Weekend Itinerary: 48 hours in Kraków

I said this back at my very first post about Poland but I was inspired to go off for a quick trip by Laurie Alyce Adventures who is a teacher and crams her many adventures into weekends during term time, which made me begin to wonder if I could be doing more with my weekends (realistically, I was already probably doing enough). I was then further inspired by this post from thetravelhack about how random group press trips weren’t doing her following any good but the short weekend break itineraries were and I realised that my Poland posts were missing an overarching itinerary. So now I have a Weekends Away category so you can see all my weekend adventures and here’s the itinerary.

Friday

My flight got in at about 8.45pm, so by the time I’d got off the plane, taken the bus to the terminal, got through passport control (mercifully without a major security incident over the moron who dropped a bag, never noticed and managed to not hear the increasingly frantic cries of “Has anyone dropped a backpack??” from staff), got a 48-hour public transport ticket from the machine at the bus stop, got on the airport bus and arrived at my accommodation, it was just after 10pm, which is pretty much time for bed for me. I stayed at The Boat Hostel&Chill, a hostel which offers private four-bunk cabins out of high season, which is right across the river from Wawel Hill, a two-minute walk from the airport bus stop and a five-minute walk from a tiny Carrefour Express. It’s quite basic but it’s very well located and it’s got a 24-hour reception.

The Boat Hostel & Chill in the dark on my first evening, with Wawel Hill illuminated behind it.

I’m a bit of an early bird and I don’t drink but if you’re not me, it definitely wasn’t too late to go to one of the floating bars moored along the river. The closest was the Pino River, which was just 200 metres further up the river or there are half a dozen on the other side via the bridge right next to my boat hostel. These were lit up and packed (but not disruptive to their neighbours) until well into the night.

Saturday

Morning

First thing on Saturday I walked the less-than-ten minutes to a different bus stop to go to Wieliczka Salt Mines. There’s a lot to see and do in Kraków but this is one that you want to get to before the crowds – and although you can buy tickets there, I’d strongly recommend buying yours online in advance. From the city centre, there’s a direct train to Wieliczka but if you’re a little way out of town, the bus goes directly to the mine.

Looking down into a chamber which functions as a staircase, with wooden stairs slotted between the salt walls descending quite a way but in short bursts.

The Tourist Route tour claims to take about three hours but the guided part only actually lasts about an hour and a half and it’s up to you how long you want to spend in the little underground souvenir shop, the restaurant and the museum (the museum requires an extra ticket). By the time you’ve queued for the elevator back to the surface and then hiked probably another kilometre with no particular guide, the Tourist Route is probably going to take a minimum of two hours and then it’s a ten minute walk back to the bus stop.

The restaurant on the third floor of the mine. It looks pretty much like the cafe at Ikea but with a much lower ceiling and the furniture is good quality wood.

Of course, Poland has some great food and someone who knows more about that than me could probably suggest a dozen cafes or restaurants back in town but I’m going to recommend the underground restaurant for lunch. They don’t provide a menu above ground but on their website, you can find an order form for organised groups which suggests it might have various soups including a sour rye soup with egg and sausage, as well meat or cheese & potato dumplings, various pork dishes and veal as well as salmon or sole or grilled chicken. It’s been autotranslated into English but I’d guess that at least some of those are the sort of traditional Polish dishes you’d be looking for at an above-ground restaurant. If you don’t fancy the underground restaurant, there’s a good restaurant back on the surface or a more informal bistro next to the tour entrance.

Afternoon

After lunch, return to the surface and take the bus (or train) back to Kraków and spend the afternoon at Wawel Hill, the oldest part of Kraków and home of some of the earliest kings of Poland. It’s free to go in and walk around the courtyard, look at the views from the walls, go in the cafes and restaurants and some of the exhibitions or you can choose to buy a ticket to one of tours. Again, you can buy this at the ticket office on the way into the main entrance to the complex or you can be sure and save time by booking online.

A cathedral apparently made up of towers and walls from half a dozen different buildings, as none are the same style or even colour. I'm standing in front of it all, looking very small, in a purple t-shirt and shorts.

