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Kraków is a city in the south of Poland.

Kraków
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Information
Country:
Flag of Poland
Poland
Voivodeship:
Coat of arms of Lesser Poland (Voivodeship).png
Lesser Poland (Voivodeship)
Population: 754 624
Licence plate: KR
Major roads: A4
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Hitchhiking out

West towards Katowice, Wrocław A4 E 40

  • From bus stop behind junction with traffic lights

From city centre take tram 4, 8, 13 direction Bronowice Małe and get off at Balicka Wiadukt (one before the last one). Turn right (north), go down the stairs from the bridge and continue walking for about 700m till you get to the roundabout. Turn left (west) and hitch at the bus stop just behind the roundabout. You can get to the spot also by many buses e.g 172, 238 and get off at Motel Krak. There are streetlights which allow to hitchhike at night. It's better to write Katowice on your sign, not Wroclaw, seems to be easier to start. There are toll booths and petrol stations on the way to continue in the direction Wrocław/Dresden/Cottbus.

    • Recent development:

For quite a few months now, the formerly excellent spot near Motel Krak, is undergoing extensive road reconstruction, which according to plans will lead to a giant sort of cloverleaf being constructed here. Although this would be a bad development for hitchhiking here, there is still very little known about how the busses are going to be rerouted, and considering it won't be upgraded to motorway standards, probably not even expressway standards, pedestrian access will likely still be possible, and it could very well be that there will be still some bus stops near this site after the reconstruction. For the time being, however, in my opinion, this site should be downgraded to   (bad)/  (senseless) in terms of hitchhiking.

  • From petrol station in city suburbs

From bus stop Motel Krak (see above) you can walk down the road for about 1.5km or take any bus in that direction and get off at the second stop called Pasternik Cmentarz (you have to press the stop button otherwise the bus won't stop). There's petrol station and small parking for trucks.

  • From toll booths

From main railway station take bus 208 or 292 direction Port Lotniczy (Airport). If you take bus 208 get off at Balice Autostrada (NŻ) (you have to press the stop button otherwise the bus won't stop). Walk back for about 30m and turn left (west). Continue walking, go over the motorway by the bridge from which you will see the toll booths. Here's the route It's a bout 1.5km walk. If you take the bus 292 you have to walk a bit more (about 3km). Get off at the airport and follow this route. There is also local train going to the airport from main railway station.

 
Hitching from Krakow to Ukraine
  • From first gas station on the highway

It's about 1km further than toll booths, but the spot is better than booths. You must take bus 226, 209 or 258 and get off on stop "Winna Góra", you will see the gas station from here. Also check jakdojade.pl because the buses are running once for two hours.

North towards Warszawa, Gdańsk 7 E 77

There are two common places: Start to hitchhike after the inner bypass on Opolska street - you can get there by buses number 139,132,172,105,102,207 - bus stop name is Opolska estakada, but it is quite a busy spot.

A better option is to take the bus number 217,247,277 until the stop Kuźnicy Kołłątajowskiej. All these busses are avaible from the station Nowy Kleparz which you reach by bus from the center or walk, it is about 2km north of the old town. If you go there by bus you might get off at a station where only the busses to Opolska estakada stop. The bus terminal where the busses 217,247,277 leave is about 100m further north from the crossroads at Plac Nowy Kleparz. Magda and Ron decided to try to hitch while waiting for the bus in Opolska estakada and it worked! They found a ride with a truck driver all the way to Warszawa.

Watch out because the bus does not stop at the last stop but drives on so you want to know when to get off. There is a lot of space on deceleration lane going to the petrol station and cars are going extremely slow because there is a traffic light just ahead.

East towards Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Lviv (UA) 4 E 40

  • The best option , is to take a minibus to the town of Bochnia, 25 km east from Krakow (costs 5 PLN). The highway doesn't go further than this town. Just stand on the E40, and hitch rides (waiting times should not exceed 15-20 minutes). (more expensive though, since it's actually possible to get a normal bus ride without ticket and not a minibus ride)
  • Since 2011, people usualy take the newly built highway in direction of the east. Take the bus 304 and get off at "Prokocim CPN". There is a bus stop and plenty of space to stop even for a truck.

To Ukraine you can't cross the border by foot in Korczowa, but in Medyka! In Korczowa you can wait for 3 hours because there are a lot of cars!

South and southwest towards Rabka Zdrój, Ružomberok (SK) 7 E 77, Zakopane 47 and Bielsko-Biała 52

Take tram no. 8, 19, 22, 23, 40(operating only on Sundays and day offs) from center or bus no. 141, 145, 151, 201, 204, 214, 215, 225, 244, 265, 451, 608(night) from suburbs in direction Zakopiańska and get off at the last stop (Borek Fałęcki). There is a small bus station. Walk south on Zakopiańska street for a few hundred meters, then you will see a traffic lights after which is a bus stop where you can hitch. Cars drive here slowly, but you also get too much urban traffic. If you don't get a ride in 30 min, it's better to take one of the local buses (175, 235, 245, 255, 275, 285) till after the highway crossing (stop Opatkowice), where you get much better traffic heading your way.

If your are heading to Slovakia, the road splits towards SK is Rabka. On the split itself there is a good spot to hitchhike, although still a lot of local traffic. You can also take the bus from the main bus station to Rabka. It is 10PLZ. Make sure you tell the driver exactly where to drop you off.