I had wanted to visit Krakow for a couple of years since a friend went there and enchanted me with all her pictures of the cobbled streets and underground restaurants. We finally booked up with a bargain through Travelzoo and I could not wait… Getting There... Plenty of airlines including easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways fly direct to Krakow and if you book early you can get a flight for a great price too. This was my first time travelling with just cabin luggage and it was a struggle to squeeze all the winter layers in as it was late November but with some good rolling it was not a problem. The flight takes just 2 hours and you are landing before you know it. Getting Around... Trains The trains in Krakow are clean, cheap, warm and easy to navigate. Great for getting into town from the Airport or for longer journeys outside of the city itself. To get into the Old Town once you land there are a number of options but the cheapest and most convenient is by train. At the airport it is pretty easy to navigate towards the train station. From the airport you can jump straight on the train to Kraków Główny railway station, the journey takes about 20 minutes and departs about every 30 minutes or so. It costs just 9PLN (aprox £2) per person and you can purchase your ticket from one of the machines at the station or from one of the conductors onboard. Kraków Główny is the nearest station to the Old Town and is connected to a huge modern shopping mall. Another journey you can do easily and cheaply by train is if you are heading to the “Wieliczka” Salt Mines, you can visit the Salt Mines as part of an excursion or just travel there yourself on the train. It is easy enough from Kraków Główny railway station, just jump on the train going to Wieliczka Rynek Kopalnia. The trains go about every half an hour or so and cost 3.5PLN (aprox 80p) per person each way, so a bargain compared to what they charge for an excursion! When the train arrives you just need to cross the road and follow the signs to the right. Trams The trams are a great way to get around town especially if you are visiting in the winter as it can get really cold outside. If you took the train from the Airport then it's really easy to jump on a tram from Kraków Główny to your hotel. As you exit the mall there are lots of tram stops all along the road outside, they have time tables and displays showing how long till the next tram. Check your hotel's website before travelling so you know which number tram you are looking for. If you are staying in Kazimierz (the Jewish Quarter) like we were, you may need trams 10 or 52 the stop for which is not quite so obvious...walk to the far end of the mall (as you look at the mall, to the right hand side) and the stop is located just beyond the underpass (not through it). Tram tickets can be purchased from the machines at each stop, they cost 3.80PLN (aprox 90p) for a journey less than 40 minutes or 2.80PLN (aprox 60p) for a journey less than 20 minutes, you'll probably find you only take short journeys anyway as most things are fairly close together. When you get on board you validate your ticket with the small machine and the time counts down from there. The trams are pretty regular and easy to navigate around the city. Where To Stay... There are so many places to stay in Krakow, hotels, guesthouses, apartments etc and there is something for every budget too. We chose to stay in Kazimierz (the Jewish Quarter) at Spatz Aparthotel. The staff are helpful and everyone is given a token each on arrival for a free drink from the bar. The rooms here are ideal for a short break, they are clean and spacious and the hotel has lots of good reviews on TripAdvisor too. It's about a 10-15 minute walk into the Old Town and situated right in the middle of the Jewish Quarter so great for exploring both areas. Everything in Krakow is reasonably close it's not a huge area that you will be wanting to explore and even if you pick somewhere to stay a little bit further out you can always jump on a tram. Where To Eat... Something Krakow is not short on is places to eat, currently on TripAdvisor there are 1,336 restaurants!! There are so many cuisines to choose from too that whatever you fancy you will probably find it here somewhere. When you arrive an ideal way to take it all in is to head to the square of the Old Town and grab a coffee at one of the many cafes that line the outside of the square. Some have outdoor enclosed glass 'conservatory' areas that are heated and are a great way to watch the world go by, lots of places also provide blankets that you can use if you're feeling chilly which is brilliant. A cafe we loved was called Slodki Wentzl the coffee was good and I can recommend the carrot cake too! If you are staying in the Jewish Quarter and want to try some tasty local food give Kuchnia Domowa a try, it’s a cosy local place that serves really tasty, filling Polish food. Dinner for two and a couple of beers came to just 66PLN (aprox £14) which is very reasonable, the people are really friendly and helpful and I would really recommend this place!
Something you will realise while you are here is that the Polish seem to love Italian food! A great place to sample some of the amazing Italian food on offer is Boscaiola, it can get really busy so it's best to book a table. The service here is good and so it turns out is the food, the Brushchetta and Pizzas are yummy! The food prices here are pretty good, with pizzas about £5 each and while you can order beers fairly cheaply here but if you wanted to spoil yourself with a bottle of wine, the prices in Krakow restaurants seem to be fairly expensive with the cheapest bottle in lots of places starting at around £20. While you are in Krakow make sure you try one of the pretzels that people sell from carts all around the city, they might not look it but they are really yummy. Also, a good place for a quick, cheap local lunch is a traditional little Pierogi place called Pierogarnia Krakowiacy just off the square, tasty soups and pierogi make it a perfect, quick lunch stop. There are so many foods to try you won't be able to try them all in one short trip so it's the perfect excuse to go back to Poland! What To See... There is lots to see in Krakow and you will never fit it all in if you are only here for a few days so try and pick the key things and make sure you spend some time just wandering the maze of streets and enjoying the atmosphere of this enchanting city.
