Poland Christmas Season December 2024

December 2nd – We spent today walking through Warsaw to see the major sights. We saw the National Theater, walked the Royal Way from Old Town down to the palm tree roundabout, seeing the Presidential Palace, the University of Warsaw, and stopping in various churches and shops along the way. We walked over to the Palace of Culture and Science and up to the Saski Gardens and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before taking a short break to rest our feet and have some lunch. It got dark around 3:30pm while we were there so we went back out to see the Warsaw Uprising Monument and ghetto wall boundaries before dark. The Old Town square did have the ice rink lit up, along with several food stalls so there were some Christmas lights to enjoy. We had Italian for dinner at Trattoria Rucola to wrap up our time in Warsaw before packing our bags to move to Gdansk.

Gdansk – December 3rd-5th

December 3rd – We got a Bolt from our hotel to Warszawa Centralna with plenty of time to grab breakfast at the station. We had an EIP train to Gdansk (the rest were all IC trains) so we had a snack and drinks included on the trip. We were a little stressed about making sure we found the right car and getting on the train in the short amount of time it was at the station, but we figured it out. Upon arriving in Gdansk, we got a taxi to our hotel. We did get scammed by the driver, as he charged us 100 PLN (~$25) when it should have been around 20-30 PLN, but we got to our hotel quickly and safely so it wasn’t a huge deal.
Hotel Hanza – My parents stayed here in 2014 and liked it so we booked it again, although with a twin room. We were overlooking the street rather than the river but were not bothered by the street noise. It is in a good location right on the river and a quick walk to Dlugi Targ. The room wasn’t fancy but it was clean and worked well for us. They had a large breakfast buffet, but there was also a menu to order from if you wanted. The restaurant had dinner but we only had a drink there one evening.
We set out to explore Gdansk a bit and buy some amber jewelry from Mariacka Street. It was really neat to browse all the jewelry cases out in front of the shops up and down the street and allowed you to see a bunch at once to compare and decide on your favorite. We also walked along the riverfront before making our way to Targ Węglowy and the Christmas Market. Gdansk’s was voted best in Europe for 2024. It was a large market and had a great atmosphere. It seemed like the majority of the stalls were food, rather than goods to buy but that was ok. There was a huge variety. We did want to eat in the market one day in Gdansk but wanted to sit down the first night so went to Gdański Bowke along the river for some Polish food. It was in Rick’s book but we didn’t realize it until after the fact.

December 4th – We headed to Malbork Castle today. We were originally going to get a Bolt to the train station but the first one cancelled on us so we just ended up walking. It was a lot closer than we thought. The train ride was only about 25 minutes. The walk through town to the castle was an easy 15 minutes. We had an audio guide tour which allowed us to go at our own pace and still learn a lot. It was a Wednesday morning so there weren’t too many people there, a couple school groups, but crowds weren’t an issue. I really enjoyed seeing the castle, it was huge! The entire site is cobblestones so the walking is pretty uneven. We also had to climb scaffolding steps since one of the drawbridges was under construction. My mom got to see the completed restoration of one of the chapels that had been under construction with holes in the floor and walls when she was there in 2014, which was pretty neat. Once we got done with our tour we walked across the river to get some photos and had some lunch in the castle restaurant since we still had some time until our train back to Gdansk. The Gdansk train station isn’t too far from the market so we walked there and had dinner. We had bread topped with smalec (Polish lard spread), kielbasa, and pickles. I found out that this is a popular festival/street food. It looked better than it tasted. Although it wasn’t bad, it got cold too quickly eating it outside, so was probably the most disappointing meal of our trip.

December 5th – My mom was meeting up with her Polish instructor for coffee today so we started off with a walk along the riverfront and a visit to the Defenders of the Polish Post Office Monument. After I split off from my mom, I followed Rick Steve’s walking tour through Gdansk. I was lucky enough to see the astronomical clock at St. Mary’s in motion at noon. The amber altar in St. Bridget’s was incredible and well worth the smalladmission fee. I met up with my mom that afternoon and we went up to the Solidarity Center and shipyards to look around. We didn’t have too much of the day left so had to decide between the Solidarity Center and the World War II Museum. We ended up at the WWII museum and spent a couple hours there. Although there has been some criticism regarding the government interference in the exhibits, I thought it was a really good museum and some of the changes have been reverted back to the original content. We had dinner on Granary Island at Maniera (which I just found out is now closed.) It was packed that night but we were lucky enough to get a table right on the waterfront and the food was fantastic; pork knuckle and beef cheek entrees. Santa had come down the river to light the tree that night, so we strolled through the Main Town to see it all lit up along with all of the other city decorations.

