Warsaw is the capital and the largest city of Poland – more than 1.8 million people live here. Between 2024 and 2026 I came here several times, among other things for a national team match and concerts, and I explored the city along the way. From those trips I have put together a weekend plan: the Old Town and the Royal Castle, Krakowskie Przedmieście, the Vistula boulevards, the National Museum, the Palace of Culture and Science, Krasiński Palace, places of remembrance in Wola and Powązki and, for an extra day, the Kampinos Forest just outside the city limits. At the end of the post you will find ticket prices and a two-day plan.
Table of contents
- Old Town – Castle Square, the Market Square and the Barbican
- The Royal Castle – the Throne Room, Canaletto and Matejko
- Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat
- By the Vistula – the Mermaid, the boulevards and the National Stadium
- The National Museum – from Faras to the “Battle of Grunwald”
- The Palace of Culture and Science
- Krasiński Palace and the Palace of the Commonwealth exhibition
- Places of remembrance – the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery and Old Powązki
- Warsaw in December – lights and a Christmas market
- The Kampinos Forest – dunes just outside the city
- Practical information and a weekend plan
Old Town – Castle Square, the Market Square and the Barbican
The best place to start is Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy). On one side stands the Royal Castle, on the other the colourful town houses of the Old Town, and in the middle Sigismund’s Column. I took this photo on a Saturday in April 2026, just before sunset – the square was full of people.
The column with the statue of King Sigismund III Vasa was erected in 1644, funded by his son, Władysław IV. It is the oldest monument of its kind in Warsaw. On 1 September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans toppled the column. After the war the damaged statue was repaired and in 1949 it was placed on a new granite column.
After the war the whole Old Town lay in ruins and was rebuilt from scratch. In 1980 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List – precisely because of that reconstruction. The heart of the district is the Old Town Market Square, lined with narrow town houses with restaurant terraces in front of them in spring.
From the Market Square, Nowomiejska Street leads to the Barbican – a semicircular brick defensive structure from the mid-16th century that guarded the northern entrance to the town. The Barbican was rebuilt in 1952–1954, together with sections of the town walls.
By the walls on Podwale Street stands the Little Insurgent Monument – a boy in an oversized helmet with a rifle slung over his shoulder. Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz made the first, small version of the figure in 1946, and the monument was unveiled on 1 October 1983. The inscription on the plinth reads “Warszawskie dzieci, pójdziemy w bój…” (“Children of Warsaw, we will go into battle…”). I took this photo on an evening in December 2024.
The Royal Castle – the Throne Room, Canaletto and Matejko
The Royal Castle was the seat of the kings and later of parliament as well. In 1944 the Germans blew it up. The decision to rebuild it was only taken in 1971 – the money came mainly from public donations – and the castle was formally opened on 30 August 1984.
I visited on Sunday, 16 November 2025, with Łukasz. As part of the “Free November” campaign, the “Royal Apartments and Parliament Halls” route was free. We queued for about half an hour for the free tickets, and the visit itself took us an hour.
The most magnificent room is the Great Hall, or ballroom, with gilded columns, crystal chandeliers and a painted ceiling. A few rooms further on is the Throne Room, where the throne stands under a red canopy embroidered with white eagles.
In the Canaletto Room hang 22 views of Warsaw that Bernardo Bellotto, known as Canaletto, painted for King Stanisław August. The paintings are so detailed that after the war they were used in rebuilding the city.
The route also includes rooms with huge paintings by Jan Matejko. Among others I saw “Rejtan – the Fall of Poland”, “The Constitution of 3 May 1791” and “Stefan Batory at Pskov”. Outside the November campaign, entry is free on Wednesdays – a shorter route through the Royal Apartments is open then, and free tickets are collected at the ticket office on the day of the visit.
Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat
From Castle Square the Royal Route runs south. Its first section is Krakowskie Przedmieście, lined with palaces, churches and buildings of the University of Warsaw. On Saturday, 15 November 2025, we walked along it in the evening with Łukasz and Mateusz, who was hosting us in Warsaw. In front of the Presidential Palace stands an equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, the work of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.
A little further on stood Stanisław Wokulski’s shop – a set from the film “The Doll” (Lalka), based on the novel by Bolesław Prus. The set was built in autumn 2025 on the spot where, in Prus’s time, a town house stood that was not rebuilt after the war. In mid-November the façade with signs in Polish and Russian was still there, and goods were on display in the windows.
