Krakow is a work of art. There are few cities in Eastern Europe that so completely escaped the destruction and demolition of both WWII and the Soviet Regime. But Krakow seems to have managed, and its beautiful castle, churches and cobbled streets still stand proud, making Krakow a breathtaking place to be. They’re also pretty used to tourists, so they’re unusually friendly for an Eastern European city.
Transport
From John Paul II airport you can either get a taxi, the train or the bus.
Train: Get the free blue shuttle bus from outside the terminal to the train station, and buy a ticket (6zl) from the machines before you get on the train. It will take you into the city centre.
Bus: Number 192 runs to the city centre.
Taxi: Make sure you get a metered one. It’s about 60 or 70zl to get into the city centre, but bear in mind it’s only 11km away! Between 10pm and 6am the price goes up by 50%, so please don’t think they’re just ripping you off.
Around the city, frankly, Krakow is walkable. It’s about a 20 minute walk (or less) from the Old Town Square to Kazimierz. Most of everything else is in the Old Town. However, if you’re either lazy or want to go a bit further out, we should tell you about the trams. Basically, you need to have your ticket before you get on there, and you can buy either singles (approx 3.40zl) or a day pass (7.20zl). You can guess which is better value. You can buy these from the kiosk stands with RUCH written above them. Krakow isn’t as big on spot-checking as, say, Warsaw, but to be honest it’s not really worth the risk. If you need to find a taxi rank, there’s one on Wszystkich street and one if you follow Sienna street away from the main square and keep going, but before you hit Starowislna.
Stuff you should definitely see
Krakow is teeming with every kind of museum you could imagine, multitudes of art exhibits and constant visiting festivals. So we’re not going to try and list everything. Below you’ll find details about the main points of interest in Krakow, as these are the things you really shouldn’t miss!
Wawel Castle
Krakow was at one point Poland’s capital city, and Wawel Castle was the centre of it all. The entire complex, all situated on top of a hill, includes:
The Cathedral 10zl
The Cathedral Museum 5zl
The Crown Treasury & Armoury 14zl
The Dragon’s Caves 3zl
The State Rooms 15zl
Royal Private Apartments 20zl
The Lost Wawel Exhibition Usually 6zl but possibly closed for refurb.
All are very good, but it is important to call the day before and reserve tickets. They are sold on a first come, first served basis, and you can be queuing for a long time. Have your hostel call them the day before. The ticket office phone number is 012 422 16 97, and you should collect your tickets 20 minutes before your reserved time at the Tourist Service Office on the complex. The tickets are sold separately for each section, and the prices are listed above, but there are substantial student discounts if you have a valid student card. The grounds at the top of the hill are free, and afford some nice views over the river. The general opening times are Monday morning, and then Tuesday to Sunday from roughly 9.15am to 4pm, but you can check that when you call to reserve tickets.
Ranke Glowny (aka the Old Town Square)
Occasionally claimed as the biggest town square in Europe, but in fact that honour is widely recognised as going to St Marks in Venice. No matter – Krakow’s town square is easily impressive enough, and is the central hub of the old town. It’s also the location for St Mary’s Church and the Cloth Market, and Florian Street leads onto it. It’s packed with cafes, bars and restaurants, and is always the area for some great street entertainment, be it theatre, street musicians or break dancing. Any festivals or visiting markets that Krakow hosts will end up here. It’s bustling and vibrant with a great atmosphere and beautiful buildings.
Cloth Market
Bang in the middle of the old town square, you will see the old cloth market. This is a 13th century covered market within a beautiful building, and has recently undergone much restoration. It is now home to a traditional crafts market, most notably masses of amber jewellery, for which Poland is famous. The amber here tends to be of good quality, but as this is a major tourist attraction it is rather on the pricey side.
St Mary’s Basilica
A beautiful church situated in the Old Town Square. St Mary’s is one of the most famous churches in Krakow, not least for its central location but also for a nice tradition attached to it. On the hour, every hour you will hear a haunting melody from a trumpeter high up in the tower of the church. This is an hourly celebration of the legend in which, in 1241, a soldier spotted the approaching Tartar forces coming to invade the city, and blew on his trumpet to warn the city. The city was roused, they beat off the attack, and all was well. Unfortunately, the trumpeter himself was shot in the neck with an arrow, and so you will notice that today, when the trumpeter plays, his song comes to a sharp, abrupt end, to represent the death of the defender of the city. Apart from this, the deep blue stained glass within the church creates a beautiful atmosphere. You are asked to be respectful of people worshipping in the church – Poland is a heavily Roman Catholic country.
