Best Things to Do in Kraków

Kraków's sights cluster in three areas: the Old Town and Wawel, Kazimierz, and Podgórze across the river. Most of this list is walkable in a long day each, and the order below follows that route south.

1. The Main Market Square. Rynek Główny, laid out in 1257 and one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Cloth Hall in the middle and café terraces all round. Come early morning, before the crowds, and again at night.
2. St Mary's Basilica. Two uneven brick towers and a deep blue, star-painted vault. Inside is Veit Stoss's carved wooden altarpiece, finished in 1489. Every hour, a trumpeter plays the hejnał from the taller tower and stops mid-note.
3. Rynek Underground. A museum beneath the square, built around excavated medieval streets and market stalls. Better than it sounds, and good on a rainy day.
4. The Cloth Hall. The ground floor is souvenir stalls; the upper floor holds a gallery of 19th-century Polish painting, quieter and more interesting.
5. Collegium Maius. The oldest building of the Jagiellonian University, where Copernicus studied, with an arcaded Gothic courtyard you can walk into.
6. Wawel Hill. The royal castle and the cathedral where Polish kings were crowned and buried. Tickets are sold per exhibition, so choose rather than see everything. Our Old Town guide explains which.
7. The Wawel Dragon. A metal dragon by the river at the foot of the hill that breathes real fire every few minutes. Silly, and children love it.
8. Kazimierz. Synagogues, the old Remuh cemetery, Szeroka Street and the courtyards off Józefa Street. By night, the bars around Plac Nowy fill up.
9. Schindler's Factory. The Oskar Schindler enamel works in Zabłocie now holds a museum of Kraków under German occupation, one of the best in the city. Timed tickets sell out, so book ahead.
10. Ghetto Heroes Square. In Podgórze, a square set with 70 empty bronze chairs, a memorial to the ghetto's Jewish residents. Walk there over the Father Bernatek footbridge from Kazimierz.
11. Nowa Huta. A tram ride east, the 1950s socialist-realist "ideal city" of wide avenues and grand housing blocks. For anyone curious about the communist era.

What we'd skip: the golf-cart tours that circle the Old Town and Kazimierz. Everything they show is a short walk away, and you see more on foot. For the trips outside the city, see our day trips guide.