13 Best Hotels in Stare Miasto (Old Town), Krakow

Hidden away from the noise in a cozy cul-de-sac next to the Planty Park and the Dominican convent, this boutique hotel is certainly one of Kraków's finest. Each of the plush and tasteful rooms is furnished in a different style (you can check them out on the website), such as the Chinese room (No. 309). Hotel facilities include a library-cum-bar, a winter garden with a gourmet restaurant, with a small but exciting archaeological display. It is a noble and comfortable place with a lot of personality.

Without question, this hotel around the corner from Kraków's main square is the most elegant address for visitors to the city and the one most accessible to the major sights. The decor is Regency-inspired, though most of the furnishings are reproductions. Suite 11 has two large bathrooms, a gilded ceiling, and a bedroom fit for a potentate. The banquet room has its own miniature hall of mirrors.

This chain hotel occupies a refurbished and extended block of historic tenement houses. Although the rooms are very nice, they are also business-hotel standard and not terribly unique or atmospheric. The hotel is next to the Main Post Office, just outside the Planty Ring, within walking distance to both the Market Square and the main railway station.

The style and ambience of this hotel, a stone's throw from the Rynek, are inspired by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Public spaces have lots of dark-wood details and reproduction French-antique furnishings. Rooms are brighter, with similar style furnishings painted in white and contrasting nicely with peach or salmon-pink carpets and upholstery. The on-site international restaurant, in addition to the standard menu, features a selection of dishes from a different country each month.

This neat hotel has a less-than-fashionable location, being just outside the green girdle of the Planty. However, it is still quite near the Main Square—a mere five-minute walk away—and the train station.

Hotel Copernicus is a tastefully adapted medieval tenement house on the oldest and, arguably, the most charming street in Kraków. A story goes that Copernicus himself (a graduate of the Kraków University) stayed here once. Whether that's true or not, traces of history can still be seen throughout the hotel in the Renaissance portals, wall paintings, and floor mosaics. Rooms have lots of leather and dark, rich woods—in beamed ceilings as well as in well-polished floors and reproduction antiques. Contemporary lighting, soothing pastel walls, richly colored Persian area rugs, and coordinating earth-tone fabrics keep austerity somewhat at bay.

The management of the city's oldest hotel is still proud that both Chopin and Czar Alexander I have slept here. Housed in a 14th-century building on the fashionable Floriańska shopping street, the hotel has spacious, high-ceiling guests rooms with parquet floors and Biedermeier–style furnishings; a first-class Italian restaurant; and a 15th-century wine cellar. More recently, presidents and royals have walked along its polished marble floors. And check out that view of Old Town rooftops from one of the treadmills in the fitness center on the upper floor.

Located within the medieval city walls—opposite the open-air art gallery by the Floriańska gate, "Under the White Eagle" is simple and unpretentious. An inn of the same name existed here in the 18th century; today the hotel is again the property of the Czartoryskis, the same family who founded the famous museum next door. It remains among the more affordable accommodations options within the Old Town. Throughout are reproduction antiques, color schemes that rival those seen in a box of old-fashioned bonbons, rich parquet floors, and plenty of fresh flowers.

Senacki is in a historic building along the Royal Route, halfway between the Market Square and the castle. You would be hard pressed to find a more central location. From the rooms on the Grodzka Street side of the hotel, you'll find stunning views of the churches of Saints Peter and Paul and of Saint Andrew, but the back rooms are quieter.

This is a pleasant and quiet hotel on the west side of the Planty, a member of the same chain as Gródek but several years its senior. Also, it comes at a noticeably lower price point. Once part of the Potocki family mansion, the building was confiscated after the war by Communist authorities. After the building was returned to its owners in 1990, it was restored and turned into a hotel.

This sensitively restored 13th-century town house just off the Rynek Glowny (the main square) is a jaw-dropper. Many period elements, including some original stonework and carvings, have been preserved in the spacious rooms. The furnishings are tasteful and traditional, with cream leather sofas and armchairs, and hardwood tables and chairs. You can't miss the grand crystal chandelier running alongside the main stairway just beyond the reception area. This splendor comes at a price, but the hotel does offer discounts during slow periods.

Across the street from the Kraków's Philharmonic Hall, the Radisson hotel facade mirrors the pattern on the concert hall—although the lines of the former are decidedly more contemporary and sober than those of the latter. The location—at the edge of the leafy Planty, a mere two minutes' walk from the Market Square—is superb. A musical theme continues in the restaurant, which was named Solfeż (as in solfeggio vocal exercises). The other hotel restaurant, Milk & Co., offers a surf-and-turf buffet or international à la carte dishes, featuring different world cuisines each month.

This luxury business hotel is at the bank of the Wisła River, in the immediate vicinity of the Royal Castle. It seems a popular choice for royals—this is where the earl and countess of Wessex stayed during their journey to the region (not surprisingly, they occupied the Wawel Suite). Although Krakovians frown upon the building's not-too-handsome facade, inside the Sheraton offers all the comforts and the quality of service that can be expected of a five-star establishment.