The Royal City

Krakow is the perfect place for you to visit for those wishing to explore Poland's history.

Best time to holiday

If you love winter activities, you should go to Krakow because it gets an abundant amount of snow and can be quite cold in the winter months. The summers tend to be hot and humid sometimes reaching over 30 degrees Centigrade.

There are many festivals here that will appeal to visitors. During May and June travellers can witness the Krakow Film Festival which showcases short films and documentaries. The end of June and beginning of July brings the Jewish Culture Festival. Music lovers are advised to visit during one of the music festivals: either during July and August for the Jazz Festival, or in October for the Unsound Festival, which is an electronic music festival.

Planning your trip

Deciding what to do during your visit can be a difficult faced with all the options available. A visit to the Jewish district, called Kazimierz, is almost obligatory.

Within Krakow city centre, parking spaces can be extremely hard to find, so if hiring a car to explore Polands, park at some distance from the central city and take public transport.

Poland is usually cheaper than the UK. A low-cost restaurant meal costs approximately 35 zł while a mMineral water is around 2 PLN. Local food that you may want to try is barszcz - a beetroot soup - and pierogi, which are filled dumplings. Zapiekanka is a popular street food similar to grilled baguette.

Local Krakow information

Krakow airport is about 12 km west of central Krakow. To get there, you can take bus 292 or 208, which will cost approximately 4 PLN for a single trip. The train is about 8 PLN and should be in Krakow within 20 minutes. There is also an airport bus running at hourly intervals and priced at approx. 10 PLN. Taxis cost about 90 PLN and are available at exits T1 and T2.

In Kazimierz district you can find good quiet hostels that cost about 40-60 zł per person for a night. Old town also has hotels of every price range. Mid-price hotels start around 250 zł per night for one person.

Transport costs are also fairly cheap. A day pass for public transport is available for about 15 PLN and can be used on buses and trams. A bike can be hired for approximately 40 zł for 24 hours and a taxi costs about 25 zł for 8 km.