Best Things to do in Krakow in 1 Weekend

Are you looking for the best things to do in Krakow? Are you thinking of visiting the Krakow Salt Mine in Wieliczka? Or do you want to escape the city and see the best of the countryside around Krakow? Well read on and join us as we explore the historic city and find the best things to do in Krakow… 

Krakow is one of the best places to visit in Europe for a short city break. Krakow Old Town square is one of the largest and (in our opinion) most beautiful town squares in Europe. There’s a Royal Castle and cathedral to visit, a basilica and market hall. And a very lively nightlife scene too!

We spent 1 weekend in the city and the surrounding area which we felt was a good amount of time. Here are our best things to do in Krakow in 1 weekend…

Day 1… Explore the Oldest Salt Mine in Europe… Wieliczka Krakow Salt Mines

One of the best things to do while in Krakow is to visit the Wieliczka Krakow Salt Mines. 

The mines extend over 250km but luckily today we’re only going to see 3km of those on the Tourist Route, less than 1% of the total mines.

Our tour starts with a never ending staircase to get 64 metres deep, and Paul gets a bit dizzy walking down the spirals as we go!

Highlights include St. Kinga’s Chapel, the Cracow Saltworks Museum, and the many statues we see on the way.

Read our full blog... Exploring the Wieliczka Krakow Salt Mines

TrovenTrippers Tip…

Don’t miss the Cracow Saltworks Museum at the end. Your ticket includes the museum, but it is an optional extra at the end of the main tourist route tour. And this was probably our favourite bit of our visit!

See more information and book tickets... The Wieliczka Salt Mine Website

Walk where the Polish Kings did… Krakow Old Town

Krakow Old Town has one of the largest and most beautiful town squares anywhere in Europe.

Krakow Cathedral & Wawel Castle

A great place to start your visit is on the edge of the old town, at Krakow Cathedral and Wawel Castle.

After our morning at Wieliczka Krakow Salt Mines we head straight there.

Wawel Castle

We only see Wawel Castle from the outside but it’s really cool. On the pathway underneath the castle there’s a statue of the legendary Wawel Dragon, who breathes fire from his mouth every few minutes.

And the towers and courtyards of the castle are very picturesque. It helps that it’s a bright sunny day, with the flowers in full bloom, it’s a really peaceful place to sit and relax for a while.

You can get tickets to go into the Castle but we instead opt to go inside the Cathedral, which we’ve heard is one of the most beautiful around!

For tickets visit... Wawel Royal Castle Website

Wawel / Krakow Cathedral

As often seems to be the case when we visit somewhere there’s construction on the main tower outside. But it’s inside where the true beauty is!

We get an audio guide along with our ticket so hear about the tombs, windows, statues, and chapels we see. All very intricately decorated and presented.

The most impressive is the Holy Cross Chapel (not to be confused with the one we saw earlier at the Salt Mines). Queen Jadwiga was Poland’s first female monarch in 1384 and was crowned “King” of Poland to show her status. And her chapel is known as the Taj Mahal of Krakow!

For tickets visit... The Wawel Royal Cathedral Website

TrovenTrippers Tip… don’t miss the Sigismund Bell at Krakow Cathedral

We almost miss one of the highlights of the cathedral! As we’re wandering around the cathedral looking at the chapels, a guide asks if we’ve been up to see the bell yet.

“What bell?” we ask. And he points us in the direction of a doorway we missed on our first loop of the cathedral.

The staircase is quite narrow in places and we climb up, but it’s well worth the effort. The Sigismund Bell is the largest of 5 bells in the cathedral tower, needing 12 people to ring it!

Where to park for Krakow Cathedral & Wawel Castle?

There is a large underground car park next to Krakow Cathedral and Wawel Castle, called Parking Wawel on Google Maps. It wasn’t the cheapest to park at with 3 hours costing 30PLN / £6, but it was very convenient.

Rynek Główny Krakow

Rynek Główny is the medieval town square in the centre of Krakow Old Town, one of the largest in Europe.

At the centre is Sukiennice Market Hall, now full of shops and restaurants. In one corner is the Town Hall Tower, the only remaining part of the old town hall which was demolished in 1820 (we can imagine how beautiful that probably was!). And on the other side is St. Mary’s Basilica. Town squares don’t come much more beautiful than this!

