Delightful 碍谤补办贸飞 combines the historic with the cosmopolitan. Read on to find out the best ways to get to know the city. Shutterstock
Crowned with an impressive royal castle and dotted with church spires and world-class museums, 碍谤补办贸飞 combines the historic with the cosmopolitan.
The crowds that throng 碍谤补办贸飞鈥檚 main square and the restaurants lining photogenic Old Town lanes buzz with 21st-century joie de vivre 鈥 while the streets of former Jewish quarter Kazimierz and nearby Auschwitz are sobering reminders of 20th-century tragedy.
Beyond the must-see attractions, visitors can seek out simple local pleasures. Strolls alongside the Vistula River, and hearty home-style cooking in a retro bar mleczny (cafeteria). Sets by local bands at a legendary dive bar and fabulous art-nouveau architecture.
Ready to plan your visit? These are the best things to do in 碍谤补办贸飞.
1. Feel Poland鈥檚 glorious past at Wawel Royal Castle and Wawel Cathedral
Overlooking Old Town from its Wawel Hill perch, the seat of Polish royalty for centuries is the city鈥檚 most impressive sight 鈥 not to mention a national symbol of Poland and a deep source of local pride. Red-roofed, turreted and ringed by a red-brick wall, this 16th-century Renaissance palace is merely the most recent incarnation of this monument: royal residences on the site have come and gone (burned down, extended, vandalized by Swedish and Prussian armies鈥) since the 11th century.
Highlights include the 16th-century tapestries and carved wooden heads in the grand state rooms; royal private apartments that give you an intimate glimpse into the monarchs鈥 private lives; the crown jewels of the treasury; and the Szczerbiec (jagged sword), which played an essential role in Polish coronations from 1320 onward (you鈥檒l find it inside the vaulted Gothic armory).
Give yourself plenty of time to visit adjoining Wawel Cathedral, where many of Poland鈥檚 kings and queens are seeing out eternity in elaborate tombs, alongside the bones allegedly belonging to the legendary Wawel dragon. While the grounds are free to visit, it鈥檚 a good idea to book tickets for exhibits you want to see at least two weeks ahead due to their enormous popularity.
2. Get all medieval in G艂贸wny Rynek (Main Market Square)
Surrounded by restaurants and overlooked by handsome, centuries-old buildings, G艂贸wny Rynek (Main Market Square) is the focal point of Old Town 鈥 not to mention the largest medieval town square in all of Europe. After you鈥檙e done browsing the wares inside the market building, go back in time by descending to the medieval-meets-the-21st-century museum beneath the square.
Clever multimedia displays, holograms and animated puppets show you medieval market stalls and teach you about vampire-prevention burials. Buy your timed ticket online in advance 鈥 or visit on Tuesdays for free entry. Note that the museum is closed the second Monday of each month.
3. Spend a night out a at 鈥渓ost bar鈥 (if you can find one)
Other cities have speakeasies; 碍谤补办贸飞 has its 鈥渓ost bars.鈥 These hidden drinking dens are a recent development in 碍谤补办贸飞, and they鈥檙e a fun addition to its nightlife scene. To find one of the best ones, head to Smakolyki restaurant on Floriana Straszewskiego, find your way to the cloakroom and pass through to a hidden courtyard 鈥 and the entrance to Mercy Brown. This Jazz Age鈥搒tyle joint is all velvet couches, mood lighting, chandeliers and cocktails from a bygone era (gin with jasmine tea cordial, anyone?). Completing the immersive experience, entertainment includes burlesque shows.
4. Confront brutal history at Auschwitz-Birkenau
You don鈥檛 know what will move you the most until you get there. For some, it鈥檚 the torture cells and crematorium of the 鈥淒eath Block.鈥 For others, it鈥檚 the gas chambers and the endless rows of crematoria chimneys at Birkenau, where most of the mass killings occurred. For others still, it鈥檚 the mountains of eyeglasses and prosthetic limbs, the mass of human hair collected from victims to be used in textile production, and piles of battered suitcases with home addresses written on them by those for whom this Nazi extermination camp became their final destination.
