Tatra Mountains/Krakow Area

Alps-like Tatra Mountains, or the Tatras (Polish Tatry), is the highest range of the Carpathian Mountains and lie along Poland’s border with Slovakia. Two hour’s drive from Krakow one finds stunning views and pristine nature as well as the best skiing in winter and hiking, rock climbing, cave exploration, cycling, paragliding, etc. through the rest of the year. As tourism has been the area’s main business for over a century, visitors are thoroughly catered to. Annually some three million of them turn up in the Polish alps, mostly getting along well with wildlife preservation which is paramount seeing that twin national parks cover the whole of the Tatras both sides of the national border. There is a lot to see in Krakow: centuries-old impressive landmarks, lovely vistas, world-class works of art, and stunning curios.

Wawel Royal Castle

Home to three dynasties of Poland's monarchs. Its stately halls and exquisite chambers are filled with priceless art, best period furniture and rare ancient objects.

Wawel Cathedral

Poland's impressive national shrine shelters plenty of superb church art. Among its 18 chapels are true architectural masterpieces. The giant bell Zygmunt of 1520 ranks with the world's largest. Most Polish kings and their family members are buried in the cathedral, its chapels and crypts, together with the greatest national heroes, two poets, four saints and numerous bishops.

Basilica of the Virgin Mary's

The immense Gothic church, Krakow's principal temple since the 13th century, shelters the world's greatest Gothic sculpture among its many excellent works of art.

Cloth Hall

The world's oldest shopping mall has been in business for 700 years. The present Renaissance edifice dates from 1555.

Town Hall Tower

Krakow's leaning tower was built by the end of the 13th century.

City Walls

700-year-old main city gate with adjoining mighty walls and towers.

Great Barbican

Awesome 500-year-old unmatched masterpiece of medieval military engineering.

Planty Garden Ring

Park of 30 varied gardens among old trees round Krakow's Old Town historical district.

Skalka Sanctuary

Poland’s second holiest shrine at the site of St. Stanislav’s 1079 martyrdom. Splendid Baroque church and fine monastery modeled on a Renaissance castle.

St. Norbert's Convent

Vast fortified complex on the Vistula river is home to Krakow’s once powerful Premonstratensian Sisters since the 12th c.

Tyniec Abbey

Krakow's hilltop monastery-fortress dates from the 11th c.

Bielany Monastery

Magnificent 17th-century Baroque hermitage complex atop the Silver Mountain hovers over Krakow

The Wieliczka Salt Mine

Millions of visitors, the crowned heads and such celebrities as Goethe and Sarah Bernhardt among them, have enthused over that subterranean world of labyrinthine passages, giant caverns, underground lakes and chapels with sculptures in the crystalline salt and rich ornamentation carved in the salt rock.

The last 900 years, when the Wieliczka Salt Mine has been worked, produced 200 kilometers of passages as well as 2,040 caverns of varied size.

Collegium Maius

15th-century impressive Grand College of the Krakow university where Copernicus once studied

Kanonicza Street

The most beautiful of Europe's ancient streets,arguably.

Jewish Quarter

The Kazimierz Jewish quarter was the safe haven for Jews from every corner of Europe till the 20th c. and a major center of the Diaspora. Krakow Synagogues

Seven of the historic Kazimierz synagogues date from the 16th, the 17th, and the 18th centuries.

Krakow, Poland's prime tourist attraction and a must in Central Europe, boasts numerous world-class monuments, charming vistas, delightful atmosphere, and the best restaurants.