Torun – December 6th

December 6th – We had our hotel in Gdansk order us a taxi to the train station which worked out well. We had an early train since we wanted to maximize our one day in Torun. The train ride was uneventful and we arrived, got a taxi to our hotel, had them hold our luggage, and were out exploring the city by 10ish. We loosely followed Rick Steves’ walking tour. The Old Town isn’t too expansive so we felt we were able to see everything we wanted to in that one day. The Christmas market was still setting up for the day so we picked up paczki for breakfast, ducked into a few churches, found the gingerbread shops and sampled some, strolled past Copernicus’s birthplace, and ended up at the ruins of Torun Castle. I am a castle fan so we paid to go into the ruins which I thought was worth the half hour we spent there, although it was really cold with the wind coming across the river. They were fairly expansive and the dansker tower was still in good shape and gave really good views over the entire castle site. We strolled down the riverfront and along the town walls before warming up with some soup for lunch. We went through their market for a bit before checking into our hotel and getting settled. We found a brewery, Jan Olbracht (also in Rick’s book), for dinner with gingerbread beer and pizza and then enjoyed the market atmosphere for a bit before ending the day.

Hotel Solaris – There weren’t a ton of options for hotels in Torun when booking but we found Hotel Solaris and later found it was in Rick Steves’ book as well. It was a cute hotel just off the town square. The room had timbered beams and was pretty small but it was cozy. The bathroom was modern but the shower was small. I liked the hotel but the street noise was quite loud. It was also a Friday night during the Christmas Markets so it could very well be less noisy during the week or other times during the year, or if you were in a non-street facing room. We had an early train so didn’t experience the breakfast.

Wroclaw – December 7th-8th

December 7th – We had the hotel call us a taxi and caught our train Wroclaw. It was an extremely full train with people standing in the aisles and squatting in seats until the person with the assigned seat actually got there. We were glad we had the 1st class compartment. The taxi fare was a little high but we got to our hotel quickly and easily to drop off and store our luggage. The Christmas market here reminded me of the ones I had been to in Germany and was a lot bigger than the others that we had been to on this trip. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the market and finding the Wroclaw dwarves around town before checking in to the hotel. That evening, the market was packed. They had lit the tree the night before so, of course, Saturday night was crazy. We could barely get down the sidewalk and through the market. After the first couple restaurants we tried were full for the night, we ventured out a few blocks from the main square and had a good Italian pasta dinner with wine.

Wyndham Wroclaw Old Town – This was a very modern hotel in a great location, only a block from the town square with easy access to the Christmas Market. We had two double beds here and it was a pretty typical chain hotel. It had been recently renovated and still smelled pretty new. The breakfast buffet was huge and took up a good deal of the second floor.

December 8th – After breakfast, we set out to explore more of the city. We climbed to the top of St. Mary Magdalene Church and had a great view of Wroclaw from the Penitent Bridge. We headed out of the Old Town to Cathedral Island, viewing a few of the churches, and strolled along the riverfront for a while as well, snapping pictures of the dwarves we found along the way. There were a few sections of the market that we didn’t see the previous day so we went through those before it was time for dinner. We made reservations for tonight after our experience trying to find a restaurant the night before. It wasn’t nearly as busy but it was still good to know we had a spot to eat. We went to Tequilarnia for Mexican which was delicious. We spent a bit more time in the market before heading back to get ready for our journey to Krakow the next day.

Krakow – December 9th-13th

December 9th – We had our hotel arrange a taxi to the Wroclaw train station. We had an uneventful train ride to Krakow Glowny which is in the Galeria Krakowska mall. It was kind of strange pulling suitcases through the mall and seeing train platform signs but we made our way out of the station and decided to walk to our hotel, even though it was raining a bit. It was maybe a 15-minute walk and wasn’t very difficult. We were able to check in right away and got settled into our room.

Saski Hotel – This was our other splurge hotel. It was only a block from the main square and had been renovated and reopened in 2022. We had a Saski room which is one of three rooms where they found frescos during the renovation that they restored and incorporated into the room. Our view was to an interior stairwell/courtyard area, so it wasn’t great, but the room and hotel location were incredible, as was the breakfast buffet.

