Poland's Christmas Markets: Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw

Arrive in Warsaw

Warsaw Chopin Airport to your hotel, then the Royal Route to Castle Square

• Dinner
• Stay in Warsaw
• Drive about 30 min

Evening

Plan to land by about 1 pm; it is dark by half past three in December, and the lights are the point of this first evening. At about 4 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing, then we set off on foot from Marszalkowska Street beside the Palace of Culture and Science. We walk the Royal Route along Nowy Swiat and Krakowskie Przedmiescie, where the city hangs its Christmas illuminations, past the university and the church that holds Chopin's heart, to Castle Square and the city Christmas tree. Warsaw's Old Town was almost destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt from paintings and photographs, which is why UNESCO listed it in 1980. We end with a welcome dinner of Polish dishes in the Old Town, a few minutes from the Old Town market.

Included

• Pick-up at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk along the Royal Route under the Christmas lights to Castle Square
• Welcome dinner in the Old Town

Warsaw: the Royal Castle, Chopin and the market

Warsaw Old Town and the Royal Castle, then down through Powisle by Topiel Street and Tamka to the Chopin Museum

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Warsaw

Morning

A local guide joins us in the Old Town in the morning, before the day visitors arrive: Sigismund's Column, the Market Square with its mermaid, the Barbican and the red-brick walls, with the market stalls opening around us. We go inside the Royal Castle on a timed entry; it was blown up in 1944 and rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s, partly with furnishings hidden by staff during the war.

Afternoon

Lunch is a sit-down meal of soups and Polish winter dishes near the castle. In the early afternoon we walk down the escarpment into Powisle, south along Topiel Street at its foot, then up Tamka to the Ostrogski Palace and the Fryderyk Chopin Museum, where you can listen to his music room by room and see the last piano he played. It is dark by mid-afternoon, so the rest of the day is free for the Old Town market: hot grzaniec, grilled oscypek cheese and gingerbread.

Evening

Your guide can book an evening Chopin recital for anyone who wants one.

Included

• Warsaw Old Town with a local guide: Castle Square, Sigismund's Column, the Market Square and the Barbican
• The Royal Castle on a timed entry
• Sit-down lunch near the Old Town
• The Fryderyk Chopin Museum on a timed entry

Optional experiences

• Evening Chopin piano recital in the Old Town (priced at booking)

By train to Krakow and the Main Market Square

Warszawa Centralna to Krakow Glowny by express train, then the Old Town on foot

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Krakow
• By train

Morning

After breakfast we take a mid-morning express train from Warszawa Centralna to Krakow Glowny, about two and a half hours in reserved seats, with your guide handling the luggage.

Afternoon

The hotel is a short walk or ride from the station, and we sit down to lunch nearby. In the early afternoon a local guide leads us through the Florian Gate and down Florianska Street to the Main Market Square, laid out in 1257 and still one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Cloth Hall in the middle and the market stalls around it. Inside St Mary's Basilica we see Veit Stoss's carved wooden altarpiece, finished in 1489, and on the hour hear the trumpet call from the tower that stops mid-note. Krakow's Old Town was among the first places UNESCO listed, in 1978.

Evening

By 4 pm the lights are on and the square is at its best; the evening is yours at the market.

Included

• Express train from Warsaw to Krakow with reserved seats
• Sit-down lunch in Krakow
• Old Town walk with a local guide: the Florian Gate, Florianska Street, the Main Market Square and the Cloth Hall
• St Mary's Basilica and the Veit Stoss altarpiece

Wieliczka and a pierogi class

Krakow to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and back, then a cooking class in Krakow

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Krakow
• Drive about 1 h

Afternoon

Back in Krakow, lunch is one we make: a pierogi class where a local cook shows us how to roll the dough and fill it with potato and cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom, or meat, and we eat the results together.

Evening

The afternoon and evening are free.

Included

• Wieliczka Salt Mine Tourist Route with a mine guide
• Pierogi cooking class with lunch in Krakow

Optional experiences

• Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory museum in Podgorze, timed entry (priced at booking)

Wawel and Krakow's szopki

Krakow Old Town to Wawel Hill and back to the Main Market Square

• Breakfast
• Stay in Krakow

Morning

In the morning we walk down Grodzka Street, past its Romanesque and Baroque churches, to Wawel Hill. Your guide takes us through the cathedral where Polish kings were crowned and buried, then the Royal State Rooms of the castle, hung with Sigismund Augustus's Flemish tapestries. Back on the Main Market Square we look at the szopki, Krakow's nativity scenes, built like miniature churches from card and coloured foil and topped with spires that copy the city's own towers. The tradition is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. Each year the makers bring their szopki to the Mickiewicz Monument for a contest, traditionally on the first Thursday of December, and the prize-winners then go on show in the Krzysztofory Palace; depending on your dates we see the contest or the exhibition.

Evening

The afternoon is free for the market, the Cloth Hall stalls or a long coffee, and your guide can suggest a milk bar for a cheap, honest dinner.

Included

• Wawel Cathedral
• The Royal State Rooms of Wawel Castle
• The szopka contest or the szopki exhibition at the Krzysztofory Palace, depending on dates

Optional experiences

• A day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial with a certified Memorial educator, in place of this day's plan, about 2.5 hours' return drive and 3.5 hours on site (priced at booking)

By train to Wroclaw: the dwarfs and the market

Krakow Glowny to Wroclaw Glowny by train, then the Old Town and Ostrow Tumski on foot

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Wroclaw
• By train

Morning

A morning express train takes us through Katowice and Opole to Wroclaw Glowny, about three to three and a half hours in reserved seats.

Afternoon

After a sit-down lunch near the Market Square a local guide walks us through a city that belonged to Bohemia, the Habsburgs, Prussia and Germany and became Polish only in 1945. We see the Gothic Town Hall and the Market Square, where Wroclaw's Christmas market spreads across the square and into Salt Square next door, and we hunt for the bronze dwarfs, hundreds of them on pavements and window sills, which began as a nod to the anti-communist Orange Alternative movement. As the light goes, at about half past three, we cross the Oder by Sand Island to Ostrow Tumski, the cathedral island, where the lamplighter makes his round of the gas lamps on Cathedral Street.

Evening

We end with a farewell dinner in the Old Town, then the market is yours.

Included

• Express train from Krakow to Wroclaw with reserved seats
• Sit-down lunch in Wroclaw
• Old Town walk with a local guide: the Market Square, the Town Hall, the Christmas market, Salt Square and the dwarfs
• Ostrow Tumski and the lamplighter at dusk
• Farewell dinner in the Old Town

Wroclaw and home

Ostrow Tumski by daylight, then Wroclaw Airport or Wroclaw Glowny station

• Breakfast
• Drive about 30 min

Morning

The last morning starts slowly. After breakfast your guide walks anyone who wants back to Ostrow Tumski by daylight, through the brick lanes of the oldest part of the city, to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, where a lift takes us up one of its twin towers for the view over the Oder, the islands and the Market Square. Afterwards there is time for the market hall by the river, a last mug of grzaniec at the stalls, or the University's Baroque buildings. The hotel can hold your bags after check-out. A driver then takes you to Wroclaw Copernicus Airport (WRO), about 10 km and half an hour west of the centre, at a time that fits your flight, or to Wroclaw Glowny if you are going on by train. Your guide sees the group off and checks everyone's onward plans. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm to enjoy the morning.

Included

• Morning walk on Ostrow Tumski with your guide
• The Wroclaw Cathedral tower
• Drop-off at Wroclaw Copernicus Airport (WRO) or Wroclaw Glowny station