24–29 July 2016, Warsaw, Poland
To visit Poland you need a passport valid for at least 3 months after the date of your expected departure from Poland. Poland belongs to the passport-free Schengen area and if you are an EU national you do not need to show your national ID card or passport when travelling from a passport-free Schengen EU country to Poland but you still need it to prove your identity, e.g. when boarding a plane or at hotel check-in. For many countries there is no visa requirement – please see the list of visa free countries and other information on entering Poland.
Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport is conveniently located 10 km from the city centre. All regular and some low-cost flights bound for Warsaw land at the F. Chopin airport. Regular international flights operate from terminal A. You can get to the city centre:
Mazovia-Warsaw Airport Modlin is a new airport located 40 km from the Warsaw city centre. This airport operates mostly the low-cost airlines. You can get to the city centre:
There are direct train connections to many European cities. You can check your train on the Polish Railways web page. The Warsaw Central Railway Station is located in the heart of the city. You can get fast and easily to any part of Warsaw from there either using public transport or a taxi.
The bus station Dworzec PKS Warszawa Zachodnia serves international and national connections. Many long distance buses stop also in front of the Warsaw Central Railway Station. There are regular connections to many European destinations.
Warsaw is now most conveniently connected to the European route E30 via the A2 motorway running from the Polish-German border. Along these roads there are signs indicating the distance in kilometers to the centre of Warsaw. You can plan your route at Google Maps, Expedia, Michelin, and many others.
We generally do not advise to travel by car since Warsaw is quite congested. It is rather hard to move around by car in rush hours and finding parking downtown may be a serious problem. Of course you can leave your car in the Institute's car park during the conference.
Warsaw’s city bike system, Veturilo (https://en.veturilo.waw.pl/), has a reasonably dense network of renting machines around the city centre (unfortunately it gets more sparse around the conference venue, see https://en.veturilo.waw.pl/locations/). In order to use Veturilo, you need to register in the system, make an initial transfer of 10 PLN, and keep your Veturilo „account” non-zero (if you already have an account in another system operated by Nextbike, it should work with Veturilo). A rental up to 20 minutes is free, 20-60 minutes costs 1 PLN, second hour is 3 PLN (see https://en.veturilo.waw.pl/informacje/ for the full list of fares).
Warsaw public transport system (ZTM) includes buses, trams and metro connections. It is reliable, (mostly) fast, and relatively inexpensive. Tickets are available from most newspaper agents, ticket machines (on each metro station, near several bus/tram stops and in most buses/trams) and from bus/tram drivers (in case there is no ticket machine on board). Tickets are valid for all means of municipal transport. Tickets have to be validated in yellow machines located in the buses, trams and metro stations (there is one exception: tickets with a QR code bought in the vehicle – these are already validated). A single ticket entitles one to an unlimited number of journeys within a time limit, the prices range from 3.40 PLN (20 minutes) to 7.00 PLN (90 minutes); the most popular ticket costs 4.40 PLN (75 minutes). If you plan to extensively use the public transport, consider purchasing a 24 h ticket (15 PLN) which gives you flexibility in changing means of transport (also, you do not have to remember to validate tickets every time, it is enough to do it only once, during the first ride). For detailed information, see the ZTM ticket tariff and ticket sales network.
Note: Only 75 and 90 minutes tickets are available from the driver (no additional fee is charged), the passenger is requested to pay the exact amount. The driver may refuse to sell the ticket if the bus/tram is delayed, it may also be the case that the driver has no tickets at all.
More information is available from ZTM website.
It is advisable to book a taxi by telephone. If you pick a taxi on the street or from a taxi stand, be sure you choose one from a licensed company. Several licensed taxi companies are listed below:
Maximum rates per kilometer vary from 3 PLN (weekday, city area, between 6:00-22:00) to 9 PLN (Saturday night, far from the center). Additional start fee is always charged (no more than 8 PLN). These are maximum fares and most companies charge up to 2.5 PLN per km in the city during workdays.
The driver should give you a receipt on demand. Some taxi companies accept credit cards, but reluctantly. To reach the conference venue you need to tell the taxi driver to go to: "Jana Kazimierza 5".
In the center of Warsaw in most areas a parking fee is charged. Parking is payable Mon.-Fri. from 8:00 to 18:00. (But the conference venue is outside this payable area, and there is a free parking lot that belongs to IPI PAN.)
Parking fees:
Please have enough cash to buy the ticket in the parking meter – the new type machines accepting both cash and credit cards are available only in some districts. Parking ticket must be placed behind the front windshield, fully visible from the outside. Please be advised that fines for improper parking are rather high and that your car may be towed away or wheel clamped if parked violating road regulations.
All major companies such as Avis, Europcar or Hertz have their offices in Warsaw. Prices range from 200 to 1000 PLN per day.
Please check The Warsaw Essentials and other useful information at the Official Tourist Website of Warsaw.
