Poland · City break

Kraków City Guide

Five hundred years as Poland's royal capital left their mark. One of Europe's largest medieval market squares with the Cloth Hall at its heart, Wawel Hill above the Vistula with castle and royal tombs, and the green Planty ring where the walls once stood. Two ready-made day routes split the city between them.

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Our walking tours of Kraków

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Kraków, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

Old Town & Wawel

Day one follows the old Royal Route, from the Florian Gate, the last surviving city gate, across the huge main square with the Cloth Hall and St Mary's Basilica, then down Grodzka street to Wawel Hill with its royal castle and cathedral. All on foot, all close together.

Florian Gate (Brama Floriańska). The day starts at the Florian Gate, the only one of the city's original eight gates to survive the demolitions of the 19th century. When the fortifications came down to make room for the green Planty belt, this stretch of wall and the Barbican were left standing. Supposedly because people feared draughts blowing through the city. This is where the Royal Route begins, the road Poland's rulers took to their coronation at Wawel. Along the outer wall hangs an open-air gallery of local painters today, kitschy but likeable.
Rynek Główny (Main Market Square). At roughly 200 by 200 metres, Rynek Główny is one of Europe's largest medieval market squares, laid out in 1257 after the Mongol raids and barely altered since. The Cloth Hall stands in the middle, surrounded by townhouses, churches and the lone town hall tower, whose town hall was pulled down in the 19th century. Beneath the paving there is a museum built around the excavated foundations of the medieval market stalls. The square is at its best early in the morning, before the carriages, flower stands and tour groups fill it.
St Mary's Basilica. St Mary's Basilica with its two unequal towers is the city's landmark, and inside a deep blue starry vault instantly quietens the room. Its centrepiece is the altarpiece by Veit Stoss, carved between 1477 and 1489, over twelve metres tall and one of the most important works of late Gothic sculpture anywhere. On every hour a trumpeter plays the Hejnał from the taller tower in all four directions. And breaks off mid-note, in memory of a watchman said to have been struck by an arrow. Visitors use the side entrance; the main door is reserved for worshippers. A few minutes outward from the centre, by the way, you reach the Planty, the green ring laid out where the old city walls stood. Perfect for a shady breather between stops.
Cloth Hall (MNK Sukiennice). The Cloth Hall has stood in the middle of the market since the 14th century and was once the trading hall for cloth, spices and salt. Downstairs, stalls now sell amber, wooden boxes and souvenirs; upstairs is the gallery of 19th-century Polish painting, a branch of the National Museum. It holds the great history canvases of Jan Matejko and the atmospheric landscapes of Chełmoński. Painting every Pole knows and almost nobody outside Poland has seen. Allow about an hour, and note that the gallery is closed on Mondays.
Wawel Castle. On the limestone bluff above the Vistula sits Wawel, for Poles the country's single most important place, seat of the kings for 500 years, later a barracks for occupiers, today a museum and a national symbol. The Renaissance courtyard with its three tiers of arcades is free to enter; the state rooms, the crown treasury and the armoury each need their own ticket. The famous Flemish tapestries commissioned in Brussels by King Sigismund Augustus were smuggled out of the country twice and came back both times. In summer the time slots go early, so book ahead and pick two exhibitions rather than all of them.
Wawel Cathedral. Right beside the castle stands the cathedral, where Polish kings were crowned and buried for more than 400 years. The interior is a jumble of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, because every era added a chapel. Most striking of all the gilded dome of the Sigismund Chapel. In the crypt lie not only the kings but national heroes such as Kościuszko and Piłsudski. Take the stairs and you reach the Sigismund Bell of 1520, rung only on high holidays and needing twelve ringers to swing it. From up there you also get the best view over the old town roofs.

Kazimierz & Podgórze

Day two heads south of the old town through Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter with its synagogues and flea markets, crosses the Bernatek footbridge to the far bank of the Vistula into Podgórze and the Ghetto Heroes Square, and ends at Schindler's Factory. A quieter day than the first, but a considerably heavier one.

