Poland in 7 days: Kraków and Warsaw

Day 2 — Wawel, the Old Town’s layers, Kazimierz nights

• 09:00 — Wawel Hill: the castle courtyard and cathedral exterior are free — buy the State Rooms ticket (~PLN 40) for the tapestried interiors and the cathedral + Sigismund Bell climb (~PLN 25) for the coronation church of Polish kings. Fire-breathing dragon statue at the riverside cave: mandatory child (and adult) stop.
• 12:30 — Lunch the local-institution way: a bar mleczny (milk bar) — Poland’s subsidised canteens where two courses cost PLN 25–35 and grandmothers judge your plate approvingly.
• 14:00 — Old Town layers: St Mary’s Basilica inside (~PLN 20 — Veit Stoss’s 50-foot carved altarpiece opens at 11:50 daily), then the Rynek Underground museum beneath the square (~PLN 32, timed — medieval Kraków excavated in situ) or the Czartoryski Museum’s Leonardo — Lady with an Ermine (~PLN 35; yes, a real Leonardo, one of four portraits in existence).
• 18:30 — Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter: synagogue lanes, candle-lit courtyards, and dinner from the Plac Nowy rotunda — zapiekanka (the half-baguette national street food, PLN 15–20) — or Jewish-Polish dining at the klezmer restaurants (PLN 70–110 pp).

Day 3 — Auschwitz-Birkenau, done with respect

• 08:00 — The day this trip owes history. Buses/organised transfers run from Kraków (~1 h 30; DIY bus ~PLN 20 each way, or tour-with-transport packages PLN 200–260 pp). Your educator-guided slot (PLN 150) covers ~2 hours at Auschwitz I (the barracks exhibitions — the corridor of photographs, the rooms of belongings) and, after the 3 km shuttle, ~1 hour at Birkenau, where the scale — the gate, the ramp, the endlessness — does what no book can.
• The house guidance, as on our Phnom Penh history day: this is a memorial, not a sight — the museum recommends 14+, and we agree; dress and speak accordingly; no posed photos at the gate or on the ramp; small bags only (lockers exist); eat before, not inside. Give the afternoon after it to quiet — the Vistula boulevards back in Kraków were made for exactly that walk.
• 19:30 — A gentle dinner; Kazimierz’s calmer corners suit the evening.

Day 4 — The salt cathedral, then Schindler’s factory

• 09:00 — Wieliczka Salt Mine (25 min by train/bus, ~PLN 20 return): the Tourist Route (foreign-language guided, ~PLN 100–150 by season) descends ~800 wooden steps into a 700-year-old mine where miners carved chapels from rock salt — culminating in the Chapel of St Kinga, a full underground cathedral with salt chandeliers and salt altarpieces, 100 metres down. 3 hours; a lift returns you to daylight. Book the English slots ahead — they’re few and full.
• 14:30 — Back to the city: Schindler’s Factory museum (~PLN 36, timed — book online): the factory from the film, now a superb museum of Kraków under occupation — it pairs with yesterday as context rather than repetition.
• 18:00 — Golden hour on the Vistula boulevards below Wawel; farewell-Kraków dinner in the Old Town (the splurge tier — modern Polish tasting rooms — runs PLN 150–250 pp and outclasses its price tag).

Day 5 — The fast train north, Warsaw’s phoenix act

• 09:30 — EIP express Kraków → Warsaw (2 h 20; the quiet car is bliss; PLN 60–170 booked ahead).
• 12:30 — Check in, lunch, then the Old Town with its secret in mind: everything you see — the Market Square, the Barbakan, the Royal Castle — was rubble in 1945 and rebuilt from Canaletto paintings and salvaged fragments. Knowing it changes every photograph. Climb St Anne’s tower (~PLN 25) for the rooftops.
• 17:00 — The Royal Route stroll: Castle Square’s column, Nowy Świat’s cafés, presidential palace, university gates.
• 20:00 — Dinner on Nowy Świat or Foksal (Warsaw eats more modern and slightly pricier than Kraków — PLN 80–140 pp for the good stuff).

Where to stay in Warsaw (two nights)

• Luxury: Hotel Bristol — 4.6/5 (~2,800 reviews), the 1901 grande dame beside the presidential palace. ~PLN 900+. (Raffles Europejski, 4.8/450, is next door and newer money.)
• Mid-range: Polonia Palace — 4.6/5 (~3,600 reviews), belle-époque comfort opposite the Palace of Culture. ~PLN 450–600.
• Value: Safestay Warsaw Old Town — 4.6/5 (~480 reviews), privates from ~PLN 250 steps from the square.

Day 6 — Uprising, POLIN, and Chopin’s park

• 09:30 — The Warsaw Uprising Museum (~PLN 40): the 63-day 1944 rising told at full immersive volume — sewers, insurgent radio, the B-24 you walk under. It explains the rebuilt city outside. 2–3 hours; teenagers rate it the trip’s best museum.
• 13:00 — Lunch, then POLIN — Museum of the History of Polish Jews (~PLN 50, on the former ghetto’s ground): a thousand years told forward, not only toward destruction — the painted synagogue-roof reconstruction alone justifies the ticket. (Lighter swap: the Palace of Culture’s 30th-floor terrace, ~PLN 35, Stalin’s “gift” with the city at its feet.)
• 17:00 — Łazienki Park (free): royal gardens with peacocks patrolling, the palace-on-the-water, red squirrels with no fear — and free open-air Chopin concerts under the monument every summer Sunday (mid-May–September, 12:00 & 16:00) — time Day 6 to a Sunday if you possibly can.
• 20:00 — Farewell feast: duck with apples, or the full milk-bar-to-fine-dining arc completed at a modern Polish tasting menu.

Day 7 — Fly home from Warsaw

• Morning at leisure (Old Town at 9 am belongs to you and the pigeons), then flydubai’s WAW→DXB non-stop home. Kraków obwarzanek rings don’t survive luggage; the vodka-free souvenir answer is Wieliczka salt lamps and E.Wedel chocolate by the kilo.