FlixBus Launches Seasonal Kraków-to-Hel Coastal Route for Summer Tourism Season

FlixBus launched a seasonal Route 666 connecting Kraków in southern Poland to the Baltic Sea resort town of Hel. The 13-hour service also stops in Warsaw and several other coastal towns and will run through the summer tourism season. The Hel Peninsula ranks among Poland's busiest summer destinations, and FlixBus stated that passengers have requested more direct coastal connections for years.

The new route addresses that demand while reviving a number that previously drew attention for its association with the town. Three years earlier, local operator PKS Gdynia changed the same route number from 666 to 669 after lobbying from Poland's conservative Catholic community.

The earlier route had become widely known, with some travelers boarding solely for the novelty of traveling on the 666 to Hel.

Michał Leman, Eastern Europe managing director of FlixBus, said at a press event that the company chose the number deliberately. "Everyone will understand," he said. Leman told CBS News on Monday that the decision was meant in a lighthearted spirit.

"It's vacations. Let's have fun, let's do some jokes about the thing. I don't think that there is anything bad in that," he said. He added that he anticipated attention but perhaps not as much as the route has received.

Leman further stated, "Vacations are about fun. " Historians and linguists trace the town's name to old Germanic words linked to the local landscape rather than any supernatural meaning. News of the route's return has circulated widely on Polish social media.