Swinoujscie Travel Forum

When Poland joined the Schengen area, the border between the German and the Polish part of the island of Usedom was opened for traffic, making travelling there much easier. We had planned to go to the Bison park and the Museum of Nature, then on to Kamien Pomorski, had got some Zloty, a good map of Swinoujscie and left early. It was easy to follow the signs towards the ferry, but when it was our turn,a young employee walked up to us and told us we couldn't take the ferry. I quote: "You cannot take this ship,it is for people from this city only".
So we went back to the German part of the island and saw the bisons in the much smaller park there.

Is this ferry off-limits for tourist all the time? Or was it because we were early and it was still rush hour for the many commuters? We didn't see any signs except the main ones, leading us to the ferry.
Does anybody know?

quite strange.I remember that I used a small ferry few years ago in Swinoujscie without any problems.You should have asked somebody there about it.

I couldn't understand which ferry you were not able to take.
I think you are talking about ferry in the centre of Swinoujscie town.
Swinoujscie has two ferry crossings. One, small one in the centre of the town and the other just few kilometers south called "Karsiburz" (or something like that.
The small crossing in the center was designated for some time only for town rtesidents on the WEEKDAYS only, as they had problems in getting to work. Weekends and nights this ferry was available for anybody.
THe large crossing in Karsiburz is available for anybody, anytime. I was always using the large ferry, as it was never crowded and the lines were never so long as to the small ferry.
Now, as I just read on the internet, people are demanding to open the small ferry to everybody since it is paid by the goverment, not by Swinoujscie town (meaning, all Pols are paying for all ferries in Poland, therefore there should be no restrictions).
Residents of Swinoujsce always had a problem with leaving their island. Tall bridge (for large ships to pass underneath) is just too expensive for our economy.
I do understand the town right for limiting the ferry during rush hours for residents. However, I think, the town should make available little handouts with the map to the other ferry for non residents, especially for tourists who do not speak Polish.
I hope you will try to take your trip one more time ....this time during the weekend or....just take the big ferry.
:-)

Thank you both for your replies. I don't know if the ferry we wanted to take was the small one. We were driving straight into the city from the border crossing until there was a church on the left side and the water just ahead of us. At this point we turned left and got into the line for the ferry. So it must have been the inner city one. (And we should have turned right after the border towards the other one, I think).

Asking the employee about this was not an option, people were anxious to get onto the ferry and had to wait for us to leave.

We're hoping to go back to Usedom again and then start another attempt to get to the bison park and Kamien Pomorski.

Thanks again for helping me to understand this.

Yes, I think you must have tried to get on the small ferry. When we were there we got on the big ferry together with some German tourists and could see the small ferry in the distance. I thought the small ferry was for pedestrians only but don't know now. It was too far from us to see.

"Karsibor" ferry is outside of the Swinoujcie Town.
You have to drive south for 5 - 10 min.
Swinoujscie is not visible from "Karsibor" ferry, as the river turns.
Here is the website where you can see on Google Earth where is "Karsibor" and where is the town.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/12104
I was always taking this one (Karsibor) as there was never guarantee the ferry operator would let me on the "inner city ferry".

That would mean that we couldn't see the small ferry from the big one. But I'm sure we were able to see it from our ferry leaving for Ystad later in the evening.

Evanna,
In the Swinoujscie city centre, by the train station (and Ystad ferry terminal) are few ferrys.
ONE for pedestrian and CARS (limited entrance) and the other one (or more) only for pedestrains.
That what you were seing.
You were allowed on that ferry (limited ferry) because
1. it was a weekend, or
2. it was late, ..after 10pm or so ...or
3. because there was not too much traffic and the skipper let you in ;-)
IF you are taking the large ferry (called Karsibor) located south of Swinoujscie, you can not see Swinoujscie at all. All you see is forest and marshes and ocasionally some boat going up or down the river. That ferry is free for averybody all day and all night.

I think you misunderstood me. We didn't travel on the small ferry at all. We were heading for Ystad that night but we came earlier and made a return trip to Swinoujscie on the big ferry. But we could see the small ferry crossing our way later on as we left the port on the ferry for Ystad.

Thanks for the link to the google earth picture. We should have driven through the forest instead of going towards the city center. Well, next time we know.

Hi Christine, are you still there then? Hope you are having a lovely time.
Enjoy yourselves.

No, we're back. It was great, though, such a wonderful island. Too bad we didn't manage to get on the right ferry, but we're planning to go back and then we know. The opening of the border saves about 250 km, so it would have been really possible to go to Kamien Pomorski and the bisons. I loved your page about it.