The Cheeky Boys trip for late 2015 saw us visiting Poland with a Ryanair flight from East Midlands Airport to Krakow. Well Krakow was where we expected to land but because of heavy fog we were diverted to Lodz – a three and a half hour journey by coach from our intended destination. Needless to say an arrival at 0100 was not that conducive to a raucous night out on the town!

The morning brought just light mist so we could start to explore the town after a sumptuous buffet breakfast at our hotel, the Europejski Hotel, which was well located close to the main station, massive new shopping complex and the historic old town. The hotel was a slightly dated, in an eastern European sort of way, grand affair but for just £20 each per night the
rooms were clean and comfortably large enough for a few nights stay. A great find on my part even if I do say so myself!

Krakow is well worth a visit – too be honest most of Poland is a great place to visit in my book. Generally it is great value, the people are friendly, great food is available, English is widely spoken and there are some great historic sights to see too. Being as the hotel was close to the main (Krakow Glowny) railway station we had to pay a visit purely for research purposes – we were catching a train the next day after all – and it is a shame to see the old station building not being used since the opening of the new station facility, that now links to the massive shopping centre, came into full use in 2014.

Krakow is however a tad too touristy for my liking with a lot of ‘city tour’ touts working the crowds, it is hard not to look like a tourist with your camera out, but fortunately a polite “no thank you” works as you walk by. I have certainly been too far worse places for this type of thing though so it should not be anything that puts you off making a visit. The old town square however in Krakow is just breath-taking, there is not much more to say. You can enjoy a beer, or coffee just watching the world go by, take a walk through the central tourist market or just admire the stunning buildings. Every street in the old town area is a delight.

We also visited the Wawel Castle area, we could have paid to go inside and explore but this being a cheeky boys trip (and the sun had passed the yard arm so to speak) we thought it better to enjoy a beer soaking up some winter rays. Very pleasant it was too and the rest of the ‘touristy bits’ really can be always be done on another visit!

Our lunch stop, at Restauracja Starka, located in the old Jewish area of the town just so happened to be the top rated (on Trip Advisor at least) place to eat in the town. I am not too ure it was that good but it certainly was good enough for a very long lunch stop for some food and drink even if the black pepper vodka was an acquired taste. Stick to the beer at around £1.10 a pint and you cannot go too far wrong!

Our evening in Krakow included a great value meal at the Bistro 11 Food & Wine Restaurant, #4 on Trip Advisor, which from my hazy memory was about £50 for five of us including wine. The food was superb as was the atmosphere in the busy place which was less than ten minutes walk from our hotel. This was followed by some late night smooth jazz at the Muniaka Jazz Club with a night cap or two. What a great way to end the evening!

Now which way was that hotel?