Three ways to travel, and home every night

This was the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik, the enamelware factory of Oskar Schindler, where, in the words of the Museum of Kraków, he saved the lives of over a thousand people. The German occupiers entered Kraków on 6 September 1939; the factory’s administrative building at ul. Lipowa 4 is now a branch of the museum, and its 45 rooms tell the life of the city and of its Polish and Jewish residents under the occupation, 1939–1945. Schindler’s own office has been kept as it was, beside the “Survivors’ Ark”, made of thousands of enamelled pots. Many guests come because of Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” (1993), which made this history known around the world. Entry is by timed ticket: book it on the museum’s own site.

The great square of Kraków’s Old Town, with the Renaissance Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in the middle, the Town Hall Tower and St Mary’s Basilica at its corners. Upstairs in the Cloth Hall, the National Museum shows Polish painting and sculpture of the 19th century: the Sukiennice Gallery, its oldest branch.

A museum under the Main Market Square, in the space the archaeologists opened below it: the permanent exhibition “Following the traces of European identity of Kraków”.

The Gothic basilica on the corner of the Main Market Square, with its two towers of different heights and the carved altar of Veit Stoss. It is a working church: visitors come in by the south entrance, and the main door from the square is kept for prayer.

The Princes Czartoryski collection, a branch of the National Museum in Kraków, known for Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Good Samaritan, with art and historical memorabilia from antiquity to the 19th century and a gallery of ancient art.

The castle of the Polish kings and their cathedral, on the hill above the Vistula. The Royal Castle shows the royal private apartments, the state rooms, the Crown Treasury and Armoury and the underground routes; the cathedral, a parish with its own tickets, holds the royal tombs and the Sigismund Bell.

South of the Old Town, the eastern part of Kazimierz was the home of Kraków’s Jews; its synagogues and monuments of Jewish and Catholic culture survive. ul. Szeroka, more a long square than a street, was the centre of the Jewish town from the early 17th century. The Old Synagogue there houses the Museum of Kraków’s exhibition on the history and culture of the Jews of Kraków.

A historic salt mine near Kraków, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Tourist Route is about 3.5 km long, goes down to 135 m and has more than 800 steps; with the Kraków Saltworks Museum it takes two to three hours.

The old cemetery of Zakopane on ul. Kościeliska, with the graves of a few dozen people of culture, science and art, among them Dr Tytus Chałubiński, Kornel Makuszyński, Władysław Orkan and Helena Marusarzówna; its grave markers blend highland folk tradition with the art of their time. Beside it stands the wooden church of 1847–1851.

A little historyThe land was given to the parish by Jan Pęksa in 1848; the western part goes back to a gift of 1813.

A funicular from the centre of Zakopane up to Gubałówka, 1,123 m, the ridge across the valley from the Tatras, for the panorama of the mountains. Run by Polskie Koleje Linowe (PKL), like the Kasprowy Wierch cable car; the Butorowy Wierch chairlift is on the same ridge.

Zakopane’s promenade, about 1 km long and busy in season, named after the Krupa family’s old glade. Along it and just above it: the Sanctuary of the Holy Family (1877–1899), the Tatra Museum (1913–1922) and the town’s Zamoyski art gallery. The town’s own walk continues up ul. Zamoyskiego.

The cable car of Polskie Koleje Linowe, from Kuźnice in Zakopane to the summit of Kasprowy Wierch (1,987 m), in two sections via Myślenickie Turnie, about 4.25 km in all; first opened in 1936.

A forest valley at the edge of town: from the entrance at the end of ul. Strążyska (904 m) the red trail runs about 2 km up the valley to the meadow of Polana Strążyska; the yellow trail leads 300 m further to the Siklawica waterfall.

Zakopane’s big ski jump, named after Stanisław Marusarz, where World Cup competitions are held. A year-round two-section chairlift, 356.8 m long, climbs 133 m to the top of the in-run, so you see the hill as the jumpers do; a small café waits by the upper station.

A little historyThe first chairlift was built in 1962; in 2008 it was rebuilt with two-seat chairs.

The best-known lake in the Polish Tatras, reached on foot from the Palenica Białczańska car park along an asphalt road of about 8 km (about 2.5 h each way); the park recommends allowing at least 7 hours for the outing.

A large amusement park in Zator, which calls itself the largest in Europe: themed zones (Bajkolandia for small children, Family zone, Extreme zone, Smoczy Gród, Sweet Valley), an outdoor water park and the Aqualantis area.