Kraków
A royal hill of limestone over the Vistula, an Old Town on UNESCO's very first list, and the only two-star kitchen in Poland.
- Arrival
- Kraków Airport · KRK
- To the city
- About 11 km west of the centre
- Private jets
- Executive handling at KRK, open 24 hours
- Best time
- May to September
The city
Wawel, the Rynek and Kanonicza.
Kraków began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill, and its whole Old Town went onto UNESCO's first World Heritage List in 1978. On the Main Market Square, St Mary's Church keeps a high altar by Veit Stoss and its own bugle call.
The city holds three MICHELIN Key hotels, each in a historic shell: a Gothic-fronted former palace on Kanonicza, below Wawel, the seventeenth-century Lubomirski Palace off the square, and a fourteenth-century façade on Stradomska. Bottiglieria 1881, on Bocheńska, is the only Polish restaurant with two stars.
Arriving
Balice, eleven kilometres west.
Kraków Airport lies at Balice, about eleven kilometres west of the city, with a single runway of 2,550 metres and customs on site.
- Vienna 45 min
- Prague 55 min
- Beirut 3 h 10
- Marrakech 4 h 20
- Los Angeles 12 h 55 long-range jet
When to go
May to September.
Winters here are crisp and fairly dry, and the summer months carry most of the year's rain. From May to September the afternoons reach nineteen to twenty-three degrees; June and July are the wettest months, at over ninety millimetres, and from December to February highs barely rise above freezing.
- 0° J 35
- 2° F 31
- 7° M 34
- 14° A 50
- 19° M 81
- 22° J 99
- 23° J 93
- 23° A 88
- 19° S 54
- 14° O 44
- 7° N 43
- 2° D 40
What to see and do
Days in and around Kraków.
-
Landmark
Wawel Hill
The limestone rise over the Vistula, with the Dragon's Den cave running down to the riverbank.
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Landmark
St Mary's Church
Eight centuries old, with Veit Stoss's high altar and the bugle call over the Main Market Square.
-
Landmark
Kazimierz
The old Jewish quarter, whose Corpus Christi Church was meant to be for Kazimierz what St Mary's is for Kraków.
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Culture
Wieliczka Salt Mine
The Tourist Route runs 3.5 km through chambers and brine lakes to 135 metres below ground, passing St Kinga's Chapel carved from salt.
Official site -
Culture
Princes Czartoryski Museum
Founded by Princess Izabela Czartoryska in 1801 and reopened in 2019, its collection holds Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine and a Rembrandt landscape.
Official site -
Culture
Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory
In Schindler's former works on Lipowa Street, the Museum of Kraków traces the city's life under Nazi occupation from 1939 to 1945.
Official site -
Opera & music
Kraków Opera
From its theatre at Lubicz 48 the company runs a summer festival, now past its 27th edition, that also takes opera into the Wawel arcaded courtyard.
Official site -
Nature
Ojców National Park
Limestone gorges north of the city hold more than 400 caves, the Hercules' Club rock column and the Renaissance castle of Pieskowa Skała.
Where to stay
Three palaces under one Key or two.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Hotel Copernicus Twenty-nine rooms in a former palace on the street that runs up to Wawel, two Keys, a rooftop bar and a spa in the vaulted cellars.
- Stradom House, Autograph Collection One Key and 125 light, modern rooms behind a fourteenth-century façade.
- H15 Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel The seventeenth-century Lubomirski Palace, 200 metres from the Main Market Square, with restored painted ceilings, a pool and one Key.
Where to dine
Two stars and a strong second row.
From the MICHELIN Guide 2026, shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these restaurants.
- Bottiglieria 1881 Two Michelin stars Creative €€€€ ul. Bocheńska
- Artesse by Juanlu Fernández MICHELIN Guide Creative €€€€ H15 Palace
- Copernicus MICHELIN Guide Modern €€€ Hotel Copernicus, ul. Kanonicza
- Amarylis MICHELIN Guide Modern €€€ Kraków
- Pod Różą MICHELIN Guide Modern €€€ Kraków
- Fiorentina MICHELIN Guide Creative €€€ Kraków
Elsewhere in Poland
More reasons to come.
Flying to Kraków?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.