Hotel Review: My Emotional Return to Kraków and My Cosy Stay at the Ibis Kraków Centrum

“Dry your eyes mate” – Mike Skinner.

It is always an emotional return for me to cities I backpacked through before I started my new life in Poland. As a tourist, I visited Poland 4 times before moving here. One of those trips saw a train journey to the popular city of Kraków. At the time, I was coming into a low after my long term split with Panny, my 100 country crackerjack and nowhere to live, aged 35. On that trip, I toured Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter as well as delving into the German Death Camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau while based at the Mosquito Hostel by Krakow Old Town.

Admittedly Kraków will never make my top 5 cities in Poland as I found more love for the likes of Gdansk, Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, Łódź and Warszawa, but it’s hard to ignore the magnetic appeal of a city that sells Poland to the tourist world, pumps out a traditional beat of a former capital city and undoubtedly is Poland’s “international city”.

Judge for yourself whether it’s a good or bad thing that all the staff in bars and restaurants by the Old Town Square speak English these days. All that aside, it was reunion time for me and again I stayed in my trusty Ibis – the Hotel group that I made my favourite on my world travels, previously staying at Ibis Hotels in places like Bahrain, Kuwait and Russia.

1.Flexible Breakfast
The flexible breakfast times at Ibis Hotels is something I love. I am a really busy guy, a traveller with not much time to spare for others. During the week, breakfast is from 6.30 am – 10.00 am and at the weekend from 6.30 – 11 am! Quite an amazing timespan, I wish more hotels around the world were like this.

The range of food available is also brilliant! Lots of tasty salads, fruit and vegetables…

Cold meat, cheese, butter. Hot sausages, scrambled eggs…

A range of breakfast cereals, coffee, tea, juice, water…

All in all a great breakfast, all you can eat and drink so if you need two cups of coffee and two big plates to kick start your day, you can do it here at the Ibis!

2.Welcoming Staff
After a busy week, again it was a case of fresh smiles, Polish welcomes and pleasant staff when I rocked up to reception at the Ibis Krakow Centrum. I also chatted to managers Krzysztof and Wojtek at length. A great, friendly atmosphere is evident here.

3.Consistently Uniform Rooms
When you stay loyal to a brand, you get used to the way they are and I love brands and companies that maintain a clear consistency. Every single Ibis Hotel in Poland is styled the same way.

4.City Centre Location
What’s cool about the Ibis Krakow Centrum is that it is in the city centre but not drenched in amongst the hoardes of tourists in the Old Town square, it’s a little bit south of that.

I also had a brilliant reunion here with my friend Ania – our friendship dates back to 2005 in Bournemouth.

5.Fast WiFi
Ibis Hotels always have fast WiFi in reception, in the bar, in every room. It’s a standard that I am used to now and so I was able to blog from my hotel room and also at breakfast. Here are some more photos from my wonderful stay and return to Krakow.

It’s also a great tool for saving time on the move, you can be checking bus and train timetables while in or waiting for the lift, and from the comfort of your bed.

Here are the details for booking the Ibis Hotel Centrum in Kraków:

Here are some videos from my emotional return to Kraków: