Don't overlook Krakow!
By Paul Johnson on Mar 13, 2009 in Caribbean, Central America, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Europe, Guatemala, Illinois, Japan, Magazines, North America, Poland, Regions, Travel Equipment, Travel Literature, USA
The Polish city of Krakow, too often overlooked by travellers, has been recognised as one of the world’s top five cities by readers of Wanderlust magazine. The self-styled magazine “for people with a passion for travel” placed Krakow fourth place in its list of favourite cities for 2009 and described it as a “bargain destination”. The other cities to make the top five were Antigua in Guatemala, Kyoto in Japan, the US city of Boston and the Cuban capital of Havana.
In fact, Poland is an exciting destination. Inspite of the cold weather, there´s plenty to see and do. Small towns like Poznan is a good example for weekend getaways, and Warsaw and Krakow are big cities but now developing a lot of tourism in terms of new restaurants, hotels and routes. And Polish people tend to be quite nice and friendly, too. Again, I recommend Poznan and Krakow for a first inclusion in the country.
Maybe Krakow is overlooked by travellers from outside Europe, but in Europe it definitely isn’t. Actually it is very busy, with a lot of younger people visiting on stag and hen parties. Don’t let that put you off though!!! ;-). And if you visit once city in Poland, this is probably the best.
Can’t believe places like krakow, kyoto and boston are over looked each have some fabulous features all steeped in their own history with some fab hotels and restaurants – when are you going to go?
Krakow is definately no secret in Europe. It is somewhere really close, that is relatively “exotic” for europeans. I have never been, but when travelling through europe, I always heard it mentioned by the locals as somewhere to “must see”
Kraków is probably one of the nicest cities in Poland, Wrocław and Poznan would probably be the 2nd and third. Though Warsaw is the capital there is not “much” to see – the old town destroyed during the war is no match in its current state for Prague or even Budapest.
Krakow is a nice place for a weekend getaway. The main square is huge and beautiful. It is also relatively cheap hence the stag parties etc which Krakow is now trying to curtail.
kyoto is simply spectacular, an amazing city with some fabulous sites i loved every miunte of my trip there it is very traditional japanese not quite as blade runneresque as tokyo and it is wonderful to see so many people in their kimonos. i stayed at the hyatt regency kyoto which was simply fabulous. if you get the chance to go to kyoto grab it you won’t regret it!
If you like to admire monuments, Krakow is the city which you must visit!
In response to the first comment posted by DifferentSpain
I do not really understand what he (or she) means by “despite the cold weather”. Yes, Poland has quite strong winters but summers are long, nice and warm if not hot with the temperatures of more than 30 degrees especially in central and south part of the country.
Also Poznan is not a small town but is one of the biggest cities of Poland.
I recommend knowing before speaking :-)
Karolina
Market Square in Krakow is on the first position in Europe. There is a beautiful city and everybody should go there.
Completely agree!
It is a beautiful city, and isn’t just full of tourists.
It is great if you are on a budget too – a beer in a nice restaurant (or pub) is around 7-10zł, which is around $1.80-2.60. In a normal restaurant (nothing too fancy) you can get a meal (which often have huge meat portions) and a beer for around 25zł ($6.50). When I was first here I remember finding a random restaurant, working out the price and thinking it must be a cheap cafe because despite looking like a nice restaurant, it was just too cheap. But it was really tasty (and I’ve been back many times!)