With charming architecture, a medieval historic centre, an abundance of artworks and a thriving food scene, it’s no wonder Poland’s second biggest city is a popular place for a city break.
Founded around the 7th century by the Vistulans, the city is one of the oldest in Central Europe and the area has been home to various groups of people since pre-historic times.
Kraków became the capital of Poland in the mid 1050s under King Kazimierz the Restorer and held the title for some 500 years, until King Sigismund III moved it to Warsaw in 1596.
Situated around a bend in the Vistula River (above), the city’s main sights revolve around its historic Old Town and Wawel Hill (which were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978), and the surrounding districts.
I’d been keen to visit Kraków for years and finally went in November 2022, which admittedly wasn’t the best time of year to visit as it was cold, wet and a fair few sights were closed for winter.
During my four days in the city, I spent my time exploring its different districts: the medieval Old Town, Wawel Hill and Kazimierz (the old Jewish quarter, above).
I also ventured to the nearby town of Wieliczka to tour its jaw-dropping salt mine (below).
While I found Kraków nice enough, I’ll be honest and say I didn’t love it.
I found the visitor experience in places lacking. There was often a lack of signage to explain things or there’d be impractical systems in place.
For example, the ticket machines for buying your train tickets from the airport to the city centre wouldn’t accept debit cards and you needed to have the exact change (17 zloty) to buy a ticket.
This meant hardly anyone on the train had a ticket and the harried inspector was having to sell tickets left, right and centre.
I also got yelled at in a few places for wearing my coat, even though there was nothing to make you aware you weren’t supposed to do so.
I’m not sure what Kraków has against coats, but the city really doesn’t like them.
I didn’t find the city to be particularly welcoming either and found quite a few people stand-offish, and on some occasions, plain rude. Not always, but often enough for it to be noticeable.
I’ve travelled to many parts of the world and almost everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve found the people to be friendly, hospitable and welcoming, so I was a little taken aback by the coldness I experienced in Kraków.
The other thing I found slightly frustrating was that while there were lots of places to visit, there was often very little to see inside.
I couldn’t help but feel they’d be better placed consolidating some of the attractions into a few larger ones for a more fulfilling visitor experience.
But there were plenty of positives, too. I absolutely loved the Collegium Maius, where Nicolaus Copernicus studied (above), and the world-class Czartoryski Museum (below), both of which are in the Old Town.
While the incredible Wieliczka Salt Mine has to be seen to be believed.
It’s also a very walkable city and a great place for just mooching around and seeing where you end up.
Other people seem to really like Kraków, so it may just be that I had a disappointing experience and happened to visit when a lot of staff were having a bad day. The almost constant rain probably didn’t help either.
All in all, I was underwhelmed by Kraków, as pretty as it is, and it’s not somewhere I’ll be rushing back to.
Top tips
- Download the Jakdojade app before you go. It’s an absolute life saver for navigating the public transport system. The excellent app shows you where the nearest tram or bus stations are, when the next ones are due and the routes they cover. You can even use it to buy your tickets.
- Be prepared to have to hand over most of your belongings, including your coat, to the coat check staff (almost) everywhere you go.
- If you’re visiting between November and March, be aware a number of places will be closed for winter. This includes churches.
- Opening times often vary from those advertised and you can only visit many churches if there isn’t a service on (they can have a lot of services throughout the day).