This Girl Travels

I seemed to have developed the travel bug and a longing to explore more and same the delights that other cultures have to offer the solo traveller – do people call it Wanderlust? Well, anyway, with half term approaching (and in a desperate attempt to escape the inevitable Valentine’s day – or Decree Nisi day for me!) I was having the urge to adventure off again to somewhere totally different.

After speaking with a well travelled friend over dinner, they suggested I might like to try Poland and, after looking into the flights and hotels, they were not wrong. So, I decided to pay a visit to Kraków.

I flew out with Wizz Air from Luton. Like Copenhagen, it was an early morning flight which I am now thinking is the way forward in some cases as it get some to my destination in the daylight – although the trade off is that you get hardly any sleep the night before!

Luton Airport was heaving – a sign that it was half term for some people and I am so glad that I booked the lounge the night before as it allowed my my traditional hot breakfast accompanied with a morning pre-flight G&T!

The flight, as I have always experienced with WIZZ, was smooth and in just over 2 hours we were landing in an new city to explore. Disembarkation was efficient and within minutes I had my checked on case and was let lose into Poland!

Kraków airport was quiet yet stylish and a little time was spent at the Suitcase Bar with a hot chocolate to get my bearings, work out my way to the hotel using public transport and to load my Revolut card with Polish Zloty on my iPhone. I also bought a 72 hour 3 zone travel card on the Jakdojade app which gave me unlimited travel on trams and buses. This cost 50 Zloty.

I stayed at the AC Hotel by Marriott booked via Booking.com. This was a little way out of the main centre of Kraków and took about 40 minutes to get there by bus and tram from the airport and about 5 minutes on the tram to get to the main city centre. The Hotel is new and is part of a bigger complex as there are other building works going on around it. In about 2 years, it will look fabulous.

The hotel lived up to its expectations in terms of luxurious surroundings, an extremely comfortable bed and pillows (like sleeping on a cloud!) and excellent facilities such as a coffee machine in the room and a swimming pool and spa open from 6am until 8pm. One thing I was really impressed with was the little table that greeted me in the hotel lobby on my way back into the hotel after a night explore. I was curious to know what was in the big bowl and saw that it was a ‘make your own lavender bag’ station! Well, not to miss taking advantage of the offer, I promptly made two and then made my way up to my room where I had the best sleep I’ve had for days!

The only thing I would say about the hotel, and I have fed this back, is that there is no English speaking channels on the huge TV. I know we don’y go away to watch TV but sometime it is nice to have BBC or the news on in the background. Additionally you had to sign into your own Netflix account to watch any films – not that I had time!