The Old Town Square
Make sure you spend plenty of time here, it's one of the biggest town squares in Europe. The first time you come into the square you will be instantly blown away by this beautiful city, it is such an amazing area with it's cobbled streets, horse and carts and the most beautifully preserved buildings all around, the thought of exploring and learning more about this enchanting city just fills you with excitement. Just before sunset is the perfect time to climb the Town Hall Tower. It cost just 9PLN (aprox £2) there are 100 stairs to get to the top, they are narrow and a bit tricky but the view is great and hopefully you will see a lovely sunset over the Old Town.
The amazing sunset view from the top of the Town Hall Tower A great way to see the Old Town and learn all about it and it's history is to do one of the free walking tours here, Cracow Free Tours meet outside the main church in the square at 10.30am and are the tour with the red umbrella, they are really friendly and are full of useful information. Before the tour starts pop into St. Mary's Basillica for a quick look around it is really beautiful inside. The walking tour takes about 2 hours, you explore the most interesting parts of the Old Town and you learn all about it. There is so much history here and lots of legends which are brilliant to hear, these tours are great and you don’t pay for it, you just tip the guide at the end what you feel is appropriate.
The picturesque St Mary's Basilica in the Old Town
Auschwitz Based not far from Krakow, Auschwitz is an excursion that is really worthwhile doing. It can be booked all over the town or before you travel. The coach journey takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes but they tell you longer as it usually involves changing buses and a bit of waiting time. On arrival groups are split so there are a maximum of about 20 per group. You will be given headphones for an audio tour, the guide wears a microphone so they can speak at normal volume and everyone in the group can hear. This is a long day and while not a fun tour, it is really interesting and I feel it is important to visit in order to try and understand what all these people went through and by doing so it's a way of honouring their memory. I won’t write details about the tour and I also chose not to take pictures as I personally didn’t feel it was appropriate. You will want to bring lunch of some sort with you though as you will only have a few minutes when travelling between the two camps to eat something quickly as understandably you cannot eat while on the tour so come prepared as it’s a long day. Rynek Underground Museum If you have time while you are here make a quick visit to the Rynek Underground Museum the entrance to which is located at the end of the Cloth Hall. This Museum shows how the old town used to look and work way back when. Entrance is 19PLN (aprox £4.20) it is a fairly new museum as the ancient ruins weren’t excavated until quite recently. Basically the old city of Krakow exists about 4 meters below the surface of the city you see now, due to hundreds of years of rubbish and soil build up. In this museum you can see what it used to look like, it was quite interesting and there was lots of information to read about everything. Wieliczka Salt Mines If you get a rainy day it's a great excuse to go to the “Wieliczka” Salt Mines, although of course it's great no matter what the weather! You can visit as part of an excursion or just travel there yourself. It is easy enough by train as mentioned above. Prepare yourself for quite a long queue for tickets as it's a very popular attraction. Tickets cost 84PLN (aprox £19) per person you also need to pay an additional 10PLN for cameras. You are asked which language you would like your tour in and are given the next available tour, during busier times you would have to book in advance as it can be quite a long wait. You are only allowed into the mines with a tour guide so there are limited spaces throughout the day. When it's time for your tour you will be given headphones so you can hear the guide who will be wearing a microphone. When you enter the mine you will begin making your way down a lovely pine stair case and you will notice it just keeps on going…350 steps later you will eventually get to the end. This is a brilliant tour, it's really informative and interesting, you will honestly not believe what is down there it is incredible! Seeing pictures of it before we went didn’t even ruin it as seeing it in real life is just so amazing. The tour lasts about 1.5 hours then it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the elevator to get out, there are so many rooms down there especially on the long walk to the lift it is an incredible maze of underground rooms!
Just one of many impressive carvings in the Wieliczka Salt Mines
Wawel Castle At Wawel Castle there's lots to see, you can walk all around the grounds for free where you can wander into the courtyard and there are lots of buildings to wander around, there are some lovely views of the river and you'll also be able to see the fire breathing dragon! If you want to venture inside the castle you will have to purchase tickets (in advance is probably best as it gets very busy) the different rooms have different prices but they vary between 10PLN and 25PLN (there are 5 rooms you can choose to visit). We didn't get a chance to go inside but the pictures look very grand so maybe choose a couple of rooms to explore. Wawel Cathederal, which is also located on the hill, is free to go inside. It's really nice inside and you can also go up into the tower for a small fee.
Around Wawel Castle, lovely architecture with some great history behind it Weather... The weather in Krakow is very seasonal, they have hot summers and very cold winters. Being there in late November it was very chilly but according to the locals it was nothing compared to how cold it gets in December and January. Layers were the key for us here!. Overall... We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Kraków and think this is now one of our favourite European cities. It was clean, well restored, easy to get around and the people were really friendly. We did a lot of exploring and on average clocked about 10km walking per day which is quite crazy so it's a good idea to pack comfortable footwear. I would highly recommend everyone take a trip to Krakow, you won’t regret it. We booked our trip through Travelzoo and it was a total bargain, check it out now to see if you can get a bargain too…
NEXT STEPS - Book accommodation or look at options in Krakow here
