Gdańsk Getaway

As if nine days in Poland over February Half Term was not enough for us (!) at the end of March we started heading out to Gdańsk for the weekend. Following a bit of a tried and tested tradition, we drove to the Luton Town Premier Inn after school for our Friday night (just £35 so probably the cheapest I have paid here).

For anyone reading this post in isolation, this is my current favourite airport because if you stay at the Premier Inn, the parking in the NCP next door is free no matter how long you park for. You simply check in, and your car parking ticket is validated for a free exit. The only slight issue to consider is any late return as the Luton Regent Street NCP car park is only open from 06:00 to 22:00 but apart from that it is absolutely perfect! There is a phone inside the Premier Inn to call a taxi and it is about £15 to be dropped right to the door of the airport or £5 less if you don't mind a little walk from the Mid Stay car park.

Our flight times were really quite relaxed this time so we were up at the hotel at 05:45, had the taxi for 06:30 and were through security by 07:00. The airport was very busy and I started to wonder about getting a lounge pass (!) but soon we were on our way for the 08:20 flight to Gdańsk.

We arrived shortly after 11:30, passport control was very quick and straightforward and I was pretty impressed with the airport organisation. We knew we could take the bus 210 to the Main Railway Station but took an Uber (£12, 60 zloty) instead as it took us directly to our hotel, Montownia Lofts and Experience which we had actually booked on Booking.com for £78. More on that later... We couldn't check in as we arrived for 12:20 but instead went and explored the Montownia Food Court which was just amazing! We had lunch in the Noodle House for £20.

We then walked into Gdańsk Old Town which was simply beautiful. There are a few major museums in Gdańsk however I didn't particularly fancy dragging Tiger around museums so we just wandered, took photos and ate ice cream (£2)!

We got as far as the river, before Tiger started telling me she was feeling tired so we headed back by Uber (£8.40) back to the hotel where we checked in and had a well earned nap! Tiger immediately appropriated the mezzanine bed which was so cool.

We got up and on the way down from the second floor we found a brilliant kids play area with books, drawing, mini tables, and toys on floor one so definitely don't miss this if you are staying here!

We did some shopping for breakfast bits in the Zabka supermarket, which was in the Food Hall complex, and had a pasta dinner with cocktails in one of the Food Hall restaurants called Fiori Pasta e Pizza (£28).

On Sunday 30th March, I had a lie in and we didn't leave the hotel until check out time just after 11:00. We took another Uber to the Aquapark Sopot (£13). No photos of this as we were swimming but for kids it was great with lots of different pools. For a three hour ticket for one adult and one child we paid £34 and for the hire of one towel it was £5.

From the Aquapark, we walked 15 minutes (downhill!) to the beach and headed to M15 Restaurant. This was brilliant as it had a beach kids playground as well as a beach sauna (which looked great from a distance!). We had lunch with beer and hot chocolate, as well as waffles with cream and chocolate for £44!

I had thought we might head to the go kart centre which is close by but in the end we spent all our time at the beach before Ubering (£16) back to the airport. Having recently spent far too long in airports I tried not too arrive too early and we actually got there at 17:45 for the 19:15 Wizz Air flight and Tiger changed into her PJs there. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed by an hour but everything seemed to otherwise go to plan. Back at Luton, the black taxi back to the car park was £23 and it was 1.5 hours drive home!