EuropePolandPoland
Poland is Kraków for most people, a medieval capital that survived the war with Auschwitz and the salt mine within an hour, and Warsaw, Gdańsk and Wrocław for the ones who go further. Two nights a stop, the trains between them, the złoty rather than the euro, May, June or September, and a twentieth century the country does not tidy away.
PolandPoland in a nutshell
Where to go in Poland
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Our travel routes through Poland
Poland is loved by culture seekers and backpackers alike. We recommend several routes through this country, here they are in full!
3 nights4 days, Kraków and what is next to it
Krakow · Auschwitz · Wieliczka Salt Mine
this is what most people actually do, and our own data agrees: more than half of Polish trips carry Kraków and 38.4% of them never reach Warsaw. Both side trips are half-days from the city.
6 nights1 week, the two cities
Krakow · Auschwitz · Warsaw
the pairing our data says only 16.1% of travellers actually make. Two and a half hours apart by Pendolino, and completely different cities: one medieval and intact, one rebuilt from photographs.
10 nights10 days, south to north
Krakow · Auschwitz · Zakopane
the classic line of the country, mountains in the middle and the Baltic at the end. Kraków to Gdańsk direct is five hours, so breaking it in Warsaw costs nothing.
13 nights2 weeks, adding the west
Krakow · Auschwitz · Zakopane
Wrocław and Poznań are the two cities Poles rate and visitors skip, and a fortnight is the first length that has room for them.
19 nights3 weeks: the east, which almost nobody does
Krakow · Auschwitz · Zakopane
the only shape that reaches the half of the country our own data barely sees. 23.3% of Polish trips carry neither Kraków nor Warsaw and this is where most of them go. The eastern legs are slow and a car earns its keep from Lublin onwards.
Updated September 2026 · 14 min read · Written by the Stippl editorsWe looked at how travellers actually plan Poland on Stippl, across 46,000+ planned stops in Poland.
Poland is one city for most people, and that city is Kraków. Kraków takes 54.6% of every Polish stop planned on Stippl, 55.2% of Polish trips carry exactly one Polish place, and the named things are Auschwitz-Birkenau at 70 kilometres from Kraków, the salt chambers and the salt chapel at Wieliczka, the largest medieval square in Europe, Kazimierz as memorial and bar district at once, the Tatras from Zakopane and the amber port of Gdańsk. Warsaw, Gdańsk and Wrocław are the cities behind the first one.
Poland is a stop on a Central European run, not a country people tour. Germany appears on 41.8% of the trips that carry Poland on Stippl and Czechia on 35.2%, only 20.0% of those trips are Poland alone, and most stops get two nights, because Kraków is a long weekend and Warsaw is the train through.
So give Kraków two or three nights with one of Auschwitz, Wieliczka or Zakopane, take the Pendolino to Warsaw if a second city fits, change money into złoty and not euros, and come in May, June or September. Skip the Baltic for a beach holiday, since the water is cold and the season short, skip raising the war flippantly with older people, and skip the southern cities in a January cold snap, when the coal heating puts Kraków's air among the worst in Europe.
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History travellers, unflinching
Poland does not tidy its twentieth century away, and Auschwitz, the Warsaw Rising Museum and Schindler's Factory are why many people come.
City-breakers on a budget
A long weekend in Kraków or Gdańsk costs a fraction of the same weekend in the west, and 55.2% of Polish trips on Stippl are one city.
Eaters who like it plain
Pierogi, żurek and bigos are cheap, filling and everywhere, and the modern Kraków kitchens do serious things with the same ingredients.
Hikers without Alpine prices
The Tatras are real mountains at a few euros a day, and Zakopane is the base two hours from Kraków.
Christmas market travellers
Kraków's main square and Warsaw's Old Town run some of the best in Central Europe from late November.
Rail travellers
The network is good, cheap and reaches everywhere, which is not true of most of the region, and the Pendolino does Warsaw to Kraków in under three hours.
Maybe not for you: a beach holiday, because the Baltic is cold and the season short; LGBTQ+ travellers expecting western European norms, since the country rates caution and that is fair; and anyone wanting January sun.
The best time to visit Poland
Late spring
May and June
Warm, long days, the squares full of tables and the Tatra trails open, before the school-holiday crowds and at the year's best prices.
High summer
July and August
Warm to hot, the busiest weeks in the cities and on the coast, and the one stretch when the Baltic resorts are worth the trip.
