Let’s agree- if you are planning to visit Krakow you should plan to stay at least 3 days in order to immerse the culture and local life of the city. Yet if you have only 24 hours in Krakow and wondering what to do in Krakow in 24 hours this article will help you to plan your day.
You should start your day with a good breakfast and a cup of good coffee. The first meal during the day in Poland is extremely important, and one of the sayings says - Eat breakfast alone, lunch with a friend and give your dinner to the enemy. Well, where to find the best breakfast in Krakow? There are few good places that offer Polish & international breakfast and one of our favorite breakfast places in Krakow is Handelek (św. Filipa 16/2). In the XIX century, the “handelki”, they were very busy breakfast bars where you could eat and drink alcoholic beverages from morning till late night, often found next to delicatessen stores. They were famous for different types of sandwiches, and if you would like to feel the atmosphere of the last century Kraków, you should go there. Another advantage of visiting Handelek is that you will try the best local products – the butter is from Skała, the trout from Ojców, kiełbasa (sausage) from Liszki and oscypek (smoked sheep cheese) from Zakopane. They are never using low-quality industrial ingredients! Bread is their own product, you can even observe the baker making it, and we can assure you that this is one of our favorites bakeries in the city. You will not find a more typical Kraków breakfast than this one. At the end of your meal try chałka (challah- it is a special bread in Jewish cuisine) with rose jam! – it is a must!
photo by Handelek
Now you are ready to explore Krakow! Right around the corner, you will find the oldest covered food market in Kraków – Stary Kleparz. The name of this place comes from a kind of high fives between the buyer and seller (klepać means: to pat). In this lively place, has been functioning from the 12th century, you can find fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, flowers, and all the other seasonal products. Small-scale original mountain cheese producers and different food artisans arrive every single day (except Sundays) directly from the countryside. Grab a box of fresh raspberries or buy rose petal jam to take it home.
Now let's walk to the Main Square. Historical city walls are just 5 min walk from Stary Kleparz and the first building that you will see right in front of you is Barbakan (the Barbican). It is one of few treasures of defensive architecture in Europe and can be counted as a very important part of Kraków heritage. Gothic style 15th-century building was originally connected with St Florian’s Gate (Brama Floriańska), one of the 8 former city gates and the most important one. This gate was also the beginning of Droga Królewska (royal route, Via Reggia, finished at the Wawel Castle), used by the kings to enter to the city after victorious battles, during coronation, funerals procession etc. Try to imagine that between 1901 and 1953 there was a narrow gauge tramway going through the gateway.
Floriańska Street is one of the main streets in the Kraków Old Town. Under the no. 14 you will see the oldest Kraków Hotel – Pod Różą, which hosted Tzar Alexander I, Franz Liszt and many other famous personalities. On the front of this building, there is a Latin inscription wishing that the house continues to stand “Until the ant has drunk all the waters of the sea and the turtle has walked all around the world”.
The must-see place in Floriańska Street is the Museum of Pharmacy, situated in the 15th-century building at no. 25. It is the largest pharmacy museum in Poland and one of the few this type of museum in the whole Europe. You can see there not only different styles of pharmacy interiors but also - on the last fifth floor, a really good display of traditional herbal medicines. Surprisingly interesting place!
The most famous Polish historical painter, Jan Matejko, used to live under the no. 41 and you can still visit his house with a lot of personal items, documents, photographs and gold objects from the artist’s collection as well as numerous paintings.
The house at No. 45 is famous Jama Michalika (Michalik Den). Initially Cukiernia Lwowska (Lemberg Confectionary) in the beginning of XX century became the stage for Poland’s first literary and artistic cabaret “Zielony Balonik (“The little green balloon”). The interior is still decorated with original paintings made by Young Poland artists, so it is a good occasion for the short coffee break.
The next stop is the Rynek Główny (The Main Market Square), the biggest medieval square of whole Europe and the most beautiful one. Here you will see lots of blue carts that sell a ring-shaped bread which is called Obwarzanek. Obwarzanek is a progenitor of Jewish bagel, twisted bread which is treated as a symbol of Cracow. During the days more than 200.000 pieces of obwarzanek are all sold all over Krakow so it is very popular. You should definitely try one while you are discovering the Market Square.
Do you know that Kraków Old Town was the first European city on the Unesco World Heritage list (1978!) and looking around you can see about six thousand monuments and over two million works of art. Flowers, pigeons, churches and the melody played from the tower may cause some dizziness…
The square’s centerpiece is the 14th-century, gothic-style St. Mary’s Basilica, with the famous Wit Stwosz Altar, stained glass windows, and gilded interiors. At the end of the 19th century, the inside of the Basilica was decorated with the paintings designed by Jan Matejko. Look up - the vault imitates a starry sky.
If you will be by the Basilica at a full hour you will notice that on one of the towers there is a trumpeter playing the same melody which breaks upright in the middle. The legend says that when the Mongols attacked Krakow and the trumpeter sounded the alarm of the upcoming danger, he was shot in the throat. Since then it’s stopping always in the half note to commemorate this moment. You can also climb at the top of the tower and listen to this music right next to the trumpeter, believe me, it is touching. And the view from the tower is stunning!
In the very middle of the square there is the Cloth Hall (or the Sukiennice) – definitely the most recognizable Kraków building – the oldest European shopping center.
Enter to flit between folksy craft stalls and amber shops, and go back to the 14th century, when Kraków was the most important meeting place for merchants from all around Europe. Initial building burned in the XVI century, which allowed to rebuild it in the gorgeous renaissance style. During this time Kraków was at the peak of its heyday, so the employment of an Italian architect Santi Gucci allowed to create this piece of art with elegant Gothic gargoyles and huge stairwells on both ends of the trading space.
