2 days in Gdansk

My latest budget escapade was a short visit to Gdansk, the historic maritime city on the Baltic coast of Poland. For this I set myself a challenge to do a solo 2 day European city break for under £200.

Having been to a fair few cities in my lifetime I’ve found that generally you don’t need more than a day or so to see the main highlights.

Clearly this depends on the city, for example, the likes of Tokyo or Rome or Buenos Aires are vast and each have many attractions and many different districts to explore. In these cases, time and circumstances permitting, you may opt for longer.

So you need to be selective with your ‘short break’ city to try and plan a reasonable and practical amount of time there.

My aim was to spend 2 days and one night in my city of choice to demonstrate just how much you can see, do and experience in a short space of time while keeping costs down.

This was my third visit to Poland having been to Warsaw in 2005 and Krakow in 2022. Gdansk has been on my mind for a couple of years following a recommendation by a ‘friend of a friend’ who I remembered her saying “It’s lovely and has canals like Venice”.

As well as Gdansk I also squeezed in the nearby coastal towns of Gdynia & Sopot during this trip which will have their own up-and-coming blog post!

History

As mentioned, with its prime location on the Baltic coast Gdansk has centuries of maritime history.

In addition and more recently, in the 1980’s Lech Walesa, a former president of Poland was famous for leading the solidarity movement which helped the fall of communism in Poland. He started this in Gdansk.

One of the most historic and characterful places in Gdansk is the 14th Century Mariacka Street with its abundance of creepy stone gargoyles and brightly coloured shops selling amber products.

About 90% of the Earth’s amber resourses came from the Baltic Sea and Gdansk is known as the ‘amber capital of the world’.

This huge historic crane is the oldest and largest of such a crane from medieval Europe.

Near to the crane you can find bars, restaurants and cafes which line the waterfront.

The Green Gate was built between 1664 and 1668 for Polish kings visiting Gdansk. This is at one end of the pedestrian Dlugi Targ street. Dlugi Targ was once the main market area of the city and its English name is ‘Long Market’.

Located about halfway along Dlugi Targ street, Neptune’s Fountain can be seen which has been there since it opened in 1633.

Towers

I’m happy to visit museums which are enriching and help you to learn more about the history of a place you are visiting. But give me a tower (or two) and happy days… that would be my preference! I’m more of a ‘big picture’ person taking in panoramic landscape views than getting too involved in detail!

While in Gdansk I did in fact climb two towers!

The first was St Mary’s tower which is part of the huge St Mary’s church. This bell tower is the highest building in the city.

I climbed the 400 steps of the bell tower for panoramic views of the city where you can see the Baltic Sea in the distance. The climb started with a narrow twisting stone staircase but about a third of the way up it opened out into the large square area of the tower with wider steps.

There is a small open terrace at the top of the tower but unless you are at least 5 ft tall its difficult to see over the barrier!

Back to the church…

As mentioned St Mary’s Church is massive and, with a capacity of 25,000 – 30,000 it is the largest brick church in the world. Inside this majestic Roman Catholic church is the Astronomical Clock which consists of 3 levels: a calendar, a planetarium and a theatre of figures. Every day at 11:57 to 12:00 the clock has a display with a procession of its figures which ends with Adam and Eve who ring the bell at midday.

The next tower…

The other Gdansk tower I climbed? This was the tower of the Main Town Hall. Completed in the 15th century this is another major landmark in the city. There is also a museum here and you can visit either the museum, or the tower or both.

This time, I climbed 285 steps up the 83 meter tower, which is the second highest building in the city. From the top of the Town Hall tower I had a great view of St Mary’s Church and the large square tower (on the left) that I had previously climbed.

I preferred this ‘second’ tower, the Town Hall tower as it wasn’t quite as high and in my opinion the views were better. It was easier to see over the barrier and there was a bit more space up there.

Transport

Uber is available in Gdansk but I didn’t use Uber or any type of taxi during this trip as the public transport system was modern, efficient and very cheap!

During the trip, I had 3 separate train journeys (airport to Gdynia, Gdynia to Sopot and Sopot to Gdansk Central) and each time the cost was under £2.

I took bus number 210 from Gdansk Central for the 45 minute journey back to the international airport for only 4.80 PNL (£0.96).

You need to remember to validate your tickets!

Dinner

Looking for a Polish restaurant, I had dinner in Pomelo which began with a glass of red… a Chilean red as Poland isn’t famous for its vineyards or wine production 😂 vodka maybe but not wine!

In the Pomelo restaurant, keen to try a local (preferably vegetarian) dish, dumplings are the national staple of Poland.

The total cost for the dumpling main meal and glass of wine was £15.23 so not quite the low costs of the Balkans recently but having looked at a few Gdansk menu’s, this seemed to be fairly average so I would say meal prices are perhaps around 30% less than the UK.

Money matters

I’ve discovered that both Luton and Stansted airports have atm’s where you can withdraw from a small range of currencies including the Polish Zloty (PNL). I started to withdraw 100 PNL (around £20) so I would have some small change but quickly cancelled the transaction as it was to cost me over £26!

I had sterling in cash with me should I have needed it, but, as was the case in Krakow 3 years ago, I literally paid for everything by card! Even 96p bus tickets, £2 entrance fees… everything.

This makes things very easy. Easy to keep track of expenditure (on my commission free card with gives you a daily spend total), no need to carry any cash and no need to have left over currency you may not use again!

Accommodation

I stayed in the Hotel Liberum which was the green building above.

Next to the Brama Wyzynna Gate at the end of Dlugi Targ street, the location was fabulous, just a 5 minute walk from both towers for example. And the breakfast was amazing! A varied choice and everything was hot and fresh… by far the best breakfast I’ve had this year!

My top floor room with its sloping ceiling and single bed was tiny but with fresh crisp bedding and a soft pillow it was lovely and comfortable and it was perfect for my one night stay.

Summary of Gdansk

Following a very wet and rainy experience in Sarajevo just 10 days ago this time I was incredibly lucky to have had sun and blue skies! However the temperatures were cold… at only 8 degrees there wasn’t too much of an outside dining culture happening in the evening!

Gdansk is an attractive and colourful city with heaps of character and history as well as easy access via public transport to beaches and the other coastal towns of Gdynia and Sopot.

I would therefore highly recommend a visit! For me, 2 days was enough to experience the highlights but if you want to take your time relaxing in coffee shops and bars, having leisurely lunches and exploring museums at a slower pace you may need an extra day or two. This depends on the purpose and the objective of your visit.

Having visited only towns and cities in Poland, next time I would like to explore the mountains, forests and national parks of this country.

Budget details

Costs are comparatively lower than those in the UK so I would still consider Poland to be a budget destination albeit not quite a cheap as it was 20 years ago.

This is the breakdown of my expenditure:

• Return Ryanair flights Stansted to Gdansk (no extras) £38.68
• 1 night bed and breakfast in Liberum Hotel £56.13
• 2 days car parking at Stansted airport £34.83
• Total spent on food, entry tickets, transport and other expenses in 2 days £59.82

Overall the total amount I spent in two days visiting Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot was £189.46! Under budget this time 😃

Budget tip for parking at Stansted: I was surprised and a bit annoyed that parking for 2 days in the short stay at Stansted not much less than parking for a week there! I saved over £30 by using an app called JustPark and parking at the nearby Novotel.

The next post covers my visit to Gdynia and Sopot…