Travel tips for Gdańsk

Poland is in the European Union and the Schengen area, but not the eurozone — the currency here is the Polish złoty (PLN), and displayed prices already include VAT, so what's on the menu or the ticket window is what you pay; a tip of about 10 % covers a restaurant, rounding up elsewhere. Gdańsk is a coastal city, not a mountain resort, though it shares Warsaw's Central European Time. Driving is on the right, and the roads along the coast toward Hel can be narrow and slow, with weekend and holiday traffic that sometimes doubles the drive.

Gdańsk has its own airport: Lech Wałęsa (GDN), about 12 km from the centre, and the SKM train runs the regional network at all hours rather than on sightseeing timetables. Gdańsk is one hour behind Athens, the same hour as Paris, Berlin, Rome and Madrid, so flight times and opening hours should never be quoted in Eastern European time. The weather changes from town to coast: it can be clear in Gdańsk while Hel is under cloud or the ferry is cancelled for wind, which is worth knowing before booking rather than discovering on arrival.

None of this changes at Sopot or the Solidarity Centre specifically: both are subject to closure for weather or season, while ferry cancellations and museum queues are safety and access facts, not currency or visa ones.