The rain had pretty much stopped so we walked around the Christmas market and square enjoying some mulled wine (grzane wino). We ate at one of the restaurants on the square. We had goulash, potato pancakes, and bacon-wrapped smoked cheese. The food was only average but the atmosphere of sitting in the heated tents surrounding the square lit up by the Christmas lights was cozy and festive.

December 10th – We had our Auschwitz-Birkenau tour booked today. We booked it through our hotel. They had given us a pickup time of 10am the previous day so we had time to relax in the morning and linger over breakfast. We had a semi-private transfer to the tour bus (about 30 people) and then made our way to Oswiecim for a 12:00 tour. It was about an hour and a half drive from Krakow. Our tour guide gave us our tickets and handed us over to a museum tour guide. Auschwitz was an experience I will never forget. It is a mentally rough day, but I am glad we went. Our tour bus transported us between Auschwitz and Birkenau where we met back up with the museum tour guide for the Birkenau portion of the visit. We finished our tour around 3 and arrived back in Krakow just after 5, as there was pretty heavy traffic arriving in Krakow. We walked over to Kazimierz for dinner. We went to Restauracja Sąsiedzi, a place that my parents went to in 2014 on the recommendation of my grandma’s optometrist. It was incredible and the best meal of our trip. We headed back to Old Town to enjoy the Christmas Markets before returning to our hotel for the night.

December 11th – We had scheduled a tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mines today. We booked the VIP transfer and tour through their official site. We had a private transfer to and from our hotel and then joined the normal group tour of the mine. I think we could have easily figured out the train by this point in our trip but when we booked it, we thought the door-to-door transfer would be convenient. I enjoyed the mine tour and all the sculptures were great but I wished a bit more of the technical workings of the mine were included (I’m an engineer so like that kind of stuff), along with a bit more history. After we arrived back in Krakow, we strolled around Old Town looking in various shops and browsing the Christmas Markets. We rested a bit at the hotel and then had an incredible steak dinner at Mr, Jerry Steakhouse. I had made reservations here after hearing about it in one of the Poland Facebook groups I joined. It was a good choice for our last full night in Krakow. We took a few more laps around the square with our mulled wine before calling it a night.

December 12th – Today was our last day and we started out with a small breakfast of paczki and a coffee. We took it back to our hotel so we could pack up and have them store our luggage for the day. We ended up walking around the park surrounding Old Town and looking at a few of the monuments, Barbican, and city walls before it was time for my mom to meet up with her other Polish professor for lunch. After we met her, I ventured out and visited St. Mary’s. It was beautiful. They have specific visiting hours which allowed you wander around and take photographs of the beautiful interior without disturbing those praying. I could have spent awhile in the church, it was one of the prettiest church interiors I’ve ever been to. I headed to Wawel castle and cathedral after a quick lunch of Zurek soup at the Christmas Market, stopping at a few other churches along the way. I did take a tour of Wawel Cathedral and climbed up to Sigismund’s Bell, but did not go into the Castle at all, which would have taken more time than I had. I got to see Smok the dragon and strolled along the riverfront until I headed back to meet back up with my mom. We got a few more small gifts and browsed Old Town before eating an early dinner in the square at The Spaghetti, retrieving our luggage, and catching a Bolt to the airport.

Hilton Garden Inn Airport – Our flight was at 6am, so we chose to stay at the airport hotel the night before. It was right across the street from the departures check-in and bag drop so it was extremely convenient. The room and bathroom were typical of a chain hotel and we were able to have a martini nightcap in the hotel bar before going home the next day.

December 13th – We got up early and walked across the street to bag drop. We got there before they even opened, but once they did, we dropped them off relatively fast, made our way to security, which was also quick, and headed to our gate. We got notification that our second flight was delayed an hour before we even took off for our first one, so we ended up having a 6 hour layover in AMS, however with lounge access, we were able to relax and enjoy the time before heading home after an incredible trip.

I thoroughly enjoyed Poland and would love to go back again one day.

Great report! I still have so much of Europe to see but Poland got moved up a few spots after reading. Thank you for all the details!

Thank you for your detailed trip report. My niece and her husband went to Poland and several other central European countries a few years ago and they liked Poland the most - they thought it had the best food and not as expensive as the other countries.

I just watched Rick’s one hour special on Poland and so I really enjoyed reading this. If you have t seen it yet, I think you will love revisiting many of the places you visited.

It was a great trip. Most people were like why Poland when I said I was going there. I wasn't even sure what I would think of it before I went, but I loved it, especially Gdansk... but actually all of it.

I have the new Rick Steves TV special recording on my DVR Monday night. I'm looking forward to watching it.