St. Mary's Basilica Krakow

Towering over the old town square is St. Mary’s Basilica, a UNESCO World Heritage site in its own right along with Krakow Old Town.  

As with Krakow Cathedral there is some construction work going on so we don’t get the full view of the twin towers from the outside, but it’s still pretty impressive.

And the inside more than makes up for the outside. It’s maybe even more stunning than the cathedral was earlier!

Sukiennice Market Hall and Rynek Underground Museum

Right in the centre of the Square is Sukiennice Market Hall which is lined with little stalls selling all sorts of products… amber jewellery, souvenirs, gifts and crafts.

And underneath the Market Hall is Rynek Underground Museum, an archaeological museum showing what Krakow looked like during the ages with some of the ancient streets and houses found during excavations of the town square.

We’re not sure if we’re just a bit museum’ed out by this point in the day, but we struggle to follow the story of the museum for the first half of our visit.

There are lots of displays and touchscreens around, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a timeline or order and we get a bit lost with what we’re looking at.

But towards the end it gets better. We see photos of the excavations from 2005 where some of the archaeological finds were made, and it starts to make more sense to us! We then see the ancient streets and shops and houses, and it’s actually quite cool! 

And we also discover that Sneha is a vampire! Skeletons were found with the hands and feet bound, a common vampire prevention burial method in the 11th century. And some of the traits which suggested people could be a vampire sound very familiar to Sneha…

TrovenTrippers Tip… how to get to Rynek Underground Museum

It can be quite difficult to find the entrance! Google maps shows it as in the centre of Sukiennice Market Hall (as the museum is below it). The entrance is on the outside corner closest to the Basilica, and the ticket office is on the opposite side of the market hall. Very confusing! 

We also read online that tickets sell out way in advance, and when we checked the website it looked sold out. But we just went into the ticket office and got tickets easily. But it may be worthwhile to book online if you really want to visit... Rynek Underground Website

Where to eat and drink in Krakow?

After our long day of sight-seeing we’re hungry and very very thirsty. And there is a real party atmosphere in the Old Town Square with a live music concert and Kombi playing… a legendary Polish rock band.

We’re also wanting to try some traditional Polish food, so we sit outside the very highly rated Restaurant Sukiennice and enjoy the party atmosphere with our meal.

Sample traditional Polish food… Restaurant Sukiennice

We ask the waiter which of the Polish dishes he recommends… “I don’t recommend any Polish dishes” he replies! Okay… we love the honesty! 

The menu doesn't help much either, so we order a bit blind going for Krakow style maczanka regional specialty (??) and Polish chicken soup to start. Followed by Pork knuckle and highlander’s potato pancake.

As we’re enjoying our drinks the waiter brings over a very large pickle / gherkin and some sauerkraut, and then comes back with one of the biggest pulled pork burgers we’ve ever seen (with more gherkin and sauerkraut).

We’re a bit confused… is the gherkin the starter, and the burger one of the mains? We ask the waiter and no, the burger is the starter! It’s huge!! We quickly cancel one of the mains as there’s no way we can eat all of this… the portion sizes are crazy big!

The maczanka is delicious though, as is the soup and the pork knuckle (the 1 main we kept). But we’re not so convinced by the gherkins, sauerkraut and mustard which comes with EVERYTHING?! Not for us…

Cakester Cafe… best breakfast in Krakow

Next door to our apartment is Cakester Cafe, and with good online reviews, where else are we going to get breakfast from?!

And wow… it certainly doesn’t disappoint! With a bacon and egg bagel and French toast, plus some very strong and tasty coffee, it sets us up perfectly for day 2 of our best things to do in Krakow in 1 weekend…

Bread & Spread - Piekarnia

If you want a faster breakfast and just pick up some takeaway coffee and pastries, then try Bread & Spread - Piekarnia. The pastries were soo nice, and the coffee was nice and strong too!

Day 2… Visit Poland’s smallest National Park… Ojcowski National Park

Don’t let the fact that Ojcowski National Park is the smallest National Park in Poland put you off from going, as it’s well worth a visit!

Ojcowski National Park is only 30 minutes drive from Krakow which makes it the perfect first stop for us as we leave the city to explore the countryside.

Korzkiew Castle

Our first stop is at one of the many castles in the area, Korzkiew Castle. Although it’s now a hotel and restaurant, the outside has kept its looks, and the inner courtyard still feels very much like a castle. 

