Here you go then:

Krakow & Zakopane Twin Centre Holiday, Thomson Lakes and Mountains, June 2009

We spent 3 nights in Krakow during June 2009 followed by a week at Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. Here follows an account of our trip:

The Journey

We flew from Gatwick to Krakow with British Airways, which took around 2 ½ hrs each way. There were no delays in either direction but the in-flight service was not great (a small snack was included but was unappetising and there was no entertainment). At least we had exit row seats which made the journey a bit more comfortable. We had a very short wait at Krakow airport before boarding our transfer minibus for the 30 min drive to the city centre. Our transfer between Krakow and Zakopane was direct and took less than 2 hrs.

The Weather

According to our rep, Poland had been experiencing quite mixed weather before we arrived, with some heavy rain, so we were prepared for some poor weather while we were there. Luck was on our side though and we only had one full day of rain and a couple of short showers. The temperature varied from 10-25 degrees though, so we were glad we had packed clothes for all weathers.

The Hotels

Hotel Campanile, Krakow (http://www.campanile.com.pl/krk_cmp_eng.html)

We chose this hotel as it was the cheapest of the 3 hotels in the Thomson Lakes & Mountains brochure, plus it was the only one actually in the old town. It is basically a budget chain hotel, similar to Travelodge in the UK. Our room was pretty nice, although there was a distinct lack of cupboard/drawer space. Our air conditioning worked fine, although we preferred to have the window open instead. Luckily it was not too hot at night, as the nearby tram route is pretty noisy and we would have struggled to sleep with the window open. The location is brilliant otherwise, as you are just 5 mins away from the main square and there are lots of bars and restaurants in the vicinity. Breakfast was included in our room rate and was more than adequate but you could probably get better/cheaper food locally if you wanted to. We loved Krakow and are likely to go back in future and definitely wouldn't rule out a return stay here.

Hotel Belvedere (http://www.belvederehotel.pl/)

Thomson Lakes & Mountains currently offer 3 hotels in Zakopane - Czarny Potok, Litwor and Belvedere. We chose the Belvedere because it had better reviews on Trip Advisor, and also because it was the nearest to the national park. The Litwor is right in the centre of town, but we preferred the quieter area that both the Belvedere and Czarny Potok were in. When we booked, Thomson had apparently run out of their allocation of standard rooms, so we had to pay a bit extra for a room with a balcony. This turned out to be a great idea, as we spent quite a bit of our time sat reading on the balcony. We also had both a window and a balcony door, which helped keep the room nice and cool as there was no air-conditioning. Despite only paying for a double room, we ended up with a double and a single bed and therefore had a lot of space for all our stuff. The bathroom only had a shower though, but this wasn't a problem for us. The hotel guide stated that the mini bar was not to be used for keeping personal drinks in, but no-one actually seemed to mind us using it.

We stayed on a half board basis and so had breakfast in the Wieniawa restaurant and dinner in the Ziemianska restaurant each day. We really couldn't fault the food and service in either restaurant, but it was particularly good in the Ziemianska. We were offered a 4 course set dinner every night, with only a choice of 2 main courses. We felt that 4 courses were too much, so each night we would only pick 3 off the menu and the hotel were absolutely fine about this. The food was probably some of the best we've ever had in a hotel. Our rep offered us the option of swapping one dinner at the hotel for one in the nearby Czarci Jar restaurant, which is owned by the same company. This wasn't a very good experience though as we had no choice of food and it was just plonked down in front of us. It was also cold in there and the radio was blaring in the background. We wished we had just stayed at the hotel!

We drank in the hotel bar a couple of times and found the vodka to be very reasonably priced, whereas the wine was very expensive. This seemed to be the case everywhere we went though so maybe it was due to import taxes or something. There is a small bowling alley in the U-Boot bar but it cost 60PLN (£12) for 1 hr so we didn't bother with it. We made a lot of use of the swimming pool complex though - it includes a pool, Jacuzzi, slide, steam rooms and saunas and was very relaxing after a day of walking. The nearest National Park Entrance is only 10 mins from the hotel and the town centre is about the same distance in the opposite direction.

The hotel is very well decorated and maintained and we found the staff to be very efficient and helpful. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wants to stay in a good quality hotel in Zakopane.

Things to do

Krakow

Our main recommendation would be to get hold of a copy of ‘Krakow in your pocket' as soon as you can. This can be downloaded in advance from ‘http://www.inyourpocket.com/static/downloads.html' - we also were given a printed copy for free by our hotel. It's a very comprehensive and well written guide which should help you with pretty much everything, but we found it particularly helpful for restaurant recommendations. In terms of actual sightseeing, we managed to fit the following into our 3 days:

