A small fishing village until the 20th century, Gdynia was rapidly built into Poland’s largest and busiest sea port after World War I. As a result, it’s mainly a very modern city. The most significant older attraction is the 13th-century St. Michael the Archangel Church. Two museum ships in the harbor, a destroyer and a frigate, are also popular with visitors. Gdynia has a thriving cultural life and in September hosts the annual Polish Film Festival, sometimes called the “Polish Cannes.”

One of Poland’s most beautiful cities, Gdansk, on the Baltic Sea, has played major roles in history, especially in the 20th-century. It was the 1939 flash point of World War II, and then in 1980, the birthplace of the Solidarnosc labor movement, ushering the end of Communist domination in Eastern Europe. Gdansk’s Old Town, painstakingly reconstructed to its Hanseatic League glory after being leveled in World War II, is a highlight. The 14th-century Town Hall houses the city’s historical museum.