Auschwitz
We should probably include this, because it’s one of the most famous reasons for going to Krakow. It is, however, a good 90 minute journey each way, and the tour around the camps takes over 3 hours, so technically it’s a full day that you’ll need to put aside to spend away from Krakow.
Auschwitz, or Oswiecim as it is called in Polish (pronounced Oshvyencheem), is the most famous Nazi death camp in existence. It actually comprises three camps: Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz, and when you take the tour you will see Auschwitz and Birkenau. First established as camp for Polish political prisoners, Auschwitz-Birkenau was rapidly developed into a mass extermination camp by the Nazis. The centrepiece of Hitler’s final solution, it aimed to eliminate Jews, political subversives, homosexuals, prostitutes and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The final death toll at Auschwitz-Birkenau is not known, but conservative estimates put the final figure at 1.5 million – 90% of whom were Jewish. It is possible to just view the camp grounds yourself rather than take part in a tour, but we recommend the tour. It’s not hugely expensive (roughly 26zl) and the tour guides really are excellent, thorough and sensitive to their subject.
To get there, you have two options: public bus or taxi. The easiest option by far is by taxi – they will take you straight there, wait for you while you go around and take you back at the end. The problem with this option is the price: it will be around 100zl per person. To be honest, since you’re getting them for at least 6 hours, this is a really good deal, and we’d recommend it if you can afford it. However, if you are on a very stringent budget, here’s how you get the public bus. The bus station is next to the train station – aim for the big black building. From there, buses to Oswiecim run every 20 minutes to half an hour. This will take you to just over the road from the entrance to Auschwitz – just follow the crowds or look for the dozens of coaches. It’s between 7 and 10 zl each way, and takes about 90 to 120 minutes. The drawback to the public bus is getting it back to Krakow. At certain times of the day you may have to wait a while for a bus that you can fit on.
The tours for Auschwitz start from the visitor centre at 10am, 11am and 3pm. Just head straight inside the building and go to the Individual Tickets counter. It’s not the most streamlined process in the world, but it’s perfectly easy to follow. The most popular tour is the 11am one, and accordingly, when you finish the tour, there is a mad scramble of easily over 100 people trying to get to the buses. We recommend that, instead, you try to get there for the 10am tour, which is far less busy, and will give you some free time in the afternoon in Krakow. Likewise, if you get there for the 3pm tour, you will have the morning to spend in Krakow and the buses back won’t be busy.
Wieliczka Salt Mines
These incredible salt mines are among the most famous in Europe, and with good reason. There are over 300km of mines here, reaching to depths of 327m. The mine was functioning up until 1996, and is now open for only tours and functions. Under the ground here you will find incredible sculptures and statues carved entirely out of salt rock. Entire rooms are taken up with tributes and dedicated art. The most incredible part of this labyrinth is the functioning underground chapel, complete with life-size sculpture of the old pope John Paul and an incredible salt depiction of the last supper. Everything, from the paving tiles to the chandeliers, have been carved out of salt. You can even lick the walls if you don’t believe us, but bear in mind that other people will have put their tongues there before you!
When you go, three things to bear in mind – 1, you will go down 400 stairs to get down into the mines. This isn’t like the one in Austria where you slide down! 2, There will be about 2km worth of walking underground, including some steps, but these mostly go down, and aren’t arduous. And 3, to get back up you will have to go in the tiniest, fastest, most claustrophobic life you will ever have seen. The good news is it only takes 10 seconds, so shut your eyes, grit your teeth and just do it.
Getting here is cheap and easy – you simply get on one of the many mini buses from Krakow, and it takes 20 minutes and costs 2.50zl each way. They go from the top of Starowislna Street opposite the main post office. Ideally you want to get the ones with the slightly wacky “Salt Mines” writing on it, rather than the ones marked “Wieliczka”, as these go straight there and are much quicker. If you end up on a public bus, ask the driver to give you a shout when you get to the salt mines. When you get off, turn back the way you came and walk up the hill on the road on your left. It’s just a couple of metres up there. The bus will come back from the same spot that it dropped you off at. You don’t even have to go to the other side of the street.
The tickets, aggravatingly enough, cost 64zl. You have to go around in a tour, and in summer these are pretty frequent. If you go out of season, get your hostel/hotel to call up beforehand to find out what time the tours are at. Don’t waste time in the usually-packed group tickets queue – head straight to the individual tickets queue.
