Gdansk or Krakow?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Gdansk if the coast is the point: a proper choice of beaches within reach and a sea peaking at 19°C in August, with attractions clustered close to the centre for children.
Choose Krakow if you are travelling for museums, heritage and eating out, and want most of it within walking distance of one centre, over a season that runs wider than Gdansk's two usable beach months.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Gdansk leads by 55 points.55
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 20 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 456 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Krakow leads by 16 points.16
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 68 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 348 | 1,032 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 28 | 30 |
Museums & heritage. Krakow leads by 18 points.18
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 75 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 84 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 28 | 69 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 65 | 82 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. Krakow leads by 21 points.21
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 57 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 269 | 836 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 203 | 697 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 83 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. Krakow leads by 1 points.1
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 46 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 12 | 14 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 3 | 1 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 61 hectares | 79 hectares |
Good for families. Gdansk leads by 1 points.1
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 74 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 108 | 77 |
| Park area within 2 km | 61 hectares | 79 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Krakow leads by 16 points.16
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 68 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 76 | 198 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Gdansk and Krakow are level on 79.
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 79 |
| Price level global | 49 | 49 |
| Daily budget | €133 | €133 |
Year-round weather. Krakow leads by 6 points.6
| Gdansk | Krakow | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 58 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.7 °C to 22.1 °C | 1.5 °C to 25.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 37 mm to 87 mm | 31 mm to 100 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 4 |
Where they differ
Gdansk is the one with a coast: 20 beaches nearby against Krakow's 9, and a sea that reaches 19°C at its warmest, so swimming is possible for a short summer window rather than comfortable. Neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more.
Krakow concentrates far more museums, restaurants and drinking places near its centre, most of them within walking distance, and its heritage extends into day-trip range as well. Evenings out are the clearer difference: more bars and clubs, and more of them close by.
Where they are alike
Both work for families in similar measure. Gdansk keeps somewhat more tourist attractions close to the centre, while Krakow offers more park space and a few more theme parks within reach, so each covers a day out with children without much travelling.
They are also close on countryside and on winter: protected land around each comes to 12% and 14%, and both bottom out in January, with highs of 1-2°C.
Which traveller are you?
Families with young children: Gdansk in July and August, when the beaches work and attractions sit close to the centre. Outside that window Krakow is the easier base, with more park space and 4 theme parks within reach.
Museum-and-heritage travellers: Krakow, clearly. It has about twice as many museums as Gdansk and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Anyone travelling to eat and go out: Krakow again, with roughly three times as many restaurants and drinking places near the centre, most within walking distance, and twice as many nightclubs.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two cities carries no information: the figure behind it is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so neither is the cheaper trip on this evidence. The €133 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, and it will not tell you how far your money goes in one against the other.
No sunshine figure exists for Krakow, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone. Gdansk's beaches, meanwhile, are worth having only in the two months when the sea approaches 19°C.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre). Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre).
Gdansk is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 22°C and the sea climbs to 18-19°C, the only stretch when the coast is usable. Both months are wet, 87mm and 78mm, so pack for showers.
Krakow works over a longer season, from May at 20°C to August at 25°C, though July brings 100mm. For the driest weeks, February and March run 31-38mm, with highs of 4-8°C. September still holds 19°C with 67mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Gdansk | Krakow |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 10 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 20 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 1 h 35 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 10 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| WarsawWAW, WMI | 1 h 0 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 55 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 10 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 35 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 1 h 20 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 55 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 45 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 55 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 40 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 35 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 2 h 5 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 50 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 10 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 10 m no fares KRK · 11 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 30 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 4 h 5 m no fares KTW · 76 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Gdansk | Krakow |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Polish | Polish |
| Currency | Zloty (PLN) | Zloty (PLN) |
| Sockets | CE50 Hz | CE50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 11 m | 219 m |
| Main airport | Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre65 non-stop destinations | Kraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre133 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Gdansk | Krakow |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 487,834 | 804,237 |
| People per km² | 714 | 2,459 |
| Museums within 10 km | 37 | 114 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 48 | 68 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gdansk or Krakow somewhere new.