4 Days in Kraków

A day-by-day itinerary for Kraków, Poland: real activities, restaurants and hotels with prices and booking links. Copy it and make it yours.

Kraków, Poland · 4 days · 15 activities · free to copy and customize

Day 1 — The Old Town unfolds

  • 13:30 Train from Kraków airport (KRK) (17 PLN). ≈17 PLN, 20 min to the main station — the platform is inside the terminal.
  • 15:00 Old Town hotel, 3 nights (1,500 PLN). ≈500 PLN/night two lanes from the Rynek. Kraków is Prague's quality at two-thirds the price — Western Europe's best-value great city.
  • 16:30 Rynek Główny & the Cloth Hall. Free. Europe's largest medieval square; the hejnał trumpet call from St Mary's tower cuts off mid-note every hour, as it has since the legend of the Tatar arrow.
  • 19:30 Pierogi dinner (45 PLN). ≈45 PLN. Ruskie first, then argue about the rest. Milk bars (bar mleczny) do the same for 25.

Day 2 — Wawel & Kazimierz

  • 09:00 Wawel Castle & Cathedral (70 PLN). ≈70 PLN for the state rooms + cathedral with the royal tombs; the dragon's den (smocza jama) exit spits you at the riverside statue that breathes actual fire every few minutes.
  • 12:30 Zapiekanka at Plac Nowy (18 PLN). ≈18 PLN. The half-baguette institution of Kazimierz's round market hall.
  • 14:00 Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter. Free to walk; the Old Synagogue and Remuh cemetery ≈20 PLN each. Seven synagogues within ten minutes' walk — a community of 65,000 before the war; the quarter now carries its memory and its best nightlife in the same streets.
  • 18:00 Oskar Schindler's Factory museum (32 PLN). ≈32 PLN, timed — book ahead. The factory is the frame; the exhibition is Kraków's entire occupation, told room by room.
  • 20:30 Kazimierz courtyard bars (40 PLN). Alchemia's candle-lit rooms set the template; 15 PLN beers keep it honest.

Day 3 — Auschwitz-Birkenau

  • 07:30 Coach to Oświęcim (30 PLN). ≈30 PLN each way, 90 min. Book the memorial entry FIRST (visit.auschwitz.org, weeks ahead in summer), then transport around your slot.
  • 09:30 Auschwitz I & Birkenau (170 PLN). Entry is free without a guide (early/late slots) but the ≈170 PLN guided visit is how the site asks to be understood — 3.5 hours across both camps. No lunch plan today; you will not want one. Give the evening back to quiet.
  • 18:30 Simple dinner back in Kraków (50 PLN). Plan nothing else tonight. That is not a scheduling gap.

Day 4 — Salt or slow, then home

  • 09:00 Wieliczka Salt Mine (130 PLN). ≈130 PLN guided. 135 m down: chapels, chandeliers and a cathedral, all carved from salt over 700 years. 800 steps down, lift back up.
  • 13:30 Obwarzanek & a proper lunch (40 PLN). The street bagel (≈3 PLN) is the snack; żurek in a bread bowl is the send-off.
  • 15:30 Train back to KRK (17 PLN). 20 minutes; allow the standard buffer.

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