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Kraków (pl)

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arrival and transportation

Flying in is either accomplished by a touchdown at Krakow's small Balice Airport plus a train, bus, or taxi ride into the city centre or the nearby-ish Katowice airport and and an hour and a half bus ride to Krakow. Busses into Krakow are operated by various outfits. Trains are a popular choice but try not to fall asleep if you are alone.
Traveling around once in Krakow is not too difficult but no where near as comfortable as some options that you may be accustomed to in Western Europe. Travel by bus and tram during the day for some local flavor for a little over half a Euro for a one-off ticket. Trams stop operating around 11pm and buses are infrequent so best opt for a reasonable priced and only rarely dishonest Taxi at about 20 PLN for up to several kilometers out of the city center. Help

eat

Polish food is most well-known for the peasant staples like pierogi and bigos. While in Krakow this author recommends you try these and the delicious soups like zurek and the best place to try them would be in a family home. If you can’t secure yourself an invitation the next best thing would be to visit one of the many restaurants in Krakow. Chances are you will not be overly impressed with the service anywhere but you should be able get descent Polish food in most places advertising it. Aside from Polish food you should stay away from any other place claiming any other type of cuisine with the exception of several good Italian restaurants and some very tasty burritos from Bagel Mama. Looking for some food to soak up the alcohol in your stomach after hitting the clubs? Your options are limited to kebab, zapiekanka and maybe some noodles. Help

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when in... do as

For the proper Krakow nightlife experience this author recommends a drink or two in Kazimierz around 9 pm followed up by a Zapiekanka to prepare your stomach for a long night of drinking. Take a stroll toward the market square and check out your first venue around 11. It may not be too busy yet so enjoy another drink or two and give it till half past midnight before you give up on it. If the club is not cutting it for you give another one a try but do so before 1:30. Clubs in Krakow are often relatively small so a few big groups can turn a club from deserted into happening and then back into deserted within an hour. You may have been at the right places but just missed the right time. If all else fails head over to Wielepole and to the top floor where all the club casualties seem to end up as a last resort if they have not had enough. Help

club scene

The club scene in Krakow is dominated by cellar clubs that hold an average of 400 people and play mostly what you hear on the radio. Clubs are having a difficult time finding their identity as many are competing for the big spenders in a city where those guests are few and far between and students are the overwhelming majority. Thus, clubs are spending big bucks on pretty interiors while being forced to engage in some aggressive promotions to a wider variety of guests creating oxymora like “VIP student”. You might think that competition would be good for the clubber in Krakow and sometimes it is, enabling a savvy drinker to scrape buy on a thin wallet, but more often it only effectively spreads the party goers out among several mediocre parties, disabling one or a few from turning into good or great parties. This is especially an issue on nights other than Saturday night which is usually good almost everywhere as it the major night in Krakow. On other nights you can usually find the best party by checking out the where2B recommended events or the full party calendar for all events in Krakow. Most places have a door person that is mainly there to keep drunk and dangerous people out. If you arrive in casually elegant clothing you should not have an issue anywhere before 11 pm. Most clubs are small so arriving later will increase your chances of not getting in for one reason or another. Prepare to fork over 10 to 20 PLN (złoty) at a growing majority of places to get in. Polish clubbers tend to behave themselves more or less so try not to be too loud and annoying. The locals are rather inclined to only socialize with their friends at clubs but are friendly to strangers more often than not and the young people often speak English. The
top 20 clubs in Krakow as voted by members of where2B.org are Frantic and Cien. If you are looking for something a bit more underground check out Pauza or Łódź Kaliska. Help

bar scene