Krakow part 1- Getting There

Recently, my partner and I visited Krakow for a few days. I’ll detail the entire trip here so you can see how (if!) my attempts at a bit of frugality and sustainability worked out and some tips for travel in general. (None of the places I visited or services I used sponsored this post- unfortunately for me!)

So, first thing’s first: I booked the trip for my partner’s Christmas present. First I looked on Skyscanner for cheap flights- I didn’t have a destination in mind but I was really hopeful that I’d be able to get a flight from a local airport rather than having to travel to London so I searched Southampton to everywhere and Bournemouth to everywhere. (I generally keep half an eye on what flights are available from there airports all the time anyway because I love travelling and I love a bargain). Fortunately, there were some very reasonable flights to Krakow from Bournemouth. So then I looked on lastminute.com for accommodation with the flights. I think I could have perhaps found a cheaper deal by shopping around a wee bit but to be honest, whenever I’ve looked on air bnb I’ve not found it to be better suited to my budget. Perhaps if I was travelling in a group or if I had more money to play with I would find it better… but as it is, I usually book through lastminute. Also, I had a code for something like £25 off- if you decide to book through the site then have a quick look on google for a discount code because there’s always one available. I double checked the reviews for the suggested hotels and ultimately settled on Avena by Artery Hotel- more on the in a moment. Then, I booked! From looking for flights to booking and paying for the trip took place in less than an hour, my speediest decision making ever!

Now then, a couple of downsides to the trip: After I had booked, A and I had a short trip to Berlin. We flew, for the first time, with Ryan Air… and it was a terrible experience. I get that budget travel happens on a budget so obviously the cramped seating etc was fine and to be expected and didn’t really bother me to be honest on such a short flight. The thing I found really frustrating was that 1) the hand luggage restriction is incredibly miserly unless of course you pay more (their basic standard allowance is one small handbag or laptop bag measuring 40x20x25 cm) and 2) the allocated seating is deliberately designed to separate people travelling together to ensure that, guess what, you pay more to sit together. I don’t mean paying more to choose specific seats, I mean paying more to make sure that you and your partner or child or parent or whoever sit together at all. This is the airline who tried to get passengers to pay to use the toilet on their flights after all… These two weird and money-grabbing restrictions are enough to put me off travelling with the airline for life. But, I didn’t know this when I booked to go to Krakow and so we ended up flying with them again and thus paying an extra £50 on top of the initial ticket prices- not so budget after all... (The other downside to the trip was a rude and unhelpful member of Bournemouth's car park staff)

But enough about that; the rest of the trip was amazing amazing. Bournemouth airport itself is right up my strasse as it’s tiny and it was easy to get through security and easy and quick to get to the gate. All very good things in my book and for the record, Southampton Airport is the same, I love travelling with them. We took our own food through with us to have on the plane so that we didn’t have to spend money on less-good sandwiches or whatever from the terminal and we both took our chilly’s bottles with us too- empty through security and then we asked the staff in the pub in the terminal to fill them up for us on the other side.

Speaking of security, another travel tip, if you do travel frequently, is to hang on to your litre sized plastic bag that you have to put your liquids in through security. This way you can reuse it over and over again and thus not have to engage with the single use plastics game and also it means you can pop all your toiletries in before you travel and then you’ll know that you’re not bringing too much, you can just whip it out at the conveyor belts which will save you a bit of time and anxiety.

And finally, we had absolutely no idea how much money we might need and so we both recently signed up for a Monzo card meaning that we could withdraw up to £200 commission free abroad each month and unlimited debit card transactions also commission free (another tip: if given the option on the little card machine thing, always chose to pay in local currency as it will be less). We did also change £200 before we went so we had some cash immediately but with hindsight I wouldn’t have bothered; we could have just used cash points and most places have pdq machines similarly to in the UK. I would really recommend signing up to Monzo if you’ve not already for this reason alone but also I have found it quite a good way to budget my spending money at home too. And if you get a referral from a friend then Monzo will pay you each £5.

Once we landed, it was very simple to get on a train at theairport and to Kraków Główny. The train ride wasn’t long, maybe half an hour or so and for the two of us each way it cost less than £4. You can pay on the train: either in cash from the conductor or by card on a machine on the train or on the platform. It was so simple and easy. I had been a bit nervous about trying to decipher Polish words when we were travelling as they are so different to English but it was so straight forward that it was no problem whatsoever. I suppose it might be a bit more complicated if you were to be staying somewhere less central but for us it was quick and easy. Once in central Kraków we walked to our hotel which was part of the Avena Artery Group.

I should mention now that I had already been in touch with our hotel to ask them about booking a trip to Auschwitz and a couple of other questions. Initially I had contacted them through their instagram but then they sent me an email address to use as I had found the website slightly temperamental. (One of my questions was: is there a city tax? And you will be glad to know that there isn’t). They had been incredibly helpful to me via email- they booked the trip for us and explained the ins and outs of the experience. The room itself genuinely exceeded my expectations. It was very big and very clean and comfortable. The bed was enormous and there was a huge window with a balcony which over looked some rooftops. There was a sofa and a desk and it was genuinely the best hotel we’ve ever stayed in and probably the cheapest. The breakfast which was included was excellent too, and we got a free drink on our first night which is one of the many ways to my heart. Finally, the bathroom was great and the water pressure in the shower was nice and powerful. The door to the bathroom was glass though with some frosting which I can imagine some people might find a bit strange… It didn’t bother us in the slightest though. I truly can’t recommend the hotel enough it was really a pleasure to stay.

This is from Trip Advisor but I actually think it's the room we stayed in! (They can push the beds together if you like)

The next couple of posts I publish will be about the different aspects of our trip. Food/drink. What we did and then one post specifically about Auschwitz. Please get in touch if there is anything I’ve not covered that you’d be interested to know. I’ve basically tried to write what I’d have liked to have known before I went. I am very open to other people’s ideas and I want to know what you, reader, if you’re out there, are interested in.