Berlin — One of Poland’s strangest tourist attractions is back: The 666 bus to Hel is doomed no more, and rolling again.
In Christian tradition, 666 is known as the number of the beast, but the bus doesn’t go to the underworld – it goes to Hel, a small resort town on Poland’s Baltic coast.
For years, people took photos of themselves on the 666 to Hel and shared them on social media, relishing the coincidence of a bus to a beach resort provoking mental images of damnation, thanks to the similarity of the town’s name to the English word hell.
But for the significant conservative Catholic population in Poland, the route’s popularity amounted to an inappropriate glorification of evil, and after much lobbying, local operator PKS Gdynia changed the route number from 666 to 669 three years ago.
This summer, however, the 666 is back.
German international transport company FlixBus has launched a seasonal Route 666, running from Kraków in southern Poland to Hel on the Baltic Sea. The 13-hour route also includes stops in Warsaw and several other towns along the coast. It will operate through the summer tourism season.
The end of the route in 2023 upset plenty of people, as by that time it had become well known across Poland and even garnered international attention. Some tourists would board purely for the novelty of the route.
FlixBus clearly knew what it was doing by resurrecting the route. At a press event, the company’s Eastern Europe managing director Michał Leman admitted the route number was selected quite deliberately.
“Everyone will understand,” he said, suggesting the number would leave customers in no doubt as to the bus’ final destination.
Leman dismissed the controversy surrounding the route.
“It’s vacations. Let’s have fun, let’s do some jokes about the thing,” he told CBS News on Monday. “I don’t think that there is anything bad in that.”
The company stressed that the route also serves a real need. The Hel Peninsula is one of Poland’s busiest summer destinations, and getting there can be hellacious in peak vacation traffic.
FlixBus says passengers have been asking for more direct connections to the coast for years.
Despite the jokes, the town’s name has nothing to do with the biblical underworld. Historians and linguists generally trace the name back to old Germanic words connected to the local landscape, rather than anything supernatural.
But that hasn’t stopped the route from finding fame. If anything, the controversy over removing the number in 2023 made it even more recognizable. News that the 666 to Hel was back has spread quickly across Polish social media accounts, and beyond.
Leman said he expected the route to attract some attention, though maybe not quite as much as it has. Not that he’s complaining – whether passengers are buying tickets just to get to the beach, or to enjoy the novel ride.
“Vacations are about fun,” he said. “If it is bringing you some fun and joy, do it.”
