Recommend a city to combine with a trip to Krakow

lc180

Hi,

I've never been to Poland before and looking to tick it off my bucket list. I've heard nothing but good things about Krakow so I'm looking to go there this year possibly in April. I'm considering combining it with another city and making the trip a nice few days away.

Just wondering can anyone recommend another nearby European city which is easy to get to/from Krakow. Looking for good quality bus or train transfers, preferably no more than 3-4 hours away and also reasonably priced with sights to see. Hah I'm not looking for much!

Bare in mind I've been to Budapest, Vienna & Prague before and not really looking to visit again so soon.

Any recommendations would be great - Thanks!

Jamie2k9

lc180 wrote: »

Hi,

I've never been to Poland before and looking to tick it off my bucket list. I've heard nothing but good things about Krakow so I'm looking to go there this year possibly in April. I'm considering combining it with another city and making the trip a nice few days away.

Just wondering can anyone recommend another nearby European city which is easy to get to/from Krakow. Looking for good quality bus or train transfers, preferably no more than 3-4 hours away and also reasonably priced with sights to see. Hah I'm not looking for much!

Bare in mind I've been to Budapest, Vienna & Prague before and not really looking to visit again so soon.

Any recommendations would be great - Thanks!

Krakow is great, would do Warsaw to. Ryanair fly to Krakow and to a place miles away from Warsaw, worth flying out of Warsaw with Aer Lingus if you do both cities.

Poland is so cheap everything is reasonable price.

keithclancy

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Krakow is great, would do Warsaw to. Ryanair fly to Krakow and to a place miles away from Warsaw, worth flying out of Warsaw with Aer Lingus if you do both cities.

Poland is so cheap everything is reasonable price.

Warsaw isn't great, very fake old looking.

jester77

Zakopane is not far away and is nice. Might still be a bit of snow around in April.

Gal44

i second zakopane, its lovely!

tibor

Warsaw has good connections but not a lot to see.
Good craic at night, but not an awful lot to do during the day and very architecturally ugly city.

lc180

I was considering Warsaw, flights are a lot more reasonable than Krakow but I haven't heard great thing about it.

Zakopane looks beautiful! I'm kinda looking for city though, I'll be travelling solo and tend to get a little bored quite quickly in countryside resorts/towns on my own. Always something to keep me interested or occupied in a city setting.

Thanks for the replies!

Sheldons Brain

keithclancy wrote:

Warsaw isn't great, very fake old looking.

Of course it is fake old looking, those from your present place of employment systematically demolished it.

Zakopane/Lublin should be a possibility. Wrocław would be good for a day or two.

keithclancy

Sheldons Brain wrote: »

Of course it is fake old looking, those from your present place of employment systematically demolished it.

Zakopane/Lublin should be a possibility. Wrocław would be good for a day or two.

:rolleyes:

In fairness a lot of cities were flattened during WW2 ... just they didn't do a very good job rebuilding Warsaw

Cologne vs Warsaw for example .. no comparison.

As for the people at my current place of employment comment .. yeh .. that makes sense :P

whomitconcerns

Wroclaw Much nicer than Warsaw. Train direct from krakow

Makood

Cannot recommend Lviv, Ukraine enough. Overnight 8 hour train from Krakow. A really beautiful city. Assuming things quieten down there.

fricatus

Makood wrote: »

Cannot recommend Lviv, Ukraine enough. Overnight 8 hour train from Krakow. A really beautiful city. Assuming things quieten down there.

+1 for Lviv - beautiful, historic, wonderful atmosphere, inexpensive, food quite nice, and in general quite a bit different from cities further west (it has maybe one McDonald's for a city of nearly a million).

Disadvantages: very little English spoken, so be prepared to learn some phrases in Ukrainian - or do what I did and learn some words of Polish, which you can use in Krakow and they'll understand in Lviv. If you've any Russian, they tend not to like it (all the more given current events :eek: ) although they'll probably tolerate it from a tourist.

Also, it's quite "Soviet" in many ways (and indeed it was once part of the Soviet Union). We stayed in the Hotel Dnister, and it sort of felt like the sort of place foreign teams would have stayed during the Moscow Olympics - that mightn't be to your taste, but I found it fascinating.

The main disadvantage now though is the political situation, and that's an awful pity, since it will probably put you off visiting (it would put me off for now, but I'll go back!).

The other option I've heard great things about is Wroclaw, which is an easy enough train journey from Krakow.

Sheldons Brain

keithclancy wrote: »

:rolleyes:

In fairness a lot of cities were flattened during WW2 ... just they didn't do a very good job rebuilding Warsaw

Cologne vs Warsaw for example .. no comparison.

As for the people at my current place of employment comment .. yeh .. that makes sense :P

There is a difference between aerial bombing of a functioning city and a deliberate attempt on the ground to remove it from the face of the Earth. The allies helped rebuild Cologne not demolish it. While it is fair to say that wartime damage may make Warsaw a less attractive tourist destination, sneering at reconstruction with smilies and the like is simply crass.

fricatus wrote:

+1 for Lviv - beautiful, historic, wonderful atmosphere, inexpensive, food quite nice, and in general quite a bit different from cities further west (it has maybe one McDonald's for a city of nearly a million).

Lviv is indeed an interesting place to visit, but less accessible than Krakow which gets large numbers of tourists.

