Touring in Poland

[dimrub]

Greetings folks!

Do we have here members from Poland, or those who've toured there and know the country well?

I may have mentioned an idea of a tour I've had for a long time. It starts in Warsaw, finishes in Rostock (Germany) and follows the movements of a particular unit of the Red Army in 1945. I thought I may have tried to consult with the forum about it in the past, but haven't found any previous mentions by searching the forum.

The proximate route I've built is 1270 km long and has just 4400 m of climb in it. I'm thinking of doing it over the course of 16 days or so, so an average of just under 80k daily, pretty easy riding. The actual days though fluctuate quite a bit, due to the area being somewhat sparsely populated, so accommodations need to be taken into account, and this is one of my main concerns. So far I was able to find camping sites for 8 out of the 16 nights. I've got nothing against staying in hotels, but I do wonder whether there might be a list of camping sites that is fuller than the one available to Komoot. And also, how are the camping sites in Poland, compared to other countries?

My other concern is just how reasonable the route in terms of the use of shared roads. I wouldn't want to end up on a busy road ruled by huge thundering semis.

So here we go, any and all feedback on this tour will be welcome.

 

[Gillstay]

Enjoyed Poland, flew into Krakow and then did a big circle. The wrong way we found at the end as we could have started with small mountains and gradually got bigger, but we went straight into big. Had trouble with food and one day ended in a village with no where to eat. That was a long evening. Two breakfasts helped. Always had Borsh soup as you knew what you were getting, other times just guessed and ate what came.
Some sad spots where the SS had wiped out villages. Some very poor places as well. We are very lucky and all that. Fabulous scenery, rarely stuck with large waggons. Good wildlife.

 

[CMAW]

I toured in Poland some 9 years ago, following the Oder from Frankfurt a/d Oder to Wroclaw and then via Czestochova to Krakow and the Tatra mountains. Camping sites were few, mostly in the cities. I had an outdated list of places that included picnick spots or closed vacation camps. You might encounter clusters of wild campers next to the water, lakes and ponds, where Polish people like to relax fishing and drinking beer. Traffic was bad. Too much cars and trucks on narrow roads and aggressive drivers. I had to steer right into a ditch twice to avoid being hit. Saw a few cars plied around a tree on sunday morning, saturday night drinking taking it's toll. Yes, drinking and driving is our weak point, someone local told me. So you have to study the map to take the smallest roads or tracks possible. Often these will be sandy (in the northwestern part of the country) so large tyres are a must. Things will surely have changed over the last years (motorway still under construction when I cycled there), but I think a word of warning is in place.