There are countless city destinations all over Europe, and it feels like we have visited loads this year – and to my surprise, one that I loved more than most has been Gdansk.
“Where?” my colleague asked, before promptly booking a flight to join us on the trip. It’s in Poland, by the way.
This gorgeous Polish port town sits on the Baltic Sea, attracting more tourists than ever these days, yet still flying somewhat under the radar compared to its counterparts.
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But while everyone flocks to Krakow, in a lot of ways I actually preferred Gdansk. There is a huge charm and heart in the old town, with pretty streets lined with exquisite buildings for their entire length. It felt like we’d stepped into a fairytale, made all the more magical by Christmas markets and snow.
In fact, I think this might just be one of my favourite winter city breaks ever!
We arrived late on Friday night, and had planned to fly back on the Sunday night, making it one of the few perfect weekend breaks from Edinburgh. Unfortunately Ryanair put a stop to that when they suddenly, a few weeks earlier, cancelled our return flight and put us on a flight the next day instead. Ash and I ended up going to Warsaw to fly back from there instead, but thankfully it didn’t give us any less time in Gdansk.
Here’s what we got up to for the weekend!
Wandering the old town
The second we stepped into the old town (through the “Green Gate” which isn’t actually green, and is one of many, many gates around the old town), we knew we were going to love it. It wasn’t a case of looking for a particular pretty building.
EVERY SINGLE building was photoworthy. I think it might just be one of the prettiest city centres I’ve been to, and I loved walking through the streets finding something else between every corner.
I instantly got mini-Amsterdam vibes, particularly with the canals surrounding the old town and the striking waterfront.
We also went to scope out the Christmas markets – only a few stalls were open this early, so we didn’t have a proper wander, but it was good to see what there was before it got too busy, and it felt very Christmassy even without twinkling lights in the snow yet!
Still, we did find a talking moose AND a creepy talking post box! What more do you need?
Video of the talking moose, of course:
Planning to come back to the markets later, we headed off down the next street towards the Academy Of Fine Arts (one of the finest buildings in Gdansk!) which we discovered was also host to some crafty Christmas markets! There were so many lovely stalls in there, and I was extremely tempted to buy a handcrafted wooden map of Middle Earth. It was so cool!
Through a massive teddy bear archway, we found the perfect Christmassy photo op.
We also popped into St Mary’s church, which is free although you can pay to go up to the top. We didn’t as I’d read the view isn’t really worth it, and if I’m honest the church inside is only really worth a visit because it has an astronomical clock inside!
Gdansk very much feels like a city best explored outside.
Tea break at Jozef K
I needed tea, so we took a break from exploring all the streets and headed to a cafรฉ I’d found that looked really cool, and happened to be right across from the Academy Of Fine Arts.
One of those really quirky, industrial places that I instantly love, it also had a mysterious door that we really wanted to go through (it was locked). They had some very interesting teas on offer, as well as “coffee for a person crushed by life”.
Lunch at Pierogarnia
As we wandered further, I found a pierogi restaurant nearby and we decided to check it out for lunch. We got the very last table!
A busy restaurant is usually a good sign, and that definitely didn’t let us down this time either.
I was very excited to dig in to some fried pierogi, when I noticed that as well as the standard boiled pierogi, they also did oven-baked. I’m not well-travelled in Poland yet, but I thought this was quite unusual so I had to try it!
The oven-baked pierogi came in sets of 3 or 5, so my friend and I got 3 each (we wanted different flavours) while her partner got 5. The 5 was a lot, to be honest! Ash, meanwhile, had potato pancakes which looked delicious. I kind of wish we had shared 5 pierogi and the pancakes.
Museum Of The Second World War
When I first read that the WW2 museum is worth visiting, I thought “eh”. How many WW2 places are there in Europe? Then I read that the first shots were fired in Gdansk, and realising that there was actually historical significance here piqued my interest more, so I delved a bit more into it.
Guys, it has 41,000 rave reviews on Google. Forty one thousand.
Although we learned at school about the catalyst of WW2 being the invasion of Poland, it had never occurred to me that it would have been in Gdansk – but it makes sense attacking from the sea. It then occurred to me that beyond “Poland was invaded” and “millions of Jews died in concentration camps in Poland”, there is very little that we learned about what actually happened in Poland.
