Using tents on private / public land in Germany and Poland?

[Rob12345]

Hi Robb I don't think you will have any problems with wild camping in Poland (I'm from East Poland - there's plenty of wild camping spots there).

BTW, I'm planning on cycling from London to Poland in Summer and I'm interested to know what route/maps you are using?

Cheers

Hi man, sorry for the late reply. I have been busy with work and studying. But thats good thanks for the advice.

And I plan to use the Europa-Radweg R1 route, that can be seen below going from the Hook of Holland in the Netherlands.... to Kaliningrad.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://r ... R1.kmz&t=p
^ This is a full route of the trip, that begins in Calais. However I get on it in the hook of Holland.

http://www.r1-radweginfo.de/en/index.ph ... 4c7068627a
^ official site of the route

http://www.biroto.eu/en/cycle-route/ger ... rt00000401
^ map of the route specifically for Germany

http://www.shop.is-radweg.de/index.php? ... 0Euroroute
^ place to buy hard copies / books of the Europa Radweg R1

However to get from my house (north london) to the hook of holland I will use this route:
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?authuse ... 1400014024

and then get a ferry over there.

Also if you have a garmin GPS device, then you can get this exact europe route overlayed on a map on your device by downloading the titles on this link:
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

Hope this helped man, and feel free to message me if you need any more help.
Rob

[Rob12345]

Hi Rob

might be worth getting the question translated "is there anywhere nearby i can camp for the night ?" into Polish and German.

i'm sure you can find one or 2 Polish here in the UK . ha ha !

also probably best to learn the odd word anyway. i'm sure it would be appreciated.

all the best !

Bikrwaser

lol I'm starting to learning some german vocab now, thanks for the advice man

[Rob12345]

I'm in Poland now and 3 people ( tents) wild camping is reasonably easy although we took the whole of the coastal path east to west and headed south from Gdansk. The coast is littered with campsites. The forests are patrolled by guards and camping is forbidden but I doubt you would get much hassle off them when they realise you only speak English. They wouldn't want to know. Although we have had to obey the laws as my girlfriend is Polish we could get in trouble if they saw her ID. I wouldn't think twice about setting camp, loads of places to set up once you've left the main tourist places imo. Don't worry about Poland is my advice.

Ok thanks man, I'll try to not to worry about it and did you set of on this tour from the UK? Or have you just been cycling along the cost of Poland? Because if you have a done a ride from the UK, I'd be interested to hear more about how that went and what route you took as it could help me in my planning stage

Thanks for the comment again, and enjoy the rest of your trip.

[davegtt]

We left from the UK near Nottingham. Never done cycle touring before so it was a new experience. We left uk from Harwich to Esjberg, Denmark and went through to Copenhagen where we got the train to Sweden and headed south to Poland. We did the Baltic coast and now in the south visiting the family of my partner. Leaving next Monday into Czech and hoping to follow the Danube down towards Budapest. Never had any trouble finding a campsite. We like to set up for 6ish so about 5 we start keeping an eye out for potential spots. Only been disturbed a couple of times but after explaining our situation we were left quite happily. In fact some people even stopped at the road side to give us cans of cola and one chap directed us to the woods behind his house in Denmark where an hour later he visited us with cans of beer and offered us bathroom facilities.

Loved Denmark for cycling as it's flat with private cycling paths, great country to start the tour although found it a little zombieland for my liking.

Good luck with your trip

[horizon]

Hi, I'm planning on cycling to Kaliningrad from the UK this summer.

Hi Rob: may I ask what draws you to Kaliningrad?

And BTW I think you are worrying far too much about the legality or otherwise of wild camping. Unwelcome attention from the locals is a bigger problem and even that can be avoided by getting permission to camp in a field.

Sounds like a great trip anyway.

[Rob12345]

Hi, I'm planning on cycling to Kaliningrad from the UK this summer.

Hi Rob: may I ask what draws you to Kaliningrad?

Good question. I initially planned to do top of scotland to bottom of cornwall (i.e. john o'groats - lands end) cycle trip, but then I thought I haven't been to Europe a lot.. so I decided to scrap the idea of doing a UK tour and go out to Europe to experience the culture, languages, and everything thats in mainland Europe

And I know western Europe (Netherlands and Germany) are great for cycling in (as in they have lots of cycle paths), so I thought cycling to Berlin would be a great idea. Did a lot of research and found a great route which goes from Netherlands to St Peterburg Russia [known as the Europa Radweg R1 route]. (this route goes through Berlin and Kaliningrad)

I then realised my planned route to Berlin would be shorter than doing a john o'groats - lands end tour, so I decided to look along the route for somewhere further to go. And as I really like Russia, and I never knew (Kaliningrad Oblast) even existed. I thought screw it, lets try and cycle here next summer. - as it's not as far as mainland Russia is, and it's around the same distance (200 or so miles over) doing a UK tour.

Been planning it since last year

Thanks
Rob

[bikerwaser]

HI Rob

it's great that your're learning vocab but i was also thinking that you could write down some key phrases that might come in handy like:

is it ok to camp here ?

where can i camp ?

only for one night .

i'll be gone very early.

is there a shop nearby?

can i get some drinking water?

etc

[johnonhisbike]

When me and my wife were touring in some of the more rural parts of Poland, when we couldn't find a campsite, we frequently knocked at a house door and asked politely (via 'sign-language' and smiles) if there was anywhere nearby to camp for one night. More often than not we were invited to camp on their land/garden and on a few occasions we were invited to sleep in the house. We found Poland was a lovely friendly and interesting country to visit.