How Many Days in Krakow: 3, 4, or More For Your Itinerary?

Krakow is the city in Poland most visited by tourists. And with good reason. Its scenic Old Town is one of Europe’s finest. It features a historic hilltop Castle. And it was the location for some of WWII’s most impactful history. You’ll find so much to see and do in Krakow.

Given all this, how many days in Krakow will you need to adequately explore this great city? Before I give you a general idea, let’s take a quick look at Krakow’s most important sites and activities. This will help you with some useful context before we talk about how many days in Krakow might be right for you.

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A Split Krakow Itinerary

We spent a week in Krakow as part of an extended trip throughout Poland. And for our own Krakow itinerary, I came to view our exploration of Krakow in two distinct parts – Medieval Krakow and Jewish Krakow.

Because we’d spent a lot of time exploring medieval sites in other Polish cities, and because our lodging was in Krakow’s Jewish Quarter, Jewish Krakow received more of our focus. I think it’s a big part of what makes Krakow so unique.

But we didn’t ignore Medieval Krakow either. Old Town is fantastic. And I mentioned there’s a Castle, right?

Just be sure that when deciding how many days you’ll spend in Krakow, that your itinerary includes time for exploring both sides of Krakow’s history.

Medieval Krakow

So let’s start with a quick look at some of Medieval Krakow’s most important highlights:

Main Market Square

In the center of Old Town, you’ll find Krakow’s Main Square. This square is the second largest medieval town square in all of Europe. Measuring at nearly 10 acres, this massive space is surrounded by multi-colored townhouses, most now featuring a ground level restaurant or cafe.

In the center of the Market Square is a building called the Cloth Hall. In medieval times, it was a bustling center of merchant activity. Krakow was an important city for international trade during those times. Now its bottom floor is filled with souvenir stalls and its upper floor is a museum.

Another important historical structure centered in the Square is the Town Hall Tower. This is the only remaining part of Krakow’s original medieval Town Hall – which was sadly torn down in the 1800s to help open up more space in the square.

You can pay a small fee to climb the narrow steps leading up to the top of the tower for views out across Old Town. I did, but I’m not sure I’d recommended it. The stairs are very steep & narrow, and the views are through smallish windows up top. Consequently, they are just OK.

St Mary’s Basilica

At one of the Square’s corners, you can’t help but notice the towering Saint Mary’s Basilica. This giant Gothic church was built during the 1300s.

You can enter the church for a small fee and I would recommend you do. The interior is quite ornate with lots of reds and blues. Much more colorful than most other Gothic churches we’ve visited around the world.

Old Town Fortifications

As you explore Old Town Krakow outside of the Main Square, you’ll come across several reminders of the city’s once-great medieval fortifications. Most of the city’s original fortified walls and gates were torn down over time. In fact, a city park now surrounds the entirety of Old Town, where its medieval walls once stood.

But two important fortifications still remain. Below is St Florian’s Gate. This was Old Town’s northernmost entry gate and tower.

And just outside of St Florian’s Gate is the Krakow Barbican. This served as a checkpoint for all who entered the fortified city.

Old Town Streets

But if you are anything like me, you might decide your favorite thing about Krakow’s Old Town is just wandering around its scenic streets – especially if you do it at golden hour.

Wawel Royal Castle & Wawel Hill

Just south of Old Town, you’ll find Wawel Hill. This is considered the most historically and culturally significant site not just in Krakow, but “in all of Poland”. With a description like that, it definitely needs to be included in your Krakow itinerary, no matter how many days in Krakow you spend.

During the Middle Ages, Krakow was the capital of Poland. And Wawel Hill was the center of Poland’s medieval government.

When visiting Wawel Hill, you’ll find a complex of medieval buildings, all surrounding a large central green space. These buildings include the Wawel Cathedral – where Poland’s monarchs were traditionally crowned, and the adjacent Wawel Castle – where they lived and ruled for centuries.

We didn’t tour the Cathedral as part of our Krakow itinerary. But we did spend time in the Castle, which has now been converted into a museum. In fact, it’s the most-visited art museum in the entire country.

In addition to art, you’ll discover plenty of artifacts collected by the Polish Monarchy over the centuries as well. Plus as you move through the castle/museum, you’ll be walking through the various Royal Apartments and State Rooms too, taking in one intricately designed ceiling after another.

When you go the Castle’s website to purchase your advanced timed-entry tickets online (which is recommended), you’ll discover that castle visits are divided up into several different tour options. You cannot visit the castle in its entirety with one single ticket. We opted for the Castle II Tour which covered only the top floor, and that was plenty for us.

Is One Day Enough for Medieval Krakow?

So how many days in Krakow should you spend exploring Medieval Krakow? I think you could see these highlights in one full day on a quick Krakow itinerary. Or if you have more time – a day and a half.

