Poland: So much more than a cut-price city break destination
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I have been travelling to Poland since before you were born (specifically 1985) and, every time I go there, the nation becomes more appealing – from cuisine and better transport to interpretations of a rich and complex history. But for Travel Desk Tuesday I am talking to global travel editor Annabel Grossman, who is just back from her first visit. She explored national parks and superb beaches, and even found herself on the very brink of Russia.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. It's Tuesday the 28th of April. |
| 0:10.3 | You might remember last time I talked to Global Travel Editor Annabel Grossman on Travel Day Tuesday, |
| 0:17.2 | she was reporting back from Greenland. I'm glad to say, She's gone to a country which is rather more to my liking recently, which is Poland. Welcome back, Annabel. |
| 0:28.3 | Thanks, Simon. This was actually my first trip to Poland rather amazingly. I previously not been particularly attracted to the country. As you know, I'm not usually a |
| 0:39.5 | big fan of city breaks. I'd rather get out into the countryside. And I explained to |
| 0:44.9 | Poland as the place you go to Krakow or Gadansk for a few days in the city, not somewhere that |
| 0:50.4 | you really enjoy the great outdoors. But I was proved very wrong. So talk us through |
| 0:54.9 | your itinerary, please. Okay, so I covered quite a lot of ground. I started in Gdansk, where I spent |
| 1:01.9 | three nights. As I mentioned, I wouldn't usually choose to spend too much time in a city, but I thought |
| 1:07.5 | Godansk was brilliant and I stayed longer than I actually planned to. |
| 1:17.1 | Then I picked up a car and I drove out to the Vistula Spit to a town called Khrnitsamushka, |
| 1:22.8 | which is right near the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. |
| 1:32.8 | From there, I drove back via Gadansk down to the Savalchi Gap, which is the corridor of land between this Russian exclave and Belarus. |
| 1:41.2 | I visited a couple of national parks there, and then I drove back up and around to Gadansk via Poland's Lake District. |
| 1:49.3 | Let's go through those one by one. So Gadansk, I'd say, is probably my favorite Polish city, |
| 1:55.8 | partly because unlike Warsaw, unlike Krakow, it has, of course, the Baltic Sea on its doorstep. |
| 1:56.4 | It also has an extraordinary depth of history, ancient and relatively modern, including the astonishing |
| 2:05.4 | museum to the Solidarity movement. Yes, the Solidarnage Museum is quite possibly one of my |
| 2:13.9 | favourite I've ever visited. I had factored in maybe an hour to visit it. I was there for |
| 2:18.7 | three to four maybe. I wasn't as aware of maybe as maybe I should be of the Gerdansk's |
| 2:25.8 | amazing history and the contributions that the city has made. And I think this museum spells |
| 2:31.6 | out very well. |
... |
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