Szeroka (Kazimierz). Kazimierz was a separate town for centuries and later the heart of Jewish life in Krakow. Szeroka is more a long square than a street, lined with low old houses, and several synagogues stand on it, among them the Old Synagogue, now a museum, and the Remuh Synagogue with its Renaissance cemetery behind, whose gravestones were pieced back together from rubble after the war. After 1945 the quarter lay derelict for decades and was only rediscovered in the nineties. Take time for the side lanes, where much of the original fabric survives, old shop signs included.
Bernatek Footbridge. Since 2010 the Bernatek footbridge has linked Kazimierz with Podgórze and it is the most relaxed way to cross the Vistula. Above the railing float acrobat figures by the sculptor Jerzy Kędziora, turning gently in the wind. Balancing acts in bronze with no visible support. Thousands of love padlocks hang from the railing itself. From the middle of the bridge you see Wawel upstream and, downstream, the new riverside walks where boats moor as bars in summer.
Ghetto Heroes Square. Seventy empty chairs of bronze and cast iron stand across this square, scattered like furniture left behind. This was the central square of the Podgórze ghetto set up in 1941, and it was from here that people were driven to the trains for the camps, leaving their belongings in the street. The 2005 memorial takes up exactly that image. On the corner stands the Pharmacy Under the Eagle, whose Polish owner Tadeusz Pankiewicz was the only non-Jew allowed to stay in the ghetto and helped wherever he could. Today a small museum. A place to pause rather than to photograph.
Schindler's Factory. Oskar Schindler's former enamelware factory now houses a museum about Krakow under German occupation from 1939 to 1945. The exhibition is densely staged, with reconstructed streets, a living room, a tram, audio recordings and personal objects, plus a lot of text on the walls. Honest note. It is less about Schindler himself than the name suggests, his office is just one room among many, and more about the life of the city and its Jewish population in those years. Allow at least an hour and a half and book the timed ticket early, slots often go days in advance.

Planning your visit

Two days fit well. The first route from the Florian Gate runs 2.5 kilometres onto the main market square, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Cloth Hall in the middle and St Mary's Basilica beside it. It then climbs the Wawel to the castle and cathedral. The second takes in the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, Ghetto Heroes Square and Schindler's Factory over three kilometres. Five evening tips are ready. Wieliczka and Auschwitz-Birkenau each need a day of their own.

Going out & nightlife

Rooftop bars

Roof Top Terrace (Powiśle). A terrace high above the Vistula, facing Wawel. You look out over the castle, the river bends and the bridges, and when the sun drops behind them it gets briefly and gloriously kitschy. Drinks and the small menu are decent, but you come for the view. Honestly, only the tables along the railing get the full panorama, the rest of the terrace is lounge seating without it.

Nightlife quarters

Kazimierz (Plac Nowy). After dark the old Jewish quarter turns into Krakow's bar district, and it stays refreshingly unpretentious, with sagging sofas in cellar bars, live music in courtyards and student prices. The centre of it all is Plac Nowy with its round market hall, whose windows feed half the city zapiekanki at night. Long baguette halves grilled with everything on top. No plan needed, just go door to door.

Food & restaurants

Pod Aniołami. Polish cooking in a medieval vaulted cellar on Grodzka, everything grilled over beechwood. You smell it on the stairs already. The menu sticks to the classics, with duck, wild boar, pierogi, plus heavy soups served in a bread loaf. A touch touristy, but the quality holds up and the cellar really is that old. Book for the evening, tables go fast.

Bars & clubs

Mercy Brown. A speakeasy in a vaulted cellar with no printed menu. You say what you feel like and the bartender builds it. Add live jazz and burlesque on some nights, all in a tight space full of velvet and candlelight. The room is small, so reserve. Just turning up rarely works here.

Stage & concerts

Teatr im. Juliusza Słowackiego. A neo-baroque house from 1893, modelled on the Paris Opera and set at the edge of the old town so that at night, floodlit, it looks like a wedding cake. The programme mixes drama and opera, mostly in Polish. Fine for opera, harder for spoken theatre. If you skip the ticket, the view of the lit facade from Plac św. Ducha is worth the detour anyway.

