Filed under: Poland
From an email I just wrote:
Krakow is full of lovely cafes and restaurants – has lots of bullet holes and jazz clubs. My kinda town. You’ll be visiting the Wawel castle of course and hearing the legend about the dragon.
I have previously stayed at and would recommend – http://www.wit-stwosz.com.pl/index_eng.html
Nice small hotel bang in the centre of the old town but was not too expensive. Anywhere near there is great. Try and get into a Jewish restaurant called Ariel. It has two parts and you want to book in the one that does the live performance which I thought was amazing and so did the other 8 women on my girly trip. Pod Aniolami cellar restaurant is a great place to eat. Who knew dungeons could be this fun – http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/krakow/restaurants-cafes/Polish/Pod-Aniolami_16755v. A must visit cafe is this one, Jama Michalika, for the history so do read the review here – http://www.krakow-info.com/michalik.htm
If you are able to add some time to your trip a short well serviced bus/coach ride away is Zakopane in the mountains. Great to see a bit of mountain life and experience the traditional costumes/food of the mountains. Lovely restaurants with roaring fires. Oh yeah and there’s the mountain walks of course like to Morskie Oko lake.
Interesting day trips from Krakow are to Auschwitz and to Wieliczka salt mine. The ride up at the end from the salt mine in the old lift was quite an experience as I recall.
These guides are very funny as the write up is always so honest so have a look through – http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/krakow
I picked one up when staying in Poznan and spent the whole evening reading it in bed as it made me laugh so much saying stuff like you could tell what the clientel would be like from the badly parked sports cars out front etc.
Have fun and let me know if you like it. Thinking about it has made me want to go again.
