8 Day Poland (warsaw and krakow) and Prague Itinerary
As a 50%+ Polish girl, of course Poland was on my list to visit with husband during our Italian adventure. Which, if you’re new here, hi! My husband is in the military and we’re currently stationed in Northern Italy. We’re actually at the end of our three year Italian life (sad) and getting ready to move to South Korea. Our travel adventures these three years have been nothing short of incredible, and I just love sharing them with you all! I have travel itineraries and guides for nearly every major destination in Italy, road trips through Scotland and Norway, long weekends in Mallorca or the French Riviera, a week in Mykonos, Greece, and so much more. Click here to scroll through all of the options!
For the week of labor day we decided to combine two big destinations on our bucket list, Poland and the infamous city of Prague.
After three years stationed in Northern Italy we kept hearing such amazing things about the city of Krakow, Poland. We’ve learned recently that we tend to not really love the major big cities. After all, a city is often just that, a city, right(except Paris of course)? We thought, we couldn’t quite go to Poland without going to Warsaw, but let’s keep it short. Boy oh boy we were in for a surprise! Given that much of this beautiful city was destroyed in WWII, much of the city is quite new. It was rebuilt with Polish charm, and is truly a beautiful city. Before I get too carried away…
Let’s hop right into the itinerary, shall we?
Day 1 - Warsaw
We arrived in Warsaw in the mid-afternoon. My first impression was how much Warsaw was exactly opposite of what I expected it to be. Like most cities, I expected Warsaw to be a concrete jungle, quite dirty, crazy driving, and a bunch of skyscrapers and buildings all squeezed together. Friends, it is not! It reminded me a bit of Chicago down by the water, without the skyscrapers. Beautiful parks, incredibly clean, and not at all a concrete jungle.
After arriving a bit later to our hotel, we headed up to the rooftop bar for a little welcome Prosecco and a view of the city before heading out to dinner. We stayed at The Bristol, a Luxury Collection hotel. You all know we love the Luxury Collection hotels through Marriott in Europe. All boutique style, no two hotels are the same, and most have an incredible history with a beautiful interior and exterior. The Bristol was all of that and more.
Hot tip: if you’re a military family and your active duty member ever stays and Hilton/Marriott locations for TDY’s make sure they create a membership and start to collect points. It’s helped with our travel so much!
After getting settled we strolled down the main pedestrian only street (The Royal Route) to our first dinner at Stara Kamienica. Stara had some of our favorite pierogis of the entire trip, and a cozy family owned vibe.
Day 2 - Warsaw
For our first full day in Warsaw we decided to head toward the Old Town Square early in the morning to see it before it got too crowded. From there we visited the Warsaw Palace by audio guide. This area along with the Old Town was my favorite. The buildings are so cute and charming, it is incredibly clean, full of boutique restaurants and shops, and a really fun place to walk around.
From here we headed to lunch at SELAVI for an arrangement of fresh appetizers. I was thinking of heading here for dinner, but I’m so glad we did it for lunch instead. They had a great lunch menu and a cute little courtyard to sit outside.
We then spent the afternoon at the National Museum.
The rest of the day we walked around hitting the rest of the sites I had saved in my google maps app, and popped into a few shops. Some of the sites are:
Chopin Bench
Holy Cross Church
Nicolas Copernicus Monument
Warsaw Barbican
For dinner we went to Specjaly Regionalne for some down home cooking polish food!
Overall I think two full days in Warsaw would be great. I wanted to head down to the Lazienki Park and the Palace on the Isle but we didn’t quite have time to fit it in.
Day 3 - Krakow
The morning of our third day we hopped on the train for a quick trip down to the infamous city of Krakow. It only took about 3 hours. We stayed at the AC Hotel Krakow on the edge of the city. Krakow was actually a bit bigger than I expected it to be!
For our first afternoon we did a big walking tour of the city just to get our bearings and see each little alcove of the city. The main old town area and the castle area are definitely my favorite, but this city has so much to offer. I was a bit surprised that Krakow seemed a bit more touristy to me than Warsaw, with a few more touristy shops along the streets. But still, a beautiful city and definitely worth the trip!
To be honest we weren’t a fan of our first dinner in Krakow, so I’m going to let this one blank! After dinner we headed back to the hotel to rest up for a big day of touring for our first full day in the city.
Day 4 - Krakow
To begin the day we walked all the way over to the Jewish Ghetto Memorial and the Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory museum. We spent about 2-3 hours here learning all about the war moving through Krakow and Poland in general, and lastly how Schindler was able to save 1,000s of Jews during this time. I highly recommend a visit.
