Recommended routes

INDIVIDUAL CHARTERING OF MOTOR-BOATS (HOUSEBOATS) IN THE VISTULA DELTA NEAR GDAŃSK, ON THE LOWER VISTULA AND NEAR ELBLĄG - THE OSTRÓDA-ELBLĄG CANAL (only to the renovated platform)

1. THE ŻUŁAWY RING: 
Rybina - Elbląg - Malbork - Gniew - Tczew - Gdańsk - Rybina,
ca. 200 km, ideal for 7 days

2. THE ŻUŁAWY RING + THE OSTRÓDA-ELBLĄG CANAL (only to the renovated platform):
Rybina - Elbląg - The Ostróda-Elbląg Canal (only to the renovated platform) - Elbląg - Gdańsk - Rybina, ca. 230 - 300 km, possible within 7 days, ideal for 14 days

3. THE LOWER VISTULA*
Rybina - Grudziądz - Bydgoszcz i/lub Toruń - Grudziądz - Gdańsk - Rybina,
ca. 250 km (part) - 500 km, possible in 7 days, ideal for 14 days
CAUTION!!! Option - One Way:Toruń and/or Bydgoszcz - Grudziądz - Gdańsk - Rybina,
ca. 225 km, ideal for 7 days
*charter under specific conditions - for details contact the office of Vistula Cruises

 The map of recommended routes (Google Maps) | The map of recommended routes (PDF) 

ŻUŁAWY: The romantic land in the North of Poland, veiled in the spirit of mystery, the secret of its own history, called "Polish Netherlands" where "everything is associated with water". The drainage network, like the blood vascular system, keeps alive the areas located down to 2 m below the sea level. The terp hills - artificially made - elevate the houses to protect them against flooding. The willows with heads trimmed every year help to dry the fertile soil. The hydro-engineering equipment still remembering the quiet Dutch Mennonites have been working unbreakably for ages in order to keep the capricious life of Żuławy under control." 

OSTRÓDA-ELBLĄG CANAL: really interesting in terms of hydro-engineering and history (with globally unique system of shipways) and reaching Ostróda and the Jeziorak Lake and the town of Iława. The Ostróda-Elbląg Canal is a unique and interesting structure. Moving along the canal through one of the slipways can be very impressive. While traveling along the sections of the canal, a length of 9,6 km, which consists of five successive slipways, a ship is transported on a special platform moving on rails. In this way the ships cover the distance of2300 meters of a dry, grassy land up to a height of 100 meters.

THE LOWER VISTULA. In the lower section the „steep slopes of the Vistula valley, breaking through the Pomeranian moraines concentrate the midstream and create gorgeous, green frames, worked by the carver’s chisel of the postglacial geology. The minor streams eroded the upland slopes, carving numerous ravines, potholes and canyons. Inside them there are small natural reservations of stenothermal steppe flora. There are only remnants of the forests left, just small clusters, but the stand consists of picturesque lime trees, hornbeams, ash-trees and elms. The willows stayed in Mazowsze”, where we start the second stage of the cruise, however we leave it, in order to enter areas occupied by the Teutonic Knights for centuries. The land is beautiful. Let us say it frankly and without chauvinistic obstinacy that the Teutonic Knights also decorated it because they could build beautiful brick structures and incorporated some elements of oriental architecture seen in the Holy Land in the Gothic structures. Let us be fair and say their castles are beautiful and they integrated with Polish landscape ages ago.

NEW!!! INDIVIDUAL CHARTERING OF MOTOR-YACHTS (HOUSEBOATS) ON THE CRACOVIAN VISTULA (WISŁA KRAKOWSKA) FROM CRACOW (KRAKÓW) TO OŚWIĘCIM AND BACK TO CRACOW, ca.180 km ideal for 2-7 days

The panorama of Cracow from the Vistula level is simply captivating! The magnificent tenement houses, winding narrow streets, river embankments and most of all the unique view of the Wawel Hill with the particular buildings exposed beautifully, the Dragon's Den and the Wawel Dragon itself at the foot of the hill.
Further, the waterway of the Cracovian Vistula leads us through the most attractive fragments of the upper section of the river, with breathtaking views of the Bielany Monastery, together with the picturesqueLasek Wolski [The Wolski Wood] complex located above the monastery, adjacent to the majestic Tyniec Abbey, built on the high rocks. Several limes on our way, we shall ford our yacht through locks - elements of the Vistula Program commenced in the Gierek epoch [the 1970's], the largest of which (dams up the water to the height of more than a dozen meters) is located near Skawina.
Just a dozen or so kilometers past Cracow we will start an unusual voyage through history... The oldest places to visit will be the fort in Lipowiec, the nearby open-air museum and the Dino-Park in Zator..., which would take us in the legendary and mysterious atmosphere, while the closer times still remembered by our contemporary generations, will be closed in the extraordinary atmosphere of the villages and small towns near Cracow, with remains of architecture proving their great significance in history - these are often beautiful market squares with service providing units, diners and local cooperative shops.
It is a rarity to visit areas so rich with natural and historical monuments,, charming with their particular beauty and atmosphere of past events, closed in the Vistula Valley chamfered by millenniums, stuck between the Beautiful Wyżyna Krakowska [the Cracovian Upland] from the North and Pogórze Karpackie [the Carpathian Plateau] from the South. All this at a straight-line distance not exceeding several dozen kilometers from the heart of Cracow!
The cruise begins and ends beside BASIA Ship - the first in Cracow hostel on the Vistula River with it?s own restaurant!! ...more 

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