In front of Staszic Palace stands the Nicolaus Copernicus Monument – also by Thorvaldsen, unveiled in 1830. That evening street performers were doing a fire show at the foot of the monument.
Beyond the Copernicus Monument begins Nowy Świat – a street of cafés, restaurants and shops that leads to Jerozolimskie Avenue. At the beginning of December 2025 Christmas decorations were already hanging over the road.
By the Vistula – the Mermaid, the boulevards and the National Stadium
From the Old Town it is a few minutes’ walk down to the Vistula. The boulevards stretch along the left bank – wide promenades with steps down to the water. At the end of Tamka Street stands the Mermaid Monument, the symbol of Warsaw. It was sculpted by Ludwika Nitschowa, and the poet Krystyna Krahelska posed for it. The monument was unveiled on 15 August 1939, two weeks before the outbreak of war.
On an April evening in 2026 I walked along the boulevards from the Mermaid to the Royal Castle – its eastern façade was lit up, with the Kubicki Arcades and the castle gardens visible below it. Across the river stands the National Stadium.
The National Stadium opened on 29 January 2012, ahead of Euro 2012. Its stands hold about 58,000 spectators. I was here on Friday, 14 November 2025, with Łukasz for the World Cup qualifier Poland vs the Netherlands. We couldn’t get tickets in the regular sale, so we bought them second-hand – at a higher price and with a PZPN fee for changing the ticket holder’s details. We reached the stadium an hour before kick-off, but because of the huge queues we got in almost at the last minute.
The match ended 1–1. The support was well organised until fans in one of the sections threw flares onto the pitch – the game was stopped, and afterwards they left the stands in protest. For me it was the first chance to see the current national team live. That same year I also went to the Poland–Brazil legends match in Chorzów.
The National Museum – from Faras to the “Battle of Grunwald”
At the beginning of December 2025 I came to Warsaw with Artur for a concert at the Stodoła club. The next day was a Tuesday, and on Tuesdays entry to the permanent exhibitions of the National Museum is free – so I decided to make use of it. The museum building stands at Aleje Jerozolimskie 3, next to the Polish Army Museum.
The collection covers art from antiquity to the 20th century. The Faras Gallery displays wall paintings from the cathedral in Faras, Sudan. The cathedral was excavated in the early 1960s by Polish archaeologists led by Kazimierz Michałowski, as part of the campaign to save the monuments of Nubia from being flooded by the reservoir behind the Aswan High Dam. It is the only permanent exhibition of medieval Nubian painting in Europe.
The Gallery of Ancient Art has, among other things, Egyptian mummies, sarcophagi and papyri, as well as Greek vases and Roman sculptures.
Most visitors gather around the paintings by Jan Matejko. The “Battle of Grunwald” from 1878 measures 426 × 987 cm and fills an entire wall of the room.
Smaller, but just as famous, is “Stańczyk” – the court jester sits lost in thought in an armchair while a ball goes on in the next room.
The Palace of Culture and Science
A fifteen-minute walk from the museum stands the Palace of Culture and Science. It was built in 1952–1955 as a “gift from the Soviet people”. Including the spire it is 237 metres tall, and on the 30th floor, 114 metres above the ground, there is an observation terrace. The palace houses theatres, a cinema and museums, and glass skyscrapers have grown up around it.
In the evening the building is illuminated – in December 2024 it glowed purple.
Krasiński Palace and the Palace of the Commonwealth exhibition
North-west of the Old Town, on Krasiński Square, stands the Baroque Krasiński Palace. It was built in 1688–1699 for Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, and after the war it was rebuilt and handed over to the National Library. Behind the palace lies the Krasiński Garden with a pond and paths. In April 2026 the flower beds in front of the palace were already in bloom.
Since 21 May 2024 the palace has housed the permanent exhibition Palace of the Commonwealth (Pałac Rzeczypospolitej), and admission is free. It shows the most valuable holdings of the National Library – among them the Holy Cross Sermons, the St Florian Psalter, manuscripts of the chronicles of Gallus Anonymus and Wincenty Kadłubek, and manuscripts and first editions from Jan Kochanowski to Witold Gombrowicz. Illuminated medieval manuscripts lie in the dimly lit rooms.