The museum covered all of this and more, including the build-up between WW1 and WW2 across Europe, with information about countries I’d never thought about in the context of war. The hows and the whys that I’d never even really considered. The museum set-up is phenomenal, leading you from room to room in chronological order. The precursor to war, the rise of the Nazis, the invasion, the aftermath across Poland, the continuing war.
Then there are the immersive rooms – the shopping street; the bombed out square; the Holocaust tribute.
It’s an excellent, excellent museum. I highly recommend it. We spent two and a half hours in there, which to me is pretty impressive for a museum dedicated to one subject.
Related reading: Facing The Worst Of Humanity At Auschwitz
A walk along the river
The Motลawa river in Gdansk is worth a walk as much as the old town. In the morning, we took a quick walk along the waterfront to see the crane, a landmark of Gdansk. They’re carrying out some restoration works and interestingly all the pictures I’ve seen of it are black, so they must have changed the wood because it was most definitely brown when we were there! It’s the only wooden crane like this still preserved in Europe, harking back to Gdansk’s major trading days.
Walking back from the museum, the river was lovely lit up at night, too.
Across the river is where you can find the big Gdansk sign too! We didn’t go over – I was pretty happy getting a snap of it from across the water.
Grabbing a mulled wine & pierogi at the Christmas markets
By the time we had finished in the museum, it was dark – which meant it was definitely time for Christmas markets! We headed to a bar to regroup, as our friends hadn’t come to the museum with us.
From there, it was a short walk to the markets – in which time it starting SNOWING! Heavily!
It was absolutely magical.
The markets, when we eventually got back there after enjoying the snow, were definitely busier than they had been earlier in the day, but then that was to be expected, and we grabbed a mulled wine to wander with. Another colleague is incredibly disappointed that we didn’t indulge in mulled beer, a Polish speciality.
Mulled beer.
I thought the markets here were great! There’s a large area with a loop of food and drink stalls circling the entertainment like the carousel, a Santa sleigh simulator and a couple of stages. Obviously I grabbed a bowl of pierogi (ruskie is my favourite – potato & cheese!).
This links up to another whole area dedicated to homeware, crafts, clothing, toys, mugs, and everything else you could want from a Christmas market.
A pit stop at the Forum shopping centre
Right… hold your horses, folks, because it’s not every day I recommend a shopping centre. This is not a must-do on your itinerary, but we popped into the shopping centre purely to find a toilet.
How many shopping centres have you been to that have a little river (canal?) running through it and a massive ship hanging from the ceiling???
It’s pretty cool, right?!
Okay, whatever, on to better suggestions now.
Drinks in some “nerdy” bars – Pixel & Game Over
After the museum, we met up with the guys in a bar called Pixel. It was not as nerdy as we were expecting, however with some very interesting cocktails for around ยฃ5, and a super friendly bartender who sat with us to explain the menu, we stuck around for more than one drink!
Later on, we went to another bar we had passed, Game Over. It was absolutely packed (on a Saturday night?!) with young people playing board games and video games. Despite being sandwiched between two of the main tourist strips, it felt incredibly local which was nice.
Of course, I bought a round of Soplica cherry vodka! (We may have bought four bottles in duty free too… do not judge me until you’ve tried it! It’s SO GOOD!)
Read more about Poland: Krakow: A Contrasting Trip Of Christmas Cheer & Harrowing History
A relaxed morning
The following day, we were actually a bit lazy and enjoyed a quiet morning in our hotel. We never do this on holiday, and it was nothing to do with the vodka either. We’d done so much the day before that we didn’t feel any urgency to rush out the door.
Once we emerged, we checked out and headed back to the old town where I would spend most of the time taking a million photos in the better light.
First, though: brunch.
My colleague found a cafรฉ with good reviews a block away from the main strip – Pomelo Bistro. Our food was amazing! I had eggs benedict with Polish cheese (a bit like cottage cheese), and it was so good. It was a buzzing place and seemed popular with locals, and the prices were great. Despite only being one street from tourist central, it was a really quiet area too!
