I assume you are planning a short trip to Krakow (1-3 days) and you have never been here before, or have been so many years ago that you remember almost nothing. This guide is going to provide you with essential info on public transport and how to move around Krakow without worrying. If you have questions like – How much does it take to get to the city center in Krakow – this article is for you!
How to get from the airport?
The choice is between a cheaper option and a more comfortable option.
The cheaper option is to use public transport. In this case, it’s a city railway link or bus #300. They stick to the schedule with probable minor differences. The ride will cost you about 10 PLN. However, public transport option won’t work for you if you arrive 23:59-4:00.
What is the schedule of the train from Krakow Airport to Krakow center? Here are the running hours valid until March 2024. What about arrival stations?
Krakow Glowny is the railway station, which you have to choose if you live close to the old town. Krakow Grzegorzki is for those living close to Tauron Arena and Czyzyny. Krakow Zablocie is for people who have chosen the hipster district of Zablocie to stay.
Trains from Krakow airport Balice in the morning hours:
City train from the Krakow airport in the day hours
Krakow city trains from the airport to the city in the late hours
The more comfortable option is to use a taxi. If you already have applications such as Uber, Bolt, or FreeNow, you’re good. Just open an app and set your location.
If you don’t like applications or don’t have a smartphone, there are some taxi drivers at the Arrival area. The price is going to be higher, as usual in this case.
How do I go from the Krakow city center to the airport?
First and foremost: check your airport in your tickets. Sometimes, especially when people are hunting for lower flight cost, they arrive to Balice (KRK), which is near to Krakow, but fly away from Katowice, which is 70+ kilometers away.
If you are sure that you fly out of Balice (KRK), you can get to the airport by taxi, by bus #300, or by the city train. The city train departs from the main railway station, which is the most comfortable location if you live in the old town or nearby. The earliest is 03:25 am, and then every hour until 23:35.
How to get around?
Well, congratulations on your arrival! Witamy w naszym kraju! Now there’s time to enjoy the city. I assume you won’t stay in the same place during the whole trip, so you need some tips about getting around Krakow.
Walking
If you have a short stay in Krakow and that’s your first time you can reach most of the places by foot. For example, it takes about an hour to walk through all Planty parks, the main green belt around the Old Town. Walking from the Main Square – Rynek Glowny – to the most famous district of Kazimierz will take 20-25 minutes. You can easily get there without any transport while looking around and feeling fit because you have 5k more steps daily.
Public Transport
Start with installing the Jakdojade app to your smartphone. You can use it to pay for public transport with Google or Apple Pay or a credit card.
Important: you have to register before the ride, so do it at least 10 minutes before catching your first bus. If you decide to catch a bus from the airport, you have to download and set it while waiting for the passengers in the rows before yours to get out of the plane.
After you have registered in Jakdojade, follow the next steps:
- Open an application, go to Tickets
- In a Time limit section, select a ticket type (20 min/60 min) and quantity (you can buy tickets for people you travel with)
- Enter the board ID, which is 2 letters and 3 digits. You can see them above the doors inside.
- If you are buying a 60-minutes ticket, enter a line number (if you caught tram #4 to Plac Inwalidow, just enter 4)
- Congratulations! Now you have a ticket marked with blue and a time tracker in your app.
If there will be a control crew, show them Jakdojade app and tap Control. The QR code will appear, and they can scan it (usually, they don’t).
Public transport in Cracow is clean, timely, and mostly air-conditioned (except for old vehicles). The normal price is 4 PLN for 20-minute ride, which is enough to get from the Old Town to Kazimierz or from Museum Lotnictwa to the Old Town.
If you need to have a long ride or switch between lines, it’s better to buy a 60-minutes ticket that costs 6 PLN. If you don’t change a line – for example you decide to ride tram #1 from Salwator to – you can ride a little longer than 60 minutes.
Taxi
You can use Uber, Bolt, FreeNow, and other services in Cracow. All 3 have mobile applications, which you can use WITHOUT a Polish phone number. Waiting time is 3-17 minutes, depending on the location, time, and holidays. Don’t expect to be carried away fast during parades or other open-air events in the city, as the streets are narrow and the whole place is stuck in traffic jams. Our rule is: in the holiday time add 40 minutes to the ETA.
Renting a Car
There are several ridesharing companies (Panek is supposed to be the most famous), but by June 2023 only Polish residents or holders of both PESEL and Polish bank accounts are able to use them.
If you aren’t a Polish resident but still need a car for more than 1 day, you can use international services like Avis, Europcar or local services like Carfree. Usually, there are 2 places to grab your rented car – the airport and Dworec Glowny (the railway station). Some services could bring a car to any part of the city for extra charge (Interfleet) or for no charge (Quanta). If you pay the full insurance coverage and provide your credit card data, the deposit may be as low as 1PLN. Compared to Spain or Cyprus, car rental may appear just a bit more expensive.
Should you buy the full insurance for a car to rent? Well, it depends. Some of our drivers prefer saving a bit, so they spend more time photographing a vehicle and prepare extra 500-800EUR as a deposit. Other drivers, including the article author, prefer not to bother about small stones damaging the coating, so they pay more per day.
How long will it take to get
I think that’s the most common question when people are tight on time visiting Krakow. They have to plan everything to a minute so the next points will be definitely useful.
It is very convenient that the railway station and the bus station are very close to each other. It takes 5-7 minutes to get from the railway station to the bus station.
Important: I calculated timing based on walking at a normal pace without young kids and lots of luggage. If you’re rich with them, please, add some extra time to get to the desired location.
Old Town to the railway/bus station
You may not need to get transport to get from the Old Town to the stations. However, you can catch a tram or a taxi to make a trip a bit faster.
How long it will take to get to the Krakow railway/bus stations on foot:
- From Florianska Brama/Florian Gate to the railway station – 12 minutes
- From Poszta Glowna/Main Post Office to the railway station – 18 minutes
- From Wawel to the railway station – 28 minutes
Old Town to the airport
Well, it depends on the starting point and on the day (if it’s festive or not). There are several festive days when streets in the city center are packed, so you’d better use a train to the airport:
- May, 3rd
- Late May-Early June – Great Dragon Parade
- October 30-Nov.1st – All Saints Day
In these days, the taxi ride will take way longer than usual. Let’s compare: the ride from Blonia Sports Club to the railway station takes about 20 minutes drive, while on Oct. 31st it may take about 80 minutes.
