Insight Guides - Insight Guides Explore Krakow (Travel Guide eBook)

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Catholic visitors

Visit John Paul IIs student digs ().

Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

Courting couples

Moonlit walks around the Planty () is said to guarantee eternal love.

Alamy

Gourmands

Main Market Square (), with its rich variety of restaurants and cafs, is a foodies dream, while a number of delicatessens on ul. Floriaska stock a wide range of tasty Polish treats to take home.

Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

Jewish Krakow

Kazimierz ().

Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

Night owls

Main Market Square () is considered the real home of Krakow nightlife by those in the know, however.

Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

The rich and famous

Take dinner at Wierzynek ().

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

Shopping

The little stores of Wawel Hill () has all your favourite international brands.

Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

Something different

Make a beeline for the Socialist Realist enclave of Nowa Huta (), or Polands oldest salt mine at Wieliczka (route 16).

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

Explore Krakow

A city where religion and culture have long had the upper hand over trade and commerce, Krakow is in many ways Polands soul. Respect for the past keeps it anchored firmly in tradition, while its thousands of students keep it young.

Wawel Castle in deepest winter

Dreamstime

At once both a centre of European Catholicism and Jewry, Krakow is nothing if not one giant contradiction. At its heart is the only medieval town centre of Polands major cities to survive the horrors of the 20th century, yet Krakow is nevertheless a forward-thinking and outward-looking city. A Unesco World Heritage city, it records nearly 13 million visitors each year at times it can feel as if theyre all clustered on Wawel Hill, but in reality the city is large enough to contain everyone, with plenty of green space affording relief, particularly in the height of summer.

With the recently improved transport connections, Krakow is as good a base as any to explore the rest of southern Poland, and a number of places are accessible on easy day trips: the mountain resort of Zakopane, the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the Socialist-Realist new town of Nowa Huta. Slightly further afield are no fewer than six national parks, the industrial city of Katowice and Krakows former rival, Tarnw, which has its own charm.

Former capital of Poland

The name Krakow comes from Prince Krak, or Grakh, ruler of the Lechici, a Western Slavic people who inhabited the Lesser Poland (Maopolska) region towards the end of the 7th century, and who is credited in some quarters as founding the city. It is, however, generally believed Krakow was founded in about AD 950 by merchants using it as a staging post on the Amber Road from the Baltic to the Adriatic. Amber, most European of gemstones, remains a must-buy souvenir on any trip to the city, yet while the stone has been crucial to the citys development, it was the more prosaic commodity salt (mined at nearby Wieliczka since the early 11th century) that first made Krakow rich.