Exploring Poland's "Second Cities" with G Adventures

There's so much more than Warsaw in Poland!

G Adventures wants to show you that there is more than just Warsaw when you go to Poland. But visiting Poland and only going to Warsaw is a bit like visiting Italy and only going to Rome. Poland is full of great cities.

Poznan

Poznan is a perfect example of an Eastern European city. A small but well-preserved Old Town founded in the Middle Ages. After you explore the cobbled Old Town, be sure to wander around the lush, quiet parks, which are full of adorable red squirrels and gossiping grannies.

Poznan is an artist’s city. With a large student population and a growing international trade sector, artists have their audiences and their buyers right to hand. Everywhere you turn in Poznan, somebody has opened a gallery. It’s like Brooklyn 15 years ago, but without the hipsters.

Wroclaw

Wroclaw is the most proudly cute city I have ever visited. A few hours east of Berlin, Wroclaw is not a party place, it’s a sit-down fancy dinner place, and you’ll be glad you took the time to let the city’s agreeable, casual vibe sink in.

Once a centre of anti-Soviet activism, the city is now committed to a childlike playfulness that would be galling in another setting. For instance, the inner city is dotted with small bronze statues of gnomes. Gnomes sleeping on window sills, gnomes guarding planters, gnomes snarling behind barred bank windows. Once you see one gnome, you can’t stop seeing them.

Krakow

Krakow is so rich in history, both joyful and horrific, that it is easy to overlook how the city is rebuilding itself as a cultural capital. The young people opening local design shops, coffee roasteries and “ruin bars” (set in old warehouses) are entrepreneurs committed to making a new and more open future while preserving the city’s turbulent history. Subsequently, Krakow is Poland’s most liberal and diverse city – bookish and foodie by day, open all night for clubbing.