The Adam Mickiewicz statue is the reference point and a popular meeting spot for people of all ages. It is here when many loves and many amazing stories started.
Main Market Square has a very regular, nearly perfectly square shape and there are 11 streets leading to it. Not everybody knows that until 1854 there was a salt spring at the end of the St. Jana street on Main Square. To this water, people had to go down to the vaulted cellars of one stall. Later the stalls was removed and the source was filled in. Regarding all the beautiful houses that surround Main Square Market although most of them were rebuild in the XIX century, they still have kept the form of original, sometimes even XVI century residences. The most beautiful buildings are Szara House (no. 6), Montelupi House (no. 7), Pod Jaszczury House (no. 8), Bonerowska house no. 9, Jabłonowski Palace (no 20.), Pod Baranami Palace no 27, Spiski Palace (no 34), Pod Krzysztofory Palace (35, Pod Jeleniami House (no. 36, Pod Orłem House (no 45).
On the Main Square you will find also the oldest bookshop in Europe (no. 23) dates back to the 1610 and even today the place also welcomes you to take a break in rooms dedicated to Wisława Szymborska and Czesław Miłosz, the Kraków Nobel Prize winners.
The next stop will be the Wawel Castle and to go there you will take Grodzka Street which has no changes its route since the Middle Age. It was the part of Royal Route as well as a very important part of the salt route leading from the Wieliczka Salt Mine to Hungary. The street starts close to the small St Adalbert church (the earliest part of the church dating back to the 11th century, so it is older than the Main Square itself!) - mix of pre-Roman, Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture style. On Grodzka street you should not miss XIV century Collegium Iuridicum (open the door and take a look inside!), St. Andrew’s Church dating back to the 11th century and St. Giles dating back to the 14th century.
Wawel Royal Castle situated on the bank of the Vistula river was from the beginning of Polish history (9th century) a center of political power and one of the principal centers of Christianity in Poland. During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (r. 1034–1058), Wawel became also an administrative center for the Polish State.
The current, Italian Renaissance look coming from the early 16th century when King Alexander (r. 1501–1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (r. 1506–1548) decided to build the new palace in place of the old Gothic residence. In 1518 Sigismund I has married Princess Bona of the Milanese House of Sforza, which had a significant influence also for Polish cuisine, as from this time we have added leek, celery, cauliflower, artichokes, string beans, broccoli, fennel, kohlrabi, lettuce and spinach to our meat diet.
Wawel’s started to lose its importance when Sigismund III Vasa moved his court to Warsaw in 1609–1611, however, it still has remained a royal residence and the cathedral continued to be the site of the coronations and burials of Poland’s kings. During Swedish Deluge, the castle was ransacked and in the 18th century with the partitions of Poland castle was converted to barracks for the Austrian army.
When Poland has gained her independence after the Ist World War Wawel was reconstructed and converted into a residential museum. Now you can visit the Castle, the Cathedral, the Royal Tombs, the Sigismund Bell, and the Cathedral Museum. You should have 3 or 4 hours to look around completely or 1 hour to see the gardens, the walls and the beautiful views of the city.
No visit to Krakow would be complete without a tour of Kazimierz. Now called the Jewish Quarter initially Kazimierz was founded as a separate town in 1333. When in 1495 Jews were prohibited to settle in Kraków, they began to move to Kazimierz, creating a huge Jewish community and Europe’s only Jewish-governed town, subject only to the King’s power.
Kazimierz was connected to Kraków at the end of the 18th century, and the rich Jews again started to move to the Kraków city center, so Kazimierz remained the poorest quarter, and till now it is creating the unique atmosphere. Full of art cafes, pubs, the best restaurants, galleries, and craft shops will attract you to take a slow walk on his paved streets.
You can take one of the most popular routes among travelers - Jewish Heritage Route - starts at the Jewish Cultural Centre on Meiselsa 17 and taking you to the New Jewish Cemetery on Miodowa 55. On your way you will see the Temple Synagogue on Miodowa Street, then Kupa Synagogue on Warszauera Street, Isaac Synagogue on Jakuba Street and High Synagogue on Józefa Street. The most important stop will be the Old Synagogue on Szeroka Street – the oldest one in Poland (15th century) – now the Museum devoted to the Kraków Jews, that we suggest you visit. On the same street, you will find Remuh Synagogue and the Old Jewish cemetery open from in 1511. The last stop will be the New Jewish Cemetery – enter there and take a walk between historical tombs and monuments commemorating Kraków Jews personalities from the XIX and XX centuries.
After this long walk it is time to go deeper into the next part of Polish culture – culinary traditions! Breakfast and light lunch was already a long time ago, and the best way to understand why the Polish cuisine is appreciated all around the world is to try it!
Our Krakow Food Tour will allow you to try 14-15 different foods, polish craft beers, and vodkas, and the delicious (of course!) homemade dessert, that you will not find in pastry shops. Treat it like a long lazy dinner (usually, it lasts 3,5 hours) with a friend, who will tell you also a lot of stories about our traditions, complicated history, will give you few secrets on how to make homemade vodka and which cakes are the best. We will visit 5 carefully selected different places, and in the end, you will leave the last restaurant with a full stomach, big smile and the map in your hand, on which you will find the recommendations where to eat and what to see during the next days of your stay!
Still not tired? Are you in for a couple of Polish drinks? Then you should go to one of Kraków's hidden gems – a pub called Hevre – just 5 minutes from the place where the tour will end. This building was a former XIX century Jewish prayer house (Chewra Thilim Synagogue), with a lot of original architectures elements, such frisks with biblical motives, lamps, a gallery for a woman. They are serving many different kinds of polish vodkas and local craft beers which can be the relaxing end of this long day. We are sure you will love this place!
We hope that you find this article useful! Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions!