Krakow or Warsaw?
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 museums & heritage and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and sights concentration 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 Krakow if heritage is the point: four UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, museums packed tightly around the centre, and about twice as many attractions near the centre for children.
Choose Warsaw if you want more within walking distance of your hotel, more restaurants and roughly twice as many nightclubs, plus greener surroundings for days out of the city.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Krakow and Warsaw are level on 0.
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 9 | 26 |
| Coast distance | 456 km | 238 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Warsaw leads by 4 points.4
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 72 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,032 | 1,222 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 30 | 34 |
Museums & heritage. Krakow leads by 12 points.12
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 63 |
| Museums within 10 km | 84 | 107 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 69 | 60 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 82 | 56 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
Nightlife. Warsaw leads by 5 points.5
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 62 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 836 | 1,005 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 697 | 648 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 83 | 64 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 54 | 104 |
Nature & day trips. Warsaw leads by 9 points.9
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 27 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 19 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 79 hectares | 107 hectares |
Good for families. Krakow leads by 4 points.4
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 70 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 77 | 42 |
| Park area within 2 km | 79 hectares | 107 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Warsaw leads by 8 points.8
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 198 | 299 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Krakow and Warsaw are level on 79.
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 79 |
| Price level global | 49 | 49 |
| Daily budget | €133 | €133 |
Year-round weather. Warsaw leads by 1 points.1
| Krakow | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 59 |
| Monthly daytime high | 1.5 °C to 25.3 °C | 0.9 °C to 25.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 31 mm to 100 mm | 29 mm to 83 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 6 |
Where they differ
Krakow's strength is heritage in compact form: 4 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Warsaw's 1, and its museums cluster more tightly around the centre, so a walking day covers more of them. It also has about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre.
Warsaw counters with about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and it has the wider surroundings: 27% of the land around it is protected against 14% around Krakow, with more park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
Both run daytime highs of about 2-25°C across the year, so the seasons feel the same in each: cold winters, warm high summer, and the same warmest month in July.
The two are close on eating out, drinking and family appeal too. Both offer a similar range of kitchens, both keep most of their bars and clubs near the centre, and each has theme parks within reach. Neither is a swimming destination: no month reaches 21°C at sea.
Which traveller are you?
History-minded travellers should take Krakow. Four UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach against Warsaw's one, and the museums sit close enough together that a single day on foot covers several of them.
Anyone building a trip around evenings out will prefer Warsaw: more restaurants near the centre, more places to drink and roughly twice as many nightclubs, most of them within reach of the same district.
Families with young children get more from Krakow's concentration of attractions near the centre. If you want green space and days outside the city instead, Warsaw has far more protected land around it and one theme park more.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, so it is the same for both cities by construction and tells you nothing about which is cheaper. The €133 daily budget beside it is one estimate for the country, not a measurement of either city, and prices will depend more on season and neighbourhood than on which of the two you pick.
Weather is only half measured. No station near Krakow records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. Warsaw's beach count also flatters it: neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more.
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. Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre). Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre).
Krakow is at its best in the summer months and holds up better into autumn, when October still reaches 14°C. Its summer is the wetter of the two, at 100mm in July against Warsaw's 83mm.
Warsaw is the stronger pick from May to August, drier through spring at 56mm in May, and warm at 25°C in high summer. Winter is thin in both, with highs near 1-2°C and little to draw you outdoors.
Getting there
| Flying from | Krakow | Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 20 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 2 h 25 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 10 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 2 h 15 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 35 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 1 h 45 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 2 h 10 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 1 h 55 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 55 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 2 h 0 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 50 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 2 h 0 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 2 h 40 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 2 h 50 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 30 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 5 h 35 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 45 m no fares KRK · 11 km | 8 h 45 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| ColomboCMB | 9 h 20 m no fares KTW · 76 km | 9 h 15 m no fares WAW · 8 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 | Krakow | Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 219 m | 118 m |
| Main airport | Kraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre133 non-stop destinations | Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre170 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Krakow | Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 804,237 | 1,862,402 |
| People per km² | 2,459 | 3,601 |
| Museums within 10 km | 114 | 117 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 68 | 76 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Krakow or Warsaw somewhere new.