Related Content
Content
Warszawa / Warsaw to Kraków / Krakow / Cracow by train
How to travel by train from Warsaw to Krakow
Share
Routes
Option 1: taking the faster trains
Journey Summary
2hr 30min - 2hr 40min (approx)
Daily
Travel Information
Final Destination: Krakow or Zakopane or Rzeszow
These EIP trains use Poland's higher speed line, which enables them to reach speeds of up to 200 km/h.
The alternative trains:
As per usual when taking a long distance express train route in Poland, there are slower, but cheaper TLK train available when making a train journey from Warsaw to Krakow.
10 trains per day
Tickets
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: 30 days ahead of the travel date
As will be seen when looking up journeys on PKP, the train service between Warszawa and Krakow is split between:
1 - these EIP (Pendolino) trains (the most frequent service on the route)
2 – other slower TLK services
Using Rail Passes:
Rail pass users will need to make reservations before boarding these trains, but taking the TLK trains, will be cheaper, as explained here.
Book the reservations at a station when you arrive in Poland.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| PKP | * |
On this journey
Travelling On
Good to Know
Departing from Warszawa/Warsaw:
These trains cross the city from east to west - so they call first at Warszawa Wschodnia station, which is on the eastern side of the city centre.
If you will be commencing a journey in the vicinity of the old town, you can take tram line/route 13 from the 'Stare Miasto' stop direct to Wschodnia station.
They then call at Warszawa Centralna - the main station in the city, which is why we've used it for the orange station info button, which can be clicked above
After departing from Warszawa Centralna these trains will then call at Warszawa Zachodnia.
So check the location of the starting point of your journey, to see which of these three stations will suit you best.
Option 2: taking the slower but cheaper trains
Journey Summary
2hr 55min - 3hr 35min
Daily
Travel Information
Final Destination: Krakow or Zakopane
As per usual when taking a long-distance express train route in Poland, these slower TLK services provide a cheaper alternative to the faster EIP services, when making a train journey from Warsaw to Krakow.
Monday to Friday = 5 x trains per day
Saturday = 4 x trains
Sunday = 5 x trains
Tickets
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: 30 days ahead of the travel date
As will be seen when looking up journeys on PKP, the train service between Warszawa and Krakow is split between faster EIP trains and these IC and TLK services.
These TLK trains are slower but cheaper, if you will be booking only a couple of days ahead, then it's likely that the ticket price for these trains will be around 50% less than for those EIP services.
Though pay particular attention to the journey times when looking up these journeys by the TLK services
Using Rail Passes:
Rail pass users will need to make reservations before boarding these TLK trains, or the faster, EIP services, but if you have a rail pass the you will save money by taking these TLK trains, so it can be a good idea to look up their departure times on the Koleo website before arriving in Warsaw.
Book the reservations at a station when you arrive in Poland.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| PKP | * |
On this journey
Travelling On
Good to Know
Departing from Warzaw/Warszawa:
These trains cross the city from east to west - so they call first at Warszawa Wschodnia station, which is on the eastern side of the city centre.
If you will be commencing a journey in the vicinity of the old town, you can take tram line/route 13 from the 'Stare Miasto' stop direct to Wschodnia station.
They then call at Warszawa Centralna - the main station in the city, which is why we've used it for the orange station info button, which can be clicked above
After departing from Warszawa Centralna these trains will then call at Warszawa Zachodnia.
So check the location of the starting point of your journey, to see which of these three stations will suit you best.
This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.
See if there’s a unique journey guide for your trip, featuring info on the trains, tickets & stations.
This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.
