Yes. Nearly all vendors in Poland have a card terminal where you can pay with debit and credit cards. Polish card terminals work with chip and pin, similar to those in the UK.

Contactless payments are available for purchases of up to 50 PLN. This is a much lower limit than the UK’s limit of £30. Contactless in Poland is only used for low value transactions.

Some vendors may have a minimum transaction requirement of 10 or 20 PLN. As a member of the European Union, vendors in Poland are not allowed to charge a fee for card payments.

If you are going to pay by card in Poland: Be aware of currency conversion fees and bank fees for card payments: Your bank’s PLN to GBP exchange rate may be not so competitive. This is how banks make money. Before using your bank card for payments in Eastern Europe, it’s certainly a good idea to contact your bank. This will avoid your card becoming blocked due to international transactions that your bank may find suspicious.

We recommend that you take some Polish Zloty cash with you on your trip to Poland. It will allow you to avoid the currency conversion fees for cross-currency card payments.

Some vendors only accept cash payments, such as taxi drivers, bus drivers, street vendors (the bagels in Krakow are lovely), tour guides and ski school instructors.

If you are going to visit a local market or Christmas market, such as the one on the main square in Krakow, or souvenir shops under the arches in the Cloth Hall, you’ll need cash Zlotys.

Prices in Poland are similar to prices in the UK for cosmetics, clothes and electronics. For food, drinks and groceries the prices in Poland are generally lower than prices for these in the UK.

The overall cost of living in Poland is 40% lower than the cost of living in the UK.

For a coffee in Warswaw, the prices will be around 10 PLN. A three-course meal in a mid-range restaurant costs around 60-80 PLN per person.

Tipping in Poland is very similar to the standard tipping rules in mainland Europe: For good service, leave a tip of 10-15% of the bill.

Waiters prefer a tip in cash to a tip paid by card. You can often round the amount up to the nearest banknote, or add a 5 zloty coin.