Early autumn
September and early October
Golden, dry and quiet, with the students back in Kraków and the markets still outside, and the second window every guide names.
Winter
November to March
Grey, cold and short-dayed, with the Christmas markets from late November as the reason to come, and the coal smog in the south as the reason not to.
- Most stops in Poland get 2 nights on Stippl, and 42.1% are a single night. Kraków is two or three, and Warsaw, Gdańsk and Wrocław are the overnights on the way through.
- 55.2% of Polish trips on Stippl carry one Polish place. Two cities is the second shape, and only 16.1% of trips carry both Kraków and Warsaw.
- Poland is planned about 71 days days ahead on Stippl, and 16.8% inside a fortnight. The Auschwitz reservation and the Pendolino seats are the two things that reward the lead.
- The busiest month here on Stippl is July. The flattest year of any country we measure, so no month is a mistake, and no month is empty.
- The Christmas markets open in late November. Kraków's square and Warsaw's Old Town run through December, and the flights and rooms for the market weekends go early.
- Coal heating makes the winter air a health matter. Kraków and the southern cities sit among the worst in Europe on a January cold snap, and the coast and the north are clearer.
Add your Poland dates and we'll flag the weather per stop
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Festivals, and when to avoid them
All Saints' Day
The cemeteries lit with thousands of candles and the whole country at the graves, with the shops closed and the trains full the evening before. Come to see it, and book the transport around it.
Independence Day
A national holiday with the parade in Warsaw and the large and sometimes tense march through the capital in the afternoon. A day to be in another city, or indoors by three.
Kraków Christmas market
Stalls on the largest medieval square in Europe, with the nativity-scene competition in early December and the mulled wine from noon. The market weekends fill the rooms months ahead.
Easter
The biggest family holiday of the year, with Good Friday and Easter Monday closing the shops and the wet Monday tradition soaking anyone outdoors. A week to eat well and see closed doors.
Wianki
Midsummer wreaths on the Vistula below Wawel, with concerts and fireworks in Kraków and Warsaw on the shortest night. A free evening on the riverbank, and the hostels full for it.
Jewish Culture Festival
Nine days of concerts, tours and lectures in Kazimierz, ending with the open-air concert on Szeroka Street. The reason to be in Kraków that week, with the quarter's rooms booked early.
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Things to do in Poland
Photo by Aimable Mugabo via Unsplash
Photo by Bianca Fazacas via UnsplashAuschwitz-Birkenau
Seventy kilometres from Kraków, free to enter with a timed reservation and best done with a museum educator, and the single most-planned thing in the country after the two city centres.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine
The underground chambers and the chapel carved entirely from salt, an hour from Kraków and paired with it on Stippl more than anything but the mountains.
Kraków's Rynek Główny
The largest medieval market square in Europe, with the Cloth Hall down the middle and the bugle call from St Mary's tower breaking off every hour.
Kazimierz
Kraków's Jewish quarter, which is both a memorial district and the city's best bar neighbourhood, and holding both at once is the point.
The Tatras from Zakopane
Real mountains at a few euros a day, two hours from Kraków, with Morskie Oko the walk everyone does.
Gdańsk's Long Market
The Hanseatic street, the Motława crane and the amber that has come through this port for eight centuries.
What to eat in Poland
Dumplings filled with potato and cheese, meat, or sauerkraut and mushroom; boiled or fried
Sour rye soup with hard-boiled egg and white sausage, often served in a bread bowl
Hunter's stew of sauerkraut, cabbage and mixed meats, cooked down for days
Deep-red beetroot soup, served clear or with uszka dumplings
Breaded pork cutlet, the Polish schnitzel
Smoked sheep's milk cheese from the Tatra highlands, grilled and served with cranberry
Smoked sausage, grilled or in stews
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Polish customs and what not to do
Shoes off indoors
Removed when entering a Polish home unless told otherwise, and a firm expectation across every generation rather than a preference.
Hospitality is a duty
You will be offered food and drink the moment you enter a home, and repeated refusal causes real offence.
The century is a living memory
The war and the Communist era are not raised flippantly with older people, and doing so is the commonest way a visitor gives offence.
A handshake with eye contact
The standard greeting for everyone, and close friends exchange three alternating cheek kisses instead.
