Explore the Beautiful City of Krakow with me!
- travelwithtay1
- Aug 14, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Aug 29, 2024
In Jan 2024 we visited Krakow, our first little city break.
Our Stay was for 3 nights and We flew with Ryan Air from Stansted airport and the Hotel was booked through Booking.com
We stayed at the Ventus Rosa Boutique Aparthotel, 4 Star Hotel with 5 Star Trip Adviser reviews.
Our ratings:
Hotel? 10/10
Would we go back to Krakow? YES, YES, YES - 1000 Times YES!
Would we stay at that hotel again? 100%
Things we did? 10/10
Itinerary:
Travel to Krakow
Day 1
| Day 2
| Day 3
| Day 4
|
|---|
Hotel:
The hotel was so sweet and all the decor was stylish and cosy!
We had a Standard double room and it was plenty big enough for the two of us. It had a small kitchen area and heating to keep us warm. It also had a safe you can use and provided us with everything we needed - towels, smellies, bedding etc.
The reception staff were so helpful, providing bottles of water and guidance if you needed it for getting around the city.
A little quirky thing we thought was funny - you could hire a fish to keep you company if you were travelling alone!
Everything we did was within 20 minutes walking to the hotel. Market Square was around 8 minute walk, the castle was 20 minutes and there were scooters or bikes you could use if you wanted. The only things that weren't close were Zakopane and Auschwitz, but we had a coach pick up by the hotel for these which was great.
Things we did:
We started at museum of illusions, something fun and quirky we could do as we were super tired from travelling. We paid for the tickets for this when we arrived, you could you cash or card. This was great fun, it only took around an hour to get around but we thought it was so funny and a great way to spend your time if you're looking for something to do. The Museum has different rooms you can get cute pictures in and descriptions of what everything is and why it's in the museum to begin with.
We then went to Wawel Castle, which is absolutely stunning. It was freezing cold so we grabbed a coffee from the cafe on site and took a stroll through the grounds. There are so many different exhibitions you can take a tour around, you just pick what you would like to see and purchase your guided ticket at the kiosk and wait for the time you've booked it for. We did the Armoury tour which cost around £4.50 each. This was a great one to see as it contains western European weapons, Swords, Guns, Canons, armour and so much more.
On day 2 we did a day trip to Zakopane. This was absolutely amazing, we enjoyed every second. It cost around £90pp but we had the best day and experienced so much! We booked this through booking.com as it was the cheapest at the time.
Its around 1hr 30 mins from Krakow Centre, we were collected from a local bus station which was just outside the hotel.
First Stop is Chocholow, a village made up of wooden Historic Buildings. These were so interesting and the guide tells you how they were made and more about the history and significance of them.
You then head to Bacowka, a wooden shepherds hut where they turn sheeps milk into cheese. Here we did cheese and vodka tasting. The cheese was almost like a more smokey chewy halloumi, we loved it!
We then headed to Zakopane where we went up the Gubalowka - Fanicular. The cable car only takes around 3.5 minutes and the views are stunning! It does get extremely busy at the bottom though as it only runs every 15 minutes, luckily our guided managed to push us all through. At the top there was a lovely little market you could walk through and lots of places for drinks and lunch. Here we grabbed a Zakrecona Frytka - Twisted potato fry. It only cost £2 but was huge and so nice!
Krupowski was next on the stop, we had lunch here at Gazdowo Kuznia which was recommended to us by our guide. It was so reasonably priced and the food was amazing! We didn't get to much time to explore as we were in a group and had to stick to the schedule but i would love to go back and spend more time there!
Our final stop for our Zakopane day trip was the Chocholowskie termy, thermal baths in the mountains. This experience was phenomenal, the views of the mountains were just breathtaking! We went in winter so it was freezing outside but being in the warm thermal baths looking out at the mountains was something extraordinary. You could get drinks from the bar and drink them in the water, there were different pools inside and different levels outside. As well as water slides and hot tubs too!
This trip was one of our favourite parts of the holiday, everything was so smooth and was just such a fun day. I would definitely do it again, but maybe book things desperately so i can experience more without time limits.
On day 3 we visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps. This is something i would recommend for all. Its eerie and unpleasant but eye opening and so significant in history, we should all take it in and understand the severity of this devastation.
I'm not going to go into this too much as i think its something you need to experience yourself, but i will give some of the details to the trip.
The drive from Krakow to Auschwitz is a little over an hour long.
We were collected from the bus station outside of our hotel again.
I originally booked the tour for 9am but it got changed to 6am pick up when we were there. It was a little frustrating as it was so early, but we didn't mind and did get a partial refund.
We booked a guided tour with getyourguide (Tour link) and the tour lady was amazing.
Her knowledge and the atmosphere she gave whilst guiding us was great (if that is the right word to use). There were vending machines and a cafe you could get food and drink from. We were back in krakow by mid day.
We headed to Jewish Quarter and went to a food market which was lovely, more on this below.
And we did lots of walking about the main square taking in the views and amazing culture. Obviously not missing any bars! Keep reading to see what bars and restaurants we visited :)
Bar and restaurants:
We had a couple of restuarants booked before we went which i definitely recommend. We didnt book for the evening of Zakopane as we didn't know what time we would be back and we struggled a little to find somewhere. There are loads of places on the square but they are quite pricey.
