An invented
brand with
real routes.

What is real

Every train, coach and ferry on the five routes, every station, every fare range and every operator link; the notes on each city; the changes listed under what changed this year. They were checked on 9 October 2026 against the operators' own sites and announcements and the 2026 timetables, many of them through the Man in Seat 61's route pages. The daily budgets are our estimates, and the pages say so.

What is invented

The company, its office in Kraków and the people an earlier version of this site described. And Bartek, the backpacker on the first page who looks wherever you point: he is a 3D model, not a person, and he never gives advice.

How to use it

As a starting point. Choose a route, read its legs, then check each one on the operator's site — the link is on every leg — before you book, and again the day before you travel. If something here is wrong, the operator is right.

Why Kraków

Four of the five szlaki start in Kraków because it is the hinge: cheap to fly into from most of Europe, with direct trains to Warszawa, Wien, Praha and Berlin, and cheap to stay in while you get the pack right. The fifth, the Atlantycki, starts in Paris, where most people arrive anyway.