In short
Warsaw was more than eighty per cent destroyed during the Second World War, and most of its old town is a reconstruction carried out after 1945, partly from the views painted by Bernardo Bellotto in the eighteenth century.
That old town is World Heritage listed precisely as a reconstruction — a rare case, recognised for what it says about a collective will, not for its age.
Śródmieście is the modern centre. Praga, on the right bank, escaped the destruction and keeps its pre-war buildings. Powiśle borders the Vistula.
Arriving and getting around
Chopin airport is ten kilometres out, linked by train and bus. Modlin, further away, serves the low-cost carriers.
The metro has two lines; trams and buses complete it effectively. The city is spread out, but well served.
What it really costs
Warsaw is more expensive than Kraków but remains affordable by European capital standards.
The national museums often have a free day each week: check which one before organising your week.
When to come
May–June and September. Summer is hot, winter frankly cold and dark.
The Vistula banks come alive between May and September: the right bank has remained largely wild, which is unusual for a river crossing a capital.
What nobody tells you
The Palace of Culture and Science is a Stalinist skyscraper given by the Soviet Union in 1955. It is still the tallest building in Poland and its status is still locally debated. Its terrace gives the best view over the city — and it is also the only place from which you cannot see it.
Two museums explain the city: the Warsaw Uprising Museum, on the 1944 rising, and POLIN, devoted to a thousand years of Jewish history in Poland. Visiting them before walking the city changes what you see in it.
Chopin benches scattered through the city play his music at the push of a button. The composer grew up here; his heart is kept in a pillar of the Church of the Holy Cross.