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Practical information for Kraków

Public transport

Operator. Responsible for lines, timetables and fares is the Zarząd Transportu Publicznego w Krakowie, ZTP for short, based at ul. Wielopole 1. Trams and buses are operated by MPK Kraków, with private companies also running individual agglomeration lines on behalf of the ZTP. The shared fare is called Komunikacja Miejska w Krakowie, abbreviated KMK, and is divided into three zones. Zone I covers the city area, zones II and III the surrounding municipalities. For visitors, the key point is that Balice with the airport lies in Zone II, as does Wieliczka, which is also outside Zone I. The offering is complemented by the regional trains of Koleje Małopolskie, whose SKA1 line links the airport, the main station and Wieliczka on a single route. The city fare only applies to these trains to a limited extent, and a separate rail ticket is needed for the trip to the airport.

Network. A dense tram network and buses. The old town is pedestrianised.

Modes of transport. Tram · Bus · Night tram · Night bus · Koleje Małopolskie SKA regional train

Operating hours. On a normal weekday, the first tram sets off at 4.05 a.m., with the earliest buses starting even earlier, at 3 a.m. Averaged across all lines, the first bus service is at 4.24 a.m. and the first tram at 4.38 a.m. In the evening, service on half of all lines ends at 11.39 p.m. Individual tram services run until as late as 12.18 a.m., and individual buses until 1.05 a.m. This doesn't create a gap, though, since the first night departure is already at 11.15 p.m. So anyone who misses the last daytime service waits at most a good hour for the night bus.

Night service. Running every night are bus lines 601, 605, 608, 610, 664, 902, 904, 910, 917 and 937. They start between 11.14 p.m. and 11.32 p.m. and run until around 5.30 a.m., with nearly all lines at a 60-minute interval. On nights before Saturday, lines 609, 611, 903, 915, 918 and 948 are added, with some lines increasing frequency to every 30 minutes. Night trams 62 and 69 run only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, roughly from 11.30 p.m. to 4.20 a.m., about every half hour in each direction. For arrivals at the airport, line 902 is especially important, it runs hourly from 11.21 p.m. to 4.51 a.m., closing exactly the gap during which no train runs.

Buying tickets. There are stationary vending machines at larger stops, in both the Krakowska Karta Miejska and the Małopolska Karta Aglomeracyjna systems, plus machines on board the vehicles themselves. A pictogram above the door shows which payment method an on-board machine accepts. Some vehicles have pure EMV machines that only take cards. Tickets are also sold at selected kiosks and shops. You cannot get a ticket from the driver. The ZTP customer counter at ul. Wielopole 1 is of little help to visitors, since tickets are only issued there from 50 pieces or a value of 500 zł upward. At the airport, vending machines stand in the arrivals hall on level 0 and in front of the hall, plus one on the bus. Paper tickets are only valid once validated, which must happen immediately after boarding.

App and payment. The ZTP lists iMKA, moBiLET, SkyCash, jakdojade and zbiletem.pl as sales apps. There are also numerous partner apps from banks, including Revolut, ING Bank Śląski, PKO BP, Santander, Millennium, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Alior Bank, Bank Pekao's PeoPay and Velo Bank. Among the apps, the combined 70-minute ticket for bus, tram and regional train is only available through iMKA. The ZTP explicitly recommends registering and topping up your account before boarding, since the purchase process depends on network coverage and mobile data speed. Card payment works at the stationary vending machines as well as at the on-board machines. There is one restriction at the airport, where public transport tickets can only be paid for in Polish złoty. Koleje Małopolskie train tickets, by contrast, can also be bought from the conductor by card or cash.

Which ticket. A new Taryfa has applied since March 2, 2026. A single journey or 30 minutes costs 6 zł at the standard rate and 3 zł discounted, 15 minutes costs 4 zł, 60 minutes 8 zł, 90 minutes 9 zł. All these time tickets are valid across all three zones. The 24-hour card costs 20 zł for Zone I and 25 zł for I+II+III. The 48-hour card costs 40 zł, the 72-hour card 55 zł, both available only for all three zones combined. The 7-day card costs 65 zł for Zone I and 80 zł for all zones. This lets the thresholds be stated precisely. The 24-hour card for Zone I corresponds to the price of a good three 30-minute tickets, the 48-hour card to that of nearly seven, and the 72-hour card to that of a good nine. Someone staying three days pays 55 zł with the 72-hour card instead of 60 zł for three separate 24-hour cards for Zone I, while also covering zones II and III into the bargain. The 48-hour card, meanwhile, costs exactly the same 40 zł as two 24-hour cards for Zone I, but also brings in the outer zones. For families there is a weekend ticket for 25 zł, valid Saturday and Sunday for two to seven people, allowing for one or two adults plus up to six children under 16 depending on the group makeup. The combined 70-minute ticket for bus, tram and regional train costs 10 zł.

