Warsaw Poland Day Trips: 4 Days
Four days: Warsaw as your base, Łódź, Żelazowa Wola, and now Kampinos National Park. Short on time? Drop back to our 3-day plan . More to spare? Our 5-day plan adds Toruń onto exactly this spine.
Book these before you go:
- Warsaw Old Town or Śródmieście stay : your base for every day trip below
- A guided Łódź day trip : if you’d rather skip managing the PKP transfer yourself
- A Chopin and Żelazowa Wola tour : covers the Sochaczew connection for you
| Day | Focus | Distance / travel time from Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warsaw base setup | n/a |
| 2 | Łódź day trip | ~135km, 1h-1h30 by train |
| 3 | Żelazowa Wola (Chopin) | ~55km, about 1h door to door |
| 4 | Kampinos National Park | edge of city, 25-30 min by bus |
Day 1: Set Up Warsaw as Your Base
Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) sits about 10km from the centre; take the S2 or S3 SKM train (20-25 minutes, a standard 4.40 PLN ticket) or bus 175 into town, and skip the touts quoting 150-250 PLN at arrivals. Once you’re settled in Śródmieście or the Old Town, the one task that actually matters today is logistics, not sightseeing: register a PKP Intercity account before you need it, since the cheapest Super Promo fares on longer Poland routes sell out within hours of release.
Spend what’s left of the day on a short Old Town walk. The deep version of Warsaw itself, the reconstruction story, POLIN, the Uprising Museum, lives in our separate Warsaw guide and Warsaw 4-day itinerary ; this itinerary is about what’s beyond the city limits.
Day 2: Łódź
PKP Intercity runs Warszawa Centralna to Łódź Fabryczna more than 30 times a day; the non-stop Przaśniczka service covers it in about an hour, most other trains take 1h15-1h30. Fares run roughly 20-45 PLN one-way booked a few days ahead.
Spend the day at Manufaktura , a 19th-century textile factory turned shopping and museum complex built around a fountain square, then walk Piotrkowska Street, Poland’s longest promenade, for street art, cafes, and the converted courtyards of OFF Piotrkowska. Łódź reads as post-industrial and modern rather than a postcard old town, and that’s exactly the appeal, it’s a genuinely different Polish city, not a smaller Kraków. Rather not manage the transfer yourself? Book the guided day trip in the box above. Aim for an early train out and you’ll be back in Warsaw by early evening.
Day 3: Żelazowa Wola
Fryderyk Chopin’s birthplace sits 55km west, and there’s no train station at the site itself, every route needs a connecting leg. Take a regional train to Sochaczew (40-60 minutes) plus a short taxi, or use the Chopin Museum’s own seasonal bus (Monday-Thursday departs the museum at noon, back around 17:30; Friday-Sunday departs 10:00, back around 15:30; roughly May-September, confirm the current schedule before relying on it).
A combined park, birthplace, and exhibition ticket runs around 30 PLN individually, 80 PLN for a family, free on Wednesdays. May through September brings outdoor Chopin recitals on the grounds; if your dates line up, time the whole day around one. Prefer it handled for you? Book the tour in the box above instead of managing the Sochaczew connection solo. Back in Warsaw by mid-afternoon, this is a half-day trip even with the connections.
Day 4: Kampinos National Park
Take bus 708 from the M1 metro’s Młociny terminus to Truskaw, about 25-30 minutes, or bus 210 to Izabelin; either runs every 30-60 minutes. Entry to Kampinos National Park is free and there’s no booking involved, the least fussy day on this whole itinerary.
The draw is old-growth forest, dunes, and wetlands, plus the Palmiry massacre memorial and museum inside the park documenting WWII partisan history, not a lightweight add-on. There’s no bison here, that’s Białowieża, a much farther park entirely; don’t confuse the two, a genuinely common mixup. Bring proper shoes, pack lunch, and treat this as the recovery day between the busier logistics of Łódź and Żelazowa Wola; it costs nothing beyond a ZTM ticket.
Why isn’t Kraków on this itinerary?
Because four days still isn’t enough runway. Kraków runs 2h20-3h+ each way even on the fastest Pendolino, which makes it an overnight, not a day trip, and cramming it in here would blow the whole schedule for a rushed half-day in the city. Our 7-day itinerary is where Kraków actually belongs.
Do these four days need advance booking?
Mostly not. Łódź and Kampinos need no advance planning at all; Żelazowa Wola’s own shuttle bus runs a fixed schedule worth confirming a day or two ahead. The one genuine sell-out risk on this plan is a Warsaw hotel during a summer weekend, so lock that in first.
Before you go
A single 75-minute ZTM ticket (4.40 PLN) covers tram, bus, and metro in Warsaw; buy it through the mObywatel or jakdojade app before Day 1. Add a fifth day and Toruń, a genuine UNESCO old town worth the longer train ride, is the next logical stop, covered in our 5-day version of this plan.