Places of remembrance – the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery and Old Powązki
In Wola, on Wolska Street, lies the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery. It was founded in 1945, and the exhumed remains of more than 100,000 people were buried here – most of them civilian residents of the city killed during the Warsaw Uprising. Next to the cemetery is the Chamber of Remembrance (Izba Pamięci), a branch of the Museum of Warsaw devoted to the victims of the Uprising. I was here in December 2024.
Warsaw’s best-known necropolis is Old Powązki (Stare Powązki), founded on 4 November 1790. By the gate on Powązkowska Street stands the Church of St Charles Borromeo. The first, modest church was designed by Dominik Merlini, and the building owes its present form to a reconstruction in 1890–1895. A little further on lies the Powązki Military Cemetery, where I took a walk in April 2026.
Warsaw in December – lights and a Christmas market
In December the centre of Warsaw is lit up for Christmas. On 19 December 2024 a tall Christmas tree stood on Castle Square, surrounded by light installations – colourful neon tendrils and giant “light bulbs”. Next to them was an illuminated WARSZAWA sign, a Christmas market was open on the Old Town Market Square, and garlands lit up Krakowskie Przedmieście.
In the 2025/2026 season a Christmas Market was held for the first time on Parade Square (plac Defilad) by the Palace of Culture. It came with a 55-metre Ferris wheel and a carousel. I dropped by on 2 December 2025 – the wooden huts were selling, among other things, regional delicacies.
The Kampinos Forest – dunes just outside the city
For an extra day it is worth heading out of town. Kampinos National Park begins just beyond Warsaw’s north-western boundary. The park was established on 16 January 1959, covers about 385 km² and is the second-largest national park in Poland. Among other things it protects one of the best-preserved inland dune complexes in Europe, and in 2000 the Kampinos Forest was recognised as a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
On Saturday, 28 March 2026, I walked the trails around Laski in the municipality of Izabelin. The paths lead through pine forest and over sandy dunes with twisted pines growing on them. The signposts at the junctions pointed, among others, to Góra Ojca, Izabelin, Michałówka and Wólka Węglowa.
The forest is also a place of remembrance. By one of the trails a wooden plaque commemorates an execution on 22 June 1942 – the Germans murdered 28 people here, and their ashes were later moved to the cemetery in Palmiry. Further along the trail lies a boulder with a plaque: from this spot on 19 September 1939 squadrons of the 14th Jazłowiec Uhlan Regiment set off on the charge at Wólka Węglowa, opening the way to besieged Warsaw for units of the “Poznań” and “Pomorze” armies.
Practical information and a weekend plan
- Getting there: long-distance trains stop at, among others, Warszawa Centralna, Warszawa Zachodnia and Warszawa Wschodnia. Chopin Airport is in Okęcie, about 10 km from the centre.
- Public transport: the metro, trams and buses all use the same tickets. In October 2026 a 20-minute ticket cost 3.40 zł, a 75-minute ticket 4.40 zł, a 24-hour ticket (zone 1) 15 zł and a weekend ticket (from Friday 19:00 to Monday 8:00) 24 zł.
- Royal Castle: open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–17:00. According to the castle’s website (October 2026), a regular ticket for the Royal Route with an audio guide costs 60 zł, a reduced one 45 zł, and for people aged 8–26 from the EU 1 zł. On Wednesdays entry to a shorter route is free.
- National Museum: open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00, on Fridays until 20:00. In October 2026 a ticket for the permanent exhibitions cost 30 zł (reduced 15 zł, under 26 1 zł), and on Tuesdays entry is free.
- Palace of the Commonwealth: free admission, closed on Tuesdays – check the opening hours on the palace’s website before your visit.
- Weekend plan: on Saturday Castle Square, the Royal Castle, the Market Square and the Barbican, in the afternoon Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat, and in the evening the boulevards and the Mermaid. On Sunday the National Museum and the Palace of Culture, then Krasiński Palace and Garden, and Powązki or the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery. If you are staying until Tuesday, move the National Museum to that day. For a third day – the Kampinos Forest.
- More of Poland: Poznań in a weekend (in Polish), Olsztyn, Podlasie, Świętokrzyskie over the May holiday and Silesia over a long weekend.