Nicely done, thanks for this.

Really ennjoyed your report! Sounds like a great trip!

Just curious, how is your mom studying Polish?

Thank you for your report, it was enjoyable to read. Unfortunately there are a number of taxi scammers operating outside the train stations, I got stung after accepting a ride at Warsaw Central as a result of my Bolt driver being unable to locate me and cancelling. I should have known better but I had waited a while and there wasn't another free driver for some time. My driver was an Afghan and he charged me €10, double what it should have been. He wanted cash but I made him accept a card payment. Throughout my time in Poland I used Bolt (with that one exception) and never got ripped off.

I also ate at Gdański Bowke however I didn't think it was any good. My food came out far too quickly than it should have done and it was evident that it had been heated up in the microwave as it was so hot, I hadn't even finished my starter before my main was plonked down in front of me. I didn't know it was listed in Rick's guide book as I don't read his guides but halfway through my meal a large group of American tourists arrived who were clearly on a guided tour, whether it was an RS tour who knows but they were very loud and pretty much took over the restaurant. It was clear at that point why the food was disappointing as with only a small kitchen and limited number of chefs it's impossible to cook fresh for 30 or so guests who all arrive at the same time plus accommodating other customers. My advice is if you're not travelling as part of an organised tour then avoid any restaurant that caters for tour groups.

I also agree on the easy walk to Malbork Castle from the train station. I initially tried to get a taxi but neither Bolt or Uber operate there so I opted to walk and discovered it was much closer than I had anticipated. It's an incredible castle and well worth visiting.

Eef - She started studying Polish by using Rosetta Stone and then started to go to local classes at some of the colleges around the area. During Covid, she saw that the Jagiellonian University in Krakow had virtual Polish classes so she's been taking those ever since. She also found a tutor (I'm not sure how) and has a private lesson with her weekly.

JC - I agree with using Bolt. We did for a lot of our taxis but around the train stations, it feels a lot more chaotic and confusing which is why we utilized the first ones we saw, which was a mistake, but once we got used to Bolt and it was available, it definitely was the better option.

Our food was good at Gdanske Bowke; I had the cod and my mom had perch. It wasn't incredibly busy when we were there, but now that you mention it, they were getting ready for a larger group (maybe 10-12) while we were there and were pretty particular where we sat.

Thanks for sharing, Erin. This was fun to read. Is there any city you wish you'd had more time in?

Erin,
I enjoyed reading you trip report very much.

Christmas markets are high on my list and I hadn't thought to include Poland. Great to hear you had good weather in Dec. Also, thank you for sharing notes on your hotels. Always good to hear first hand information.

Sounds like you had a nice itinerary. Is there anywhere you would have liked to add or subtract any nights?

Hi Mary and Christine! I would have liked to add a few more nights in Warsaw, Gdansk, and Krakow. I think an additional couple nights in each would have been wonderful. Instead of just a quick walk through Warsaw, we probably could have gone in a museum or two. I would have liked to tour the Solidarity Center in Gdansk and maybe spent some additional time just exploring. With an additional two nights in Krakow, I may have done a day trip to Zakopane and the other day spending more time at Wawel Castle and in Kazimierz, in addition to seeing some sights outside of Old Town proper... so maybe three additional nights in Krakow. I would have liked to add in Poznan and Lublin but there's only so much you can fit in 2 weeks!

Erin, thanks for the info on the Polish lessons!

Lovely report Erin! We hope to visit Poland in 2027 and I am taking note of your hotels.

Nice report, Erin. I very much enjoyed reading your experiences, and the level of detail is great. I have been to Krakow, Warsaw, and Gdansk over two trips. I like Poland a lot. With Rick's new special, it may lose its "under the radar" status.

Hotel Bristol. I would love to stay there. The building has a quite remarkable history, including being the headquarters of the German Chief of the Warsaw District during WWII. Somehow it largely escaped damage during the war (a lone building standing amidst the rubble) and reopened as a hotel in 1945.

I'm glad you had the opportunity to have such a grand experience with your mother. I'm sure you created memories that both of you will cherish the rest of your lives. And getting her the Delta One upgrade -- you are a good daughter!

Thanks again for the great report.

Thank you Dave and Tammy!

I had a great time with my mom and it was a trip we'll both have fantastic memories of. I just watched Rick's new special last night. It was fun getting to see the places I was at, as well as some museums I didn't get to go to.

I'm glad this has helped a few people in their planning and I'm more than happy to answer any additional questions people have! :)