- Wawel Castle (http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/) - make sure you get there early (preferably not long after it opens) if you want to view either the Private or State Apartments as tickets are limited. We preferred the State Apartments as you can walk round these at your own pace as the Private Apartments can only be seen on a guided tour. The grounds are free to get in and well worth a look. The Tourist Centre in the middle seemed to have shorter ticket queues than at the Herbowa Gate. Opening times at weekends are later than during the week.
- Ethnographical Museum, Kazimierz (http://www.etnomuzeum.eu/) - this is well worth visiting if you are in the area. The ground floor recreations of typical Polish houses and rooms are particularly good and there is a good amount of information in English.
- Wieliczka Salt Mines (http://www.kopalnia.pl/) - we originally wanted to visit this on our own, travelling by local bus, but we didn't have enough time. Instead, we booked an organised trip with Cracow Tours http://www.cracowtours.pl/) which cost more, but guaranteed to get us there and back in the short amount of time we had (cost per person was 129PLN - approx £25). The Salt Mines are well worth seeing and the chapel is particularly impressive.
- Crazy Guides Tour (http://www.crazyguides.com/) - we were really looking forward to our Communism Tour of Nowa Huta in an old Trabant, especially since we had seen a Michael Palin TV report on them. Unfortunately, the whole experience was very disappointing. Our guide was late and then shortened our tour as a result. She seemed to know very little about communism, despite their leaflet stating that all guides are ‘communism fanatics and connoisseurs'. For the princely sum of 129PLN each, we got a drink in a smoky café, a 5 min walk around Nova Huta, some views of the steelworks and a look through an old photo album. Our guide was distracted and pretty disinterested throughout so it's entirely possible that we might have had a better time with another guide, but based on our experience you'd probably be better off spending your money elsewhere.
- General sightseeing - if the weather is good, you can while away quite a lot of time just wandering around the streets of the old town and Kazimierz. There are a number of well marked out walking routes which take you round various points of interest. One thing to note is that there are only two branches of the ‘official' Tourist Office in Krakow - one near the train station on Ul. Szpitalna and the other near the Rynek Glowny on Ul. Sweti Jana. Anything else describing itself as a Tourist Information Centre is likely to be a private tour firm.
- Eating and drinking - we found all the places we ate in through ‘Krakow in your Pocket'. Just decide on a budget, area and food type and then see what the guide can suggest. We found that places a little way off the main square were often quieter and cheaper and were pleased with everywhere we ate. If you like cocktails and fairly commercial rock music then you might like the ‘Lizard King' bar at 11a Ul. Swieti Tomasza - we certainly had a good evening there!

Zakopane

When we arrived in Zakopane, our rep gave us a copy of a tourist guidebook called ‘The Visitor - Malopolska'. Although it only has a short section on Zakopane, we still found it very useful. Copies can be downloaded from their website at http://www.thevisitor.pl. If you are planning on doing some walking, you can get a free basic trails map in hotels, but it only marks out routes and timings and doesn't give any indication of the difficulty of the walks. We ended up buying a proper walking map from the Tourist Office for £2, which had all the main information translated into English. It proved to be a very useful map and we did some lovely (but tiring) walks. Other things we found to do were as follows:

- Gubalowka Funicular - this costs 15PLN for a return ticket and in return you can get some magnificent views of the Tatra Mountains. There are lot of restaurants, bars and souvenir shops up there, along with a toboggan run which only costs 5PLN a go. We bought a ‘combined ticket' for 11PLN which allowed you to go up on the Funicular and then back down on the Butorowy Wierch chair lift, which is about 30 mins walk away. See http://www.pkl.pl/ for more info.
- Kasprowy Wierch Cable Car - this costs 40PLN for a return ticket and is definitely worth doing on a sunny and cloudless day. Cars are not allowed up to the car park by the cable car station, so you will need to get their by minibus, taxi or horse and cart. A taxi from our hotel only cost £4 and got us there in about 10 minutes. It is definitely a good idea to get there as early as possible as the queues can be huge after 9am. See http://www.pkl.pl/ for more info.
- Ski jumps - these are situated just south of the town and are definitely worth a visit. You can take a short chair lift ride to the top of the largest and see exactly how big the drop is.
- The Tatra Museum and the Zakopane Style Museum - both could be quite interesting but there is very little information in English. Probable best to save them for a rainy day!
- Eating and Drinking - One restaurant we would definitely recommend is ‘Bialy Potok' on Droga do Bialego - it's a little way out of the main centre but definitely worth the walk. We had a pretty rubbish meal at the Czarci Jar restaurant so wouldn't recommend that, nor would we recommend the ‘Senso' Pizzeria at the top of Krupowki, as their idea of a pepperoni pizza is one covered with small peppers! There are lots of restaurants and bars in Zakopane so you shouldn't have any trouble finding somewhere nice to eat.

Thomson excursions from Zakopane

Krakow & Wieliczka Salt Mine - Saturday, 8am, 200PLN
Dunajec Valley - Saturday, 9am, 120PLN
Lake Morskie Oko - Wednesday, 8.30am, 160PLN (not running in 2009 due to landslide blocking entry road)
Zakopane & Podhale Region - Monday, 3pm, 90PLN
Rusinowa Polana Walking Tour - Monday, 9am, 90PLN
Auschwitz, Wadowice & Orawa Region - Tuesday, 8am, 150PLN
Slovakia - Friday, 8.30am, 180PLN

Thanks for that report Corrinne - sounds as though you had a good time. Having already been to Krakow, how many days would you say is about right for Zakopane. We would probably be going either in October or February.

Thanks for that corrinne. We fly to Krakow on the 19th so not long to wait!

Hi Helen

It's bit difficult to say really, but my gut feeling would be that the weather at those times of year might restrict what you could do as a lot of activities are weather dependant. Maybe 3-4 nights?

Brilliant info Corrine thanks very much

that was what I thought Corrinne. Working in a school we don't have much option for holiday dates, as I wouldn't want it to be my main holiday. It was going to be our next break, but it's been put on hold now, as hubby's just been made redundant.

Helen

Sorry to hear about your husband. Hope he gets a new job soon so you can book something.

does anyone know what the bus service is like between Krakow airport & Zakopane. I've seen some reasonable flights with Easy Jet, but we'd have to be back in the airport at 9am for our return flight. This would mean leaving Zakopane at around 7am. Will there be buses going that early in the morning. I would imagine a 2hr trip in a taxi would be very expensive.

Sorry can't answer your question about buses Helen but I do know the people we used to take us to Aushwitz and airport did transfers to Zakopane . Might be worth sending them an email as they are very prompt with replies and very reasonable http://www.krakowadvisor.com/
There are prices on their website but they look to me like full day trips but they would happily give you a price for just a transfer I'm sure .