The devilish ride to the quaint seaside town of Hel on Poland’s Baltic coast via bus number 666 has been permanently halted.
Hel will be reachable on bus 669 beginning June 24, putting an end to what began as a joke in 2006 and transformed into a tourist attraction shortly thereafter.
Reactions to the announcement of this redesignation of bus 666 to 669 by PKS Gdynia, the bus operator, have been mixed.
Some Christian community groups have long disapproved of the 666 services to Hel and openly chastised those who contributed to its popularity among tourists.
For instance, the Polish Catholic website Fronda had been calling for the bus to be renamed since 2018, according to the Guardian.
It charged that the 666 route made light of sacrilege, arguing that “to present the reality of eternal damnation as amusing in any way is just plain stupidity,” according to Fox 4.
Conversely, some have called PKS Gdynia’s 666 bus route a unique piece of local folklore and an excellent marketing strategy for the picturesque Hel peninsula.
For instance, Krzysztof Nadolski commented on PKS Gdynia’s Facebook page, “It was [an] advertisement for the whole world. I have read about line 666 on Hel many times on foreign sites. I am convinced tourists, who could probably have gone quicker by train, took the bus for fun,” according to the Guardian.
While there is some talk on local media outlets that PKS Gdynia will revert back to the original number, it would likely not impact tourism for Hel either way.
Hel is one of the most popular seaside resorts in Poland and attracts steady streams of tourists each year due in no small part to its rich history and a large colony of grey seals. It gets enough visitors to earn a reputation for being too crowded in the summer months.
Still, whether or not travelers arrive by bus 666, a bit of paradise seemingly awaits Hel’s long sandy beaches.
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