[Closed] Krakow for a Stag weekend: Where to eat/drink, what to do etc?

Not sure if it's right for a stag do but Auswitz is somewhere you should try to see once in your life. There are plenty of bars around the uni (the student quarter???) that are stag friendly.

Yeah, lovely. Just so you know thanks to the moronic behaviour of stag-nighters in there most bars will not entertain English-speaking clients at all. Unless you find someone who hasn't had their place vandalised by drunk morons in 3 Lions shirts, whose stuff weren't abused by the English-speaking guests, who never needed to go back to their insurers after a British stag night, you'll be lucky and you'll enjoy it. I'm not saying all Brits are like that but the impression was made and reinforced too many times.
My family friends needed to virtually restore their restaurant after such a do, never ever will they have English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish/American quests allowed in.
Regarding the activities, leave Auschwitz alone this time, you won't enjoy the do afterwards if you understand it properly. Go to the salt mines in Wieliczka instead, but get a really good tour of the city itself. It's over 1000 years old, has some stunning architecture, loads of legends and myths, colourful history. As it was the capital of Poland for several centuries it's past is beautifully documented, open your eyes, look around, enjoy the Old Town.

Hard to describe, but I'll try.

Up above the main square and not far from the city Walls is a small cafe, eatery called something like Mamalinas or Mamasitas. Proper, rustic Polish food. And cheap as chips.

They also have their own version of Hooters which is worth a visit!

Lapdancing club was a taxi ride away but was the nicest one I've ever been to and the only place I have ever paid for a dance. On entry they gave us a drinks menu so you know what things cost. £2 a bottle.

We found the good Polish clubs didn't want us in even in small numbers but we found a great free rave cave down a side street that had a Eurodance version of every record. Very cheesy and good fun.

Place is clean as a whistle and well worth a visit.

Police stand no nonsense and will fine you heavily if you act like a ****.

I know Aushwitz is not very Stag friendly but I wish I'd made it. Sadly I was negotiating my stupid mates release from the clink!

I went on a stag to Krakow - excellent time. We were all 30ish and just wanted somewhere to drink away from the women. no oi, oi banter or the like.

Irish bar is a good place to start for a good meal - in fact it's the only place we all sat down and had a proper meal, just as the tommy murphy cup came on, which confused the staff as we all started to cheer wicklow (my home from home, but we are all english).

We didn't go clubbing, the bars are all ace and open v. late, some lads went to a lap dancing place (top of a hotel or block of flats overlooking the river) said it was alright, but most of us just drank and had a good laugh.

We did get refused ale at one place on the square, well not rufused so much as turfed into the place after drinking outside for the afternoon(I dunno, spending too much I guess to be thrown out completely, and they probably wanted slightly quieter people out front). We went back the next day and they were happy to serve again so we did similar.

Don't go to the concentration camp, those that did and came back were down for ages after. If you have to go, take the bloody bus and get a tour guide book their, it works out to about 25 quid. If you do it via a taxi or guide it's more like 60 quid. 1 fella did the cheap option and met up with the rest of the lads that went and the bus was only 15mins slower.

similar with the salt mines, except they are less depressing.

Go karting was an ace laugh, number 5 is the fast car, 12 v. slow. They let us on with a coupla drinks on us, but don't be crashing, even if it's a total accident as they'll just get you out.

Stay in the central pretty bit and you can't go wrong.

Don't go to the concentration camp, those that did and came back were down for ages after. If you have to go, take the bloody bus and get a tour guide book their, it works out to about 25 quid. If you do it via a taxi or guide it's more like 60 quid.

Or you can get a train for two pahnd ninety seven. But I suspect that the bus is quicker and a little less odd if you're incredibly hungover and feeling a bit weird, as I was.

Also, if you manage to free up the time and money to go to Krakow for a stag, drink fifty bottles of beer and have some bored slapper waggle her arse in your face but you don't make time to go and see Auschwitz-Birkenau, you should probably reshuffle your priorities in life. HTH.

http://rozklad-pkp.pl/query.php/pn?q=pl/node/146&ld=pkp&seqnr=4&ident=gi.02803929.1301233178&getTariff=yes&outConId=C1-1

Thanks for the help guys.

Couldn't you just go to Eastbourne and do the drinking and lapdancing?
I can remember going to some excellent parties in Cracow in disused power stations and places like that in the eay 90s. There used to be a very nice art nouveau cafe close to the cathedral and kasimierz was very eery.
But as nowa huta has shut down you won't get the yellow metalic tasting fog coming down in the evening.
I get the impression though that it's all changed now and ruined for English speakers by the stag weekend boys.

I've been over a few times but probably my favorite bit was going on a communism tour.

You'll see flyers knocking about but its basically some student/scruffy types that take you on a drive/walk (the cars are all Trabants, Ladas and other weird stuff)tour mainly around Nowa Hutta which is a HUGE town to serve the steelworks built by the commies - you'll see a few sights and hear stories you wont get in the guide books; plus they ply you with vodka and gurkins I loved it - wife thought we were getting kidnapped!

As for bars - there are loads just off the main square but also check out an area called Kasimierz, not far from the centre of town (easy walk) and at night it comes alive with a local young hipster scene.

