Poland holidays

Krakow is the headline Polish experience and rewards a multi-day stay. The Old Town (Stare Miasto) has Europe's largest medieval market square at Rynek Glowny, surrounded by the Cloth Hall (the Renaissance-era trading hall still active with souvenir stalls), St Mary's Basilica with the wooden altarpiece by Veit Stoss and the hourly trumpet call (Hejnal Mariacki — a tradition since 1241), and dozens of cafe terraces. Wawel Hill holds the Royal Castle (with the Crown Jewels and Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine in the museum since 2017), Wawel Cathedral (the coronation site of Polish kings), and the famous Dragon's Den at the base of the hill with the bronze fire-breathing Wawel Dragon statue. Kazimierz, the historic Jewish quarter, has been transformed since the 1990s from atmospheric decay into one of Europe's most-distinctive bohemian districts — the converted synagogues, the Klezmer-music restaurants, the night-time food trucks on Plac Nowy, and the haunting empty spaces where the pre-war Jewish population of 65,000 lived.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is 90 minutes from Krakow and the most-significant Holocaust memorial site in the world. The museum is free to enter and you can visit independently, but during peak season (April-October) a pre-booked guided tour is required (the official Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial guides are excellent and emotionally appropriate). The site covers two main camps: Auschwitz I (the original concentration camp in former Polish Army barracks, with the Arbeit Macht Frei gate, the gas chamber and crematorium I, and the brick barracks now museum exhibits) and Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the much larger extermination camp 3km away with the gas chambers IV and V destroyed by the Nazis on retreat, the railway-line entrance, and the surviving wooden barracks). Plan a half-day minimum. The visit is emotionally heavy and is not recommended for younger children.

Warsaw's history is the country's tragic and triumphant centrepiece. The 1944 Warsaw Uprising saw Polish resistance fighters battle the German occupation for 63 days, ending in the systematic destruction of central Warsaw (80% of the city was reduced to rubble). The post-war communist government rebuilt the Old Town and the Royal Castle precisely from pre-war Canaletto paintings and photographs — the result is UNESCO-listed as an extraordinary reconstruction. The Warsaw Uprising Museum on Grzybowska tells the uprising story through immersive exhibits. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, opened 2014 on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, traces 1,000 years of Polish Jewish history with a critical pre-Holocaust focus. The Praga district east of the river is the bohemian neighbourhood that survived the war largely intact — Vodka Museum, the Neon Museum, and the contemporary art scene at Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesnej.

Polish food has had a quiet renaissance. Pierogi (the filled dumplings — meat, cheese-and-potato Ruskie, sauerkraut, sweet cherry or blueberry — best at the Pierogarnia Krakowiacy in Krakow or any of the Warsaw branches), bigos (the hunter's stew of sauerkraut, mushrooms, multiple meats), zurek (the sour rye soup), pickled herrings, beetroot soup (barszcz, the Easter Christmas tradition), the kremowka custard cream cake (made famous by Pope John Paul II saying it was his favourite from his Wadowice childhood), plus a strong vodka culture (Polish vodka has UNESCO Intangible Heritage status — try the herb-flavoured Zubrowka with the bison-grass blade in every bottle, or the smoothness of Belvedere or Chopin from the splurge end). The new-Polish restaurant scene at Atelier Amaro (Warsaw — first Polish Michelin star), Bottiglieria 1881 (Krakow), and Hala Koszyki (Warsaw food hall) signal serious culinary development.

UK travellers get 90 days visa-free Schengen entry. Poland uses the Polish Zloty (PLN), not the Euro despite EU membership since 2004. Polish is the language; English is widely spoken among young people in cities, German common in the west, Russian among older generations. Poland is significantly more affordable than Western Europe — restaurant meals at £10-25, hotels at £50-120, beers at £3. The train network (PKP Intercity) is good for major routes (Warsaw-Krakow in 2.5 hours by high-speed Express Intercity Premium, Warsaw-Gdansk in 3 hours, Krakow-Gdansk via Warsaw in 5.5 hours).

Best for: Central European culture-and-history travellers, Holocaust-and-WWII memorial travellers (Auschwitz, the Warsaw Uprising Museum, POLIN, Westerplatte), affordable-Europe city-break travellers, foodies (the new-Polish cuisine scene is genuinely innovative), Pope John Paul II pilgrims (Wadowice and Krakow), classical music travellers (Chopin in Warsaw, the Krakow Philharmonic). Often combined with Czech Republic (Prague-Krakow is 8 hours direct night-train), Germany (Berlin-Warsaw is 5 hours by direct train), Slovakia or the Baltic states.