Travel Informations
You can come to Poland either by plane or by train. First we provide short directions related to your plane journey or train journey. Then we provide directions on how to get to the conference site once you are in Zakopane.
Travelling by Plane
The airport nearest to Zakopane is in Krakow-Balice. From the airport you need to get to "Dworzec Glowny", the main railway station and than take a bus or train to Zakopane. Alternativelly you can rent a car at the airport. There is a rail connection every half an hour and two bus lines from Krakow-Balice airport to the center of Krakow: 192 and 208. Location of the train and bus stop is indicated here. There is no real railway station at the airport - just a small platform and a shelter.
The easiest way to get to Zakopane from the Krakow is to take a bus from the bus station, just next to the Krakow main railway station. Lines "Szwagropol", "Frej" and "PKS" go directly to Zakopane. A bus journey takes two hours for Frey and Szwagropol, while a bit over two hours for the PKS buses. Tickets are sold by bus drivers for approximatelly 20 zl. The departure timetable for Krakow is as follows:
| Frej | 6.20, 7.10, 7.40, 8.20, 8.55, 9.55, 10.20, 11.25, 12.05, 12.50, 14.00, 14.35, 15.00, 15.25, 15.50, 16.40, 17.15, 18.55, 19.40, 20.05, 21.05 |
| Szwagropol | 6.40, 7.35, 8.40, 9.40, 10.10, 11.05, 12.00, 12.40, 14.10, 14.50, 15.50, 16.10, 17.10, 18.15, 18.45, 19.15, 20.00, 22.05 |
| PKS | approximatelly every 40min from 5am to 10pm |
Please watch for the sign "Zakopane" in front window of the buses.
Here is the map of Krakow railway station and the bus stop there:
If you are unable to find a suitable connection to Krakow you can take a plane to Katowice-Pyrzowice or Warsaw airports and travel to Zakopane by bus or train. There is a bus connection from Katowice-Pyrzowice airport to Kraków, the journey takes approximetelly 1.5h - see http://www.matuszek.com.pl/transfery_en.html. The travel from Warsaw to Kraków takes more than 3h, you must first get the bus to the Warsaw-Central railway station and than the train to Kraków. The train schedule can be checked here.
If you have not been to Krakow before, we recommend to see at least the market square there. Krakow is the former capital city of Poland, and is considered by many to be the most gorgeous spot in Poland. Some information on Krakow: http://www.cracow-life.com and http://www.krakow.pl/en/
Travelling by Train
If you plan to travel by train, make sure that the final destination of your journey is the station in Zakopane.
Information on train timetables can be found on the journey planing web site of the Polish Railway Company (PKP). It can be used to find internetional connections.
Finally in Zakopane
You will arrive to Zakopane at either the train station or the bus station, unless you rented a car. The train station and the bus station are located next to each other - see the map below. The distance from this place to the Geovita hotel, the conference site, is one kilometer and getting there on foot takes rougly 15 minutes.Instread of walking you can take a taxi. Near the stations there is a taxi stop, from which a taxi service to Geovita costs about 10 zl.
Currency Exchange Information
The currency in Poland is the Polish Zloty. Its symbols are "zl" and "PLN" (these are two equivalent symbols), and its exchange rate at the moment is 1 euro = 4.15 zl.
You can easily get the Polish money in banks or from automated teller machines (ATMs). In Polish an ATM is called "bankomat" - ATM places are marked with this name. Usually Visa, Visa Electron, Maestro and MasterCard are accepted. There is no commission imposed by the ATM operator, but your bank may charge you an additional currency exchange commission. Should you need to ask for directions to the nearest ATM, ask young people as they speak good English.
It is very easy to excange money in many exchange offices, located in each city. They always display containing buy and sell prices, on some places like e.g. airports the commission is quite high.