Practical information for visitors to Poland

Getting to Poland

Poland is in the Schengen Area. Those of you coming from outside of the Schengen Area shall expect typical border formalities. Please take this into account while planning your journey. If you need a formal invitation for your team (eg. to obtain a visa), Organisers will provide you one when asked.

Road travel - paid roads

Road network in Poland offers full variety of road types and their quality. In general, we recommend using main roads and highways than taking shortcuts with local roads. Highways (motorways, "autostrada") are marked on blue background. Some of them are toll roads with toll booths.
Other highways and express roads are paid with an electronic ViaToll system. This one does not apply for cars with maximum allowed total weight below 3,5t. However, if combined maximum allowed masses of your car plus trailer exceed 3,5t, you should install ViaToll box and pay for travel. Information about the system and map of roads covered by ViaToll may be found on their website.
Parking in the very center of Leszno is to be paid. Parking machines accept coins.

Fuel

Unleaded fuel for car engines is available in 95 and 98 grades, usually marked as Pb95 and Pb98 in green colours. Sometimes they forget to put a line across the "Pb", but it is still unleaded. Diesel fuel is marked as "ON" on black. Those of you using Propane-Butane should look for LPG letters. Rest of you should avoid using "gas" word, as "gaz" is a polish word referring to LPG.

Speed limits and lights

Following car speed limits are in force in Poland:

20km/h in habitat zones
50km/h in urbanized area (60km/h between 11PM and 5AM)
90km/h outside urbanized area (70km/h with trailer)
80km/h max with trailer
100km/h on a road with 2 or more lanes in one direction
100km/h on single-lane express roads
120km/h on express roads
140km/h on highways

Speed is controlled both by stationary Police cars and video radar booths. There are also a few unmarked police cars able to record speed and manoeuvres.

Your headlights shall be turned on at any time on road, dedicated daytime lights may be used if your vehicle has any.

Road navigation

You may find using the navigation road signs a bit tricky at the beginning. In general, pay more attention to the road number of your choice than the city name shown. We strongly recommend using a GPS navigation system, which will be especially useful during retrieves. Make sure your navigation database is updated, as there are many new roads of good quality which you do not want to miss using the old ones.
If you're coming from southern directions, make sure to avoid city center of Wrocław using new A8 motorway bypass. This will save you about an hour of driving. If coming from west, mind that theferry over Odra river on road 282 is not suitable for trailers. Use bridge at Nowa Sól instead. Retrieving crews often make this mistake and loose time.

Currency and money exchange

The only official currency in Poland is Polish złoty (PLN), which is currently (June 2013) equivalent of 0.23 EUR or 0.30 USD. 1/100 of złoty is called grosz.
Currency exchange may be performed in banks or many private points called "Kantor". They take no commission and usual buy/sell spread ratio is just about few percent. The exception are exchange points on the airports and similar places, where ratios may be far from being competitive.
Cash payments in Euro are sometimes accepted in supermarkets and other places, but the exchange rate there might be unfavourable.

Card payments

Card payments (Visa and MasterCard) are commonly accepted in big and medium shops (markets), petrol stations, hotels, restaurants, hardware stores etc. A lot of small businesses also accept them. Sometimes a limit about 2-20 PLN is announced below which only cash is accepted. Thus we suggest to always have a small amount of cash available.
Traveler’s cheques are not popular and may be cashed only in banks.
ATMs are easily to be found in popular public areas (supermarkets, transport hubs, city centers, bank branches).

Mobile phones

There are four main GSM providers (Orange, Play, Plus and T-Mobile) and each of them offers very good network coverage throughout the whole country. Pre-paid SIM cards can be bought easily without any documents required. All GSM operators also provide mobile internet access. When bringing your phone to use with Polish SIM card, please make sure your phone is not vendor-locked ("simlocked").

Security and emergencies

They are no critical security dangers, a general caution is advised like in many western cities. Airfield in Leszno is quite close to the city, so more visitors and strangers appear here than you may be used to at remote airfields.

Emergency phone is 112, both from mobile phones and landlines. Law enforcement is performed by Police ("Policja") and in the bigger cities additionally by Municipal Guard ("Straż miejska"). Medical rescue service is called "Pogotowie ratunkowe". Fire-fighters are called "Straż pożarna". They also deal with non-fire technical emergencies.

Foreign languages

Of course we'd love if you learn Polish language! If you decide not to, you can still try to speak other languages. At least basic level of English can be expected with younger people. Some people speak German, especially in near-border regions. Other languages like French, Italian, Spanish are of secondary popularity. Russian was a mandatory foreign language in schools for a long time, so many older people are still able to speak it.

Polish language basics

From time to time you will be forced to spell Polish words. To help Poles understand you, try to avoid most common spelling errors:

"c" is always spelled as "tz" (you know French city Metz?), except for "cz" or "ch" conjunctions,
"ch", as well as single "h" is spelled as an audible "h" in "hotel",
"w" is always spelled like "v", in fact there's no "v" in our alphabet,
"g" is always spelled like "g" in "golf",
"j" is always spelled like "y" in "yankee",
"ó" and "u" are pronounced like "oo" in "wood".

Insurance (health and travel)

Please make sure you have Health and Travel Insurance valid within the territories of Poland, Czech Republic and Germany as well as any other country you would be travelling through.

Weather

Mean temperature for August is 17°C with day temperatures of 20-29°C and 9-17°C in the night. It is recommended to use a hat and a sunscreen cream even if the air does not feel hot.
Rainshowers happen each few days, usually in the afternoon and evening (convective showers). Western 5-20 km/h winds are prevailing, however the northeastern ones are known of exceptional gliding conditions.

Typical gliding day has 1500-2000m cumulus cloudbase, with average of 2-3 m/s on the variometers. The area is also known for quite good blue thermal days. Cumulus-wave is a rare, but possible phenomenon.

Food

You may find Polish traditional cuisine meat-oriented and a bit fatty. The basic vegetables are potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, onions and most available meat is poultry, pork and beef. Of course we have accepted many influences from other cultures and you have plenty other options to choose from.
Typical dining day starts with an extensive breakfast, differing from the "coffee and biscuit" ones. The main meal of the day is "obiad", eaten around 3-4PM ("after workday") with two courses and a dessert. Evening meal, "kolacja", is much simpler and often cold. Fortunately, this code is not strictly observed by restaurants. Usually you can order warm meal any time from early afternoon till late evening. Most Poles eat their meals at home, so restaurants are targeted at tourists and visitors.
Tips are (of course) welcome by waiters, but not obligatory and there's no "standard percent" to give.
Tap water should be boiled before drinking.

Shall you have any questions or doubts, please contact us via e-mail.

We'd like also to encourage you to check this government website with Information on Poland:http://en.poland.gov.pl/Practical,Information,1614.html