Sandomierz

Introduction

Sandomierz is a town in central eastern Poland, by the Vistula river, with 23,863 inhabitants. In the Middle Ages it was a capital of historical part of Lesser Poland called Sandomierz Province (in Polish: województwo sandomierskie). In the 13th century the town suffered severe damage during the raids by Mongols in 1241, 1260 and (see also Krakow and Legnica). It is one of the most romantic towns in Poland.

Sights and Activities

The heart of the town is the historical Old Town with two squares and the city hall in the middle. The Royal Castle, the cathedral and a few churches are situated on the outskirts of the old town. Over the Vistula River bank there is the Collegium Gostomianum, one of the oldest schools in Poland founded in 1602. The Old Town is one of the most valuable places of this type in Europe.

Getting There

By Plane

Airports in Rzeszow, Krakow, Warsaw and Lublin in the area.

By Train

A few train connections to Rzeszow and Warsaw.

By Car

The town lies on a road routes Kielce - Przemysl and Warsaw - Krakow (along the Vistula river).

Getting Around

By Public Transport

The public transport in the town with some buses to / from Tarnobrzeg.

By Bike

Green Velo (greenvelo.pl) from Konskie through Kielce, Sandomierz, Rzeszow, Przemysl, Chelm, Bialystok and Suwalki to Elblag.

Keep Connected

Internet

In the cities there are more and more Wifi Hot Spots, so if you have your own mobile device, you can connect. Best chances of finding one are at airports, railway stations, in cafés, shopping malls and universities. Places like McDonald's and Starbucks usually have unlimited free wifi. In some hotels you can find free wifi, though you might have to pay as well or maybe just use it for a limited amount of time. Internet cafes become less popular recently as people prefer to use internet at homes.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

To call to Poland from abroad, dial the Polish country code,48, then the number without the leading 0, as if calling from a domestic mobile phone.
The general emergency number is 112. Police (997), Ambulance (999) and Fire (998) have phone numbers as well, and municipal police has 986 as a number.

Mobile phones work almost across the whole country. There are four mobile phone operators in Poland: Plus, T-Mobile, Orange and Play. About 98% of the country is covered by the standard European GSM 900/1800 MHz network, the remaining 2% are wildlife reserves or high mountains. 3G is available in almost every town.
Domestic call rates are roughly the same across all services. Prepaid starter kits with SIM card (called starter in Polish) are widely available in reasonable prices (PLN5-20, most of which is available for calls), in most of the shops, supermarkets and news agents.

Just about every shopping centre has at least one independent cellphone shop, the guys who run them are usually knowledgeable and have a range of cheap handsets which you can use as a local / travel phone. This may be a good option since juggling SIM cards is always a pain.

Post

Poczta Polska is the Polish public post service. Post offices are generally open from 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday. Some offices are open on Saturday until 2:00pm and the main post offices in major cities are open daily, 24 hours. Services are generally ok, but don't expact it to be fast and it is not always reliable, though most letters, postcards and parcels will arrive at its destinations after a week or two. You can find the red post boxes dotted throughout the country. You can check this postal website to see how much sending a letter, postcard or parcels costs, both domestically as well as internationally. For sending packages internationally, you can also check FedEx, TNT, DHL or UPS, as they have fast and reliable services and generally competitive prices as well.

External Links