As Ukraine war goes on, is it safe to visit its neighbour?
Q
I’ve always wanted to visit Poland. We were thinking of holidaying there at Easter 2023. I am particularly keen to visit Krakow and the area around. We had originally planned to go this year but were worried about the proximity to Ukraine. Do you believe it will be safe now?
Maureen B
A
Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has wrought death and destruction on Russia’s neighbour. In addition the attack
has heightened concern about security in Europe, with a nonzero possibility that nuclear weapons could be deployed by the Kremlin. The conflict has understandably raised concern among people who, like you, are keen to visit Poland or another “frontline state”, particularly Slovakia and Hungary.
Yet I would gladly travel to these nations, with one caveat: I would stay away from the Ukrainian border. Not from fear about my personal safety, but to avoid any possibility of inadvertently impeding the humanitarian effort. Krakow is a long way from the frontier and so that would not be a concern.
Easter 2023 will be a lovely time to visit this spiritual city. Visitor numbers are likely to be depleted by others’ worries about Ukraine, so you can expect good deals on hotels. The same does not apply to flights: many people in the UK with family connections in Poland travel there each Easter, driving up demand and fares.
Given your concerns and the unpredictability of the Russian president, it would make sense to defer a final decision until a few weeks before your planned departure. Accommodation and flight seats will still be available. I recommend you also book a guide to take you around Krakow for at least your first morning, to help bring this intriguing and beautiful city to life.
If time allows, consider adding the nearby city of Katowice to your itinerary, either before or after Krakow. You can fly into one and out of the other, as I did on my most recent trip, with a fast train connecting the two. Katowice presents a very different (but friendly and fascinating) face of Poland, with evidence of the decades spent as a communist state alongside some handsome historic monuments and impressive 21st-century developments.
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