Are you excited about your Wikimania 2024 journey? With a web of well-connected transportation, including an international airport, efficient rail links, and seamless road networks, Katowice is your gateway to the CEE Region like no other!
Katowice is a vibrant city with a unique blend of industrial heritage and modern attractions, from the iconic Spodek arena to the fascinating underground galleries of the Silesian Museum. Stroll through the charming streets, or relax in the Silesian Park, one of the largest urban parks in Europe.
Planning your arrival
The conference program will begin on the morning of August 7, at 9:00 am local time. It will run through the evening of August 10. For those arriving in Katowice early on August 6, we will be organizing activities around the city. There will not be conference programming on this day. Some groups and committees will be organizing meetings for themselves. There will be also activities around the city happening on August 11, when most people will depart.
Flying in
Rules and regulations that apply to airborne travel don’t differ much from other countries, especially the Schengen Zone. The amount of fluids you can have in your hand luggage at security control is limited to 100 ml per bottle (and no more than 1 liter in total)–there are no CT scanners on Polish airports yet.
Katowice Airport
Katowice is served by the airport located 25 km / 15 mi apart from the city center. At the airport, there’s a train station (with no direct trains to Katowice at the time of writing). There are also bus and taxi stops by the terminal.
The recommended way of getting to Katowice from the airport is using bus line AP. It departs every 30 minutes (at night: every hour) from the airport and stops at several stops in Katowice (see more). This trip takes around 40 minutes. There are no special tickets for airport bus lines—a regular tariff applies (see below for ticket buying options).
Warsaw Airport
Main Polish airport, situated in Warsaw (crow’s flight distance to the city center: 7.5 km / 5 mi). Next to the airport terminal, there’s an underground train station from where trains to Warsaw depart every 15–20 minutes (except for nights). You can use city buses as well (it’s served by 4 day lines and one night line).
From Warsaw you can book a LOT flight to Katowice (there are 5 flights a day). If you’re arriving at Warsaw and wish to go directly to Katowice by train, the recommended way is from the Warszawa Lotnisko Chopina station transferring at Warszawa Zachodnia to Katowice—there are around 15 direct connections every day and the trip takes between 2h 30min and 3h 30min, depending on the train you pick. We encourage to buy tickets a few days in advance. Polish Railways allow to buy tickets a maximum of one month in advance, and they are the cheapest in the earliest days of availability.
Travelling by a train
There’s a good number of trains coming from both within Poland (including Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław), as well as trains crossing Poland’s western and southern borders. There are direct connections with e.g. Berlin, Ostrava, Prague, Budapest and Vienna. More international routes are possible with transfers.
Express trains in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity. In order to ride such a train, you’ll have to buy a ticket in advance. The sales open 30 days (for international trains: 60 days) before departure and close 5 minutes before scheduled departure time. Tickets are sold for a specific relation and specific time. This means that you have to know precisely when you’ll be travelling.
Contrary to express trains, tickets for regional trains are sold for a relation and not a specific trip from a schedule. This means that you can use the ticket for another train on the same route (provided that it’s during the ticket’s validity time). Regional train tickets are valid for at least 3 hours from the time printed on the ticket (actual validity time can be longer and is decided on the carrier and may depend on the trip length, check here—in Polish).
Train tickets are available for purchase is ticket offices at many stations. They can also be bought on-line, for example on Koleo or Jakdojade app (Jakdojade offers only express trains). Regional train tickets can be bought from the Skycash app that also allows to buy other kinds of transport tickets.
Local transport
The local transport is organized by Polish communes independently. Therefore, you should expect that ticket types, prices, and specific regulations will vary between cities. The most popular types of ticket are for a specific time (eg. 20 min, 1 hour, 24 hours, etc.), so it’s a good idea to check how long your trip is going to take in advance.
We recommend using the Jakdojade app for buying bus and tram tickets and planning your trips (download for Android or iOS; webapp). It supports over 30 Polish cities and allows to buy tickets in many of them.
Check the Travel page on the Wikimania wiki
See the Wikimania wiki for detailed information, such as money, climate, network, and insurance.
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