Warsaw Travelers Recommend

With three days in Warsaw, not only can tour the city’s highlights and enjoy a wealth of food, beer, and vodka, you’ll also have enough time to spend a day at a nearby World War II site. Here’s how to make the most of three days in the Polish capital.

Day 1: Historic Warsaw

Warsaw’s history dates back more than 1,400 years, so start your explorations in the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Soak up signature sights such as Old Town Market Square, Warsaw Royal Castle, the Warsaw Barbican, and St. John’s Cathedral on a walking tour. Next, discover the tragic fate of Polish Jewry as you explore the site where the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto once stood, including the prewar Nożyk Synagogue. After visiting the Jewish Cemetery, explore the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, then pay tribute at the Monument of the Ghetto Heroes. Come evening, immerse yourself in the music of Poland’s national composer, Frédéric Chopin, at a piano concert, or discover delights from farmhouse cheese to traditional sausage and contemporary craft brews on a food tour.

Day 2: Communist or Contemporary City

From the landmark Palace of Culture and Science to Stalinist-era housing blocks, Warsaw is home to some of the world’s best-preserved Communist architecture. Explore signature sights in a retro vehicle and learn how brutalist buildings are being repurposed for the modern world, stopping at a retro milk bar along the way. Alternatively, for a more contemporary take on the city, wander the up-and-coming Praga district, with its vibrant street art, bohemian galleries, and quirky museums. In the afternoon, learn to make Polish classics such as pierogi (dumplings) and buckwheat pancakes at a hands-on cooking class, then wash them down with a selection of vodkas. Wrap up the night with a pub crawl that showcases the city’s lively nightlife.

Day 3: World War II Sites

On your final day in Warsaw, visit the Nazi German concentration camp Treblinka, today a moving memorial strewn with jagged rocks. Alternatively, make the long journey to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, where well-preserved barracks house a powerful tribute to the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust; a handful of tours incorporate visits to historic Krakow. At the Wolf’s Lair, Adolf Hitler’s World War II headquarters, eerie bunkers overgrown by nature house a small museum and a memorial to the 1944 attempted assassination of Hitler. Return to Warsaw in time for a farewell feast of modern Polish cuisine followed by cocktails in a sky-high bar with views across the Vistula. 

With a history that dates back over 1,400 years, the Polish capital offers a wealth of heritage, from the Warsaw Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site to the remnants of the Second World War–era Jewish Ghetto. One day enables you to see some key sights, discover Polish food, and explore the city’s vibrant nightlife. Read on to find out how.

Morning: Old Times, Old Town

Devastated by Nazi forces during World War II, Warsaw’s historic Old Town has been so perfectly rebuilt that it’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Soak up the old-world charm on a walking tour or as part of a broader city tour by Segway or Communist-era vehicle. Stroll the Old Town Market Square, with its 17th- and 18th-century houses; follow in the footsteps of kings at the Warsaw Royal Castle; admire historic St. John’s Cathedral; explore the Warsaw Barbican fortress; and don’t miss the city’s icon, the statue known as the Mermaid of Warsaw, or Syrenka.

Afternoon: A Lost World

One day in Warsaw doesn’t leave enough time to visit any of the Nazi concentration camps, but you can pay tribute to the city’s Jewish community, annihilated in the Holocaust, on a tour of the most significant Jewish sites. See the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto, complete with a fragment of the wall that once segregated Warsaw’s Jewish people from their neighbors, and Nożyk Synagogue, Warsaw’s last remaining prewar synagogue, then head farther afield to the Jewish Cemetery. Pause at the Monument of the Ghetto Heroes, then consolidate your knowledge at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Night: Flavors of Poland

Food is one of the great joys of any trip to Warsaw. Discover Polish cuisine on a food tour, covering classic delights such as sausages, cheeses, breads, and pickles, alongside candies, cakes, desserts, craft beer, and flavored and unflavored vodkas. Or go deeper with a hands-on cooking class that teaches you the art of perfect pierogi (dumplings), Polish buckwheat pancakes, stuffed cabbage, and the like. Wrap up by saying “na zdrowie” to Warsaw’s vibrant nightlife with a tour of the city’s pubs, bars, and clubs; travel in style with your choice of vehicles, from Communist-era chic to contemporary limo.

