Cracow is the second biggest city in Poland, was the capital of country, which is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. Because of its many landmarks and good atmosphere, it is probably the most popular city in Poland to visit by tourists.

How to go there?

The are like always “two ways”.  You can go there by public transport, so by train or by bus. If you will choose train, remember that they depend on the day – only one or two direct trains going from Lublin to Cracow of which only one has a profitable departure time at 06:39 (arrival in Kraków at 10:41), the other trains departs at 18:19 (and arrives in Cracow at 22:38). When you want to go back, there is a similair problem, the trains from Cracow to Lublin depart at 06:02 (arrival: 10:07) and 18:35 (arrival: 22:35)

A normal ticket cost about 57 PLN, but you should know that students have 51 % discount, and if you order the tickets much earlier you can combine it with another 30 % discount, what means that you can take you tickets already for 21 PLN. Busses drive much more frequent on a daily basis, even one bus for one hour. It is difficult to give an exact of the tickets price, because there are a lot of different companies. But we can give you an average price which is around 44 PLN, sometimes the student’s discount also may apply.  The average time of the trip lasts from 4.5 to 5.5 h, so it takes a little bit longer than going by train.

What you should see?

When you arrive on the main station for busses and trains, you are already near (500m) the main square in the city center. In the souroundings of this square, many of the main sightseeings are located. You can find below a short list of the most important of them (it takes less that minute, but this minute already could be a key of great trip 😉

In Main Market Square ( it is the biggest Medieval market square worldwide), you will see a lot of attractions – many churches, restaurants, pubs and shops – so, you can’t be hungry of experience and excellent food!

In the center of the Main Market Square, The Cloth hall are located (Sukiennice) – the big remarkeable Renaissancestyle building, build as a trade hall, there are many souvenir shops today. One of the churches is located near Main Market Square. We are talking about St. Mary’s Basilica (Bazylika Mariacka from XIV century). Basilica has an amazing interior, especially known for the Altarpiece of Veit Stoss (carved in XV century) and also for the Hejnał Mariacki (a short Polish anthem, closely connected with the history of Cracow). Hejnał is played every hour by a trumpeter on the highest tower of the Church. You surely have heard about Wawel, because many important historical buildings are located here and this is a place of the kings of Poland got crowned and burried ( some are from XI and XII century). The most well known are: Cathedral and the Wawel Castle. Kazimierz (before Holocaust) was the Jewish district of Cracow. The district was really renovated during last 20 years after the devastation the Second World War, here we have a lot of popular cafes, clubs and galeries. Worth place to visit in Cracow is also Wieliczka Salt Mine (Kopalnia soli Wieliczka), where you can go by bus from the city center (possible to reach in 20 minutes). It is a place included on the World Heritage List of UNESCO as a very extensive salt mining complex. Guided tours of about three hours, where the main point is very impressive Chapel of the Blessed Kinga – the biggest underground chapel in the world carved entirely out of salt. If you will stay a little longer in Cracow, it is worth to visit Auswitchz concentration camp in Oświęcim (50 km from Cracow), where you can go also by train or by bus.

Legends

Have you ever seen the Dragon?

After a several architectural monuments, which in deed, everyone should see – because it is a great piece of history – ( but if you like legends more than history) you just cannot walk differently near Dragon!

Yes, Dragon! Long long time ago, during the reign of Prince Krak (the legendary founder of Cracow), in the cavity under the Castle, the Dragon had his accomodation and once for a week he demanded a sacrifice of cattle, otherwise the sacrifice was in human.  Of course, he always choose the most fat cattle for this sacrifice.  After some time, the city has been looted from food, so people began to look for an idea how to kill Dragon. When many of brave ones have died, Szewczyk has appeard and offered an assistance. He killed the fattest sheep, filled her with sulfur and quietly left near the dragon’s cavity. Dragon was tempted by the delicious smell of favorite food and eat this sheep, and then began to be very thirsty so he drank the water from the Vistula until he burst out. To commemorate this day, nowadays you can meet the figure of a dragon breathing with fire.

There are a lot of another legends, but I will leave you with insufficiency, so you can get to know them during your visit in Cracow J.

Where you can stay for a night?

You will have the relatively long travel distance between Lublin and Kraków, it is worth to take into consideration  a good idea to stay in Kraków for one or more nights. Beds in shared rooms in relatively good hostels (in Old Town or Kazimierz) mostly cost between 40 and 60 PLN a night (includes breakfast).  Of course, if you want to have your own room or more exclusive, you must pay more, however even in luxurious hotels, the prices are mostly clearly less, than in hotels in bigger in Western-European cities.

Especially worth to mention are ”Hostel Biały Dom” and ”Guesthouse Domus Mater”, both are very high rated on booking.com (almost 9.0). They are on some distance of Old Town, however it is easy to reach there by public transport, so it should not be a big problem for you. They score very high on cleanliness and offer a very good value for money. It is really great that you can use your LoginLublin Card there (15% discount from the standard price and 5% on the non-returnable price, as a nice extra you get free parking, which otherwise would cost around 20 PLN per night)

Where you can eat well?

In such a tourist city like Cracow is, it would be any problem with find a place where you can eat well, because this city is filled with restaurants. Of course, in the city center, restaurants are in average more expensive. Hovever, even in this places there are a lot of affordable good quality restaurants, so it could be a great idea to check earlier mentioned review site. Something typically for Cracow is a bread roll called ”Obważanek’‘, it is a bit like a bagel, because it has a wide hole in the middle. They are mostly sprinkled with sesame, poppy seed or salt. This bread roll was first mentioned in 14th century and has nowadays been sold in 175 places, mainly in the center of Cracow. It could be a nice snack during the intensive sightseeing.

We hope that this article will be helpful for you, when you will be planning your trip to Cracow. Have a lot of fun!

Warner de Vries