Tips for Visiting: Sopot, Baltic Sea, Poland

Summer break! After weeks of feeling burned out at work and exhausted by hot, long summer days and 2 little boys with seemingly boundless energy, I was so looking forward to a break.

We flew to Gdansk for a 10-day summer break, starting with 5 days at the beach (Sopot) and 5 days in the city (Krakow - post to follow). Despite previous frustrations with airbnb, there was not much else to choose from for apartments in the area, so we were stuck with it. Furthermore, googling Sopot hadn't turned up much; it was a place you had to sort of figure out while you were there.

Good thing I'm here to help and share our 'lessons learned'...

General tips for Sopot:

1. Stay on the west side, as close to the beach as possible. It's much quieter, shadier, and kid-friendlier. 
• There's a huge beach playground and park playground, both on the west side of the Sheraton. This was a looooong walk from our airbnb. 
2. Mix it up. We didn't want to spend every day at the beach, so we coordinated 2 day trips (Gdansk, Malbork) and 3 days at the beach. 
• There is so much to see nearby, and when well-planned, trains run really efficiently. More on each trip to come. 
3. Book early! Or - pick a different place! 

• There are a number of holiday homes and hotels way closer to the beach vs where we stayed. We booked 2 months in advance, and could only find airbnb options - very little from vrbo, wimdu, or even hotels that was within our budget. Despite our expectations, this was not a cheap holiday. 
• If I were to do it all over again, I'd have stayed in Gdansk. We booked way too late to make the seaside stay worthwhile. After our stay here, I cannot believe that we paid 120 euros/night to stay at this place. The lack of value for price was unbelievable, considering we had picked Poland as a budget-friendly destination. I'm pretty sure I'd have done better on the French Riviera (oh yes, we did!!).  Also, see #6 below, I wasn't a big fan of this part of the trip but tried to make the most of it. Travel is often fun, but sometimes very frustrating. 
4. Watch the lifeguard flags! Or - plan to go when it's not crazy hot.
• Since it's been so hot this summer, the bacteria in the Baltic Sea made it unsafe to swim. Frankly, this made a beach holiday pretty worthless- it was too hot to sit in the sun all day without an escape. Ice cream helped. 
5. Book a place with a/c if you can find one -- or, a fan. 

• The one saving grace of our airbnb was the giant fan. It was still hot in the apartment, but a little more bearable thanks to air circulation.
6. Be prepared. 
• I found people in Sopot especially pushy and closed off. Where in Germany, we would gladly share toys and play space with other families, people on the beach and playgrounds were visibly annoyed that other people were near their (public) space - going so far as to put up fabric fences around their 'personal' (public!) beach space! It was also surprisingly tough to get by with English or German at restaurants and shops. 

We did enjoy a few meals and activities, including the following:

• Pierogis and savory pancakes with spinach & chia seeds (with mascarpone cream - yum! AND they had coloring books for kids!) at Gruszka & Pietruszka, 
• Mango lassis and (more) savory pancakes at Green Way, 
• Shopping for junk at the Flying Tiger, 
• Browsing for (but not buying) overpriced junk at the Sopot open-air market (seriously, lots of junk. Fun fact, the pearls are all from China), 
• Buying fruit-topped waffles everywhere, 
• Renting umbrellas on the beach (10 zl for a day), and 
• Renting kettcars next to Smak Morza for 15 zl / half hour.

There is easily enough to fill 3 days in Sopot at a slow pace. If I were to go back to the Baltic Sea, though, I'd pick the German side any day.