Two days in Warsaw give you the chance to see highlights of the city, from the Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site to the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto and other Second World War sights and still have time to pay tribute at a Nazi concentration camp. Along the way, discover Poland’s cuisine and nightlife, washed down with plenty of vodka. Here’s how.

Day 1: Warsaw Wandering

**Morning:**Start the day by discovering Warsaw’s charming Old Town, either on a dedicated walking tour or as part of a broader city tour. Learn about the Polish capital’s 1,400-odd years of history as you tour Old Town Market Square, Warsaw Royal Castle, St. John’s Cathedral, the Warsaw Barbican, and more.

**Afternoon:**Explore the lost world of Warsaw’s prewar Jewish community. Tour the site of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto, including Nożyk Synagogue and the remains of the ghetto wall. See the Jewish Cemetery, pay your respects at the Monument of the Ghetto Heroes, and visit the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

**Night:**Add a range of authentic Polish recipes to your repertoire with a hands-on cooking course, covering classics such as pierogi (dumplings) and buckwheat pancakes. Then get a handle on the city’s nightlife—as well as its vibrant beer scene—with a good old-fashioned pub crawl.

Day 2: Into the Dark

**Day:**Pay tribute at one of the World War II concentration camps, where millions went to their deaths during the Nazi German occupation. Treblinka is the nearest camp to Warsaw. The site where the extermination camp once stood is now a ghostly open-air memorial lined with jagged stones, although remnants of the labor camp still stand. Alternatively, travel farther to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, site of the world’s most notorious concentration camp. The camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau are well-preserved, and the barracks house a powerful and moving museum of the Holocaust, but the site is busier than Treblinka.

**Night:**Slough away the darkness by immersing yourself in the music of a homegrown Polish genius, Frédéric Chopin, at a piano concert at a heritage property. Alternatively, dive deeper into the world of Polish food on a culinary tour that checks off craft breweries and bakeries alike.

Warsaw is a thriving European city, with a rebuilt medieval core, modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers, and a flourishing restaurant scene. But, scattered around the city are reminders of one of the darkest periods in Poland’s history: the more than 4-decade-long communist rule. See below to find out more about communist history in Warsaw.

Communist History in Warsaw

During World War II, the Nazis occupied Warsaw, and they razed the city to the ground in retaliation for the 1944 Warsaw Rising. In 1945, the Red Army liberated the city from the Nazis but any sense of freedom was short-lived as Poland came under control of the Soviets, who set about remodeling and rebuilding Warsaw to meet their social realism vision.

Over the next four decades, Poland remained under a communist regime, its citizens forced to live with economic hardship and political repression. A growing wave of anti-communist fervor in the 1980s culminated in the formation of a new non-communist government in late 1989.

Ways to Learn About Communist History in Warsaw

Visitors to Warsaw can learn about this dark chapter in the city's history in a number of ways.

• Zoom up to the 30th-floor observation deck of the Palace of Culture and Science (Palac Kultury i Nauki or PKiN), a 757-foot-tall (231 meter) tower given as a gift to Poland from the Soviets in the 1950s.

• Explore exhibits at the Life Under Communism Museum (Czar PRL), which displays Communist-era furniture, objects, and memorabilia.

• Visit Constitution Square, the centerpiece of communist Warsaw and home to numerous Stalinist-era buildings.

• See the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party building, the former headquarters of Poland’s dominant communist party.

• View colorful Cold War-era signs dating from the post-Stalinist '60s and '70s era at Warsaw’s Neon Museum.