing the street with unwieldy bicycles above the laws of the road, and the fact that they’re getting from point A to B twice as fast as you is yet another smack in the face. Put it all together and we recommend you ditch your vehicle in favour of public transportation at the first opportunity. Car crime is not unheard of and you’ll be safest leaving your ride in one of the guarded parking lots listed below. Street parking is available under the large parking signs on the sidewalk and you’ll have to buy a pass from the neon-bibbed warden patrolling the area, though parking machines have now replaced them in many areas. The cost of street parking is 3zł for the first hour, 3.50zł for the second, 4.10 for the third, and after that back to 3zł. Areas where parking is available are also marked on the map in the back of this guide.