The restaurants/ Cafes we went to were:
Goralski Praliny - We went here for lunch on our first day and had the most amazing foccacia. It was so big but only cost around £5 each. We also went back on our last day to try the donuts, they were huge and absolutely delicious. Rating 9/10
Morskie Oko - Great vibes, have a band playing downstairs. Quite small but didn't feel on top of people. Traditional Polish food, tasted absolutely amazing! We had Pirogi with meat to start and then shared the Platter of different meats and regional delicacies as our main. We loved it here and will be returning next time. Rating 10/10
Gazdowo Kuznia - Ate here when we went to Zakopane, we had 10 meat pierogi each (yes pierogi are my favourite) and drinks and it came to around £20. It was so sweet inside and had a lovely warm fireplace. We wasn't too hungry as we had the potato sticks before this but wanted a light lunch and this was perfect. Rating 9/10
Buffalo (market square) - This is where we ended up eating after Zakopane on the market square. We sat outside in the heated shelters so we had the views of the square and the horses coming by, it was absolutely lovely. The food was okay, a little expensive for what it was but we needed dinner so it didn't really matter too much to us. We both had steaks and wine and it came to about £96. Average for the UK but the most expensive meal we arte in Krakow and definitely not the best. Rating 6/10
Judah Food Market (Jewish Quarter) - We enjoyed it here, it was small and quiet but was nice to try different foods from vendors. We have a lot of places like this at home so was great to experience somewhere else. We had Zapiekanki Wloska a toasted open-face sandwich with Tomato sauce, mozarella, Salami & fresh basil - this was lovely! We then had Azjem which was a noodle bar, you could pick your meat and fillings. We had Duck with Plum sauce and chives. There were a few other vendors but we didn't try those as we were full. Rating 7/10
The Spaghetti - We booked this as i love Italian food and had heard so many good things about it on Tiktok. It did not disappoint. We were sat downstairs in the cellar which was stunning! We had a pasta each and a pizza to share (we had, had a bit of alchohol at this point which may have swayed this decision). I had carbonara and my other half had TAGIATELLE AL FILETTO Dl MANZO (pasta with beef and tomato sauce) both were lovely. Our whole meal with drinks too came to around £35. Rating 9/10
Milk Bar (Tomasza) - We came here for breakfast on our last day. It wasn't far from our hotel and i had heard it was great so thought we would give it a try. It was super busy and lots of people had suitcases but nowhere to put them which was a little awkward (not the cafes fault obviously). The food was very reasonably priced and they had a large range of things you could have. I had the scramble eggs and bacon and lew had the Pouched eggs and bacon. Both were delicious. This cost us around £12 with drinks too. Rating 8/10
Drinks:
Bania Luka - Krakows Spoons! We loved it here! Whilst we were in Krakow the ski jumping was on (in zakopane which we actually saw!) but they were showing it on the TV which was great fun, everyone was getting excited. The drinks are CHEAP! a beer was no more than 3 euros. Cocktails were around 4/5 but the beer was the main character here!! We went back a few times when we had time to spare. The staff were all so nice and it was just vibes being in there. Rating 10/10
Wodka Bar - Not for me! I'd seen everywhere on tiktok about vodka tasting. The queues were huge everytime we went passed then one time they weren't so we ran inside. You pick your vodkas off a huge board and then you can try 6 on a board. Honestly not one was nice! BUT.... It was so much fun. We had a great laugh doing it and the place itself is so small and sweet. I wouldn't do it again as straight vodka just isn't my vibe but you should definitely give it a go, loads of people we spoke to loved it!! Rating 8/10
House of Beer - There are so many beers to choose from here, crazy flavours and different kinds. I had a passion fruit martini beer and actually it was really good! It's quite big and has sofas and different places you can chill so good if you're wanting to spend some time drinking and chatting. Rating 8/10
Bubble toast - Okay, this i was a little disappointed with... I had heard so many good things about 'happy hour' and how good it is inside. But really i wasn't too impressed. i would like to give it another go to see if my opinion would change but for my first time it wasn't great.
Good points: inside is really lovely, for photos its great fun. Drinks tasted lovely and were a good size. The menu was large and full of fun cocktails.
Bad points: You can only do happy hour downstairs and it gets so packed that you just don't get in (not the bars fault obviously). It took so long for someone to ask if we wanted drinks, we went up to the bar to ask and got told to sit down and wait. Once our order was taken it took another 20 minutes for our drinks to come. It wasn't busy upstairs at all but i guess happy hour downstairs was taking up the waitresses time. Its nothing major it was just a little annoying we had an hour before our meal was booked and in this time we only managed to get one drink and had to completely down it as soon as it arrived as we had to go.
Like i said it may have just been busy, my experience may be different next time so i would definitely try again, but that was my experience. Rating 5/10
Other places to check out:
Food -
Trattoria Mamma Mias
Beef & Reef
Moo Moo Steak
White Bear Coffee (breakfast)
Mr Pancake
Butchers Grill
W Starej Kuchni (Polish traditional)
Zapiexa (Jewish Quarter)
Drinks-
The Leaky Cauldron Budda Garden
Things to do -
Cosmic Games
Shooting Museum
Wax Museum
Botanical Gardens
Bunny Cafe
Creepy Krakow At Night Tour
Summery:
I absolutely loved Krakow and will 100% be returning as soon as i can. There is so much to do and see. We felt like we did so much, but it was so chilled and fun. Yet there is still so much to see and do.
If there is anything you would recommend for us to do when we next visit add it in the comments below. Along with your experiences of Krakow, i'd love to hear them :)
Thanks for Reading <3
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