72 hours in Krakow Poland – Day 2 evening + Day 3

Are you looking for things to do, wondering what and where to eat or how much things cost in Krakow? Then this post is for you! In this 4 part blog series, I will be sharing itineraries from our short 3 nights 4 days trip to Krakow Poland. Hopefully you will find it useful, enjoy!

Day 2 Evening 🌜

We returned to Krakow from the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site at around 6:30pm.

Our plan was to have dinner at Milk bar Tomasza, but when we got there we found out that they were closed on Monday (thank you Google). Their Facebook page says they’re open till 8pm, but the door sign says till 6pm…

So we moved on to Wodka Cafe Bar which was just around the corner from the milk bar. I have read so many good reviews about this place, but my experience was not that fantastic.

They are known for vodka shot flight, but as they charge each shot at its individual price, you may as well order just 1 or 2 at a time rather than 6 on a flight board. They do not indicate how much each shot costs and my price inquiry was met with an air or surprise and a tinge of inconvenience. As lovely and cosy the venue might be, I think this place is essentially only for tourists who can afford to order 6 vodka shots blindly. We tested 3 normal (non-flavoured) vodkas and 3 fruit flavoured vodkas (all together 41zł, £7.60) and they were all just okay. All lacked conviction or character a bit like this place that is a gimmicky tourist attraction at the end of the day. 

We still needed to do something about our dinner. We were in the Old Town area and everything looked touristy, or shut. Another restaurant we wanted to try out whilst we’re in Krakow was Starka in the Jewish quarter. We hopped on a tram and were glad to find them open. It must’ve been around 8pm.

Starka is a lovely place with tasty food and great service. Their main clientele are probably tourists and staff members speak really good English, but the service is warm, the food is really tasty and reasonably priced and it was just a really nice restaurant regardless! C had beef cheeks (45zł, £8.40)

and I had root vegetables with grilled halloumi cheese (36zł, £6.70).

Everything was really tasty. We shared a bottle of Polish beer (12zł, £2.20). There was complementary bread and cheese (super tasty) and homemade cherry vodka at the end of our meal.

Day 3

We started the day with coffee at Karma. We had filter coffee and each ordered a different kind of Rwanda beans. Tasty coffee, but it felt like flavour was not extracted as well as it could have…

We bought a couple of Obwarzanki Krakowskie (aka. Krakow Bagels) and headed towards the market square. By the way, these Krakow bagels are surprisingly addictive. Simple, yet satisfying and I could eat it any time of the day. They are sold at every corner of the city, so you really can not miss it. Usually 2zł (£0.37) or 3.5zł (£0.64) special airport price.

We then went to Rynek Underground, which is a museum right under the market square where recently excavated medieval merchant stalls can be seen and you can experience the city’s history. The ticket is 28zł (£5), but free on Tuesdays. Both normal and free reservations can be made from Krakow museum website.

The entrance to the museum is next to the tourist information centre in the market square, but you need to go to a ticket centre with your reservation number and obtain a ticket. The ticket centre is behind the museum entrance on the other side of the cloth hall.  

We explored the market square, bought some postcards then took a tram towards the South. We got off the tram at the stop called Korona and went to a milk bar called Krakus.

Krakus was a very traditional milk bar in every way: cheap, quick, homely, efficient service with no smile (doesn’t mean they’re unfriendly, the lady at the counter made sure we, the tourists who do not speak Polish, got our orders. I like this kindness without frills or pretence that I can receive in some milk bars.) We had cheese and potatoes pierogi (7.50zł, £1.40), stuffed cabbage leaves (10.60zł, £2) and Polish sour soup (5.50zł, £1). We enjoyed our hearty lunch. By the way, they have an English menu (!!!), take credit card and are only a couple of minutes away from the Ghetto Heroes Square. So, if you’re thinking about visiting a traditional milk bar on your Krakow trip, this is a good place.

The Ghetto Heroes Square is the place where thousands of people were deported from in 1940s Nazi-occupied Poland. The artwork is powerful and really thought provoking.

Feeling cold, we decided to aimlessly tram around and enjoy the views.

However, after passing the North West edge of the city centre (where our hotel was), we quickly found out that there really were not many more interesting things for us to see. So we turned around, went to our hotel, made hot chocolate and rested in our room for a little bit.

We then explored the Jewish quarter.

C sampled these blood sausages (12zł, £2.20) in Plac Nowy.

We continued walking around and stumbled upon this lovely cafe/tea house called Kawalerka.

Initially we were just going to ‘quickly’ try out their tea, but ended up being completely relaxed deep into this cosy place with a pot of Japanese Gyokuro green tea, espresso and a slice of pumpkin tart (all together 29.70zł, £5.50).

The tea was sort of okay, but the tart was delicious and the coffee was actually the best we had on our Krakow trip.

Our last day’s dinner was a total failure. We decided to try out this udon noodle restaurant near the main station called Ka Vegan Udon & Sushi. When we arrived at around 7pm, this strangely (or unnecessarily) large venue was completely empty. Alarm bells did ring in our heads, but we decided to give them a try. Bad choice! To me, their ‘udon’ was inedible and I returned it immediately.

It was just a rock hard play-dough without the silkiness and flavour that udon needs to have. Their Kakiage tempura was actually okay, but 12zł (£2.20) was way overpriced. To be honest, we hadn’t had any bad food since we had come to Krakow and we really weren’t expecting this. This was one of those restaurants you make sure that you never return to – no wonder the place was empty.

We went back to our hotel, checked in our flight and completed our passenger locator forms. 

72 hours in Krakow Poland

Day 1

Day 2 Auschwitz-Birkenau: How to plan your visit