Poland???

My wife and I cycled from Poland down to Greece and Turkey Summer 2010 thru Central Europe ( don't call it Eastern Europe - they hate that ) and Balkans. Had very nice time and no trouble at all. Some big roads in Poland can be a bit busy and maybe scary if not used to touring or heavy traffic. But most motorists where polite and gave us plenty of space when passing. Many places we camped in official sites, they were very cheap in Poland, about  € 2 - 5 for 2 people and tent. In Poland we also stayed in some perfectly nice cheap pension style places for between € 12 and 20 a double room: Look out for signs saying Wolne Pokojne. Our route took us thru also Czech, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia ( people were so happy to see us there ) Sebia and Bulgaria before Greece and Turkey. We only wild camped a couple of times but mostly used campsites, hostels or cheap hotels and couple times WS. We had not internet connection, if we had we would have used WS hosts a lot more. There seem to be plenty people available. As  said before we had good times and we found people very friendly. If we had problems with local language we would ask young women for help in English, they always seemed to speak it more than men. A lot of people would speak to us in German in Central Europe so if you know it that helps.Enjoy your trip. Let us know if you need any more regional specific info.

Jim Fullwood

I did two cycling trips in the baltic states, Poland and Belarus 2017 and 2018. It was a great experience. Nice landsscape, friendly people. In Poland try the Green Velo cycling track along the eater border of Poland. If you want to keep of the big roads with a lot of trafic, be prepared for unpaved roads.

Hi Kathy and Tom,

I've been in Poland last year on my ride from Gdansk to Croatia. I mainly followed the Eurovelo 9 - which by the way is not waymarked yet - over Poznan and Wroclaw. I had very nice cities, different landscapes, some lonely, some wide, a few boring, most beautiful. All the way I faced considerate and polite car drivers. Only once I experienced just two of several hundred cars passing by with no safety distance - but this was on a main route, which you don't have to drive (on the B15 between Torun and Inowroclaw and not on the Eurovelo track). In the big cities there are wide bike lanes, but often with little steps at the kerbstones on junctions. People are extremly friendly, especially when you speak at least a few polish words like "Nie rozumiem - jestem z Niemiec" (I don't understand - I am from Germany). Elder people only speak russian, some very old also german, but the younger ones also speak english.

I had no special paper maps other than the free ones given by my automobile (!) club, but a track on my GPS. At the tourist informations you sometimes get free maps of the cities (of course), but also of the region. I also got a Poland-map once, which of course was not very detailled, but gave an overview. If you want to read a bit more about my experiences - although your tour will be more east, I assume: I blogged the whole time, and it's also in english - see: www.radundfuss.net

When you are going back and your heading is Amsterdam, maybe you follow the Rhine? If so, feel free to contact us, when you're coming to Bonn. As long as we are there, you will be welcome!