Best cities to live in Poland

Easily Warsaw to me. Other (larger) cities can be good for students (like Cracow, Wroclaw, Poznan) or a weekend visit (3-city), though.

I suppose the best cities for many foreigners, those who enjoy meeting and partying with other foreigners, are Warszawa and Krakow. If one contemplates a longer stay, in affordable places among Polish people but still very pleasant, let me suggest the following five, from (limited) experience:

Gdansk-Gdynia

Wroclaw (not this year's "capital of European culture" by accident -- a dynamic, cultured but comfortable city)

Rzeszow -- Not the first destination of most tourists, but a pleasant, well run and friendly city. It's also the centre of a Poland that is very conservative by western standards, but not less interesting or fun because of that.

Possibly Szczecin -- an interesting Polish city that's also well connected to the Baltic seacoast, and northern Germany, including Berlin.

Poznan

I look forward to other posters' suggestions, especially surprising ones.

Great post!

I wouldn't recommend Rzeszow though. It's appearantly in the PL "Bible belt" and I'd be surprised if you'd find some open-minded people there, let alone speaking EN!

I'd also recommend cities like Lublin, Zamosc, Sandomierz, Bialystok, Opole, and Zakopane for a short trip.

I personally think that the likes of Wroclaw+Gdansk are great for a weekend visit. Moving over there? Not quite so sure! If you're a student or tourist? Perfect+interesting destinations!

Have never been to Szczecin+Poznan, so I can hardly say anything about them.

I am not an expat myself. But my British husband loves living in Krakow. We moved here from the UK 1.5 years ago and never regretted that move. It is a beautiful city, very cultural, lots of history (not only relating to the WW2), great connection to the mountains and other national parks, great food, music clubs, nice people.
Negatives: the rumours of pollution are unfortunately true. It is getting better due to recent legislation, but the geography does make the situation rather difficult. Also it is quite catholic here and not always tolerant of different opinion on this matter. But, we still find friends here, who are accepting the fact that religion is a private matter.

We live in Poznań and it's awesome.  It doesn't have a big city feel like Wrocław or Warsaw but it has great food and a beautiful old town. Great for students and young families. It's famous for the old town houses,  and more and more of them are getting revitalized.  It's also 3 hrs away from Berlin, and close to the coast, 2 hrs away from Wrocław...

highly recommend Warsaw for foreigners. The number of expats has steadily grown in the last few years that i've been there too.