The humour is dry
People may not smile at your joke and will still have enjoyed it, and the face not moving means nothing.
One phrase goes a long way
The language is hard and the effort is noticed, and dzień dobry is the whole of what is needed.
Do
- Take your shoes off at the door of any home
- Reserve Auschwitz weeks ahead and go with an educator
- Change into złoty; euros are not accepted
- Say dzień dobry on entering a shop
Don't
- Joke about the war or the Communist years with older people
- Refuse food and drink in a home more than once
- Expect a smile back from a stranger; it is not coldness
What a Poland trip costs
Budget
€40–45
A hostel dorm, milk bars and street food, slower trains and buses, and the mostly free sights.
Mid-range
€90–110
A private room or three-star hotel, restaurant meals, the Pendolino and a paid museum most days.
High-end
€250+
Boutique hotels, the serious Kraków kitchens, private guides and transfers.
Track what you actually spend
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Złoty, trains and getting around
Entry & visa
Schengen, no visa
EU passports and ID cards walk in, and UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports get ninety days in any 180 across the Schengen area without a visa.
Money
The złoty, not the euro
Poland is in the EU and Schengen but outside the eurozone, cards work almost everywhere in the cities, and the euro is refused at the till.
Connectivity
A SIM for a few euros
EU roaming covers EU phones, and a tourist SIM with a month of data costs €5 to €10 at any kiosk for everyone else.
Getting around
Trains, and the Pendolino
The network is good, cheap and reaches everywhere, the Pendolino runs Warsaw to Kraków in under three hours, and the seats are booked ahead for the price.
Health
Nothing compulsory
The routine vaccinations are the standing advice, the EHIC or GHIC covers public care, and the pharmacies are everywhere and well stocked.
Water
Safe from the tap
Drinkable in every city, and the bottled water is a preference rather than a precaution.
Tipping
Ten percent for good service
Left in cash or added on the card reader in restaurants, and rounding up for taxis.
Power & plugs
Type E, 230 V
The French-style socket with the earth pin, so the two-pin European plug fits and the UK and US plugs need an adapter.
Language
Polish, and English in the cities
Genuinely hard, with English widely spoken by younger people in the cities and much less outside them, and dzień dobry the phrase that opens every door.
Polish worth knowing
Nobody expects you to speak the language, which is exactly why a handful of words goes so far.
jen DOB-ry
Hello, good day, and the whole of what is needed · Dzień dobry
jen-KOO-yeh
Thank you · Dziękuję
PRO-sheh
Please, and you're welcome · Proszę
psheh-PRA-sham
Sorry, excuse me · Przepraszam
tak / nyeh
Yes and no · Tak / Nie
EE-leh to KOSH-too-yeh
How much does it cost? · Ile to kosztuje?
po-PRO-sheh ra-HOO-nek
The bill, please · Poproszę rachunek
na ZDRO-vyeh
Cheers · Na zdrowie
do vee-DZEN-ya
Goodbye · Do widzenia
nyeh ro-ZOO-myem
I don't understand · Nie rozumiem
Poland questions, answered
Cheaper than western Europe and no longer the cheapest in the region. Roughly half the price of the same weekend in the west, with a hostel dorm for the price of a western coffee and a milk bar meal for less, and the Kraków restaurant scene priced for the weekend flights.
Kraków, and mostly not both: 38.4% of Polish trips on Stippl carry Kraków without Warsaw, and only 16.1% carry both. Warsaw is the bigger, newer, richer city, and the one for the Rising Museum and the rebuilt Old Town.
Two a stop: most stops in Poland get 2 nights on Stippl, and 55.2% of Polish trips are one city, so a long weekend in Kraków is the standard trip. Put Kraków and a second city into Stippl with the Pendolino between, then ask people in subreddits like r/poland which of Gdańsk or Wrocław they would add.
Schengen rules apply: EU, UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports enter without one for up to ninety days in any 180, and the same window covers Germany, Czechia and Austria on the same trip, which is how most people plan it.
No. The currency is the złoty, cards work almost everywhere in the cities, and the few tourist places that take euros do so at a rate that makes the cash machine cheaper, so the card is the answer and a little złoty cash covers the rest.
Germany, on 41.8% of the trips carrying Poland on Stippl, then Czechia and Austria, with Berlin to Kraków and Kraków to Prague the two runs that make the map. Only 20.0% of those trips are Poland alone.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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