Krakow Sightseeing: What Each Ticket Costs
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There is no such thing as a Wawel ticket. The hill sells twelve separately priced exhibitions plus four passes, and the Cathedral on the same hill is a different operator with a different window and a different price. Budget the two apart and the rest of Kraków’s sightseeing bill becomes easy to plan, because the square itself, the Planty, the Cloth Hall arcade and Wawel’s courtyard all cost nothing.
Wawel prices are a menu, not a ticket
The castle exhibitions are named by floor now, so a search for “State Rooms” or “Royal Private Apartments” turns up nothing on sale. This is the current list, regular price first and reduced second.
| Wawel exhibition | Price (PLN) |
|---|---|
| Castle 1st floor | 57 / 43 |
| Castle 2nd floor | 57 / 43 |
| Both floors combined | 95 / 71 |
| Castle Undergrounds | 47 / 35 |
| Crown Treasury | 47 / 35 |
| Armoury | 47 / 35 |
| “Looking for the Dragon” family route | 35 / 26 |
| Dragon’s Den | 15 / 10 |
| Viewing Tower | 19 / 14 |
| Sandomierska Tower | 9 / 7 |
| Royal Gardens | 11 / 9 |
| Międzymurze | 29 / 22 |
Passes: “Wawel for Enthusiasts” at 199 / 149, an annual ticket at 260 / 195, and a weekend-only “Most important at Wawel” at 39 PLN a head. Under-7s go free. The castle opens Tue to Sun 9:30 to 17:00 and closes Mondays apart from a handful of free-entry exhibitions whose tickets are handed out in person, five a person, and are typically gone by about 10:00. Buy at bilety.wawel.krakow.pl , because English-facing resellers quote around 40 euros for the combined route the castle sells for 95 PLN.
Several of those tickets stop before the year does. The Royal Gardens run to 4 October; the Dragon’s Den, the Viewing Tower and the Sandomierska Tower to 31 October, with the Sandomierska open Saturdays to Mondays only from 5 September. Międzymurze goes the other way, 3 November to 30 December. A winter trip will not get you into the cave.
Wawel Cathedral is a separate 26 zloty
The Cathedral Chapter runs it, with its own ticket window directly opposite the Cathedral door and no reliable online booking. That 26 PLN, or 18 reduced, covers the nave, the Royal Tombs and crypts, the Cathedral Museum and the climb to the Sigismund Bell, cast in 1520 and still Poland’s largest historic bell. Hours are 9:00 to 17:00 Monday to Saturday from April to October and 9:00 to 16:00 from November to March, with Sundays opening at 12:30 and the Cathedral Museum closed that day. Shoulders and knees covered, and the rule is enforced. Details on katedra-wawelska.pl . If you would rather have the hill explained as you walk it, browse Kraków Old Town tours on GetYourGuide and check whether admission is included or extra.
St Mary’s also sells two tickets, and the tower is the one people miss
The basilica interior is 20 PLN or 10 reduced, with tourist visiting Monday to Saturday 11:30 to 18:00 and Sunday and holidays 14:00 to 18:00. Tourists enter from the south side rather than the worshippers’ door, and the ticket office is at Plac Mariacki 7. The Veit Stoss altarpiece, carved between 1477 and 1489 and the largest Gothic wooden altarpiece in the world, is opened from 11:50 on weekdays and Saturdays and from 14:10 on Sundays and holidays.
The tower is a different 20 / 15 PLN ticket on a different schedule: Tuesday to Saturday 11:00 to 17:30, Sunday and holidays 13:00 to 17:30, closed Mondays, departures every 25 minutes from 11:05, a maximum of 15 people per group and two entries an hour. It is sold only at Plac Mariacki 7 on the day, with no advance booking at all, the entrance is on Floriańska Street, and children under 7 are not admitted. Bad weather closes it. The hourly hejnał from that same tower is free from anywhere in the square.
What costs nothing at all in Krakow?
More than most visitors assume. Rynek Główny itself, laid out in 1257 and still about 40,000 square metres, is free to walk, as is the Cloth Hall’s ground-floor arcade with its amber and leather stalls. Wawel Hill’s grounds and courtyard open daily from about 6:00 to dusk at no charge. The Planty, the roughly 4 km ring park on the footprint of the demolished walls, is free and always open. So are Collegium Maius’s courtyard, daily 9:00 to 18:00 with a mechanical clock display on the hour, and the bronze Wawel Dragon breathing gas flame on the riverbank.
Museum prices across the Old Town
| Museum | Price (PLN) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Rynek Underground | 45 / 35, family 90 | Free Tuesdays, box office only that day |
| Cloth Hall gallery | 35 / 25, family 70 | Ages 7 to 26 pay 1 PLN any day |
| Czartoryski Museum | 65 / 50, family 130 | Pupils and students 1 PLN |
| Town Hall Tower | 22 / 16, family 44 | Free Mondays |
| Collegium Maius museum | 17 / 10 self-guided, 26 / 14 guided | Free Wednesdays 13:30 to 17:00 |
| MOCAK | 14 / 7 | Free Thursdays, level minus one only |
| Barbican or City Defence Walls | 22 / 16, family 44 each | 64 / 56 covers both plus Celestat |
The Czartoryski holds Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, painted around 1489 to 1491 and one of roughly fifteen surviving Leonardo panels, which makes 65 PLN the best value on that list. The Rynek Underground is the sight most likely to sell out same day in summer, so book it at bilety.mhk.pl rather than turning up. The Barbican’s season is genuinely unsettled between the museum’s own listing and secondary guides, so check the day before you walk up.
Which church is worth the detour?
The Basilica of St Francis of Assisi on ul. Franciszkańska, opposite the Bishop’s Palace in the Old Town. Consecrated in 1269, its draw is Stanisław Wyspiański’s Art Nouveau stained glass, above all “God the Father, Let It Be”, along with his polychromes and Józef Mehoffer’s Stations of the Cross. It is an Art Nouveau interior inside a Gothic shell, and it is free to walk into.
One listing, not several
The Historic Centre of Kraków was inscribed in 1978 as one of the first twelve World Heritage sites ever listed, and it is a single contiguous listing covering the Old Town, Wawel Hill, Kazimierz and Stradom together. Wieliczka Salt Mine has its own 1978 listing, and Auschwitz-Birkenau a separate one from 1979.
Do Wawel on a Tuesday to Friday morning and the Cathedral straight afterwards while you are already on the hill: that is two queues in one climb rather than two climbs. Then work downhill through the walking routes between the districts or pick up the paid and free activity list . For a bed within ten minutes of the hill, compare Kraków rates on Booking.com .