Fare zones. All time tickets from 15 to 90 minutes are valid across all three zones. Only for the 24-hour and 7-day cards do you need to choose. The airport lies in Zone II, so the Zone I day card alone is not enough.

Tip. From the station to the main square is ten minutes through the Planty green belt.

Getting there

Main station

Location. Right on the edge of the old town, beneath a shopping centre.

Long-distance trains. Kraków Główny is served by every PKP Intercity long-distance category, from the fast EIP (Pendolino) through EIC and IC to TLK. The Pendolino takes about 2 hours 21 minutes to Warsaw, a regular InterCity about 2 hours 54 minutes. Eight direct express trains in the EIP and EIC categories run daily to the Tri-City of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. To Poznań there are 17 train pairs a day, and 23 toward Katowice from Lesser Poland. Since December 2025, a Pendolino has run to Zakopane for the first time, covering the route in 1 hour 57 minutes, with nine daily train pairs into the Tatras overall. In summer, seasonal trains to the Baltic coast are added, the EIC Posejdon to Kołobrzeg and the EIC Lajkonik to Hel. The station is also well connected internationally. A train runs to Vienna every four hours, likewise to Prague, with trains heading to the Czech Republic seven times a day in total. There are four direct connections to Berlin at four-hour intervals. The IC Carpatia carries overnight travelers via Katowice to Vienna, Munich, Bratislava and Budapest, and new is the IC Saxonia direct carriage to Leipzig via Wrocław. The IC Hańcza runs via Warsaw, Suwałki and Kaunas to Vilnius. One note for 2026, due to construction work on the routes toward Warsaw, Kielce and Tarnów, some trains may take longer than the timetable suggests.

Opening hours. The first regional train toward the airport leaves the station at 3.26 a.m., the last at 12.46 a.m. Between 1 and 3.30 a.m. this service pauses completely.

Airports

KRK

Into the city. The SKA1 train takes 17 minutes to Kraków Główny. The 300 city bus takes about 45 minutes, a taxi or minibus about 25 minutes. The platform is behind the parking garage and connected to the terminal by a covered bridge.

Frequency. From Kraków Główny the train runs every 30 minutes from 6.06 a.m. to 9.36 p.m., departing at minutes 06 and 36 each hour. Before and after that it runs hourly. From the airport the first train leaves at 4.17 a.m., the last at 1.47 a.m. Between 1.47 am and 4.17 a.m. no train runs, and only the hourly night bus 902 helps then.

Local quirks

The bugler breaks off. Every hour, the Hejnał is sounded from the tower of St. Mary's Basilica and cuts off abruptly mid-note. It commemorates a watchman struck down by an arrow.
At night the tram only runs on weekends. Night trams 62 and 69 run only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, from about 11.30 p.m. to 4.20 a.m. From Monday to Thursday, only the night bus remains once regular service ends. So anyone leaving a bar in Kazimierz late on a weeknight should look for a bus stop, not a tram track.
No machine at the airport takes euros. Public transport tickets at the airport can only be paid for in Polish złoty. The vending machines in the arrivals hall on level 0 and on the bus do accept cards, but not euro notes. Anyone arriving without złoty and without a card is stuck at the machine.

Good to know

Currency: PLN zł
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: C · E
Time zone: Europe/Warsaw
Driving: right

Speed limits. built-up areas 50 km/h, outside towns 90 km/h, expressway 100–120 km/h, motorway 140 km/h

Within built-up areas, 50 km/h applies around the clock, there is no higher nighttime limit. Dipped headlights or daytime running lights are mandatory on every trip, even in sunshine. Pedestrians have right of way as soon as they step onto a crosswalk. Anyone caught driving more than 50 km/h over the limit within a built-up area has their license confiscated on the spot.

Tipping. Ten percent in restaurants. State the amount when paying, otherwise it counts as change.

Tolls. On state motorways you pay electronically via the e-TOLL app, on concession sections such as the A4 at toll booths.

Access restrictions. Krakow and Warsaw have set up clean transport zones, graded by emission class and year of registration.