If you read my recent post about my favorite European capitals, you may have been surprised to see Warsaw quite high up on the list. Not many travelers venture to Poland, let alone Warsaw – it's just not a place that you read a lot about.
And yet Poland's capital city really surprised me. It's a COOL city, as long as you take the time to get to know it.
So what makes Warsaw so awesome?
I'll give you 7 reasons.
7 reasons you should visit Warsaw, Poland
1. The interesting history
Not unlike Berlin (another of my favorite cities in Central Europe), Warsaw has quite a painful recent history.
In 1944, toward the end of WWII, resistance forces in Warsaw decided to rise up against the Germans. The Warsaw Uprising largely failed, however, and the Nazis decided to punish the city by making an example of it – which meant essentially obliterating it.
More than 80% of the city center was flattened following the Uprising, and the city's population plummeted from 2 million to about 1,000 because people simply had nowhere to live and were forced to leave the city.
Best place to learn more about this history: The Warsaw Uprising Museum.
2. Old-but-new architecture
Thanks to the Uprising and resulting destruction of the city, most of Warsaw is actually new – well, “new” as in built since 1945. Despite its name, even the “Old Town” is new, having been completely rebuilt after WWII.
This makes for quite an interesting downtown area. You have the “new-old” Warsaw Castle and the colorful Old Town contrasted by Soviet-era buildings like the Palace of Science and Culture and more modern architecture like at the Złote Tarasy shopping center (it looks like waves of glass!).
Best place to experience the old-but-new: Warsaw Castle's “The Royal Castle – from Destruction to Reconstruction” exhibit. Inside the castle, you can also see the collection of paintings of the Old Town that architects used to help reconstruct things almost exactly as they had been before.
3. The green spaces
For a city that was nothing but rubble at the end of WWII and was then under Soviet rule for years, one doesn't necessarily expect to find a lot of green spaces. (No offense to Soviet city planners, but I only think of drab, gray things where they're concerned.)
And yet Warsaw is FULL of parks and gardens and other green spaces. Lively green spaces, too.
While walking through Łazienki Park (the Royal Baths Park) one chilly Sunday afternoon, my Warsaw-dwelling friend Kami and I stumbled upon a live Chopin concert beneath the memorial dedicated to the native composer – with hundreds of spectators.
I also stumbled upon greenery at Saski Park (the Saxon Garden), at the Jewish Cemetery (where the greenery is overgrowing), and even on the rooftop of the library at the University of Warsaw.
Best place to find greenery: Check out this list of parks in Warsaw.
4. The food in Warsaw
As someone who grew up eating lots of Polish and Slovak food, I couldn't get enough of the food in Warsaw. I had some tasty pierogi my first night in town, and then let Kami drag me around to as many “milk bars” (Bar Mleczny) as possible.
Contrary to their name, milk bars do not serve up milk – they serve up traditional (and very cheap) Polish food, cooked by cranky old Polish ladies and dished out on plastic flatware. Even though I have no clue what most of it was (and even though most of it didn't look very pretty), everything I tried was delicious.
Best place to experience great Polish food: The milk bars! (Read more here.)
5. The little quirks
Warsaw has so many little quirks that I loved: The milk bars that are morphing from sad Soviet staples to hip, cheap places for university students to eat. The gritty neighborhoods with shrines to the Virgin Mary hidden down alleyways. The beautiful rooftop garden on top of the University of Warsaw's library. The little Neon Museum that displays old neon signs that used to adorn Warsaw's streets.
There are so many cool details to be found in Warsaw – and I think these details are what made me fall in love with the city the most.
Best place(s) to experience these quirks: My top picks are the Neon Museum and the Library's rooftop garden.
6. The famous residents
As far as art and science goes, Warsaw actually has contributed a lot!
Composer Fryderyk Chopin was born here. All over the city you can find benches that will play his music when you walk by/sit down on them.
And (perhaps coolest of all) physicist/chemist Marie Curie also called Warsaw home. Not only did Marie contribute a ton to the study of radioactivity, but she was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize. Hell YEAH!
Best place(s) to experience these famous residents: You can often hear live Chopin concerts in Łazienki Park on summer weekends, and you can visit Marie Curie's birthplace (though I suspect it's been rebuilt) at 16 Freta St.
7. The Warsaw vibe
This last point is more difficult to describe than the others. Warsaw just has a vibe to it that I really connected with. A mixture of the old and the new; the touristy bits and the gritty bits and the hip bits and the modern bits.
There's a square in Warsaw that's known colloquially as “Plac Hipstera” – Hipster Square – because of the coffee shops there and the hipster-like clientele. There are big, modern shopping centers alongside milk bars and old Soviet buildings. There are parks, trams, and wide sidewalks.
There is a large university-aged population, too, which perhaps adds to the atmosphere of a city that is evolving.
