Explore the history and culture of Poland!
Poland has been on my radar for a while, as a unique and interesting location, full of history. When we started planning for a spring break trip, we landed on Poland because it had the cheapest flights on the days we wanted to go! We love picking locations like this, because we end up visiting places that sometimes are a bit less touristy. Come check out what we saw while in Krakow and Warsaw!
This trip took place March 2025.
Our itinerary for Poland looked like this:
- Day 1: Arrive and travel to Krakow. Evening in Jewish Quarter
- Day 2: Former Concentration Camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau
- Day 3: Full day in Krakow: Schindler’s Factory and Old Town
- Day 4: Travel to Warsaw and visit zoo
- Day 5: Full day in Warsaw: Warsaw Uprising Museum and Old Town
Day 1: Krakow
We booked this awesome trip while searching for flight deals daily (maybe hourly) for many weeks. We knew the dates we wanted to travel and kept checking back, looking for good deals. When we saw this flight for $500, we knew it was too good to pass up. The flights were not great though, having 2 layovers.
We were so excited to land in our latest country (country #25!) This was a super long travel day for us. Our first flight left around noon, had a 6 hour layover in JFK before heading to Copenhagen and finally Warsaw. And – we were not done yet! Since we had to get back to Warsaw in a few days for our return flight, and to avoid changing hotels too much, we decided to head straight to Krakow for 3 nights. That meant – a 2.5hour train. The train was really nice and comfortable though and we actually got to sleep a bit since we basically had been awake for 24 hours straight.
We arrived and checked into our beautiful hotel for the next 3 nights, the Venetian House Aparthotel. The location of this place could not be beat. It was directly on the old town square, and walking distance to nearly everything we wanted to do for the next few days. We got this hotel FREE with credit card points – which made it even better.
On our first night, and being so jet lagged, we planned to just take it easy, wander around and attempt to stay awake until at least 8pm. We walked the 15 or so minutes over to the Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz. To date, this was one of the least touristy places we’ve been and we loved how uncrowded it felt. We visited the old Synagogue, and a filming location for Schindler’s List, which actually had kind of a makeshift museum with information about the liquidation that took place there.
For dinner, we stopped at Okrąglak, which we had seen in essentially every single video we watched about Krakow. It’s basically a circular food stand where many different food stalls sell versions of Zapiekanki. This is an inexpensive dinner, maybe $5-9 for a meal and was huge! We each got one and should have split them instead. It’s basically a giant half loaf of french bread with toppings. You can get things like cheese, meats, sauces, veggies etc. Each stall had similar options with just a few variations. We wandered around them all until we picked one. Mushrooms seemed to come on every one of them though – even when I specifically asked for just cheese and cranberry – so beware if you’re not a mushroom fan. The cranberry topping was awesome, and the kids got cheese with garlic and basil drizzle which was also great. We then tried a chimney cake for dessert!
Day 2: Auschwitz and Birkenau
One of the main reasons we wanted to visit Krakow was to take a day trip to the former concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. It is so important to understand the history and tragedy of the Holocaust so that we ensure that we fight against similar scenarios in the future. We booked a guided tour through Hello Cracow (Small Group Tour). We were so glad we booked the small group tour – not only did we have just a small van pick us up, but we also got to skip the lines because our tour was 15 or less people. I originally booked the regular tour, but when I saw Rakuten had 20% back on tours, I cancelled and used the money I saved to get the better tour 🙂
The tour guide lets you know the specific pickup time a few days before, so you do need to be flexible. We picked a 9am time slot and ended up with 9.30. Before pickup, we enjoyed the main town square without many people!
They picked us up just a few minutes from our hotel and drove us in a small van with just one other family. The drive there was interesting to drive through the countryside, which looked very similar to the midwest near us. It was about 1.5 hours of driving before we arrived.
We started at Auschwitz first. After getting our tickets and being introduced to our guide for the day, they gave us our head sets and we started our walk in. Immediately it was extremely moving. As we walked up the tunnel into the camp, there was a recording listing off names of those who had been murdered by the Nazis. Our tour guide was excellent. Sometimes, I feel like tours can drag on a bit, but she kept us moving, listing off interesting facts, never staying too long at any one given section. She was very matter of fact, which I appreciated in an area like these concentration camps.
She talked about how some of the first people brought to the concentration camps were political prisoners, scientists, historians, professors and others that dared to question the Nazis. She discussed how much of this started by exhibiting distrust in the media and education, and by ‘othering’ people who were not like the people in power. The camp was also steps from a town – they were not hiding anything – this was happening in plain sight.
We walked through the infamous gate which says “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work makes one free). We got to go into some of the living quarters, and other buildings turned into museums. There were lots of pictures taken by people, in secret, that eventually were able to be printed.
