Language: Polish

Climate: Poland has relatively cold winters and warm summers. In winter, polar-continental fronts often dominate, bringing cold, frosty weather with temperatures far below zero and sometimes heavy snowfall. The late summer and autumn months are often influenced by dry, subtropical, continental air masses that bring plenty of warm days. In Warsaw, temperatures range from between 20–25°C during the summer months and zero to -5°C in winter.

Time Zone: CET — Central European Time

International phone code: 48

Currency: Zloty (PLN)

Capital: Warsaw

Transportation: Most of Europe's major airlines fly to and from Poland. There are also a number of low-cost airlines that fly to Poland including WizzAir, EasyJet and Ryanair. In addition to direct air connections from many European cities, there are also direct flights from the US and Canada. International airlines fly mainly to Warsaw. Direct connections by train are from Berlin, Amsterdam, Kiev, Vienna, Prague and Moscow. There are many international bus lines that connect major Polish cities with most major European ones. Polish road infrastructure is extensive but generally poorly maintained, and high speed motorways currently in place are insufficient. Major car rental agencies operate in Poland along with locally owned companies. Train tickets are quite economical, but travel conditions reflect the fact that much of the infrastructure is rather old. There is a very well developed network of private charter bus companies, which tend to be cheaper, faster, and more comfortable than travel by rail.

Gay Poland

A largely Roman Catholic country, Poland has a poor track record for tolerance. As recently as 2007, Roman Giertych, a deputy prime minister, proposed a bill banning homosexuals from the teaching profession. Widely condemned by the European Commission, Human Rights Watch, and the Union of Polish Teachers, the bill was never voted on, the government failed soon after, and Giertych retired from politics.

However, in the past decade, several Polish celebrities have come out in the media, a decision that is widely regarded as helping to increase acceptance, especially amongst the younger population and in the larger cities like Warsaw and Krakow.

Krakow also celebrates "Culture of Tolerance" every April. An anomaly for Poland's conservative population, it focuses on cutting-edge art, literature, music and film, and is usually held concurrently with the city's popular queer film festival.

Smaller metropolitan centres such as Lodz, Gdansk and Wroclaw each have a few gay meeting places. As does the university town of Poznan — one of the more relaxed and liberal destinations in Poland.