Krakow during Easter - good or bad idea?

I've heard from some people that traveling in Poland during the Easter holidays is a bad idea because everything is way more crowded.

Any general thoughts? any thoughts specifically about the feasibility of visiting Krakow during the Easter holidays?

Krakow is always crowded.
No coming here during Easter isnt so bad, youll be just fine.

No it isn't. Not compared to other cities around the world, its almost tranquil.

yea ur right, i guess i was just comparing it to my small ass hickbilly town in ohio lol

As it was said Krakow is always crowded so travelling there in Easter shouldn't be the problem.

The Churches are crowded, but Easter Time in Krakow is lovely, lots of traditional gifts for soviegniers (or however you spell that lol)

Bullseye! :):):):):)

Yes, and there are "baby" Priests everywhere too. It reminded me of the old Stella Artois advert :)
( the one with all the Polish Priest ice skating)
Oh and Nuns,lots and lots of nuns,very sharp elbows those brides of Christ!!!!

But, just to save my mortal soul.....I did find it very sweet to see skater kids crowded round the Church doors involved in the services rather than using the steps handrails to do crazy tricks :)

Merged:

Easter in Krakow

We will end our two week trip in Krakow during the Easter weekend and would like to experience the holiday as locals do. Do you have any suggestions for guesthouses where we might be closer to families celebrating the holiday. This seems like a beautiful and festive time, but less tourist attractions open. Your help to plan this final leg of our trip is appreciated!

Yes, it absolutely beautiful. But it's primarily a religious festival so things are fairly quiet over the Easter weekend. Polish families tend to celebrate at home or visit each other's homes. I'm not sure if many would go to a hotel/guesthouse for Easter. However, if you visit a church on Easter Saturday you can witness the blessing of the baskets of eggs and sausages which people will eat for Easter Sunday breakfast. There is actually a big basket blessing ceremony in the main square in Krakow.

You could go to Mass on Easter Sunday morning. Many families go for a walk in the afternoon so if it's a nice day you'll see plenty of them in the park. On Monday you could try this:

inyourpocket.com/krakow/Emaus_546e

@Atch
Thank you! I glad to know the basket blessing is in the square. We will try to attend a church service too, but will want to decide which church.

The markets 'targowisko' or 'bazar' are a great place in any Polish city to really mix with the locals and get a feel for the real life of the place, as opposed to the touristy stuff. In the week running up to Easter they're really busy and full of locals doing their Easter shopping. You'll love it! :)) They don't just sell food, you'll see stalls with table linen, bedding, Easter decorations, flowers, old watches, glassware, clothes everything really.

visitmalopolska.pl/-/place-targowe-miejsca-z-niepowtarzalna-atmosfera

Hope you have a lovely holiday!

Thank you for those markets. We do prefer to stay away from the touristy places much of the time, and just appreciate the true local culture. I'm getting excited to go! 😁

@Susella
And I'm just walking through a beautiful market square full of tourists from all over the world in Wrocław, which can compete with the equally beautiful market square in Krakow. However, there are some negative aspects, such as constantly congested streets in Krakow or very poor air quality during the heating season. Moreover, it has become expensive.

@alien
You are correct, wroclaw is very beautiful.

@Alien
We plan to be in Wrocław just prior to Krakow. It's so hard to know how much time to plan in each place. We will fly in to Warsaw, then take a train to Gdansk. Very much interested in the maritime area, but since our return flight was better from Krakow, we thought it would be nice to head south for our second week. So many beautiful places in between too. Oh, decisions, decisions!

Personally I tend to prefer Wrocław (a very unique city) though the interesting part is relatively small.

I hated Krakow the first time I visited (in the 80s... communist*) but later spent some pleasant times there, including long train layovers (12 or more hours) that flew by very quickly.

Krakow is definitely more tourist friendly and you should have a good time there.

*the main exception was a guy singing American blues songs for tips in an underground passageway. I tried to talk to him between songs but he didn't really know English he'd learned the lyrics phonetically (really well I have to say better than most professional singers). I gave him a dollar (substantial change in those days).

@mafketis
I have a hunch I too will prefer Wrocław, and considered staying there for Easter. But our flight out is Tuesday and we probably should leave some time to see Krakow. Thank you for your advice.

The maritime part is more in Gdynia (Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia are like one city, and called Trójmiasto - Tri-city in Polish). A quick way to get around north south is by train. Hard to explain but you should get the hang of it very quickly.