Krakow in Poland is one of the most interesting cities I've been to to date! Myself and Adam flew out to Krakow in October 2018. We booked it pretty much 5 weeks before, so it was rather a spare of the moment booking really! We booked with Jet2Holidays and I have to say, they are the best airline I've ever booked with! Now this is now way sponsored whatsoever, I honestly LOVED flying with Jet2! 22kg luggage, flights and hotel included! They have such good deals on a lot of the time too! So let's get into the guide to Krakow itself! I have a separate guide to how to eat your way around Krakow as we honestly ate SO MUCH during our time there! The food is on another level over there! Especially the pancakes!
Krakow is such a stunning city with architecture everywhere! There's so many souvenir shops for those who love to take back half a suitcase full of them, whether that be the cute little Russian style dolls, magnets, mugs, key rings or plates. I always have to get a magnet every place that I go to because, memories of course! I always have to bring back something for everyone too, ever since I travelled to Austria I've always brought back a nice plate for my Nan and she now has 3 plates on her wall! One from Austria, Barcelona & Krakow. Anyway, moving off the souvenirs subject, let's talk KRAKOW!
There's honestly so many hidden gems in Krakow, where do I even start?!
Wawel Royal Castle
This beautiful unusually styled, but typically polish castle was one of my favourite landmarks to visit during our city break to Krakow. It was a short walk from the Main Square and is free to walk around the beautiful grounds. Queue the instagram photos...There are loads of different part to the castle that you can have a nose around, but you have to pay to get into certain parts, this is something we weren't too fussed about as it was quite expensive. I would of loved to go inside the castle itself as I've seen on Pinterest how beautiful it is inside - honestly go inside there if you intend to visit this beautiful place! If you explore enough around the castle, you'll stumble across a metal dragon that breaths fire every so often and is named Smok Wawelski.
Main Square
The Main Square is where all the action happens. You have horses and carts (which is pretty but I completely disagreed with, as the horses where out around the main square from early morning until late at night and I hadn't seen them be fed or water at all, so that was concerning). The whole square had so much going on all the time, from buskers, markets, tourists everywhere, just constantly busy but with such an atmosphere! The main square is home to The Cloth Hall, which holds a very traditional Polish market where you could find so many beautifully unique trinkets and where I managed to get a Burberry style scarf for 20 zloty!
St Mary's Cathedral is also based in the main square and is a beauty of a building - another shame was that it was being renovated during our time there so we could only admire the beauty of it from the outside rather than the inside unfortunately. The photo above was taken from I'm sure was the clock tower in the centre of the main square and what a view it was from the top as you can see by one of the four windows you could look out of. It reminded me of when I went to Reykjavik, Iceland and went up the top of the Hallsgrimskirja! I love tall buildings like this that show the true beauty of a city.
Another bonus to the main square is how many shops and restaurants, as well as some good bars and night clubs surround the square. You can read more about the restaurants in my food guide to Krakow when that is released!
Krakow Pinball Museum
As I mentioned, Krakow is full of hidden gems, from delicious restaurants, to brilliant nightclubs, to even a retro pinball museum! Myself and Adam just had a quick five minutes in here as it was 10 Zloty just to enter the actual place, so we just had a quick nosey once we'd found it and moved on. There are plenty of other things to do next to your typical tourist sights. We rented out a bicycle each with a cute basket on mine of course, and rode across the river all around the area as much as we could within the hour we rented them out for. We walked for miles and miles, we at least did 22,000 steps a day whilst exploring the city within our short time there. They have plenty of tours on offer as well! But make sure you shop around for these as some are rather pricey and the cheapest one we found was hidden within a shoe shop! We wanted to go see the salt mines and Auschwitz. As these were the main things people recommended us to do whilst we were there.
Auschwitz
This is a place that honestly everyone should visit. It's not for everyone, but once you've been there, you come out feeling a different person. You feel grateful for the life you live and the day and age we are in now, how we have rights and do not go through this sort of thing. It just makes you feel so grateful and that we take life for granted. I won't say too much about this place, as you have to go there and you'll completely understand it. There's three parts to Auschwitz which I never knew. There's also a crate from a train that we were taken to to see how 50 people were transported in such a tiny little carriage. It just made you image how scary that was for the people that went through this terrific event. Honestly, if you are one for history and want to see this place, do it. Just make sure when you book it with these little shops and get their phone numbers, as you get picked up in a Mercedes Vito, but don't worry they speak English - double check this of course. They give you a guide and off you go! They drive you there, wait for you and bring you back. So quite good how your looked after!
Wax Museum
This was one of the highlights of our last day exploring the city of Krakow, the Wax Museum. It was 30 Zloty to enter, but we couldn't help but see what crazy wax figures were inside. There were all sorts of characters and singers inside, from Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Mick Jagger, Pablo Picasso, Star Wars Yoda, Avatar characters, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and SO much more! it was so funny and different to explore! Definitely worth stumbling upon and going in!
St. Florian's Gate
Me & Adam were searching for this gate for ages! And we finally found it on our final day of exploring the city. You don't realise how big the place is, with so many different things and attractions around every corner! This historic park of Krakow has these beautiful painting's all along the wall, if I could of brought one home I would of! They were all such stunning paintings and I hope to own one of these paintings one day as a memoir of our time in Krakow.
Hope you enjoyed reading through this guide to Krakow! Let me know if you've been before and found other hidden gems!
