3 Days in Krakow

Three days is the right length for a first visit to Krakow. It gives you time for the Old Town and Wawel, a proper evening in Kazimierz, and one full day trip out of the city, without rushing between them. This plan groups the sights by area to keep the walking short, gives rough times for each stage, and flags the few things you should book before you arrive. For wider background on the city, start with the Krakow guide.

Start around 9am on the Main Market Square, the largest medieval square in Europe and the centre of the Old Town. Step inside St Mary's Basilica for the Veit Stoss altarpiece, whose wings are opened in a short daily ceremony late in the morning, then walk the trading arcade of the Cloth Hall down the middle of the square. Listen for the hejnal trumpet on the hour. If the weather turns, the Rynek Underground museum below the paving is the best wet-weather option in the centre. Approaching from the north, you enter the old walls through the Barbican and walk down Florianska Street, the old royal route into the square.

After lunch, walk south along Grodzka Street for about ten minutes to Wawel Castle, the seat of Polish kings for centuries. The grounds and courtyards are free to walk; the State Rooms, the cathedral with the royal tombs, and the treasury are ticketed and each has its own timed entry. Give the hill two to three hours if you want to see the main interiors. Buy timed tickets online in summer, as the State Rooms cap numbers and sell out by midday.

Loop back toward the square through the Planty, the green ring that follows the line of the old walls. For dinner near the centre, the folk-painted rooms of Miod Malina and the medieval cellar of Pod Aniolami, both on Grodzka, serve hearty old-Polish plates a couple of minutes from Wawel.

Give the morning to Kazimierz, the former Jewish quarter and now the best district in the city for food and bars. Walk Szeroka Square and its surviving synagogues, the old cemetery, and Plac Nowy with its round market pavilion. This is the place for a cheap, filling lunch: the pavilion griddles the open-faced zapiekanki that Krakow is known for, and Endzior is the long-running stall to try them. If you prefer a sit-down breakfast to open the day, Charlotte on Plac Szczepanski, back in the Old Town, does fresh bread and coffee under the trees.

Cross the footbridge over the Vistula into Podgorze, the district that held the wartime ghetto. If your legs have had enough by day two, an electric cart tour covers the same ground between Kazimierz, the ghetto and the factory in about an hour. The main draw is Oskar Schindler's Factory, now a museum about Krakow under German occupation rather than only the story from the film. Tickets are timed and go quickly, so book ahead. Next door, MOCAK is a leading contemporary-art museum if you want a change of pace. Allow about two hours for the factory route.

Head back across the river to Kazimierz for the evening. The bars around Plac Nowy and the surrounding streets are the liveliest in Krakow, mixing old timber rooms with newer places, and the restaurants here cover everything from traditional Polish to modern kitchens.

Use the third day for a single trip out of the city. Pick one; trying to combine two distant sites in a day leaves too little time for either.

The easiest and most rewarding trip for most visitors is the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO site about 15 kilometres southeast of the centre. Direct trains and minibuses reach it in around half an hour, and the standard guided route takes roughly two hours through chambers, underground lakes and the salt-carved Chapel of St Kinga. You can be back in Krakow for a late lunch. Book a timed slot online in summer.

Those who wish to pay their respects can set aside the day for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, about 70 kilometres west of Krakow on the site of the former German Nazi camp. Direct buses run from the centre in around an hour and a half. Entry is free but requires a booked time slot, and a guided visit takes several hours across the two sites. Approach it as a place of remembrance, not a sightseeing stop.

If you can add a day, head south to Zakopane and the Tatra National Park, about two hours away by bus or car. From there you can walk to the glacial lake at Morskie Oko or ride the cable car up Kasprowy Wierch. It makes a long day, so start early or stay a night.