In any case, Auschwitz is unlikely to leave you untouched. More than a million Jews, as well as numerous Poles and Roma, were systematically killed here between 1940 and 1945. The death camps have been preserved as a brutal, essential lesson of what humans are capable of.
Auschwitz is reachable by bus, train and organized day tour from 碍谤补办贸飞. While solo travelers can visit the site without a guide, it鈥檚 well worth joining a tour to get the most out of the experience, from the screening of the graphic 1945 documentary film by the Soviet liberators to the exhibitions in the barracks.
5. Take a dip in Zakrzowek
Tall limestone cliffs and dense pine forest surround this lagoon, whose clear, turquoise waters make it feel a million miles away from urban life. Yet this idyllic site is only a short tram ride (on route 1 or 4) to Kapelanka, southwest of Old Town. The lagoon was once a limestone quarry, which was deliberately flooded in 1990 after falling into disuse. It then became a popular swimming and picnicking spot for locals. After a recent overhaul, five swimming pools of varying depths are now enclosed within the lagoon, all connected by wooden docks 鈥 making this a fabulous spot to cool down in the summer heat.
6. Explore the past and present of Kazimierz
Southeast of Old Town, the Kazimierz neighborhood was Poland鈥檚 most important center of Jewish culture for 500 years 鈥 until the mass deportation and extermination of 碍谤补办贸飞鈥檚 Jews by the Nazis emptied it. Largely rundown during the Communist era, Kazimierz has bounced back in recent years.
Stroll through its streets to get to know its historic sights, from the restored Old Synagogue and a 19th-century Jewish cemetery with surviving tombstones to the Moorish-style Temple Synagogue and the sobering Galicia Jewish Museum, which traces the history of Jews in 碍谤补办贸飞. Browse the flea markets on Plac Nowy on the weekends, or attend a film screening or concert at Cheder during the .
7. Dine local a local at a bar mleczny
Cheap, cheerful and with seriously retro decor, a bar mleczny is a time-warp step behind the Iron Curtain and into 1980s Poland 鈥 in the best way. Found all over the city, bar melczny are dirt-cheap cafeterias where you鈥檒l rub shoulders with locals while you load up your tray with soup, pierogi (filled dumplings), placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes) and other hearty, belly-warming staples 鈥 all for a song. There鈥檚 a branch at Grodzka 43 in Old Town and another at Starowi艣lna 29 in Kazimierz.
8. Be moved and inspired at Schindler鈥檚 Factory museum
You鈥檝e surely heard of Oscar Schindler, the German industrialist immortalized in Steven Spielberg鈥檚 1993 film Schindler鈥檚 List. During WWII, Schindler saved more than 1000 Jewish inhabitants of the Podgorz茅 ghetto from deportation to the death camps by employing them at his enamel factory, still standing today. Schindler's Factory museum, where part of Schindler鈥檚 List was filmed, was given a major facelift in 2010 and has become one of 碍谤补办贸飞鈥檚 must-visit museums. Book your timed slot online at least 3 days in advance (it鈥檚 hugely popular), and don鈥檛 miss the superb permanent exhibition, 鈥湴拱烀撤 During Nazi Occupation 1939-1945,鈥 which tells the story of everyday life, underground resistance and anti-Semitic repressions in the city during the war.
9. Gorge yourself on street food
Paris has its croissants, Hanoi has its banh mi, Vienna has its 碍盲蝉别办谤补颈苍别谤...and 碍谤补办贸飞 has its obwarzanek. Chewy and addictive, and topped either with poppy or sesame seeds, 碍谤补办贸飞鈥檚 bagels are found at stalls on every corner in Old Town. Locals will gladly tell you which stall is likely to have the freshest lot.