As for Auschwitz, certainly worth a visit but it will take up a full day a prob not ideal on a stag do.

I get the impression though that it's all changed now and ruined for English speakers by the stag weekend boys.

I had my stag in Krakow and really enjoyed it.

There were about 10 of us and we all had a really good time. We had a a good drink and a laugh without being outrageous and had no trouble with the locals who I though were very friendly. No trouble getting in anywhere either.

I'd be lying if I told you i could remember any of the pubs / clubs / restaurants though. We used a organised tour for the whole weekend which was great and included karting and a couple of other night time activities

All done. Had a great time, Krakow is lovely. I would highly recommend visiting, I would like to go back with my wife for a 'city break'.

pretty certain there's somewhere you can go fire some guns near Krakow! always fun

@richtmb, next time in Poland go to Zakopane to climb some proper mountains (not poncy Mt Snowdon-like hills 😉 ) or Szklarska Poreba (MTB races/enduros aplenty).

Zakopane is an excellent venue for stag weekend. only about 2 hrs from krakow. loads of hot women to look at and there are a number of bars and even a night club or two!

Puzzled... you picked Krakow and are going in 10 days; yet you have no idea of what is there and what you are going to do?

For the love of dog, Why?

If you have no interest in the place, why not go somewhere local and save all the money/resources it takes to get you out there?

I'm guessing you are flying? so that is 20 flights which are the absolute definition of unnecessary. This is why the environment is screwed and we are running out of oil. Pure selfishness.

Dave

</rant>

edit: just spotted that this is an update and you've already been. point still stands though.

alfabus - you're taking the piss right!?

Yoshimi, I'm not actually, but I doubt I'm going to bother to argue it for very long.

Say whatever you like against the evidence for climate change and dwindling oil reserves, but it is pretty hard to justify spunking away a couple of thousand gallons of aviation fuel just to go and visit a town a long way away that you have no interest in beyond an inkling that they might serve beer.

Dave

Yes, I admit it, I am wholly evil.

no interest in beyond an inkling that they might serve beer.

Poppa, I didn't say you were evil, and certainly not wholly evil; just selfish - although I'd probably temper that to just say 'unthinking'.

Dave

and the opportunity to have some bored slapper waggle her arse in your face. Don't forget that.

Hey, I said I was going with my wife later.

Hey, I said I was going with my wife later.

you're going twice!!! I take it back, you really are evil! 😉

Dave

I can't really be bothered either but if you read the OP I think it's unfair to suggest all he wanted to do was go and get wasted. I'd also guess that he and his mates see it as a holiday; maybe there aren't many chances for them all to get together in this way. Suppose they could have just gone to their local pub and done their bit to save the environment.

Just because you don't have a great deal of prior knowledge about a place doesn't mean you have no interest and shouldn't be allowed to go.

When we went we stayed in this place - Hotel Copurnicus (all the pictures are of our room)...
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Even the ceilings were amazing
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At the time my wife worked in hospitality/travel so got a great deal on it through an agent - we could never normally afford somewhere like that.

It's not really about the lack of prior knowledge, and I certainly don't mean that people aren't 'allowed' to go places that they want to.

What I mean is that we have a bit of problem, and have done ever since cheap flights became available in the 70s. People now believe that because they *can* go somewhere far away for the equivalent price of going somewhere near, that they *should* go there and it is somehow automatically better than the near place.

I've tried to cut out unnecessary travel, which has effectively meant that I haven't flown anywhere for a few years. It has become a sort of rule of thumb; if I can't get somewhere without flying, then I need to take a long hard look at whether I *need* to go there (note: different from want). I'm not saying that any mode of transport other than a plane is 100% green and planes are the only problem, I'm saying that unnecessary travel is bad and planes are the worst of the bunch.

For example, one of my riding mates has married into some family in Washington state; he now goes there every summer and says the riding is awesome. I might go with him one year, but for now there are loads of places in Europe that I haven't exhausted yet, so I'm doing those first. If, once I have ridden everything in easy reach, I feel the need to go further, I'll consider it. Oh, and I know that going abroad to ride my bike isn't really a *need*, but I want to go riding, so I choose to do it somewhere with less impact.

The OP was going to Krakow to get beer and maybe see some culture, but nothing in his post suggested that there was any reason for going that far except for the fact that it was far away / exotic.

Sorry if any of this sounds sanctimonious, it is not meant to. I just believe that if people thought for a second before sticking a pin in a map thousands of miles away, we would have more money driven into local tourism, less wasted fuel and less risk of knackering our planet.

I fully expect someone to come and shoot me down now on a technicality, or to say that because I ride bikes which are made of exotic materials I have no right to comment. I don't believe that. Surely *because* I ride bikes and travel around to ride them, I should be even more careful about reducing waste and unnecessary travel in other areas!

Dave 🙂

I think you are taking your life a bit too seriously alfabus. All very honourable but just a mite daft if you ask me.

We should all get out and see other places - we don't have to exhaust all the local places before we go further afield.

@alfabus, with your logic I'd've never visited anywhere with my bike as you need more than a couple of lifetimes to cover the riding within 60 miles from my family home.