From here we headed over toward the Wawel Royal Castle. But, first we stopped at Ministerstwo Tajemnic for a little lunch. It was a cute little cafe with simple options for lunch and a lot of fun drink options - alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
The Wawel Royal Castle is quite large. The way most of the castles and museums in Poland were operating is you purchase tickets based off of which rooms you’d like to see. So instead of getting one ticket to enter the entire castle, you purchase room by room. So today we decided to spend our time in the Cathedral portion of the Castle and save the rest of the Castle for tomorrow. You can even go up the bell tower to have a view of the entire city. Afterward we headed back into town to shop in a few of the authentic Polish pottery stores. The pottery here is so so cute! Unfortunately we only packed carry ons (impressive I know, lol) and I wasn’t able to take home any of the vases, dishes or other adorable things I found! We were able to squeeze a few mugs in, though! I highly recommend leaving some space to take a few pottery goodies home.
For dinner we went to another one of our favorites, of the trip, Starka. Absolutely everything here was so delicious. On our long walk back to the hotel we dipped into Dobra Paczkarnia for a classic paczki for dessert! A paczki is a Polish donut, but so much better than a donut. If you go to Poland and you don’t get at least one paczki, you did it completely wrong! Growing up, my family always made them plain with no filling. But, we learned that the traditional paczki flavor is actually rose! Tonight we went for a strawberry one, but tomorrow we’d definitely find ourselves a rose.
Day 5 - Krakow
For our second day in Krakow, the biggest site we had yet to see was the rest of the Wawel Royal Castle. They give you a ticket for a specific time for each room that you’d like to go into. So we ended up being at the Castle for four hours! The time did go by quite quickly, and there’s a little cafe with outdoor seating where you can wait if you didn’t spend your full allotment of time in the previous room. My favorite part was the garden, and Tyler’s favorite was the armory room.
After a big chunk of our day spent at the castle we headed to La Campania for lunch. I loved this restaurant! It’s funny because we normally try to avoid going to Italian restaurants while traveling to new countries since we live in Italy, but this menu and atmosphere looked too good to pass up! I really loved our time here and would definitely recommend it for lunch. Absolutely get the goat cheese salad and the eggplant lasagna and share them - so yum!
Afterward we wandered the rest of the city visiting the sites we had yet to see. A few we did our first day here, and the rest we did this afternoon. The full list of sites I had saved is:
Smok Wawelski
Smocza Jama
Kazimierz The Former Jewish District
Kazimierz
Corpus Christi Basilica
Saints Peter and Paul Church
Stare Miasto
Rynek Glowny
The Cloth Hall
St. Mary’s Basilica
Planty
Old Town
And for dinner we headed to our favorite pierogi restaurant of the trip, Kogel Mogel. We found this restaurant on a whim walking throughout the city and really loved it. It has a very cozy romantic vibe with the best traditional Polish food we’d had in Poland. I highly recommend this spot if you find yourself in Krakow.
Of course we had to go back to Dobra Paczkarnia for our last paczki in Poland!
We didn’t end up booking any tours or activities for this trip in an effort to save some money before our big move in a few months. But there are a few things that I think would be highly worth your while to do while here.
Activities you could book:
Pierogi making class
Walking tours
Auschweitz tours
Salt mine tours
Day 6 - Prague
This morning we hopped on a quick Ryanair flight from Krakow right into Prague. We arrived by noon and were on our way to start walking the city shortly after! Here we stayed at Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel. By the time we got all settled at the hotel it was time for lunch. We headed down a block or two to Restaurant Pod Vezi. Tyler got the pulled duck sandwich and still talks about it! So definitely head there for lunch and order that if you’re a sandwich lover.
Once again we just walked absolutely everywhere to get our bearings and start seeing as many sites as we could!
Prague is definitely one of the more beautiful cities we’ve visited. It is very clean, with really charming architecture. I loved being here in early fall to enjoy the sunshine without the heat or bitter cold. But given its adorable architecture I do think it’d be a gorgeous place to visit closer to Christmas time. I’ve heard that both New Year’s Eve and December during the Christmas market season are great times to visit this city.
Before dinner each day we went to the cocktail bar in our hotel. They have a full menu of unique cocktails, literally anything you could imagine. We really loved this bar and definitely recommend even if you’re not staying here.
For dinner we headed to U Modre Kachnicky after a recommendation by our hotel. It had a great atmosphere and we really enjoyed the food. Definitely check it out if you’re over that way.
