1. Streetcars: the envy of this Detroiter …
One of Kraków’s amenities enjoyed by both residents and visitors is the public transportation system of streetcars and busses. By streetcar, you can get to the city center, which is otherwise closed to car traffic, or to many city attractions located on its outskirts; there are 19 regular streetcar lines altogether.
The streetcars in Kraków are simply amazing! New, very comfortable (airconditioned during summers), clean and punctual. Almost always they run according to schedule, to the minute, which makes planning a trip easy. The streetcar stops have timetables, as well as electronic displays informing passengers how many minutes until their streetcar arrives.
In addition, if you are over 70, or a blood donor, you can ride Kraków public transportation for free! There are also many discounts for different groups, such as students, retirees and people with disabilities, as well as daily, weekly or monthly passes.
You can purchase your ticket right on the streetcar in a vending machine with a credit card or cash, or you can use a smartphone app which allows you to enter the streetcar identifier and pay with your “smart wallet”.
Most of the streetcars and busses have low floors which makes them accessible for people with limited mobility and to anyone wanting to bring a baby stroller or a bike on board.
There are a few different ticket options, with the cheapest fare being four złoty for a single 20-minute ride on just one streetcar or a bus line. For six złotych you can ride for 60 minutes switching between the lines, combining streetcars and busses, while an eight złotych ticket allows for 90 minutes rides. Discount tickets cost half the price.
Be sure to get your ticket and validate it right away in one of the yellow boxes located throughout the streetcars. It is an honor system, but unexpected checks by undercover employees happen often (more often this year!), and there are stiff fines if you try to ride without paying your fare.
Kraków streetcars as well as many busses run on electricity which helps keep the city air cleaner, so when in Kraków, forget a car and enjoy the freedom of the public transportation!
The schedule is available on the Internet at: https://rozklady.mpk.krakow.pl/?lang=PL&rozklad=20240805
PS. If you are partying into the wee hours, however, be aware that after 11 pm, your choices of public transportation become very limited (but there are taxis.)
2. Buyer (of PLN) beware: let’s do some math
As we have mentioned in our guide to traveling in Poland, if one wants to bring in some American dollars to exchange for Polish złoty (PLN), some caution, or rather alertness, is very much advised when exchanging.
Please look carefully at these three photos taken recently in Kraków. In the first photo you can see a sign “Today we sell” and 1 USD equals 4,1351 PLN. Were you a tourist, you would have probably already checked the exchange rate on the Internet, and you know that you should expect around 4 PLN for $1.00. So, you might think to yourself, wow, what a great rate!!! I will be getting 13 groszy more than what I saw on the Internet!!! But wait! It is the kantor SELLING $$$ for this amount, and you definitely don’t need to buy $$$; you want to sell them! The second photo, taken inside the same kantor reveals the truth: you can see TWO exchange rates for USD there: 2.9453 PLN and 4.1351 PLN (the second one being this GREAT rate which was advertised outside). Which means that if you sold your $$$ (or rather: bought your złoty) there you would get ONLY 2.9453 PLN for $1. You should not use this kantor.
Now look at the third photo. In this photo again you have two exchange rates: 393 PLN (buy) and 400 PLN (sell) and the difference between the price of selling and the price of buying of $1 is only 7 groszy (or for $100 it is 7 PLN). In this kantor you would get almost 1 PLN more for your hard-earned dollar than in the first kantor! The difference is huge, the practice is deceptive as people who engage in it count on tourists not paying attention to details, but only seeing what looks like a great exchange rate.
So – let’s say, you want to exchange $200. In the first (BAD!) kantor you would get 589 PLN for your money, while in the second kantor (GOOD!) you would get 786 PLN. The difference is more of less …. $25!!! These “bad” kantors are usually in the center of town, but there are plenty of good ones there too, sometimes just around the corner.