We followed up with one last look around the markets, including the one along the street off Dลugi Targ. We saw a dog in a backpack, and I bumped into this moderately disturbing bee.
We were slightly concerned it was going to suddenly move and turn out to be a real person!!!
(Side note: we decided it looks a bit like one of our friends, and it is now his Facebook profile picture HAHAHA.)
Soon after The Disturbing Bee, it was time to part ways with our friends and I went off on my photography mission until eventually we had to tear ourselves away from Gdansk’s magical old town to catch our train to Warsaw.
On the way to the train station, I had one pit stop to make, which was this pretty building on Radunia canal.
What a gorgeous scene – and really magical in winter, too!
Side note: the amber museum is behind that building, and although I’d read it’s quite small, the building looks massive! Our friends visited and said they really enjoyed it. Amber is a huge treasure in Poland and the Baltic states, so it makes a perfect souvenir.
Also on the way to the station: this amazing snow-woman! I went to take a photo when the sculptor herself appeared with more leaves, so I asked if it was okay to take the photo. Told her I loved her work! Hahaha.
Gdansk has surprises around every corner!
In fact, here are a couple more random things we found.
It’s probably hard to see from the photo, but all the horizontal drainpipes are dragons!
And finally, would a blog post be complete without some photos of beautiful doors?
Of course not.
Where we stayed: Arche Dwor Uphanega
So I found this place and thought it looked really cool – then saw something that said “this isn’t just a hotel. It’s a concept.”
Come on, now.
Pretentious or not, it’s definitely a fantastic place to stay! I had seen that our booking was in a different building, which can be a risk, but in this case the whole hotel is in a massive historic manor house complex with a courtyard, and our building was just across the courtyard. It overlooks a church, which looked even better in the snow!
We even had access to spa facilities, although we hadn’t really come prepared so I’m afraid we didn’t make use of that. What an oversight!
The rooms are very industrial, with exposed brick walls and hipster lighting. So yes, it’s as pretentious as it sounds – but we loved it there and it had a lot of character and history. It’s around a 15 minute walk from the old town.
Safe to say, we had an excellent time in Gdansk! It’s up there with some of my favourite European cities.
I think one thing we loved was visiting somewhere that we didn’t have a long list of things to do. We casually did everything we wanted to do in one day, and the rest of the time was spent relaxing and just enjoying. It’s not very often we get to do that!
And what a place to relax and wander around – this is just a perfect city break destination.
In fact, Poland as a whole has really gone beyond all our expectations, and they weren’t low to begin with. I’m almost tempted to make Poland an annual trip, as there are so many more pretty towns to discover.
If you’ve got a bit longer in Gdansk, head out to Sopot, the local beach destination! Or you could even go to Hel – but I was gutted that the nearby 666 bus to Hel has changed after uproar over its connotations…!
Where would you recommend for a trip to Poland? Are there any towns or cities that have really surprised you?
Read more about Poland:
โญ Krakow: A Contrasting Trip Of Christmas Cheer & Harrowing History
โญ Facing The Worst Of Humanity At Auschwitz
And more central Europe:
โญ Three Days In Fairytale Budapest, One Of My Favourite Cities
โญ Sofia: A City Of Colour And Contrast
โญ Slovenia: Loving Ljubljana & Visiting Lake Bled In March
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I enjoyed Gdansk when I went several years ago, albeit in the spring. I went up St Maryโs Church, and I personally enjoyed the views up top: you get to see the buildings from a different perspective, and to see just how expansive the city is (larger than you think)! Looks absolutely freezing when you went, but a fun one nevertheless with good food and good company.
Gdansk looks like a perfect place to spend a few days. I love the buildings! Like you say, every one is photo worthy. How fun to get to enjoy the markets and Christmas cheer there ๐
Itโs so pretty! I love the color and the buildings, and the museum sounds really really interesting.
Gdansk is an amazing city isn’t it, and your photos are beautiful. I love the snowman with leaf hair!!
Looks like a great city to spend a couple of days visiting.
Even nearby Mall of America doesn’t have a river running through it! Gdansk looks like a really cool place. Noted.
Gdansk is much more than I imagined. Nice post, thanks.