Overall, Warsaw is a great and interesting city. It's not especially touristy, yet still offers up all the amenities a tourist would need. An ideal destination to me.
So, if you're looking for a slightly-less-obvious place to visit in Europe, consider Poland – and, more specifically, Warsaw!
Have YOU ever been to Warsaw? If not, is it a city you'd like to visit?
Amanda Williams is the award-winning blogger behind A Dangerous Business Travel Blog. She has traveled to more than 60 countries on 6 continents from her home base in Ohio, specializing in experiential and thoughtful travel through the US, Europe, and rest of the world. Amanda only shares tips based on her personal experiences and places she's actually traveled!
This was a great post and couldn’t agree more! I just got back from a few weeks in Poland, and I loved Warsaw! The other cities were cool too, and everyone talks about Kraków but I found it almost busier with tourists than Prague. Definitely will be going back to Warsaw and spending more time there.
Krakow is a beautiful city – there’s no arguing with that. But I think I actually preferred Warsaw! (To be fair, though, I have a friend from Warsaw who showed me around, and I think that definitely influenced me a lot!)
This post was amazing. My cousins and I are visiting London to spend time with family and we are taking the non-traditional route to visit Poland for the first time. We are visiting Warsaw and this post really helped. I cannot wait.
So glad to hear that, Keyma! I really enjoyed Warsaw a lot – I hope you love it, too!
Thank you for showing this city in a such great shape and presentation. Warsaw is changing fast. I am always happy to read when people say they like a lot Warsaw. Thank you also for putting it in your top 10 european cities 🙂
It’s a great city, and I look forward to visiting again someday!
[…] may not be a popular destination, nor is it as beautiful as some other cities in Europe, but it certainly deserves a visit. It will offer you centuries-old beauty that you can check out in the Old Town, for example. It is […]
Hi Amanda,
Great blog, what area would you recommend staying? I’m looking at booking an apartment for a few nights November
To be honest, I don’t know enough about the different neighborhoods to really be able to give you a good recommendation. I stayed with a friend in Warsaw, and so didn’t really have to decide! I liked the area around the university, if I remember correctly, but there are so many different neighborhoods to choose from! It really depends on what you’re looking for.
I fell in love with Warsaw the first time. The most easily recognized piece of Warsaw architecture is The Palace of Culture. They have beautiful houses, delicious restaurants and good clubs.
Glad to hear of someone else who loves it! I think a lot of people kind of forget about Poland when planning a Euro trip – but it’s such a cool country!
My husband (British) and I (American) LOVE Warsaw! We live in London and are headed back to Warsaw in a couple of weeks for my birthday. It will be our third trip in as many years.
Such a great city!!
[…] ever been. I’ve been to battlefields and cemeteries. I’ve been to cities that were completely destroyed during WWII. I’ve even been to concentration […]
I also fell in love with Warsaw when I came here to visit my family (I grew up in Canada but I have Polish roots). I keep trying to bring more and more of my international friends here so that they can experience Warsaw in all it’s glory. I came here, fell in love with the city and even started working for a University here. And to create more awareness students and alumni have created a blog just about Warsaw and student life here. I hope you check it out if you have a chance! (www.studentsinwarsaw.com)
Great post! very informative! I have to check out the neon museum as I haven’t been yet. 🙂
Yay for the Warsaw love! I always tell people to go there now too. 🙂
And yes, go check out the Neon Museum!
Great post! I’m headed to Warsaw in May. It will be my second trip to Poland, but my first time to Warsaw. Your photos have certainly encouraged me to add Saski Park into my schedule. It looks lovely!
All the parks in Warsaw should be beautiful in May! I hope you enjoy the city as much as I did. 🙂
I liked you when I read the title, and loved you by the end of the first paragraph. I love Warsaw, it’s a city where I grew up and I spent hours and hours as a teen walking around both the touristy places and the lesser known, not so pretty modern areas (that was a while ago). Thank you for promoting this great place. It definitely should be more popular with tourists!
Aww thanks Jolanta! Warsaw really IS awesome, and I always tell people now that they should go there!
I was just in Poland on business, in Warsaw and Krakow, and came across your article on Warsaw. I was blown away by Warsaw! It reminded me of a mix of Copenhagen and Prague for some reason, and the outdoor parks and spaces were absolutely gorgeous! What a lovely city and often overlooked. I hope to go back and spend some more time, your photos are awesome!
Thanks, Karina! And yes, I was really blown away by Warsaw, too! I loved it so much!
[…] taken down. The Neon Muzeum, located in an out-of-the-way location in a warehouse-type space in Warsaw, has made a mission of tracking down as many of these old neon signs as possible, restoring them, […]
[…] your wallet, consider heading to some less-expensive cities, too. Cities like Berlin and Prague and Warsaw and Budapest are still really cool and full of history and great places to eat, but are MUCH less […]
[…] 7 Reasons Why Warsaw is Awesome […]