Trains/Buses in Eastern Europe

Vitamin T

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of train or bus travel in Eastern Europe?

I'm planning a trip with a few friends in August and we're looking to travel from Tallinn (Estonia) to Karakow (Poland) over the space of 2 weeks stopping off in different places along the way. But I have no idea what trains and buses are like over there (i.e. price, reliability, safety, etc.). If anybody has any experience of travel around there that they could share it'd be greatly appreciated!

Also any must sees of that general section of Eastern Europe!?

annie.t

Dont know about baltic countries, but here you have a website for searching railway connections in Poland.
http://rozklad-pkp.pl/?q=en/node/143
Railway network is quite widespread, reasonably reliable, not too modern though, but will get you from A to B.

Edit: Here you have buses search.
http://www.rozklady.com.pl/rozklad-jazdy-pks-pkp-busy/polaczenia
Dont see english version but it goes as follows:
From:
To:
Date of departure:
Time of departure:

Vitamin T

Cool, thanks for that annie.t. I'll have look at those sites now and see what I can get out of them!

annie.t

Dunno if you're into culture or nature, but if you like the latter check out Mazury, It's in north-eastern part of Poland (so if you're travelling through baltic countries it could be on the way to Krakow, depending on your itinerary). It's "a land of thousand lakes" as we Poles call it (there is actually even more than that). You can do kayaking on the Krutynia river for some unspoilt (well nearly) nature sightseeing. Plus you can get some sunshine in August too, lay back on the lake shore and do some swimming in the lakes, a lot of them is really clean and nature there is just amazing. Here is wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masuria

Edit: Actually this site is better http://www.votemazury.org/en.html

cailinoBAC

We had about two weeks Tallinn (well started in Tampere actually) to Krakow.
Bus from Tallinn to Riga (there are plenty) and from Riga to Vilnius. You can find the times in the inyourpocket guides (not sure if they're on the website www.inyourpocket.com). The bus we got from Tallinn was pretty luxurious, had wifi and a 'bus hostess'. The one from Riga to Vilnius was fine. In the Baltics there are not many trains that will get you to the places you want to go. Buses are better,
I am not sure if you can get to Poland without going through Belarus, there is probably a way, but I have spent a lot of time there in the past so I wanted to go to Minsk. You will have to either get a visa in advance or go to the embassy in Vilnius. We had to do that because we need out passports every day for work, but you're probably better off getting them in advance from the London embassy.

Anyway, we got the train from Vilnius to Minsk. I used to get the bus a lot and that can be quicker, but not always the most comfortable, also you have to get off at the border which is annoying.

From Minsk we got a sleeper to Warsaw. Some trains go from Minsk and some from Moscow. As ours was coming from Moscow we didn't get a berth until we got the train. We had our tickets but then we had to pay €10 each to the guy on the train. He really didn't want to help us at all at first, we probably woke him up. Usually the berths have three beds. The worst part of the journey is that you've only just managed to fall asleep when you get to the border with Poland and they wake you up for customs etc. Also the train is there for a few hours as they have to change the wheels as the tracks are a different width.

There might be a direct train from Vilnius to Warsaw actually, I'm not sure...
If you do plan on stopping in Minsk, I can give you some more advice!

Anyway the train from Warsaw to Krakow is very nice and very fast. Most other trains can be a bit slow. We had thought of going to Wroclaw first but it just didn't make sense.

Last year we went to Zakopane by car as we were with some friends, but a few years ago I took the train. It was quite slow and I've been told that bus would be better.

Also Oswiecem, if you want to go there, you can get the train there too.

Vitamin T

annie.t wrote: »

Dunno if you're into culture or nature, but if you like the latter check out Mazury, It's in north-eastern part of Poland (so if you're travelling through baltic countries it could be on the way to Krakow, depending on your itinerary).

Thanks for that annie.t, Mazury looks great. We'll definitely add it our list of possibilities!

cailinoBAC wrote: »

There might be a direct train from Vilnius to Warsaw actually, I'm not sure...
If you do plan on stopping in Minsk, I can give you some more advice!

Thanks for the info cailinoBAC! Yeah we had originally thought of just going straight from Vilnius to Poland. What's Minsk like though? Would it be worth a visit? Is it safe? According to Wikipedia there have been some problems with crime and safety lately! (Although Wikipedia can't always be relied on 100%!)

cailinoBAC

Well, it depends what you're looking for. After Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius it's definitely a change. It's not exactly a pretty city, but if you go with the right attitude...it's just quite different! Maybe check out how much the transit visa is (48 hours) and decide if you feel it's worthwhile.