We came upon one section of the museum which showcased just a small fraction of the personal belongings from the people that were murdered in the concentration camps. There were rooms and rooms of personal items, and even a room full of women’s hair (no pictures allowed), which they shaved, partially to dehumanize them and also to use their hair for other purposes. These rooms truly took my breath away. There were so many personal items because they all believed they were there just to work and not to be systemically murdered.
Among other unnerving things to see, we also got to walk inside one of the gas chambers. It really was a surreal and heartbreaking experience.
We spent about 1.5 hours in Auschwitz. Before going to Birkenau, we had about a 15 minute break. This tour moves really quickly with just a short break (10 minutes) after the drive before you go in, and a short 15 minutes before taking the short drive to Birkenau. They offered box lunches for purchase, or, we just brought a tote bag with snacks and drinks. It really wasn’t long enough to each anything other than a granola bar basically!
Birkenau was built in order to expedite the murders that were taking place in concentration camps. Birkenau was essentially built as a death camp, with the idea being that they could roll a train right inside of it and then march people right into the gas chambers, increasing the efficiency of this horrendous operation. Seeing the train tracks going into the camp was very unnerving. Auschwitz was a big camp, but Birkenau was enormous. Many of the buildings have been burned down or destroyed , but you could see how far the remains stretch across the wide open fields. At Birkenau, we stopped a few times to learn about the atrocities that took place there, but mainly we just wandered the grounds taking it all in.
Our tour guide also mentioned that if you’re looking to learn more – to please read some of the actual memoirs from people who lived in the camps. If you’re like me, you may have read lots of WWII fiction books, some more accurate than others. She encouraged books like ‘Night’ and ‘I Have Lived a Thousand Years’, and specifically discouraged books like ‘Tattooist of Auschwitz’ and ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ as being ‘absolute garbage.
The whole tour felt very heavy. It was really hard to see all of the things on this tour and still makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. But – we learned a lot, and feel very grateful we were able to see this. It is so critical to continued to learn about history. I would absolutely recommend anyone in the area to take this tour if you’re able.
When we arrived back in Krakow, we didn’t have anything planned. We figured we may be a bit emotionally drained from the day. We spent the evening just enjoying the vibes of the old town square, and finally getting pierogis from Tradycyjen Polskie Smaki.
Day 3: Schindler’s Factory and Old Town
This was our full day in Krakow to explore. We had not booked tickets to Schindler’s Factory museum ahead of time, partially because we thought we may not want to overdo it on the museum front with our kids, and partially because we figured we could just get up and go if we wanted. However, the night before we started looking and saw there were no tickets available online! We were frustrated that we hadn’t booked ahead. So – our plan was to get there before it opens and see if we could get in.
First things first, donuts!!
OK – now off to the museum. We ordered a Bolt and got there in just a 10 minute or so drive. When we arrived, about 30 minutes before open, there were about 15-20 people ahead of us. Once we got in, we saw a sign that had the count of tickets available at each time slot and there were still plenty (sometimes 100+ in each time slot). Turns out – arriving at the entrance without a ticket is fine. I’m sure it’s worse in the afternoon, and we did have to wait in line. But, for a Saturday – I’d say that wasn’t so bad.
The museum itself was amazing. Took us about 1-1.5hrs to do the whole thing, and we could have spent more time. Lots of great pictures, interactive exhibits, and we especially enjoyed getting to see in his actual office. We’ve of course watched the movie, but our kids had not, so we enjoyed letting them experience some of the exhibits.
After the museum, we walked over to Heroes Square where victims of the Holocaust were boarded onto trains to go to the concentration camps, and to see some of the remnants of the old ghetto walls.
We then caught another Bolt back over to Old Town where we spent the rest of the day. We walked through the city walls (Barbican) and visited a few small stores before getting our favorite pierogis of the trip! The restaurant was Pierogarnia Krakowiacy – and you must visit this. I got spinach and potato with a garlic dipping sauce. I’m still dreaming of them. They also have a cute little outdoor seating area.
Walking into the center of town, we visited the Cloth Hall, which is basically a covered market. It was OK – but we found most of the stores to be really repetitive. We also visited the underground museum, which – to be honest – we didn’t really understand what we were looking at. Although at this point in the day, we were tired, so could have been that. It was interesting to see some of the exhibits under the main square though. The whole old town is so walkable – very flat, nice streets, beautiful architecture.
Our last main stop of the day was Wawel Castle. There were a ton of options on tickets to purchase. We honestly didn’t know which ticket package to purchase and some were kind of expensive (like $40/pp). The stuff we like about touring castles are things like – the views, some of the rooms and more. We don’t love seeing old art collections and stuff like that. We decided to just purchase a cheaper ticket that allowed us to see the old bell tower and the cathedral, which seemed like enough for our family. The bell tower was really cool. You walk up a ton of tiny, steep stairs until you get to the top where you can have great views and see this enormous bell that weighs something like 2,000 pounds!