Day 7 - Prague
Our first full day in Prague we headed right up to the Castle to start our day. I didn’t realize until we walked in that this castle is more of a little city within walls as opposed to just a castle! We went into the cathedral, a few castle rooms our tickets allowed us into, and through a little mock-city they have set up to model medieval times. It was a bit less “castle” and a bit more ancient city than I expected! But still worth a visit. A great added benefit is that your ticket also allows you into a few more sites within the city of Prague, more on that later!
From here we headed to the church and museum, Loreto Prague.
After a quick lunch we meandered across the infamous Charles Bridge again. I think this bridge was one of my favorite parts of the city.
From here we headed to the Charles Bridge Museum. If I’m being honest, I’d go in for a little look through if you got that castle ticket that included this entry as well, if you don’t already have a ticket, I’d skip it!
We then headed to the Prague Astronomical Clock and purchased the tickets that allow you to go all the way up to the top for an open air view of the city. We ended up being up here at the top of the hour when the clock rotates and displays different saints and apostles. Yesterday we’d seen it from street level, but today it was kind of fun watching all of the people down below during the clock’s little spectacle! There are a few more museum rooms in here that we walked around.
And from here we continued to walk around all of the shops and boutiques, through the little farmers market, and finally back toward our hotel for dinner. One of my favorite shops for a classic Russain doll souvenir was The Golden Eagle. They have a ton of different russian dolls to choose from (the wooden dolls that open up with a smaller doll within it, getting smaller and smaller and smaller). You can choose from more extravagant paintings, more pieces, different characters, and so much more. We got one for my niece as a christmas present and one that is a christmas ornament too!
Tonight we had dinner at our hotel before getting ready for our last day of this amazing adventure!
Day 8 - Prague
For our last day in Prague we began with a big walk all the way across the city to the Narodni museum. We found that a lot of museums we wanted to visit (like the library and the opera house) were only available if you went on a guided tour. Unfortunately those times never aligned with our schedule. So I’d definitely recommend checking those out if you can. The Narodni museum is a national museum, but in a gorgeous building. We mostly went because we wanted to see what the inside looked like! There are a bunch of different galleries ranging from all about animals, gemstones, Prague history, and world war two. There was definitely plenty to see!
After a few hours spent here we walked in and out of a few shops while we made our way back into the city center. A few of my favorites that are always in European cities are Marc O’Polo and Gant.
While we were wandering the city our first day we spotted Daniela’s and decided we had to visit. We chose to come here for lunch today and it was a great move. Tyler got this cold brew coffee and whiskey drink and, friends, it was SO good! The vibe is a so fun, velvet chairs, gold lined pretty bar area, and really yummy food options. Unfortunately it started to downpour while we were here so we just sat and enjoyed being off of our feet for a minute on day 8 of this walking everywhere trip..hehe! Afterward we walked in and out of some stores, and visited a few of the remaining sites on our list to see.
Something we didn’t get to do that I would have loved to is a classical concert in one of the many gorgeous churches. This was a common occurrence each night usually between 7 and 8pm. I think it’d be a really special experience. Just go in any of the larger churches and I’m sure they offer it!
And for our last night we visited another hotel recommendation, Kolkovna Olympia for a classic Prague dinner. We strolled through the west side of the river where we hadn’t yet been able to walk. We saw the Lennon wall, and walked along the riverbed. It was so peaceful and lively with families enjoying the night. I’d definitely recommend a stroll over here in the evening if you have time. I got the dumplings and pork while Tyler got a sausage platter. If you’re into trying local places, this is definitely one to find!
A few places I haven’t mentioned that we wandered in and out of and are worth the trip are:
Saint Peter and Paul Basilica
Church of Our Lady Victorious and The Infant Jesus of Prague
The Vrtba Garden
Saint Vitus Cathedral
Old Town Square
Lobkowicz Palace
The Powder Tower
Municipal House
Overall we really loved this trip and got to see and learn so much. To wrap it up I thought I’d share what I overall loved, and what I didn’t.
What I loved:
The architecture of every city was beautiful.
The history of every city was so deep and fascinating to take in.
It was incredibly cheap. The food, the museums, even the hotels are way cheaper than any other European city.
What I didnt love:
Some museums we visited were pretty darn empty and more just empty historic rooms. It was a bit disappointing, but most of them we were still glad we visited. I guess when I think palace I think Versailles, or something along those lines, and it definitely isn’t that. But still worth while!
And that’s it folks. I hope you enjoyed yet another travel blog. As always, I actually have a“travel hacks” highlight where I explain how to use google maps to save places that you want to visit in the future, whether you have a trip planned or not! Click here to view that, go through these places and be sure to save your favorites! I’d love to hear which ones you end up going to! Never hesitate to DM me on Instagram or shoot me an email here, I love hearing from you!
Until next time, XO,
Di