How to get from Warsaw to Gdańsk: All Travel Options

The journey between Warsaw and Gdańsk is one of the most often taken by tourists doing the longer Poland’s itinerary. It’s not a surprise, both Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and Gdańsk, the beautiful city on the north of Poland at the Baltic coast are worth a visit and should be on your Poland plan.

You can get between them by train, plane, bus, and car. In this post, I will describe all the exact information and details about every option. I live in Gdynia, which is a city next to Gdańsk. Furthermore, I visit Warsaw regularly, as my family lives there. So I will also add my personal experience and advice to this post.

In short, I think the best option for the travel from Warsaw to Gdańsk is the train.

Let’s see why and all the details regarding this journey.

How to get from Warsaw to Gdańsk: Train

The travel option between Warsaw and Gdańsk I usually choose is by train. If you are visiting one city and then going to the second one, it will be the best and quickest option (quicker than the plane, if you also calculate getting to and from airports).

The train ride with the quickest trains can take as little as 2.5 hours.

Both main train stations, Warsaw Central and Gdańsk Główny are in the city centres, close to many hotels and attractions. In Gdańsk, it’s a walking distance from Old Town. In Warsaw, it’s also possible to walk to Old Town, but it’s a bit further; better to take a tram, bus, or taxi.

There are many trains per day on this route in different options: quicker (and more expensive) and cheaper (but taking longer).

When you buy a ticket, look at the type of train. Unless you are on very-budget-travel, I would advise not to take TLK train; it takes longer, and it’s not very comfortable.

The best is a train called Pendolino; it will be shown as EIP. There are many trains of this type per day. They are rather quick; and here the journey takes around 2.5 hours. This is a modern train; trains are also nice-looking and comfortable. They also have a first-class wagon, but staying in second-class is comfortable on this type of train as well.

If you like to stay in silence, look at the wagon number 7, usually it’s a ‘silent zone’.

Quite often, there is also a restaurant wagon with quite decent food. You can even order dishes or coffee to your place.

One important notice: enter this train only if you have a ticket; you can’t buy the ticket for EIP Pendolino on the train from the conductor. You can check train schedules and buy tickets on the PKP Polish Railways website.

Pendolino costs 169 PLN (around 40 Euro), it can have a lower ticket price if you book earlier.

Here I described on more details information about public transport in Poland, especially trains.

From Warsaw to Gdańsk: Plane

Both cities have international airports. Warsaw Chopin Airport is the main airport in Poland, and Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport is usually in the third place among the busiest ones (more about all international airports in Poland you can read here).

There are direct flights between both airports with domestic lines, LOT Polish Airlines. Depending on the day, there are 4 – 6 flights per day, and the flight times are around 1 hour (the flight distance is 284 km).

Flight prices start at around 200 zł (46 Euro) one way. If you buy return tickets, it’s cheaper.

From budget airlines flights, in the past, there were also Ryanair flights from Warsaw to Gdansk airport, but some time ago they were cancelled. There is no Warsaw – Gdańsk Wizz Air flight at the moment.

It’s a comfortable journey, and you can easily reach both airports from the city centre by train or public bus. Check out details regarding getting from Gdańsk Airport to city centre in this blog post.

Taking plane between Warsaw and Gdańsk is a good option. It’s best to use it if, for example, you have just arrived to Warsaw by longer flight and right away you travel further to Gdańsk.

Bus between Warsaw and Gdańsk

Obviously, there are also buses between Warsaw and Gdańsk. It takes longer than with the train; travel time is around 4.5-5 hours, but it may be cheaper than the quickest train.

There are different bus companies, but the easiest is probably to look at Flixbus and buy bus tickets on their website. Just note that the Flixbus bus doesn’t start or end in the centre of Warsaw. It goes from Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) or from bus terminus Metro Młociny- here you can get by metro. Check the station when you book.

Gdańsk Bus Station (Dworzec Autobusowy) is next to Gdańsk Główny train station.

For me, bus is rather backup option, train, and plane are better. Bus is good though, if you fly to or from Warsaw Modlin Airport and need to arrive to Gdańsk, as there is direct Flixbus bus from the airport to Gdańsk.

Car Drive

Another option is getting from Warsaw to Gdańsk by car. The driving distance is around 400 km; it will take you around 4 hours.

Just be careful about driving during summer weekends not to get stuck in traffic jams. Gdańsk is very popular destination also among Polish people, so traffic might be big.

How to get from Gdańsk to Warsaw: Private Transfer

There is one more option, which is probably the most comfortable. It’s a private transfer. It can be provided for up to 6 people. The transfer takes around 4 hours, and you will be picked up directly from the airport or hotel.

Book your transfer from Warsaw to Gdańsk here.

As you see, the journey from Warsaw to Gdańsk is easy, and there is a choice of transportation with not bad journey times. I hope this post has helped you organise this transfer.

Gdańsk is a great city with interesting history and museums (for example, Amber Museum), beautiful architecture, and beaches. If you ask me about the best place in Poland, Gdańsk would be very high on the list (maybe even the highest?). It’s great you are looking at visiting it.

When in Gdańsk, it might be worth it to buy Gdańsk Tourist Card.

And visit the city… from the kayak perspective!