Being the main city of the Lower Poland, Cracow has a vast range of flight connections. The city's airport, John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice (IATA code: KRK) is located just beyond its borders, and about 10km from the city centre. Regular flights to many European cities are carried out on a daily basis, and so are local flights – to Gdansk and Warsaw. The flights arrive and depart in the daylight hours, between 5:30 and 24:00.
There is also another nearby international airport, Katowice-Pyrzowice (KTW - 100 km from Cracow) offering European destinations, operated mainly by low-cost carriers. To reach Cracow one can take a direct bus from the airport, or take an airport bus to the Katowice train station, and continue either on a local train (query connection from Katowice to Kraków Główny) or on a bus to Cracow.
Other option is to fly to Warsaw. At the Frederic Chopin's International Airport Warszawa-Okęcie (WAW) one will find public and private buses and taxis. It takes about 20 minutes to reach the main Warsaw train station, Warszawa Centralna. There are also domestic flights to Cracow, which take about 40 minutes, 7 times per day.
Travelling by train is also an option, albeit not recommended. The train connection via Warsaw is rather good (approximately 3h, and a few trainsets throughout the day), but other cities are not very well connected and the travel might be affected by substantial delays. Tickets can be bought using the Intercity website, but it is known to crash unexpectedly. Please pay attention to the fact that exact places have to be reserved on all the long-haul trains in Poland.
Cracow lies directly on the European routes E40 and E462, approximately 4-5 hours from the Polish-German border. While travelling through Poland one should keep in mind that most of the Polish highways are tolled – and so is the Polish part of the E40. Also, large parts of these road are either single carriageways or dual carriageways, meaning that the maximal speed is lower than that typical for highways. Most of the GPS systems provide a modest and fast route to the Conference Centre, so are the Google Maps. The Conference Centre has a free parking area for the Guests. Most of the city is accessible by car (only the very centre of Cracow is banned from automotive transportation), and parking in selected areas of the city is tolled.
There is a large variety of taxi companies that can offer transportation to the Conference Centre. There are taxi stops both at the airport and train station. However, it is advised to choose those ones that are affiliated with a taxi company, as they offer modest prices. A taxi can be arranged for you by the LOC after an earlier request.
The public transportation in Cracow (KMK) consists of bus and tram lines. The Conference Centre can be reached from the airport quite easily. A detailed journey plan is available on the jakdojade.pl (lit. "howdoigetthere" in Polish) website; here is a query for those who wish to travel to Cracow by train). This website is available in English version and not only shows the journey plan, but also calculates the fare. There are two types of fares: normal and reduced, and the latter is available for EURO26 card users. Also, there are different types of tickets – depending if one travels within the city borders (in case of the train station), or not (in case of the airport). The usual price from the airport to the Conference Centre is 4 PLN, and from the train station – 3.8 PLN. Most of the buses and tramways are equipped with the ticket machines. These machines accept only PLN coins. Stationary machines – which can be found at all of the hubs and on several stops and loops – accept also 10 and 20 PLN banknotes and credit cards. The tickets can also be bought at the driver, but under several restrictions: only in case of a lack or malfunction of the on-board ticket machine, only the 1-hour ticket (5 PLN) can be bought, and only for an exact price (either 5PLN in coins, or 2 tickets for 10 PLN etc.). All tickets have to be validated upon boarding the vehicle.
Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University
ul. Orla 171, 30-244 Kraków, Poland
email: cmf2014@oa.uj.edu.pl
Phone: +48 12 6238 620
Fax: +48 12 425 1318
