Krakow – not somewhere you would immediately think of going, but somewhere that should definitely be on your weekend trip list. Surprisingly cheap, delicious food, & full of history (good and bad) it’s perfect for a not so mainstream getaway. Below are heaps of handy tips to make your visit super easy.

A 2 hour flight from London Luton airport, gets you to Krakow in southern Poland. Not far from the Slovakian border, and the gateway to Auschwitz, somewhere everyone should visit for a gut-wrenching realisation of the horrific past when Poland and a lot of Europe were taken over by Nazi Germany in WW2.

The currency is Zloty, (not euros!) which has a crazy exchange rate of £1gbp = 5.04zloty, so it may seem that everything is expensive but it definitely isn’t. We got a taxi from the airport to the center of krakow (around half an hour’s journey) which cost 89zloty (£17) which was expensive for poland, but not for the length of the journey and having it split between us. Other ways to get from the airport include uber, which is super cheap, but only available to up to 4 people in a vehicle, or using public transport such as the bus.

We took some currency with us (£60 worth) and then I just had my card which I could use for free and with a really good exchange rate, which made it really easy (I use starling bank, who are a mobile-only bank, definitely recommend checking them out, even if you only get it for trips abroad).

We booked an airbnb, which cost us £28pp for 3 nights (there were 5 of us) so it was super cheap, and only a 10 minute walk to the old town. The airbnb we stayed at also was a 30 second walk from a corner shop too which was super handy, so I definitely recommend staying in an airbnb, if you haven’t used it before sign up here and receive £25 free credit to give it a go: https://abnb.me/e/9TIjTiihdV

Auschwitz is something you have to do if you visit Krakow. It’s a real wake up call, and makes you realise how lucky we are that we managed to win the war. It’s not something that can be understood until you visit. The concentration camps are about 1.5 hours away from Krakow and can get public transport to there, but we chose a ‘private tour’ option (where they pick you up from your accommodation & drive you there) because we saw it advertised in a tour operators window in town and decided that was best for all of us. It made it a lot easier when we got there too, as it was incredibly busy, and luckily our guide was able to advise us where to go and what group to be in, which if we had done it on our own we would’ve been waiting a while! (our private tour cost 140zloty each = £28gbp, and you can find the tour agency along Dluga road in Krakow).

Auschwitz has two places to visit, Auschwitz 1 (where the famous gate and buildings are) and Auschwitz-birkenau where the main camp was, where people were sorted & seperated into different groups (twins taken for experiments, men used for building more spaces for prisoners, and women and children sent off straight away to be killed). There is a lot to learn and a lot to see, just make sure you wear warm clothes if you’re going in winter because it can be freezing 😅. It can take all day too (hour and half to get there, hour and half tour of one camp etc etc) so make sure you take some lunch! There aren’t many places to buy food there and you don’t want to be going 7 hours without food.. 🙄 🙈

Onto my favourite subject 😁 food. So put it this way, if you’re on a diet, I wouldn’t recommend Krakow. Their signature dishes are very bulky and filling, and never ever small. A traditional dish is Pierogi, which are meat dumplings (you can get other fillings) they’re more meat than pastry/pasta but taste pretty good. They also have lots of street food available, particularly in the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz which is south-east of the old town center. Unfortunately we went there on sunday, which is the day of their market so it was packed full of stalls particularly clothing and accessories, so we didn’t get chance to see much over there, but it’s worth visiting & apparently theres some pretty cool street art there too.

If you’re looking for somewhere to go for dinner, I definitely recommend Pod Wawelem. Offering traditional polish dishes as well as plenty of dishes you will know, there’s food for everyone. If you’re a foodie, you MUST get the meat dish main to share. Costing 79zloty (£13!!) you get to try a selection of their signature meats, and you get a lot of it. Me and Connor shared it and despite being big eaters we didn’t even manage to finish it 😵.

For breakfast I would recommend either going to a bakery (Piekarnia = bakery in polish) Where you can buy all sorts of items (that are definitely worth trying) which for both of us cost £3 for two coffees and two pastry items, or head to Urban garden in the center, which offers a traditional Cracovian breakfast and many other options such as big pancakes and tasty smoothies.

Another option if its raining or you can’t be bothered to go out, you can get uber eats, which gets lots of local food delivered to your doorstep. We used this on the last night and got burgers delivered which were gigantic and delicious (shoutout to the garage burger bar). You can sign up to uber eats here, which is available worldwide & worth having when you haven’t got the energy to go out!

Just south of the city on the edge of the river you will find wawel castle, completely free to walk around (only costs to go in the rooms & exhibitions) you can get an awesome view of the city and the river, and you can also see the famous dragon which lets off real fire every 10 minutes.

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You can also go out of the city, as uber is so cheap, you can take a trip to the Ojcowski National Park which according to google maps looks beautiful (unfortunately we couldn’t visit as there was 5 of us and uber only went up to 4). Closer to the city is the Kościuszko Mound which provides panoramic views of the city.

Finally I recommend getting two apps for your visit. Google translate, which has a camera function where you can hold it above foreign words and it will translate it instantly (very handy!!) and also XE Currency converter, pretty explanatory, but this app is super handy to show lots of different currencies with accurate, up-to-date conversions.

I hope you find these tips handy for your trip, if you’re heading there or are now tempted to I’d love to hear it! Pop a comment below or let me know on my travel Instagram: @harrietcarter5
& remember, sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
Harriet 🙂

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