I will be visiting Kraków this November, and since I will fly to Katowice for cheaper tickets, and I will also visit Wieliczka and Oswiecim, I want to rent a car from Katowice. The deals I found from Skyscanner were incredibly cheap so I think I’ll go with it. Once inside the city, I’ll probably move around with the public transportation and leave the car at the hotel. I will just use it to visit the places outside the city.

I was wondering if there are car zones that I can’t enter unless I live there (like for example in Bologna that I just visited, where they had a ztl area), so how will I move the car to and from the hotel? The closest thing I found to car zones was [This Google maps legend](https://i.imgur.com/SFzlu51.jpg), but I don’t know what each color represents and the legend info is in Polish. Could anyone explain it to me? I’m mostly interested in entering them, not so much about parking cause I’ll just find a hotel with a parking lot.

3 comments

  2. You don’t need a car for transport between Katowice and Kraków (there are multiple trains and buses available every day) or to visit Wieliczka or Oświęcim. Public transport is excellent, just use google maps. Renting a car will be a waste of money, plus hassle finding parking spaces.

    Also, keep in mind that traffic violation fines have gone up by a factor of four or five in Poland this year. A simple collision (barely scratching someone’s car) will cost you min. 1k PLN (225 EUR), not stopping for a pedestrian on pedestrian crossing 315 EUR etc.

  3. Red zones from your map have most restrictions. You won’t be allowed to enter A1 (middle of red) at all, and a lot of streets in rest of red zones. Parkings there are expensive and almost always overcrowded. B (blue) and C (green) are fine to enter, and there is a bit more parking space. But finding one isn’t that easy. Overall, driving and parking in Krakow is challenging, especially in the center. If you are just staying in Krakow, coming from Katowice, and going to Wieliczka, public transport will be cheaper, easier, and very often faster. There are shuttle buses from the airport directly to Krk, and from Krk to Wieliczka

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