Where to stay in Krakow? Find out where to stay in Krakow to visit Poland’s second city, a city of art and history.
At 326.8 km², Krakow is three times larger than Paris. It is also Poland’s second-largest metropolitan area and one of the most attractive cities in Eastern Europe. The former royal capital of Poland, Krakow has many assets to offer: between Slavic and Latin influences, it is a major artistic and cultural center of the country, a city steeped in history, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a student city (200,000 students), and visited by 200,000 people a year…
Since you probably don’t know much about the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, here’s an introduction to Krakow’s accommodation districts. Poland’s second-largest city is subdivided into 18 administrative districts, but most of the things to see and do are to be found in three districts in the city center and outlying areas, depending of course on what you’re looking for – peace and quiet, relaxation, partying, shopping – during your stay: Staré Miasto (old town), Kazimierz (former Jewish town), Podgorze (new student town) and the outskirts (Nowa Huta, Klepartz, Piasek, Nowy Siat).
Stare Miasto, the old town
Photo credit: Flickr – Jorge Láscar
Stare Miasto is Krakow’s historic center, perched on Wawel Hill. It’s home to numerous historic monuments, a breathtaking variety of architectural marvels – Renaissance, Baroque, Gothic – that have stood the test of time, and over 2 million works of art. It’s not for nothing that Polish guidebooks call this district « the Florence of the North ». An ideal place to stay in Krakow, the district is bordered by a green belt that surrounds the old town – Planty Park – built in the 19th century by the Habsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the site of the old city walls. Accessible every day without interruption, this green space offers pleasant, peaceful and romantic walks right in the heart of Krakow. This district, with its chequered streets, is home to all the city’s must-sees: the Market Square (Rynek), St. Mary’s Basilica (kosciol Mariacki), the former Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) – with its cafés, craft shops and Fine Arts Museum – and the Wawel Royal Castle.
The district is very popular with tourists, and is home to the majority of the city’s bars, cafés and restaurants. The pedestrian streets can therefore be noisy: in Krakow, bars don’t close until the last customer leaves, so the cobblestone streets can stay busy until 3 or 4 in the morning, or even later. You’ll fall in love with Krakow if you want to shop, enjoy the lively nightlife and simultaneously make a cultural pilgrimage through the corridors of Time.
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Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter
Photo credit: Flickr – trinchetto
During the Second World War, the Nazis exterminated 90% of Krakow’s Jews, most of them in Auschwitz. Kazimierz, on the banks of the Vistula, was populated exclusively by Jews from the 16th century to 1940, and has the largest concentration of synagogues in Europe after Prague. A victim of anti-Semitic persecution and intolerance, the district was the macabre scene of several Jewish ghettos throughout the darkest pages of its history. Ignored by the general public for half a century and during the Soviet era, the district was rehabilitated thanks to the filming on its soil of « Schindler’s List« , released in 1993. A place of remembrance of the atrocities committed against the Jews, it is today – despite the gentrification that is now a feature of all cities – very popular with artists.
This is Krakow’s second most touristic district. If you like history and nightlife – bars, cafés, restaurants – then this is the place to stay in Krakow: central, you can also enjoy Polish life while listening to the minor notes of a weeping gypsy violin, a klezmer band, swing jazz, rock or electronic music. Book your youth hostel, hotel or rental right away: many Poles rent out their apartments, and prices are affordable!
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Podgorze, the new student city
Photo credit: Flickr – Praktyczny Przewodnik
Located on the southern banks of the Vistula, Podgorze was originally a fishing district, and was also the site of the former Krakow ghetto during the Nazi occupation. This southern fringe of Krakow’s city center is home to student life. The area may not be as aesthetically pleasing as the Old Town, but it has the advantage of being cheaper to rent, resulting in a large influx of students and artists. Cafés, bars and jazz clubs punctuate the district’s social life, making it ideal for romantic strolls along the Wisla river or visits to some interesting museums: Oskar Schindler’s factory museum, Mocak, a contemporary art museum, Cricoteka, about the director Tadeusz Kantor. Podgorze is a working-class district, and therefore less middle-class than the Old Town, and may therefore seem a little duller, darker, less fun. But different, historic and authentic.
Last but not least, other districts are less attractive, but still worth a stop.
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Nowa Huta
Photo credit: Flickr – Konrad Krajewski
City of the future Pope John Paul II, it was built in the 1950s by and for Communist workers. The city, now a district of Krakow, is a perfect reflection of life during the Cold War, under the Soviet economy: a churchless city of metallurgical activity, with a gigantic statue of Lenin enthroned in its midst: the Communist city par excellence. Before the transition to a capitalist market economy, many streets bore the emblematic names of socialist ideology – Lenin, Marx – or recalled those of the Cuban Revolution – like Che Guevara or Fidel Castro.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a deep anti-communist sentiment has taken hold of people’s souls, and the district is becoming just the opposite: bourgeois. It’s an interesting area to explore Poland’s socialist past, and an open-air museum to observe typical Soviet urban planning – wide squares and avenues, vast green spaces and collective buildings – if that’s what you’re after. If you’re still looking for a place to stay in Krakow, spend a night in Nowa Huta… but maybe not much more!
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Map of hotels and accommodation – Krakow,pl