There are a lot of options, ranging from going up to the viewing platform to visiting the State Rooms or the Royal Private Apartments or the Treasury or just a two-hour guided tour of the whole complex. I opted for the Wawel Underground: Between the Walls tour which is a self-guided group tour with audioguides that takes you underground between the current walls and the medieval ones, telling you the history and architecture of the hill, the formation of the stone and the story of the Wawel Dragon – you’ll find a sculpture of the Wawel Dragon outside, down on the riverbank. I’ve heard that it breathes fire but I never caught it doing it.

A view along the Vistula River towards the Krakow Eye from the walls of Wawel Castle.

An image of two kings fighting each other in Krakow's early days, projected in firey orange onto a medieval wall now underground inside Wawel Hill.

Evening

I didn’t get round to it myself but I’d recommend a trip on the Kraków Eye, the traditional-in-this-century ferris wheel that gives you views over the city. Then walk up or take a tram to Rynek Główny, the main square in the Old Town. This is your itinerary for tomorrow but it’s also the best place to eat and drink this evening. If you’re feeling architecturally interested but you’re not so much of a foodie, there’s a McDonald’s at the north of the Old Town, just by St Florian’s Gate which has tables in an excellent medieval Gothic brick cellar with a curved ceiling, a proper old-fashioned dungeon of a place. Finish off the evening with a chimney cake from the Chimney Cake Bakery.

The Krakow Eye wheel and balloon illuminated at night and reflecting in the black river.

A brick and stone medieval cellar now used as extra underground seating for the McDonalds above it.

Sunday

Morning

Start the day with a boat tour. They run from the river underneath Wawel Hill and generally last an hour. Most of them will take you to Kraków’s Six Bridges, several churches, the 12th century fortified Norbertine Monastery and the house of their favourite son, Pope John-Paul II, besides giving you great views of Wawel Hill itself and all with commentary. If the tours aren’t generally dramatically different, sometimes the boats are – some of them have large decks upstairs so you can sit outside, many have onboard bars, some are modern, some very old-fashioned, big, small – just pick your favourite boat.

Inside our tour boat, a kind of lounge with white leather seats running each length of the glass-sided boat, facing inwards.

Father Bernatek Bridge, a footbridge with acrobatic statues in various poses in the wires holding up the curved support beam.

Afternoon

Then head back to Rynek Główny. At some point you’ll want to visit St Mary’s Basilica, the massive church in the corner with the tall mismatched towers but because it’s a working church and Poland is a very religious country, Mass is held there all Sunday morning and you can’t get in as a tourist until 2pm, and even then you’ll want to watch out for the church being closed for private prayer. I only got a glimpse of the interior but the glimpse I got made me say “Wow!” out loud – it’s Gothic, it’s tall, it’s ornate and every inch of it is painted in blues and golds and terracottas from the soaring ceiling right down to the floor.

Inside St Mary's Basilica, a breathtakingly ornate Gothic abyss in shades of red and blue with lots of gold.

Outside, the best place to do your souvenir shopping is in the 13th century Cloth Hall, the Renaissance main feature of the square where you’ll find a long gallery lined with stalls selling everything from amber to toy dragons to wood carvings to delicate cloth. Out the front, if you take the side facing St Mary’s for the front, you’ll find a monument to the Polish national bards and the smaller, older Church of St. Adalbert. On the other side is the Town Hall Tower, which is part of the old City Hall and the Museum of Kraków, which traces the city’s history from its founding to the present day, via some of Poland’s darkest times.

Stalls inside the Cloth Hall selling everything you could want as souvenirs.

Stary Rynek, the main square, in the rain. Everything's a bit brown and shiny but you can see that in the dry, these buildings would be a mass of colourful pastels.

You’ve just got time to pop into the Owls’ Cave on the way back to the tram or the bus, to spend an hour or so meeting (and holding, if they’re in the mood) five birds of prey. This is also a great way to shelter from the rain but even if it’s not raining, it’s worth popping in to make friends with a barn owl and learn about the art of falconry.

Me holding a large and fairly fluffy eagle owl, looking at it with the same awe. Mutombo is a lot lighter than he looks, being a lot more feather than most of the other birds.

Evening

And by now, it’s time to get back to the airport because your 48 hours are already up. Kraków really needs far more than 2 short days but with a cheap flight from a local airport and a free weekend, you can get a good taste of it.