But there鈥檚 more to 碍谤补办贸飞鈥檚 street dining than bagels. For the best kielbasa (signature Polish sausage) in town, head for the van in front of the Hala Targowa market on ul. Grzegorzecka. Then there鈥檚 zapiekanka 鈥 half a baguette topped with melted cheese, mushrooms and a squirt of ketchup. Poland鈥檚 answer to pizza was invented in the 1970s, when basic ingredients were all you could get; today, versions with fancier toppings are ubiquitous at fast-food stands. For numerous zapiekanka sellers under one roof, try the Okr膮glak food court at Plac Nowy in Kazimierz.
10. Catch a live set at Klub Awaria
is the kind of dingy dive bar that your mother warned you about: a sticky-floored, vaulted-ceilinged saloon where the carpe-diem clientele will gladly press a drink into a sober stranger鈥檚 hand to help them participate in the mildly anarchic nightly revelry. Up-and-coming local blues and rock bands perform on the little stage most nights 鈥 and after the band is done, regulars occasionally dance to Tina Turner classics on the tables and even the bar itself.
11. Get a taste of everyday life under Communism at Nowa Huta
If you want to see how steelworkers lived in the 1950s, catch tram 4 or 10 from central 碍谤补办贸飞 to this masterpiece of socialist-realist urban planning and Communist architecture in the east of the city. If wandering around the uniformly grey, identical blocks of flats isn鈥檛 enough of a draw, you can take a tour of Nowa Huta in a vintage, Communist-era Trabant with , who鈥檒l bring you down into the old nuclear fallout shelters and ply you with vodka.
12. Take a leisurely cruise on the Vistula
The slow-flowing Vistula River bisects 碍谤补办贸飞. Join locals during their morning runs along the footpaths that run alongside the river banks for several kilometers from near Wawel Castle to the city鈥檚 eastern suburbs, skirting Kazimierz along the way. Alternatively, if you have local friends, you might be invited aboard a party boat with a full bar and music system; these are available for hire by groups and are essentially floating nightclubs. More easily accessible are hour-long cruises that depart below Wawel Castle Hill and show off the city鈥檚 important landmarks, such as the D臋bnicki Bridge, the Norbertine Monastery, the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology and the Pi艂sudski Bridge.
13. Climb to the top of Kopiec Ko艣ciuszki
When you鈥檙e standing on Wawel Hill, you may notice the lump-like green hills surrounding 碍谤补办贸飞. The origins of the 碍谤补办贸飞 Mounds are lost in the mists of time, though it鈥檚 believed that the two oldest 鈥 Kopiec Krakusa and Kopiec Wandy 鈥 were built by pagan tribes several millennia ago as part of some solar calendar. (During the summer solstice, the sun rises at Wandy and sets at Krakusa.) Kopiec Ko艣ciuszki is a newer pile, completed in 1823 to commemorate a fallen Polish general. Catch bus 100 to the mound for fantastic views of Wawel Castle, St Mary鈥檚 Basilica and G艂贸wny Rynek.
14. Descend into the Wieliczka Salt Mine
This UNESCO-certified subterranean labyrinth of passages and chambers has been drawing visitors since the 1720s. (While the massively popular attraction is not actually in 碍谤补办贸飞 proper, it鈥檚 is easily reachable from the city.) It鈥檚 not for the claustrophobic: as part of a 鈥渢ourist鈥 tour, first-timers descend at least 125m (410ft) belowground and spend 2 hours in the depths of the former mine. Return visitors can opt for a more immersive miners鈥 tour.
Highlights include an underground lake, chapels adorned with statues carved from the white stuff, and a salt 鈥渃athedral鈥 with chandeliers. And yes: everything around you is carved from salt (we licked the wall so that you don鈥檛 have to). You can reach Wieliczka Salt Mine easily from 碍谤补办贸飞 by bus, train or tour. Pack a sweater.
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