I’d been really nervous to travel abroad since 2020, so I didn’t think I would be going anywhere in 2021. However, I had a random week off in November and my friend Alice happened to have the same week off; so we decided to have a look at SkyScanner and found cheap flights to Poland. We didn’t have a destination in mind, we just fancied seeing what the cheapest flights were for our available dates. This is how we ended up travelling to Poland for £45 including flights and accommodation.
Finding cheap flights to Poland
When looking for flights, the first thing I do is use the SkyScanner app on my phone. As I said, we didn’t have a destination in mind, we just wanted to go somewhere for a couple of days. We live fairly close to Birmingham airport, so we used that as our departing airport. We then set the destination as ‘Everywhere’ to find the cheapest flights for our dates of travel.
The cheapest flights that came up were to Poland, but a town we hadn’t heard of called Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki which were just £11 return. Kraków was the next cheapest at £25 return and we had both been there before and loved it, so decided to book the flights. Luckily for us, the flight times were really good. We left Birmingham at 7:10am on the Monday and then left Kraków at 4:30pm on the Wednesday, giving us 2.5 days in Poland.
Keeping the cost of the flights down
As you may know if you have flown with Ryanair before, the flights may be cheap but they bump the prices up with add ons. We decided that we wanted to keep them as cheap as possible, so opted for no luggage no extras. Included in the price of the flight is one personal item. This is a bag that is 25 cm x 40 cm x 20 cm and should be able to fit under the seat in front of you. I used my large Dr. Martens backpack that is slightly larger than the guideline size but nobody mentioned it at the airport and it did fit under the seat in front.
Only having one small bag meant that I needed to pack light but this wasn’t an issue. I made sure to plan what items of clothing I’d wear and didn’t overpack. This also meant that we had to stick to the 100ml liquids rule as well, so I only packed what I knew I would need. In the past I’ve been known to overpack, so I avoided this as it would defeat the point of getting cheap flights to Poland! We got the airport train, however you may find that Krakow airport transfer via car works better for later flights.
Finding cheap accommodation in Krakow
Once we’d managed to secure cheap flights to Poland, we had to find somewhere to stay. In order to keep costs down, we knew we weren’t going to be looking at anything like 5 * hotels. Whenever I go away, I always book my accommodation on Booking.com – I do this because they always have great cancellation policies and usually offer the best prices. We were lucky enough to find a hotel room right in the centre, a short walk away from the Rynek Główny town square and opposite the main shopping centre/train station. This twin room was clean, spacious and had a private bathroom all for £41 for two nights between the two of us.
Overall, our trip to Kraków cost us a grand total of £45.50 each for flights and accommodation. This left us plenty of money to spend while we were there, although Poland is known for being very cheap!
I am going to have to visit Poland soon!
Danielle | thereluctantblogger.co.uk