Long weekend in Krakow Report

Meathlass

Went to Krakow from Saturday 8th to Thursday 13th from Shannon Airport. Had originally looked into booking it through budget travel but the price went up so I decided to look up stuff individually. Got flights on Ryanair for 222 euros including a bag each and airport check in. Stayed in the Sheraton Hotel for 5 nights for 664 euros including breakfast. Very good price, booked it on 1800hotels.com, similar websites were charging 1000 euros for the same nights and room.

Got a taxi from the airport from outside the terminal for 67pln (rate was 3.5pln to a Euro at the time) on the meter. Hotel was fabulous, even though we arrived 4 hours before we should have been able to check in we got our room straight away. Nice rooms, beautiful hotel, typical 5 star place. All staff we met spoke English. Hotel was located a 5 min walk from the entrance to Wavel Castle and directly opposite the river which had ducks and swans and nice walks around it. Thought it was a great place to stay, about 10 mins from the main square which was no hassle for walking. Breakfast was extensive with a hot buffet, cereals, juices, salmon, cold meats, cheeses, breads, seeds for cereals. We only had breakfast and dinner as brekkie filled us up so much every day. We ate twice in the hotel. Once in the main restaurant The Olive, which was fine dining, located in the atrium of the hotel, we never saw more than 3 tables full even at 8.30pm on saturday night. The food was excellent with very good service but prices to match 400pln for wine and 3 courses for 2. We also ate in the American Sports bar which had typical tex mex food which was standard but had same prices as the main restaurant so was disappointed by that. Great cocktails though.

Went to Wavel Castle on the Sunday but only a certain amount of tickets available and they'd all sold out by midday. You can walk around the grounds for free but can't go into any of the buildings. We came back another day and bought tickets for the 3 main buildings. The Cathedral is the main one but I wasn't that impressed, there are nicer ones in the city that are free. There's a nice walk up to the bell tower though but you can't buy the tickets for just that individually. The armoury and treasurey was very good but thought the state apts were hit and miss (I've seen very similar stuff in Russia and South America so was very familar to me, magnificent though if you've never seen statley houses like that from that period). The tickets are all timed so you could end up spending half a day there. Worth going early to avoid the tour buses.

THe Mediveal centre of the town is very nice. The cloth market in the centre of the old town has about 60 stalls selling lace, wooden objects, wooden toys and jewellry. Everything was cheap and well made - wooden chess sets for 30 euros, painted wooden jewellry boxes for 10 euros. Would be a great place to pick up presents. All items are clearly labelled and never felt we were getting ripped off. Most items had very similar prices from stall to stall and there was no hassling to buy. Very impressed, was expecting to have to barter and be harrassed into making a purchase. We didn't go into any of the shops around the square selling souvenirs so don't know what they're like. Had some meals in the Old town, 1 starter, 2 mains, and 2 desserts, coffee and a bottle of wine for around 250pln (about 70 euros) Wine is very expensive, about 30 euros for the most basic bottle. Beer is probably a much better choice. There were lots of cheap cafes, stalls and restaurants were you could eat a main for about 5 euros.

You could easily see all the main sites in the city (including the castle) in a day. We went to the Salt Mines in Wielzica (sp) with Cracow Tours which picked us up from the hotel - the tour cost 110pln and included entry to the mines and a guided tour. Located about 15km from the city so if you go on weekends traffic will be light. I've seen salt mines before so really could take or leave this tour but most people seemed to enjoy it. Not recommended for young kids or elderly. It lasts 2 hours and there's limited oppertunities for sitting down. The tour starts by walking down 54 flights of stairs (you get the lift back up).

Also went to Aushwitzch/Birkeneau which was very interesting (worth doing some reading or at least watching Schlinder's List to get some of the background) We also went with Cracow tours as they offered a 10% discount because we'd already gone on one tour with them already so it cost 108pln each. Located 70km from Krakow and took just an hour to get there (we went on a public holiday so no traffic in the city). Spent almost 2 hours in the much smaller Aushwtizch were they guide you through the main buildings where they have exhibits. They ask you to be quiet, show respect and not take photos inside the buildings, all of which requests the vast majority of people ignored particulary the large groups of Israeli school kids who ran through each room shouting and screaming and taking photos of the mounds of hair and briefcases. After a short break you reboard the bus with the same guide who drives you to Birkeneau and spends about 40 mins there. There is alot of walking involved in all these tours and Birkeneau is all outside. I didn't find it particularly upsetting, maybe because i'd done some reading before hand so had heard alot of the commentary from the guides already. I would have liked more time to walk around Birkeneau on our own but we only had about 5 mins till the bus left. You could get a public bus out there and get your own tour as there is very little explanations to tell you what you are looking at so you really need the guides.

On the last day we went out to the Polish Aviation Museum which was located out on John Paul II highway near the airport in an industrial park behind a housing estate. The taxi driver just dumped us at the entrance and drove off leaving us in the middle of nowhere! Entry was 7pln and there was about 200 planes, helicopters etc both outside and in hangers. We could have got a guided tour in English for 50pln which in hindsight might have been a good idea. Interesting if that's your kind of thing. We walked for a mile through the suburbs to get a taxi again.

We flew home at 10.50am with Ryanair, the waiting area for the gate was small and there was only one x ray machine into our area but we were top of queue so didn't matter. The duty free area is tiny with only the most basic alcohol and perfumes, no make up for sale or many sweets. I got 2 lts of Polish vodka for 18 euros.

I think the minimum time needed to see the city would be 3 days. The weather was great when we were there, about 10-15c during the day, very warm in the sunshine. Gets very cold in the winter though.

BuffyBot

Great report - thanks for sharing!

Gazza22

Good review, Krakow is a lovely city