Kraków Travel & Food Guide

Kraków kept its medieval centre when most of Poland lost theirs, and the city still feels organised around a single enormous square rather than a highway. It is a university town as much as a heritage one, which keeps the pace young and the prices honest. Layers sit close together here: a royal castle on the hill, a Jewish quarter that has become the city's most interesting place to eat and drink, and the sober weight of twentieth-century history a short drive away. Interest has climbed sharply in recent years, and it is still the sort of place you can cover on foot.

What the food is known for

Polish cooking is generous, sour-leaning and built for cold weather: fermented rye, cabbage, dill, sour cream, smoked meat and mushrooms picked in the forest. Kraków adds a strong street-food habit and a mountain influence from the Tatras to the south.

• Pierogi — dumplings, boiled or pan-fried, and the fillings define them: ruskie (potato and curd cheese), meat, sauerkraut and mushroom, or sweet ones with blueberry or curd in summer.
• Żurek — a sour soup made from fermented rye starter, thick with sausage and half a boiled egg, sometimes served inside a hollowed bread loaf.
• Bigos — the hunter's stew, sauerkraut and fresh cabbage cooked for days with several kinds of meat until it turns dark and smoky. It improves each time it is reheated.
• Oscypek — a hard, spindle-shaped smoked sheep's-milk cheese from the Tatra highlands, grilled and served with cranberry preserve at market stalls.
• Zapiekanka — a long baguette half baked with mushrooms and cheese, then loaded with toppings and sauce. The round of former butchers' stalls at Plac Nowy in Kazimierz is where the city eats them, often very late.
• Obwarzanek krakowski — the braided ring of bread sold from blue carts across the city, seeded with poppy or salt. It is a protected regional product and specific to Kraków, not a generic pretzel.
• Placki ziemniaczane — potato pancakes, eaten with sour cream, or in their heartier form buried under goulash.

One institution matters more than any single dish: the milk bar, bar mleczny. These are plain, canteen-style eateries subsidised since the socialist era, where you queue at a counter, order from a board and eat home-style Polish food at a fraction of restaurant prices. Several still operate around the Old Town and Kazimierz. The rooms are functional, the turnover is fast, and the pierogi, soups and naleśniki pancakes are the same food a Polish grandmother would serve.

Where and how to eat

• Rynek Główny and the Old Town — the great square is the reason you came, but restaurants directly on it charge a view premium. Walk one or two streets off it and prices drop noticeably.
• Kazimierz — the old Jewish quarter, now the best eating and drinking district: courtyard bars, Jewish-Polish kitchens, and the zapiekanka ring at Plac Nowy.
• Podgórze — across the river, quieter, with a growing set of neighbourhood bistros and cafes.
• Milk bars — the cheapest honest meal in the city, best at lunchtime when everything is freshly cooked.
• Stary Kleparz market — a working produce market north of the Old Town for cheese, smoked sausage, bread and seasonal fruit.

Milk bars in particular rarely translate anything: the menu is a board of handwritten Polish above the counter, the queue moves quickly, and there is no time to puzzle it out. Photographing the board and translating it before you reach the front is the difference between pointing hopefully and ordering the soup everyone else is carrying to their table.

When to go

May, June and September are the best months — warm, long evenings, and the Old Town cafe terraces in full use without August's density. July and August are hot and busy, but the summer calendar is packed: the Jewish Culture Festival in Kazimierz, open-air concerts in the squares, and a general shift of city life outdoors. Autumn turns Planty park, the green ring around the Old Town, gold and thins out the crowds. Winter is properly cold and dark, but the Christmas market on Rynek Główny is one of the finest in Europe, with mulled wine, grilled oscypek and regional crafts under the Cloth Hall. Late December through February also means possible snow on the square, which is worth the cold.

Good to know

The currency is the Polish złoty (PLN), not the euro. Poland is in the EU but has not adopted the euro, and places that accept euros will price them badly. Withdraw złoty from a bank ATM, and when a terminal offers to bill you in your home currency, decline and choose złoty.

Tipping is generally around ten percent for good service in a restaurant. Look at the bill before you add anything, since a service charge is occasionally included. Handing cash to the server and saying the rounded total is normal.

The Old Town is compact and closed to most traffic, so you will walk almost everywhere within it. Trams and buses cover everything beyond, including Kazimierz and Podgórze, and tickets must be validated on board. From the airport a direct train reaches the main station in under half an hour.

Restaurants on the main square carry a straightforward tourist markup, and a few venues aimed at visitors are vague about what a portion actually costs, so check prices before you sit down.

Many visitors make a day trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, roughly ninety minutes west. It is a memorial and a place of mourning rather than a sight, and it asks for quiet clothing, quiet behaviour and no photographs in the areas where they are prohibited. Entry is free but timed, and slots — particularly for guided tours, which are required during peak hours — should be reserved well in advance through the official museum booking system. Allow most of the day, and plan nothing demanding afterwards.