Stay Date : 24/10/06

Half Term in Krakow

A customer from HESSLE who stayed at 4* Novotel Krakow Centrum in Krakow wrote this review.

Four of us (50, 46, 12, 10) flew to Krakow via Wizzair to Katowice. Book taxi transfer by internet - pricier but faster, more efficient and direct to hotel. Bus transfer SLOW. Novotel Centrum great. Well placed - just 10 mins walk to centre. Krakow lovely city - much larger than expected. It compares favourably with Prague. Lots to see in terms of history but by far the best are the cakes/coffee/food. Beware, even best coffee houses make awful tea! Did own tour of centre. Must see St Mary's - stunning interior. Listen to bugler - every hour on the hour and find out why it's done; great little story. Polish people speak English in all main restaurants/coffe houses/hotels but some of the off-the-beaten track places don't. We had advantage of Polish background and can get by - but loads of English speaking tourists seemed to get on just fine. Not much shopping - lots of amber - overkill in the disappointing Cloth Hall centre - and a newly opened large mall just outside of train station. Tribice insdie do great hot chocoloate and cake. Yummy! My boys loved the food - not one dud menu - particuarly the cakes. Cheese cake and poppy seed cake (makownik) are specialisities and the doughnuts - when fresh - are best in world. There are loads of historic buildings and in the few days we had could not see them all. Took ourselves to Auschwitz. Caught train - direct and fast and cheaper. Can walk to museum (about 20 mins) but can also take bus outside of station (number 3, 5, 7, 24 and 27) Beware - bus drivers this far out of town do not speak much Englsih. The experience is haunting. Has to be done - but it stays with you. All in all we loved our visit and boys can't wait to go back.

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