Daisy 55

Wroclaw or Gdansk for me. Zakopane is lovely too, but is smaller. I'd probably give Warsaw a miss. Poznan is nice! I've found that Trains are good all over.
Lviv is very interesting, completely different, but best not for a while. I've always wanted to go to Minsk, but haven't made it yet!
Poland is great. Highly recommend it! You'll have a great time.

Daisy 55

What about Berlin?

annie.t

Prague?

spurious

Daisy 55 wrote: »

Wroclaw or Gdansk for me. Zakopane is lovely too, but is smaller. I'd probably give Warsaw a miss. Poznan is nice! I've found that Trains are good all over.
Lviv is very interesting, completely different, but best not for a while. I've always wanted to go to Minsk, but haven't made it yet!
Poland is great. Highly recommend it! You'll have a great time.

Oh yes, if you could go for a train journey that was quite a bit longer, Gdansk is the obvious one - lovely place - my favourite of the Polish cities I've been to.

Daisy 55

You could take a night train to Gdansk? I love them!

lc180

Thanks for the replies!

The Ukraine is definitely on my bucketlist, Lviv sounds like a great place but gonna give that country a miss until its peaceful again.

I'm not overly familiar with Gdansk, havent heard a lot about it but will make sure to look it up.

Berlin is one city that is high on my list, flights are REALLY cheap for April right night, its a hell of a train journey though but flights are half te price of Krakow.

Decisions decisions decisions.....

Tzardine

Daisy 55 wrote: »

You could take a night train to Gdansk? I love them!

+1

If you are up that way make sure to visit Sopot. Its a beautiful seaside town.

Daisy 55

I know I mentioned already, but I'd always go for a night train for the long trips. I love getting on in my Jammies and nodding off io sleep in a bed! Have to pay for the bed, but you'd have to pay for a nights accommodation anyway!

Muahahaha

Makood wrote: »

Cannot recommend Lviv, Ukraine enough. Overnight 8 hour train from Krakow. A really beautiful city. Assuming things quieten down there.

Another +1 for Lviv, it's about a 6 hour train ride from Krakow, much of which is spent messing around at the Ukrainian border. Lviv is gorgeous and unlike the rest of the Ukraine. Now might not be the best time to go though.

With good planning you could get to Bratislava in a day and from there Vienna is only an hour down the road.. Both have direct flights back to Dublin.

Makood

Muahahaha wrote: »

Lviv is gorgeous and unlike the rest of the Ukraine. Now might not be the best time to go though.

Might disagree here-I've been to a few places in Ukraine outside of tourist areas. A wonderful country and wonderful people everywhere I went.

Al Capwned

I'm going to Krakow in ten days time for a four day stay.
I want to go to Auschwitz, something I've always wanted to do.
I was also thinking about Treblinka, but that would involve a 5hr drive, and renting a car - but it's something I would like to do also. Undecided on this as of yet.

Am going to visit the salt mines at Wieliczka also.

Makood

Al Capwned wrote: »

I'm going to Krakow in ten days time for a four day stay.
I want to go to Auschwitz, something I've always wanted to do.
I was also thinking about Treblinka, but that would involve a 5hr drive, and renting a car - but it's something I would like to do also. Undecided on this as of yet.

Am going to visit the salt mines at Wieliczka also.

Both are worth a visit-Auschwitz is an unbelievable (harrowing) experience . Salt mines pretty good.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Berlin and/or Poznan, maybe? Dresden?

Polski bus might be wort looking at...

lc180

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Polski bus might be wort looking at...

Brilliant! Didn't know about PolskiBus until now

pjproby

Can anyone advise me of reasonably priced hotels in Gdansk and similar hotels or apartments in Sopot preferably within walking distance of the sea please.

spurious

pjproby wrote: »

Can anyone advise me of reasonably priced hotels in Gdansk and similar hotels or apartments in Sopot preferably within walking distance of the sea please.

I like the Hotel Wolne Miasto in Gdansk. Cheap, but not 'budget' - we got the room with breakfast for 50 euro.
http://www.hotelwm.pl/en/core/home.php?_PageID=57312

Can't help with Sopot hotels. I just visited it from Gdansk, it's not far.

grimm2005

I just came back from a Krakow/Warsaw week long trip. Personally I'd recommend it, 4 days in Krakow, 3 hour train to Warsaw, then 3 days Warsaw for example. Warsaw might be an uglier city and less tourist friendly, but if you do some research you can easily fill 3 days there, and it has a great nightlife too. It's also usually very cheap to fly to Dublin with Ryanair, about a 3rd of the price of Krakow I found. I disagree with the comment that the Ryanair airport is too far. There's a direct bus that takes an hour from the centre of Warsaw and it only costs 9pln or about €2.50.

I've also heard great things about Wroclaw and that it's actually nicer then Krakow, also very studenty so active nightlife too. Think it'll be next on my list when I return!

jn45672

I live in krakow many weeks now and its a great city and so much to do, id give warsaw a miss and head to worclaw and if you can, also try torun near center of poland, its small city but nice all the same!!

keithclancy

Sheldons Brain wrote: »

There is a difference between aerial bombing of a functioning city and a deliberate attempt on the ground to remove it from the face of the Earth. The allies helped rebuild Cologne not demolish it. While it is fair to say that wartime damage may make Warsaw a less attractive tourist destination, sneering at reconstruction with smilies and the like is simply crass.

Whatever .. it's ugly as a City.
I'd say the same for any City that's ugly, don't get where your WW2 references are coming from.;