We have a quick explore of the castle grounds and head off into the woods following signs to something else (no idea what though!). All we find is what looks like a vineyard, so we turn around and head back to the car.

Brama Krakowska / Krakow Gate

A few minutes further on we park at one of the national park car parks and start a hiking trail into the centre of the national park.

It’s a steady downhill walk for a few minutes, and as the path flattens out, we round a corner and there in front of us is Krakow Gate… a huge gate-like opening between 2 rocks, with an amazing scene in the distance.

We walk through the “gate” and the scene opens up even more. A huge cliff, covered in trees, bright blue skies above and a river flowing below… beautiful!

We follow the path alongside the river Prądnik, stopping at Jaskinia Krowia cave on the way (there are over 400 caves in the area, one of the unique features of the park), before taking a lunch stop at a cafe we find.

Try traditional smoked trout at Pstrąg Ojcowski

The restaurant is super cool… It's like a wooden shack with outdoor BBQs, and loads of smoked trouts hanging up!

There’s lots of outdoor seating too, so we get our (huge) trout and sit and enjoy it in the most scenic surroundings you can imagine, it's a perfect lunch location.

The trout they serve is always fresh and is farmed right at the restaurant... we walk past the farm on the trail to the restaurant. It's super cool!

Check out their website... Pstrag Ojcowski Website

Over lunch we check the map as we still have a long way to go on our road trip today, but Ojcow Castle doesn't look that far away. So we decide to go for it… we’re only here once right?!

Punkt widokowy Jonaszówka Viewpoint & Ojcow Castle

But before continuing on to the castle, there’s a viewpoint high above the restaurant. We start up towards it but the top is difficult to get to, the path turns into very slippy and steep rocks. 

But we clamber up and the views are great… far reaching in both directions, back towards Krakow Gate and we can see Ojcow Castle peeking out from the trees in the other direction.

Ojcow Castle sits high up on the cliff tops and it takes almost the last of our energy to climb the stairs up to the entrance.

The tower is a small museum with some drone videos of the castle and old photos. But there’s not much to see to be honest!

TrovenTrippers Tip…

We would skip going all the way to Ojcow Castle and take the route back to the car park directly from the restaurant. The walk added on over 1 hour, the best views of the castle were from a distance, and it wasn't that interesting to visit.

A desert in Europe?? Błędów Desert

Did you know there’s a desert in Poland?? This is one of the most surprising things to do in Europe, let alone Poland!

Around a 1 hour drive from Krakow and close to Ojcowski National Park is Bledow Desert.

The desert is actually man-made (although not deliberately), due to deforestation in the middle ages causing the ground to dry out so much that nothing could grow back. Or, if you believe the local legends, it was made by the Devil to bury the nearby silver mine with sand.

Whichever story you choose to believe, it's a cool place to stop. We walk around on the sand, sit on the rocks, and admire the vast open space in front of us… we could almost be sitting in the Sahara!

Where to stay in Krakow?

Staying in the Old Town is the best place if you want to be right in the middle of the action. Everything is then within walking distance, and there are loads of well priced accommodation options to choose from.

We stayed at White Lotus Loft Affair apartments and we’d definitely recommend them. Very modern and nicely decorated with everything you need during a short stay, and well positioned far enough away from the noisy bars to be quiet, but close enough to some life so you don’t have to go far to get a drink or breakfast.

Best things to do in Krakow in 1 Weekend

What an amazing place Krakow is! One of the most beautiful cities we’ve been to with castles and churches. An amazing national park on its doorstep with stunning scenery. One of the oldest salt mines in the World. And a desert! All within 1 hour of the city.

It's so amazing we’ve spent way more time here than we planned to, and our road trip to Gdansk best get going otherwise we won’t make it to our next stop…

Visiting Krakow was just the start of our road-trip from Krakow to Gdansk. Check out our other blogs from our trip...

How to Travel from Krakow to Gdansk on a 4-Day Road-Trip of Poland!

Exploring the Wieliczka Krakow Salt Mines

10 Amazing Things to do in Torun… the Best Hidden Gem in Europe!

Best Things to do in Gdansk in 1 Day

How to get to Krakow from the UK?

Ryanair fly direct to Krakow from most major airports in the UK, with daily flights available from London and Manchester. We flew from Manchester on Thursday evening for £48 one-way! WizzAir also have daily flights from Luton airport .