Kazimierz
The Jewish district is a lovely little area, full of tiny houses with shuttered windows and gorgeous little cafe/bars with candles in the windows and seating in the streets. This area is great for chilling out in, and cheaper than the old town which is getting a bit on the pricey side. It is also home to an unsurprisingly huge amount of synagogues, most notably the Old Synagogue at 24 Szeroka Street, which is now a Jewish museum. Kazimierz was declared the official Jewish quarter of Krakow in 1495, when Krakow’s Jews were transferred to the area. Kazimierz was forcibly evacuated in the Second World War, when the Jewish population of the town was transported to the death camps.
Food
Pierogi, Bigos, Zapiekanki and...ummm....kebabs. Traditional Polish restaurants are all over Krakow, as are Polish snack stalls. You can pay loads for an upmarket, gourmet Polish feast, or something a little more wallet friendly such as a plate of Pierogi in a more casual restaurant. Below are listed some Polish foods you might want to munch on and some of our favourite restaurants.
Pierogi (Pyerogy) Little dumpling parcels filled with cabbage, meat or potato
Barszcz czerwony (Barsht chevony) Beetroot soup, usually with sour cream and a pierogi in it
Golabki (Gowomky) Cabbage parcels filled with meat and rice
Szaszlyk (Shashlick) Meat cooked on a spit.
Paczki (Ponchky) Polish jam doughnuts.
Placki (Platzky) Potato pancakes – can be sweet or savoury
Bigos (exactly as you read it) Stew with sauerkraut and meat
Miod i Wino – ul. Slawkowska 32, Tel: 012 422 74 95
Real old world Polish restaurant, with a nice ambience and vibe. Wait stuff are surprisingly friendly for Poland, and occasionally there is live music. The food is great – try the soup served in a bread trencher. It’s goooood. You should definitely book here, even if you just go earlier in the day to reserve a table.
Miod Malina – ul. Grodzka 40, Tel: 012 430 04 11
A great mix of Polish and Italian cooking with good service and all in a nice, cheerful setting and atmosphere. Very reasonable prices, too. Can’t go wrong.
Polakowski – ul. Miodowa 39, Tel: 012 421 07 76
Traditional Polish grub served in a canteen-style atmosphere, with stews, mash, pork toast and gravy all dished up out of big silver containers. We’re not really selling it here, but honestly, it’s really good. Oh, and cheap. And full of locals.
Nightlife
Ohh, the Poles don’t have a reputation for heavy drinking for nothing. Krakow has some of the coolest bars and clubs full of improbably beautiful women. It also has chilled out cafe bars, vodka bars, student bars, music bars and just about every other kind of bar you can imagine. We’ve listed a few of our favourites below, but please don’t think these are by any means the only good ones. For further listings check out: www.inyourpocket.com/poland/krakow/bars_pubs__clubs/chapter/191-bars_pubs__clubs.html and www.cracow-life.com/drink/pubs_cafes.php
for a fuller list.
Prozac – pl. Dominikanski 6
One of Krakow’s longest standing and yet still very popular clubs. We’ve heard tell of them only letting in outstandingly fit Polish women and apparently loaded foreign men, but we didn’t have a problem and we assure you fall into neither category. It’s all about the synthesised metal and techno, and very cool it is too. But the real cool factor is the decor. Just wait and see.
Cien Klub – ul. Jana 15
The bouncers were a bit iffy with us on this one, but we assumed an air of confidence and breezed right past before they had a chance to tell us we weren’t pretty enough. More about the dance and techno, this one, an equally cool interior (apart from the actual temperature which got a bit warm) and a few too many drunken Polish lads. But still a lot of fun.
Shisha Club – Maly Rynek 2
Good god, what is this place doing here? Head for the Maly Rynek (small square) just next to the Old Town Square, and find number 5. Then go in and head down the stairs to the shisha club, and find yourself in Istanbul. So extremely random, but a great place full of little coves draped in chiffon scarves and Arabic style cushions. There are even shisha pipes (or hookahs, or hubby-bubbly pipes, or even nargile pipes if you want to actually use the right word) which are perfectly palatable, although if you are a connoisseur of shisha then you might find it a little rough. A very pleasant, cosy little den, but it’s about the relaxing here, not getting geared up for a night out.
Alchemia – ul. Estery, Pl. Nowy, Kazimierz
This place is really wonderful for daytime drinking. It’s located in the main plaza of Kazimierz and has outdoor seating and dribbly candles. You can sit outside, sipping a Krupnik (honey liqueur) and people watching. Very chilled out, not very expensive.
Wodka – Mikolajska 5
Also absolutely magic for daytime drinking, but probably just as good for evening drinking, too. This is the Vodka shop! It’s tiny, cosy, quaint without being cheesy and very chilled out. There are about 100 types of vodka, of every possible flavour. We can particularly recommend the chocolate one. They are kept in the freezer – just perfect.