Three Days in Kraków, Poland | Notes from the Archive
the fourth new-to-me country on my 2012 inter-railing trip!
*SHARED TO THE BLOG IN NOVEMBER 2025.
ARCHIVE / aar•kive / (noun): a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.
Welcome to a new Notes from the Archive post, a series in which I am sharing some of my old & well documented travel notes to the blog. I’ve been keeping detailed notes and journals from my travels abroad long before I ever started sharing that content to this little corner of the internet. For some reason, it only dawned on me recently that, although not as thorough as my note-taking and journaling of today, this information could a. be useful to someone out there planning a trip, b. offer a glimpse into my travel days of yore, or c. just be fun for me to relive briefly under the pretense of being useful — so I figured why not share them here!
If you have stumbled across this post on a deep-dive through the blog archives, hello! I have done my darndest to make sure every piece of information shared here is just as relevant today as it was the day it was scrawled in my journal. I would also like to take a moment here to apologise in advance for any poor-quality photographs. You have been warned.
Today’s Notes from the Archive post — Three Days in Kraków, Poland — covers everything myself and my then-boyfriend got up to during our 2012 inter-railing trip. Kraków was the fifth official city of the trip, in the fourth new-to-me country(!), and I fell head-over-heels for the city almost immediately! I loved everything about it: the relaxed vibe, the food, the gorgeous architecture — everything!
Listed below is all the useful information I could garner from my trusty old journal, divided into the following categories for ease: getting there / where we stayed / where we ate / and where we touristed.
Enjoy, friends!
getting there
Here’s how we made the journey to Kraków from Bratislava:
from Bratislava hl.st., we boarded an overnight train to take us all the way into Kraków Główny, the main train station in the city. The journey took an epic 9-hours and 30-minutes, but thankfully, unlike for our first overnight train, we pre-booked “coachette” seats for the journey.
if you’re wondering what the heck “coachette” seating is: essentially, it’s a cabin, lined 3 bunks high, with a little shelf behind your head for bags and stuff. It was amazing! We lucked out and had the top two bunks on either side of the cabin, so no one disturbed us during the night.
seeing as this overnight train journey started on the same day as when we took the train from Budapest to Bratislava, we technically didn’t have to use another day’s worth of travel off our inter-railing tickets — so if you’re counting along with me, by this stage, we’d used just 3-days of our allotted 7- within our 1-month period. In case that’s a little confusing, you can read all about the different inter-railing tickets on the official website here.
from Kraków Główny, we walked the 25-minutes to our hostel, below.
where we stayed
ARS Hostel // our favourite accommodation of the whole trip, we loved this place! Breakfast was included, it was super clean, the staff were lovely, and it had a fantastic location kind of equidistant between Wawel Hill / the Old Town / and Kazimierz. Would recommend. Address: Koletek 7, 31-069 Kraków
where we ate & drank
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that, nowadays, I consider myself somewhat of a foodie — but this certainly wasn’t the case back in 2012! Listed below are the food stops I named in my journal, which I am sharing for posterity only! Eat here today at your own peril.
Pierogi MR Vincent // recommended to us by a local, this place was so cute! It was a gorgeous little yellow restaurant with a Van Gogh theme, and the entire menu consisted of pierogi — according to my journal, I went for their chicken + spinach flavour and rather enjoyed it! Address: Bożego Ciała 12, 33-332 Kraków
Zapiekanki Inferno Di Baguette // not as traditional a meal as pierogi, perhaps, but traditional nonetheless! I have no idea what toppings I went for from this street food stop, but I noted in my journal that, whatever it was, it was so ridiculously delicious. Intrigue! Address: plac Nowy 4B/31, 31-056 Kraków
Cafe Philo // our favourite discovery of the trip: an adorable 24-hour cafe-cum-bar, filled with books, pictures of naked ladies, mismatching cosy leather couches, and the perfect bohemian ambiance. We literally stopped here every single day and night, be it for coffee, Polish beer, or a mistaken order of honey vodka. Address: Św. Tomasza 30, 31-027 Kraków
*2025 UPDATE: sadly, now closed.
Wódka Café Bar // for some ‘when in Rome’ type reason, we talked ourselves into visiting a vodka bar while in town, and this seemed like the obvious place. We ordered one shot of bizarre flavoured vodka each — bison grass for him / hazelnut for me — before remembering that vodka is gross and promptly leaving. Address: Mikołajska 5, 31-027 Kraków
C.K. Browar // apparently, we stopped here for a couple pints of light traditional Polish beers. Address: Podwale 7, 31-118 Kraków
where we tourist-ed
free attractions
Walk of the Century, Kraków Edition // deciding to let someone else do the work for a change, Kraków was the first city we visited where we actually joined a guided walking tour. Lest you think we shirked our cheap student ways: the tour was free, but you tip your guide whatever you can afford. The one we joined started at the main square, ended at Wawel Castle, took a 2.7-kilometre route around the city, and lasted 2.5-hours. Here’s what we saw:
Barbican & St. Florian’s Gate // two of the main defense installations of the Old Town.
Rynek Główny // aka: the main square. Within the square itself, we also saw:
The Cloth Hall // a marketplace in the centre of the square.
Adam Mickiewicz Monument // statue of a famous Polish poet.
Church of St. Wojciech // an old 10th century church.
St. Mary’s Basilica // the main church in Krakow and OG home of the bugle call. More on this in paid attractions, below!
Eros Bendato // a contemporary art piece of Eros’s head.
Bishop’s Palace // where Pope John Paul II studied and often visited.
Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi // a 13th century monastery complex.
Wawel Hill // aka: the castle complex. Within the complex, we also saw:
Wawel Cathedral // with a very cool & eclectic mix of different styles.
Wawel Royal Castle // no longer home to any royals, but instead a place for art exhibitions. There was a Leonardo di Vinci exhibition on while we were there, but it was outside of our budget.
Wawel Dragon // a fun statue that breathes fire every 3-minutes.
Kazimerz // aka: the city’s Jewish quarter. Sightseeing highlights within the area include:
Old Synagogue // the oldest preserved synagogue in Poland!
Szeroka Street // the old Jewish Broadway, and one of the most beautiful streets in the district.
New Square // the central square of the area.
paid attractions
Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau // no visit to Kraków would be complete without a daytrip to Auschwitz, so this is something we’d budgeted for since the beginning of our planning. The whole visit was as sad and harrowing as you’re imagining so I won’t go into it, but definitely something you have to do if you’re in Kraków. We took a guided tour of the camps — I have noted in my journal that visitors have to do a guided tour, but maybe that isn’t the case nowadays? — and found it really informative and respectful. A must visit. Address: Więźniów Oświęcimia 55, 32-600 Oświęcim
St Mary’s Basilica // I would say this church is quite modest from the outside, but the inside totally blew me away — it was gorgeous! The entire place was decorated to the max, practically dripping in gold and over-the-top crazy embellishments everywhere; the art history nerd in me was very happy here. Fun fact: this is home to the world’s oldest bugle call! Every day since the 13th century, a bugle call has been played from the window every hour on the hour! A must visit. Address: plac Mariacki 5, 31-042 Kraków
And there we have it: Three Days in Kraków, Poland! A short-but-sweet addition to my Notes from the Archive series — I hope you enjoyed it, friends. I’ll be back soon with the next stop from my inter-railing trip: Prague!
Until then,
Vicki xo
*Date of trip: 24th - 27th May, 2012*
related posts
My 2012 Inter-Railing Itinerary | Notes from the Archive
30 Countries in 30 Years, Part II
7 Things to See in Gdańsk, Poland