In short
Kraków escaped the destruction of 1945 that flattened Warsaw: its old town is authentic, and that is the major difference between the two cities.
The Rynek Główny is the largest medieval square in Europe, with the cloth hall at its centre. Wawel, the hill to the south, carries the castle and the cathedral of the Polish kings. Kazimierz is the former Jewish quarter, now the district of cafés and nightlife. Podgórze, across the Vistula, was the ghetto.
Arriving and getting around
John Paul II airport is linked to the centre by a twenty-minute train. Kraków is a convenient rail hub towards Warsaw, Prague and Budapest.
The centre is pedestrian and crossed on foot. Trams serve the rest.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is about an hour and a half away. Entry to the memorial is free, but visiting at busy hours is compulsorily accompanied by an educator-guide, a paid service, and prior booking on the museum's official site is required. Check the arrangements in force before going: they have changed.
What it really costs
Kraków is markedly cheaper than western Europe, for housing and for eating out.
The bary mleczne, the milk bars, are subsidised canteens inherited from the socialist period and still operating: the cheapest meal in the city, and not a re-enactment.
When to come
May–June and September. Summer is hot and very busy.
Winter poses an air problem: Kraków sits in a basin and sees significant pollution peaks during the heating season, from November to February.
What nobody tells you
The Wieliczka salt mine, half an hour away, is World Heritage listed: entire chapels, chandeliers included, are carved from salt more than a hundred metres underground.
A trumpet sounds every hour from the tower of St Mary's Basilica and breaks off abruptly mid-phrase: the tradition commemorates a medieval watchman whose call was said to have been cut short by an arrow.
The Kazimierz district served as a setting for Schindler's List, which contributed to its transformation — Schindler's factory, in Podgórze, is today a museum devoted to the occupation of the city.