Krakow // Poland
At the end of February 2026 we took a short trip to Krakow, Poland. The occasion? Jess’s 31st birthday.
We landed at sunset on Wednesday evening and began the holiday chatting to our taxi driver. He let us know the kebab he ate for lunch was from somewhere “not good”. As we kept talking about food in Krakow, he told us to avoid the Italian restaurants near the square (he used to work in one), before recommending Moomoo steakhouses.
After checking into our hotel, we explored some of the city. We walked through the Jewish Quarter – filled with bars, restaurants and street food – towards the massive castle. Jess was talking about her recent visit to Edinburgh Castle just as we came across a busker playing the Game of Thrones theme on bagpipes. From the castle, we entered the Old Town. The buildings were beautiful, but most (not all) of the shops and restaurants were clearly aimed more at tourists than locals – a very different vibe to the Jewish Quarter.
On the edge of the Old Town we went to a restaurant for traditional Polish food. After the meal we went upstairs to a speakeasy-style bar. Their menu was a book of collages, each of which represented a cocktail. Jess’s first drink was the best by far! It tasted like buttery popcorn.
Thursday was all about exploring Krakow. We saw the Jewish Quarter during the day, now with cafés open instead of bars. We ate breakfast in one of them. The food was delicious, plus Mardy Bum came on – Jess must’ve called ahead. After breakfast we walked through Schindler’s List Passage, where there’s a memorial to the Jewish resistance during the Nazi occupation.
The rest of the morning was spent walking across the city to Krakus Mound, a viewpoint from which you can see the whole of Krakow, for a different perspective.
For lunch, we returned to the Jewish Quarter for zapiekanki (a Polish twist on pizza and a baguette toastie). Then we went back to the Old Town, seeing the beautiful buildings during the day. The market building in the centre of the main square was open, but all the stalls just sold naff touristy tat. As we explored we tried Polish pretzel bread, and Jess found us a cocktail bar with armchairs that were nice and cosy to read in. Again, Jess had the best drink – a Polish bison grass vodka with apple and elderflower.
In the evening we went back to the Jewish Quarter. Again! We relaxed in a lovely book café, reading and playing cards. Then we ate tea at Moomoo (the taxi driver’s recommendation).
The next day (Friday) was Jess’s birthday, and it started with a nice surprise. While getting a coffee from the lobby, she bumped into Megan from school! Actually, anyone who knows Jess will also know that bumping into someone she knows isn’t a surprise at all. It happens All. The. Time!
We spent most of the day seeing the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camps. Not the typical way to spend your birthday… It was a harrowing, but important experience. We saw the two camps as part of a guided tour. Auschwitz now acts as a museum, with the buildings hosting exhibits from the camps that explain what happened there and displaying the belongings taken from prisoners, which make the scale of it painfully real. Birkenau is a much larger camp. Unlike Auschwitz, it doesn't have exhibits. Birkenau is much larger. Unlike Auschwitz, there are no exhibitions — just the vast grounds and the remains of the camp. Walking through it was incredibly heavy. Here are a few photos from our visit.
We got back to Krakow in the evening, and everything was busier on a Friday night. We couldn’t get a table at any of the three restaurants we had our eye on in Kazimierz, so ended up having a poke bowl at Oké Poké, followed by a delicious crêpe. On the way back, we spotted a gorgeous cosy bar with big windows. Jess tried her first White Russian, which she said was basically a big version of a Baby Guinness. Then we stopped by a retro bar, which is run by the same people as the book café. We managed to get a table with a console and played Breakout.
Our last full day was Saturday, when we spent the morning at Wieliczka Salt Mine. Over the course of our two hours underground we saw some incredible caverns, sculptures, brine lakes and chapels. All of it over 100m below the surface! And that was just two per cent of the whole mine. Luckily there was a very cramped lift back up.
After not being able to have Middle Eastern food on her birthday, Jess was on a mission to get hummus for lunch. We found a great little place and had wraps and silky hummus. We then wandered around the streets we hadn’t yet seen in the Old Town. Jess let James take the lead, and we went up inside the castle walls where we sat and had a drink and an ice cream. It was surprisingly warm for February! We saw the Wawel Dragon statue breathe fire, and walked for a bit along the river.
We stopped for a rest at House of Beer and had their beer of the day for just zł10 (£2) each. For our last meal we decided not to struggle finding a table again and ticked pierogi off the list. We got some from a casual restaurant on the road from the Old Town to the castle. On the way back to the hotel we shared a white chocolate and pistachio chimney cake. It was a great way to end the trip.
