Things to Do in Krakow

With its interiors lavishly decorated with stuccowork, sculptures and paintings and its striking exterior, Wawel Cathedral is truly spectacular. It’s composed of a number of different architectural styles, most notably in Sigismund's Chapel which is a Renaissance treasure.

Despite being a genuinely harrowing experience, a journey to the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz is an essential one. A vital memorial to the scale of human wickedness.

These days the former soviet canteens known as Bar Mleczny (or ‘Milk Bars’) are becoming a bit of an endangered species. They are, however, the cheapest way to get a good, solid meal in you and so should be a first point of call for backpackers and budget travelers.

Krakow is stuffed with atmospheric quarters but Kazimierz is perhaps the most fascinating. Its square, Plac Nowy, makes an excellent point from which to spread out and explore its fine old streets and synagogues and the evocative Jewish cemetery.

Legend has it that a dragon used to live under Wawel Castle that terrorized the good people of Krakow. It met its end, so the story goes, when a shepherd fed it a sheep full of sulfur, prompting it to drink so much water from the nearby River Wisla that it exploded!