On the castle site is also the famous Wawel dragon statue! We walked towards the river where it was, but realized it was all the way down the hill from us. We decided we could see it fine from up on the castle grounds and saved us a ton of walking. It would be neat to see right up close, but we got to wait around until it did it’s fire breathing (every 15 minutes or so?) and then left. We meandered through the streets on the way back to our hotel.
On our last full night in Krakow, we headed out for dinner and then enjoyed some mulled wine while sitting in the Old Town Square listening to music. We also liked watching the bell tower on the hour – when a man comes out to play music and waves to the crowd. We absolutely loved Krakow and the evening vibes were amazing. Busy, but not over crowded, and the square looked so beautiful lit up.
Day 4: Warsaw
We booked train tickets back to Warsaw at 8:30am. We decided to walk to the train station with our bags, which was about a 15 minute walk. We were rushing a little bit because we figured we would pick up breakfast on the way, but nothing was open. I feel like we do this nearly every time we are in Europe and need to finally understand that often things don’t open at 5am like they do in the USA, and just buy food the night before. There were places to get coffee and breakfast in the train station, but we just rushed a bit more than we’d like.
The train was prompt and again, really nice. We just relaxed for the 2.5 hour journey and arrived in Warsaw a little after 11am. We grabbed a Bolt to the Castle Square, near our apartment we booked. Hilariously, there was a marathon going on – and the entire old town was blocked off! We waited thinking we would just watch a little bit and then the running ‘traffic’ would clear up and we could pass. But it kept going! Eventually we had to grab our bags and run like we were playing frogger, across the street!
Then we got our first views of the amazing Castle Square! Warsaw’s old town is so colorful!
We stayed in the AAA Apartments just steps from Castle Square – it was perfect. I think we paid $120 a night for a 2 bedroom apartment in the most perfect location.
First things first – pierogis. Another delicious lunch. Then we toured the Warsaw Castle – which was nice. Over the top extravagant, just like many of these castles that we’ve seen over the years are. Lots of art to look at. Wasn’t a highlight for us by any means, but we enjoyed walking through it.
The rest of our afternoon was spent at the Warsaw Zoo. We really like doing things like this for a few reasons: 1) the kids love a good zoo 2) it’s nearly all locals 3) we get out of the crowds and get to get a nice walk in! Our plan was to catch a Bolt over there since it was about a 30 minute walk and we had been getting about 20-30k steps per day already. But we couldn’t find a good place to catch one, and then ended up just walking it across the river. It was an easy walk though, other than we were tired of walking.
The zoo was interesting – a lot of displays with no animals – maybe due to the time of year? Some super nice exhibits, and others that looked a bit run down. Ticket prices were cheap though, and it was a great way to spend the afternoon.
In the evening we ended up at our other favorite restaurant of the trip – Gospoda pod Zygmuntem. This was literally about 10 seconds from our apartment and we were a little skeptical at first because they had someone outside asking you to come in and eat – which typically is a sign that it’s bad. But we loved it. We tried fried pierogis here for the first time – which we liked, but I think steamed were better. My husband tried the goulash and potato pancakes and fell in love. Oh, and the butter cake. He loved it so much, he came back the next night to get the same. I also loved their mulled wine – which, I got pretty much anywhere I could the whole week.
After dinner, we wandered more of the streets. It had started raining just a little bit, and there was no one around. It was so peaceful to walk around this beautiful part of the city.
Day 5: Warsaw Uprising Museum and Old Town
On our last full day in Poland, we slept in a bit and then got some coffee and a sit down breakfast at Shabby Chic Coffee. We took our time walking through more of the old town on our way to the Warsaw Uprising Monument.
From there, we called a Bolt to take us to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It was a fairly short ride outside of the Old Town. The museum was great – lots of memorabilia about the Warsaw Uprising during WWII and other WWII history in general. Really nice displays and well organized. There are a ton of museums in Warsaw, and we picked this one because it was a little different than some of the other things we’d seen, and we felt like it would be the most interesting for our kids.
The afternoon was super laid back – we just enjoyed Old Town some more. We tried the museum of illusions – never been to one of them before and it was funny. Only took us about 30 minutes to see the whole thing. But the pictures are fun.
Then just did some final souvenir shopping and enjoying what I think might be the most beautiful square we’ve seen 🙂
Overall, Poland was a great trip. It was fun to go somewhere with so much interesting history. We also really enjoyed being in a place with hardly any Americans! The old towns are beautiful and the food is great. Would make for a great trip if you’d be interested in also seeing Poland!
