Kraków

Kraków is a city in the south of Poland.

West towards Katowice, Wrocław
Note: Don't go towards Katowice if your destination is the Czech Republic. You risk getting stuck in Katowice's large urban agglomeration. Instead, follow the instructions below for Bielsko-Biała.

It's about 1km further than toll booths, but the spot is better than booths. You must take bus 226, 209 or 258 and get off on stop "Winna Góra". You will be already beside the motorway and the gas station is close by. the best is to check the amazingly helpful page jakdojade.pl because the buses are running once for two hours.
 * From first gas station on the highway

From main railway station (Dworzec Główny Wschód) take bus 208 or 292 direction Port Lotniczy (Airport). If you take bus 208 get off at Balice Autostrada (NŻ) (you have to press the stop button otherwise the bus won't stop). Walk back for about 30m and turn left (west). Continue walking, go over the motorway by the bridge from which you will see the toll booths. Here's the route It's a bout 1.5km walk. If you take the bus 292 you have to walk a bit more (about 3km). Get off at the airport and follow this route. There is also local train going to the airport from main railway station.
 * From toll booths


 * Take a train for about 40km to a good spot

For a bit more than 10 złoty you can take a train from Krakow to the small town of Trzebinia. An even cheaper option is the minibus from the station behind the shopping mall next to the train station. Leave the train station, turn left, cross the bridge and follow road 79 direction southwest. It's just another 1.5 km to get to the motorway junction and you can try hitching with a sign "Katowice" already, because a lot of traffic goes towards the motorway and you are already outside of Trzebinia. It takes about one hour to get from Krakow main station to Trzebinia.

North towards Warszawa, Gdańsk
There are two common places: Start to hitchhike after the inner bypass on Opolska street - you can get there by buses number 139,132,172,105,102,207 - bus stop name is Opolska estakada, but it is quite a busy spot. Magda and Ron decided to try to hitch while waiting for the bus in Opolska estakada and it worked! They found a ride with a truck driver all the way to Warszawa. Although, Nina_Unexia followed their example twice, and it wasn't the luckiest place. A better option is to take the bus number 217,247,277 until the stop Kuźnicy Kołłątajowskiej. Here there is a lot of space for cars to pull over and many cars are going even all the way to Warsaw.

All these buses are avaible from the station Nowy Kleparz which you reach by bus from the center or walking. It is about 2 km north of the old town. If you go there by bus you might get off at a station where only the busses to Opolska estakada stop. The bus terminal where the buses 217,247,277 leave is about 100m further north from the crossroads at Plac Nowy Kleparz.

Watch out because the bus does not stop at the last stop but drives on so you want to know when to get off. There is a lot of space on deceleration lane going to the petrol station and cars are going extremely slow because there is a traffic light just ahead.

50.095057,19.961504 - put this to google maps, that's the location of the petrol station.

50.097929,19.961807 - I believe this is the bus stop Kuźnicy Kołłątajowskiej

East towards Sandomierz, Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Lviv (UA)

 * The best option, is to take a minibus to the town of Bochnia, 25 km east from Krakow (costs 5 PLN). The highway doesn't go further than this town. Just stand on the E40, and hitch rides (waiting times should not exceed 15-20 minutes). (more expensive though, since it's actually possible to get a normal bus ride without ticket and not a minibus ride)
 * Since 2011, people usualy take the newly built highway in direction of the east. Take the bus 304 and get off at Jerzmanowskiego (old Prokocim CPN). There is a bus stop and plenty of space to stop even for a truck. You can also walk like 500m along the road and try straight from the highway entrance - there is enough space and you can be easily seen.

To Ukraine you can't cross the border by foot in Korczowa, but in Medyka. At Radymno hitchhike South to Przemyśl and from there hitchhike Lwowska /  to the border. In Korczowa you can wait for 3 hours because there are a lot of cars!

For Sandomierz take tram number 10 or 21 till the last stop Pleszow. From there you can start hitching along national road 79.

=== South and southwest towards Rabka Zdrój, Ružomberok (SK), Zakopane  and Bielsko-Biała  ===

Take tram no. 8, 19, 22, 23, 40 (operating only on Sundays and day offs) from the centre to the last stop Borek Fałęcki. There is a small bus station here. You can either walk south for a couple of kilometres until you go under the highway overpass, or take bus 175, 235, 245, 255, 275, 285 and get out at the stop Opatkowice immediately after the highway overpass. You can hitch from the Opatkowice bus stop.

Alternatively if you start out early in the morning, you can take the above mentioned bus 285 much farther away from the city to a much better spot. Get off at Mogilany Ośrodek Zdrowia. This is a bus stop on the highway, hitch from here. Excellent spot! (In case nobody speaks English and you don't know where to get off, if you are in the front of the bus near the driver, you will see a red bridge from the distance, this one: Mogilany Wiadukt As soon as you see the bridge in the distance, get off immediately. In case you miss it, no worries, you can get off after the bridge and walk back maybe one kilometer) WARNING: the bus operates very rarely (and doesn't go on Sundays!), so you should check the timetable here: 285 bus timetable

If you are going towards Bielsko-Biała, tell your driver immediately so that he knows to leave you at the fork in the road a few kilometres south of Krakow.

If your are heading to Slovakia, the road splits towards SK in Rabka. At the fork in the road itself there is a good spot to hitchhike, though there is mainly local traffic and it may require a couple of lifts to reach the Slovak border.

Public Transport
There is a good website showing you how to get from one point to another by public transport in major Polish cities (in Polish and English).

Sleeping
The central station (Dworzec Główny) is open during the night, but guards patrol the station constantly and wake up anyone who tries to sleep (even people waiting for trains). Better to find a host from a hospitality exchange service or camp outside the city.

Kraków trash:Kraków