Poland in golden autumn: from Warsaw's rebuilt streets to the Tatras
Updated: 2 hours ago
Two weeks, four cities, one mountain range, and a lot of history
We came to Poland for the history: Warsaw, Gdansk, Kraków, and Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. We found a country that rebuilt itself from almost nothing, honors its thinkers, and still feels undiscovered in places. The leaves were turning and the light was low and gold.
Warsaw: a city that came back
After the 63-day Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the occupiers systematically destroyed most of the city. You would never guess it walking the Old Town, where every pastel façade and cobblestone was rebuilt, often from paintings and memory. The Warsaw Uprising Museum tells that story in an immersive way, and it takes two to three hours to do it justice. We left quiet.
In the afternoon we walked the Royal Route and Castle Square, then ended in Łazienki Park, where Chopin's monument sits under trees going gold. Chopin is everywhere in Warsaw. Even the benches around the city center play his music. POLIN, the museum of Polish Jewish history, is superb. In the warm months, free open-air Chopin piano recitals are held on Sundays in Łazienki Park.
Warsaw is bigger and more spread out than the Old Town suggests, so venture out. Trams are easy and numerous. Paper tickets need to be validated when you first board.
We found that streets just steps from the busiest routes, like Kozia Street, can be almost empty, and we found the same calm in the parks. Beyond the rebuilt façades, glass towers like Varso rise on the skyline, and Polish cities blend old and new architecture well. Warsaw also felt good value, and the welcome was warmer than the cold stereotype suggests.
Our insight: Drivers in Warsaw are remarkably polite, and they give pedestrians plenty of room and time to cross. We kept hesitating at the curb out of habit while drivers waved us on. Public transportation was excellent too: clean, frequent, easy to read. People were friendly but a little gruff, the kind of gruff that turns out to be honest. Ask for help and you get it. We also noticed more smokers and vapers than we're used to, especially young people.
Must try: pierogi (veg and non-veg), żurek in a bread bowl, and a rose-jam pączek.
Gdansk: where the war began
The train north takes two and a half hours. Gdansk felt different as soon as we stepped out: Baltic wind, brick gables, and shops selling amber along Mariacka Street.
Gdansk is at its best after dark, and the Motława River is the reason. The Gdansk Crane, Granary Island, and the moored boats all light up along the waterfront, and the water doubles every glow. The giant Ferris wheel towers over the river and makes a peaceful backdrop to the lively crowds partying until 3 am on weekends.
The next day we ambled around town to get a feel for the place, then went to the Museum of the Second World War. It opened in Gdansk in 2017 and is the largest history museum in Poland. Its main exhibition runs underground in three parts: the road to war, the horrors of the conflict, and its long shadow. It tells the war from a Polish view alongside what other European nations lived through. The personal belongings donated by ordinary families are the most moving part. Book tickets ahead, and plan several hours.
Our Airbnb was fantastic, overlooking the Motława River with a flower-lined balcony. We came back each evening for a drink and people-watched until late.
The next morning we drove to Malbork Castle, the Teutonic Order's fortress and the largest Gothic brick castle in the world. Begun in the late 13th century, it served as the Order's headquarters, and it still looks like a seat of power. The scale doesn't register until you're standing in a courtyard with red brick climbing in every direction. We would highly recommend a private guide, which adds so much to the experience.
On the way back, we went to Westerplatte, the peninsula where World War II began. A few days earlier, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein had arrived in Gdansk harbor on what was announced as a courtesy visit. It anchored about 150 meters from the Polish garrison. At dawn on Sept. 1, 1939, it opened fire. Roughly 200 Polish soldiers under Major Henryk Sucharski held out for seven days against bombers, artillery, and infantry. Today the peninsula is quiet, with pines, a towering monument, and the battered remains of the guardhouses. Pope John Paul II chose this spot in 1987 to speak to young people.
It took us back to Sarajevo. We'd stood at the Latin Bridge, a plain stone span over a narrow river, where a single shot in June 1914 set off World War I. Neither place looks big enough to have changed the world. Both did it in one morning. Standing there, you realize how ordinary the ground can be under a moment like that.
Gdansk is also the home of Lech Wałęsa and the Solidarity shipyard strikes that helped bring down communism across Europe. You feel it in the city. People here know what they stood up for.
Our insight: We hardly saw tourists here. The visitors we did meet were mostly Polish or from nearby countries. In a city this beautiful, that surprised us, and the squares felt like ours alone.
Kraków: where Copernicus studied
The cross-country train to Kraków takes nearly five hours, and we didn't mind. We watched fields, forests, and small towns roll by from a table seat. The train is very comfortable, with a dining car, and in first class they serve snacks and coffee. Second class has the same seats and is just as comfortable, without the snacks.
Kraków is the Poland of postcards, and it earns the picture. The Main Square is enormous, the largest medieval square in Europe. We hear the Christmas markets here are legendary.
Every hour, a trumpeter in the tower of St. Mary's Basilica plays the hejnał, a short call that
stops mid-phrase. Legend says a watchman was shot by an arrow while warning the city of the Mongol attack of 1241. Historians say that story only took hold in the 20th century, though the call itself goes back to at least 1392. Polish Radio has broadcast it live at noon since 1927. We stood under the Cloth Hall and listened more than once.
At Collegium Maius, the Jagiellonian University's oldest building, we stood where Nicolaus Copernicus studied. The university was founded in 1364. Then we walked down to Wawel Castle and Cathedral above the Vistula. The names kept coming. Adam Mickiewicz, the national poet, stands in bronze on the Main Square. Pope John Paul II lived and served here, and his face turns up on banners and in bakery windows.
We spent our anniversary in Kraków with a long lunch, a slow wander through the Rynek, a dinner just off the square, and a walk by the river afterward. The walk is a must at night, with lights all around and the soft glow on the castle. It's magical and romantic.
Our insight: Poland respects science. Copernicus is a point of family pride here, and the same goes for Chopin, Mickiewicz, and the Pope. People honor their thinkers, and it's a little moving to see.
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Kazimierz
Our visit covered Auschwitz I and Birkenau and took about three and a half hours.
The cruelty of the Nazis was ghastly. It was systematic, deliberate, and carried out at a scale that's hard to hold in your mind. Then you walk past the rooms of shoes, suitcases, and hair, and the numbers become people. You go to remember. The groups around us were silent.
That evening we walked through Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, past synagogues and candlelit cafés on quiet streets. After that day, we wanted the quiet.
Our insight: Everyone we met was considerate and polite. Strangers held doors. Staff answered questions patiently. At a place like Auschwitz, that matters. People understood where they were standing.
The road to the Tatras
On the way to Zakopane from Kraków, we headed south toward the Pieniny, to the Dunajec River Gorge. We floated down on a traditional wooden raft, about 12 of us to a boat, with limestone cliffs on both sides and commentary in Polish. We couldn't follow every word, but we didn't need to. The river winds back and forth along the border, and we meandered across the Poland-Slovakia line without a checkpoint in sight. Poland on one bank, Slovakia on the other, then the reverse a few bends later.
The rest of the drive was a tour of timber. We saw many wooden churches in the Zakopane area, including the UNESCO-listed church at Dębno, with painted walls and ceilings inside a building made entirely of wood. We tasted oscypek, the smoked sheep's cheese of the highlands, and rode the Gubałówka funicular above Zakopane for our first look at the Tatras.
Zakopane feels like its own world. It's the capital of the Górale, the highlanders, who have their own dialect, music, and food. Carved timber chalets replace brick and stone. The air was cold and sharp, and the mountains wore their golden autumn colors. In the evenings we strolled Krupówki and ate grilled oscypek with cranberry and bowls of sharp kwaśnica soup.
On our last mountain morning we rode the cable car up Kasprowy Wierch, then soaked in the thermal baths at Chochołowskie Termy with the peaks all around.
Our insight: We drove through the cities and also through villages on the inside roads. The homes were well kept, with new roofs, tidy gardens, and cars in the driveway. We saw no visible signs of poverty or homelessness along our route. Poland has about 36 million people and a growing economy, and the villages looked like it.
What stays with us
We came for the history and found a place that treats it with respect. Warsaw rebuilt. Gdansk stood up. Kraków kept its scholars close. The Tatras needed no history at all.
Go soon. Outside Kraków and the big museums, you can still have much of it to yourself.
Where to eat
Warsaw
Falla (Śródmieście), falafel and more
Zapiecek, Polish
La Vegana, pho, ramen, and noodle stir-fry
Vege Miasto, Polish
Krowarzywa, chickpea burgers
Momencik, vegan Mexican
Youmiko Vegan Sushi
Bibenda, Italian
Manna 2, vegan
Lokal Vegan Bistro, vegan
Veganda, vegan
Słodki Bez, vegan sweets
Alon Omakase
NUTA, hub.praga, and Rozbrat 20
WANDAL
Wyraj, Le Braci, and Kieliszki na Próżnej
Gdansk
Manna 68, vegan
Mirzam, vegan café and bar
Faloviec, plant-based kitchen
Warzywina
Falla
Fukafe, the legendary cakes
Avocado Vegan Bistro, vegan
Arco by Paco Pérez (on the 33rd floor of northern Poland's tallest building)
Eliksir
Hewelke (in a converted brewery)
Treinta y Tres and Brut Bistro
Kraków
Youmiko Sushi, vegan
Pierwszy Stopień
No Bones, vegan Polish
Nolio, pizza
Vegab, vegan kebabs
Veganic, vegan
Zaczyn, vegetarian
Ka Vegan Udon & Sushi Bar
Bottiglieria 1881
Bufet KRK
Nat Bistro
MOLÁM, Folga, and NOAH
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