Jewish Krakow

Now on to Jewish Krakow. You’ll find Krakow’s most important Jewish historical sites just south of Wawel Hill in the districts of Kazimierz and Stare Podgórze.

For centuries, the Jewish community of Krakow lived within a section of Kazimierz, and today the entire area is generally referred to as the Jewish Quarter. Like modern Jewish Quarters in other cities (Budapest for example), it’s now the “hipster” part of town filled with restaurants, cafes, and boutique shops. Our Airbnb apartment was here, and we very much enjoyed the neighborhood.

And as I mentioned earlier, more of our overall Krakow itinerary was spent exploring Jewish Krakow and its history. Our own highlights included:

A Jewish Krakow Walking Tour

Krakow has such important Jewish history that I wanted to understand it in a little more in depth than we could’ve on our own. So on our first morning in Krakow, we went on the Jewish Krakow Walking Tour offered by a company named Walkative.

It was excellent and I highly recommend that you find a place for it in your own Krakow itinerary. Our guide Big Tom was extremely knowledgeable & entertaining, and over the course of 2.5 hours we learned so much about the Jewish experience in Krakow – from the Middle Ages through until the horrific events of WWII. In the days that followed our tour, we returned to visit many of the sites in more depth.

We learned about the multiple historic synagogues in Krakow including the very first one (picture below) – The Old Synagogue (built in 1407). We also learned what Jewish life was like during medieval times as we walked through the Kazimierz district.

Ultimately the tour content changed to darker subjects. We crossed over to the Podgórze district. This was the location of the Jewish Ghetto during WWII.

All Krakow Jews were moved by the Nazis into a small section of Podgórze in 1941. Here they were subjected to absolute inhumane living conditions and unspeakable hardships. A total of between 16000-20000 people were crammed into an area that had previously housed only 3500.

I won’t go into Jewish Ghetto details in this post, but I do encourage you to rewatch the movie Schindler’s List for a historically accurate version of these events. (Many scenes in Schindler’s List were filmed on the streets we walked through on this tour)

In the photo below, Big Tom tells us about the walls built by the Nazis around the Ghetto to help contain the Krakow Jews. One of those walls followed the shadow you can see in the street.

Ultimately our tour ended at Ghetto Heroes Square in Podgórze. This is where the Ghetto’s residents were ultimately sorted and placed on trains bound for various extermination camps. Now 70 empty chairs are scattered throughout the square, representing Krakow Jewish lives lost over the course of the war.

The Eagle Pharmacy

Another important site you shouldn’t miss when visiting Krakow is the Eagle Pharmacy Museum. This historical site and museum is located on the edge of Ghetto Heroes Square. This was the only Polish-owned business the Nazi’s allowed to operate within the Ghetto. Its Polish owner and pharmacist was a man named Tadeusz Pankiewicz.

The Eagle Pharmacy became an important center for the Jewish Resistance, and Pankiewicz was instrumental in secretly supplying medication and other forms of assistance to the Ghetto residents. He also documented all the atrocities he witnessed in the Square and in the Ghetto. Consequently, a historically accurate account exists today.

The museum is small but does an outstanding job teaching about the Ghetto. And it uses impressive multi-media displays built into the pharmacy cabinets and windows.

Remains of the Ghetto Wall

I would also encourage you to seek out one of the two remaining sections of the Ghetto Wall. As you can see in the photo below, the Nazis designed the Wall to look like Jewish tombstones – a strikingly unsubtle message to the Ghetto’s residents. Standing in front of an actual remnant helps solidify the horrors of the Ghetto.

Here’s a map to where you can find this particular section. It’s not far from Ghetto Heroes Square.

Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory

No matter how many days in Krakow are on your itinerary, I think that touring Oskar Schindler’s Factory is an opportunity that can’t be missed.

I referenced the movie Schindler’s List before. For those of you who haven’t seen the movie (and you really should), it tells of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who over the course of the War spent his personal fortune bribing Nazi officials, and successfully saved 1200 of his Jewish factory employees from the death camps.

His factory is now a museum and one of the most popular sites in Krakow. It not only tells the story of Oskar Schindler, but will teach you even more detail about Krakow’s WWII history.

Because this museum is so popular, it is absolutely recommended that you buy your tickets in advance. Tickets are time-entry, and you can risk a sell out if you don’t plan a day or two ahead.

Is One Day Enough for Jewish Krakow?

So how many days in Krakow do you need to adequately explore Jewish Krakow? While you could do it in a day, I think it would be less overwhelming if you did it in two.

An Essential Day Trip

When putting together your Krakow itinerary, you absolutely need to plan on using one day to visit Auschwitz. It’s located about 40 miles away, and in my opinion, it’s an essential day trip no matter how many days in Krakow you stay.

Our visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum is certainly one of the most memorable travel experiences we’ve ever had. A visit here includes a tour of both the Auschwitz Concentration Camp (pictured above) and the nearby Birkenau Concentration Camp (in the photo below). Birkenau is where the very worst Nazi atrocities occurred – where the largest and most active Nazi gas chambers were located.

When visiting Auschwitz from Krakow, you can either arrange for one of many Krakow-based tour companies to get you there. Or you can do it yourself via public transportation. We opted for the DIY approach, and I’ve written an entire separate blog post all about How to Visit Auschwitz from Krakow. Take a look at that for much more detail on visiting Auschwitz.

Another popular day trip from Krakow is the Wieliczka Salt Mine – which like Old Town Krakow is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We didn’t go to the Mine while visiting Krakow. But several tour companies offer a combined Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine day trip if you want to see both in a day (like this one on Viator).

Getting Around Krakow

How you’ll be getting around Krakow is an important consideration in putting together your Krakow itinerary.

And overall, historic Krakow is very walkable. The distance from Florian’s Gate to Wawel Castle is less than a mile. And it’s a very scenic stroll at that.

And then, all the important Jewish Krakow sites in Kazimierz and Podgórze are within a mile radius of each other.

For more mid-range distances, Krakow has a great public tram system that we found easy to use. Ticket machines are located near many of the most popular stops. And its routes and schedules are conveniently available on Google Maps.

Also, Uber is available in Krakow. We used it several times when we were in a hurry, tired of walking, or needed to transport our luggage to the main train station.

(We used Poland’s national rail network to get around the country. You can read more about Polish train travel in my post Riding the Train from Krakow to Warsaw & More Polish Train Tips)

Eating in Krakow

And then, no matter how many days in Krakow you end up staying, you need to eat. Here’s a couple of food ideas that you should consider putting on your Krakow itinerary.

First and foremost, one of the most popular places to eat in Krakow is smack dab in the middle of the Jewish Quarter. It’s called Okrąglak and it’s a round red brick building in the center of a town square called Plac Nowy. It was originally built in 1900 as a public market hall. But now it’s the most famous place in all of Poland to get one of Poland’s most beloved street foods – the Zapiekanki. As you walk around the building, you will encounter one window after another selling its own version of Zapiekanki.

So what’s a Zapiekanki? It’s basically a baked baguette pizza. A baguette is cut in half, and topped with mushrooms, cheese, and a variety of other toppings of your choice including a drizzle of sauce.

If instead, you want to eat a really good sit-down Polish meal, one of my favorites in Krakow was at another Jewish Quarter restaurant named Kuchnia u Doroty. It was recommended by our Jewish History tour guide, and it happened to be located across the street from our apartment. So it was a no-brainer choice for us. Their specialty of the house are Potato Pancakes. And the version I had with Pork Goulash was one of the best things I ate during our entire time in Poland.

And finally, you should definitely consider visiting a Milk Bar while in Krakow. These are cafeterias that were very popular during Poland’s Communist Era – providing cheap food to the masses. A few still exist, including Bar Krakus in the Podgórze district. In fact, it’s in the center of the Jewish Ghetto boundaries, so it’s the perfect lunch stop when exploring Jewish Krakow.

These Milk Bars (called Bar Mleczny in Polish) are no-frills eating establishments with a very basic menu of Polish classics. And the food is very inexpensive. During our visit to Bar Krakus, the place was packed with locals.

While not specifically catering to tourists, Bar Krakus did have an English menu and a TripAdvisor logo on the door. And the food, while basic, was quite good. In the photo below you’ll see two large bowls of mushroom soup, stuffed cabbage rolls (Golabki), chicken schnitzel, and carrot salad. We also ordered apple-stuffed pancakes (not shown). Our cost for all this (including two bottled waters) was $15 USD.

So How Many Days in Krakow?

As you should now be clear, you’ll find a lot to see and experience when visiting Krakow.

So then, how many days in Krakow are best?

As a slow traveler, I’m always going to say that the answer is as many days as you possibly can. We spent a week in Krakow, could have spent more, and didn’t come close to experiencing everything Krakow has to offer.

But if you want to see the Krakow highlights I’ve outlined in this post, and include that essential day trip to Auschwitz, then I think the answer is 4 days. You could do it in 3, but I think those days would be packed and rushed.

Regardless of how many days you decide to spend in Krakow, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.

If you would like to read about other places we visited in Poland, then check out these posts:

12 Things You Shouldn’t Miss When Visiting Gdansk Poland

All The Reasons You Should Consider Visiting Wroclaw Poland

The Perfect Day Trip from Gdansk to Malbork Castle

11 Useful Tips for Visiting Warsaw Poland

And if you would like tips about putting together other itineraries in Europe, then check out these posts:

How Many Days in Madrid Are Enough – A Look at Spain’s Capital

8 Insightful Vienna Travel Tips

10 Essential Things To Do In Sarajevo