Things to do in Warsaw
Warsaw's attractions focus on history, resilience and a vibrant modern culture. Allow at least two to three days.
Old Town and the Royal Castle
Wander the cobbled Market Square, the city walls and the red-brick Barbican, built in 1540 and reconstructed after the war. The Royal Castle, blown up by German forces in 1944 and rebuilt in the 1970s using funds collected from Poles worldwide, has opulent rooms and two Rembrandt paintings. Admission to the permanent exhibition is free on Wednesdays.
Warsaw Rising Museum
Opened in 2004, this museum tells the story of the 63-day uprising of the Home Army against the German occupiers in 1944 with multimedia exhibitions, a replica sewer passage used by insurgents and a 3D film, "City of Ruins", showing the destroyed city from above. It's essential for understanding Warsaw. Every year on 1 August at 17:00 ("W" hour), sirens sound and the city stops for a minute.
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Located in the former Jewish district in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, POLIN, which won the European Museum of the Year award in 2016, presents 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland. Highlights include a reconstructed painted ceiling of a wooden synagogue from Gwoździec. Before the war, Warsaw had the largest Jewish community in Europe. Visit also the remnants of the ghetto wall at Sienna Street and the Umschlagplatz memorial.
Łazienki Park
Warsaw's most beautiful park contains the Palace on the Isle, the summer residence of the last Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, plus peacocks, red squirrels and an amphitheatre. On Sundays from mid-May to late September, free Chopin piano concerts take place at noon and 16:00 at the Chopin monument.
Chopin and music
The Fryderyk Chopin Museum in the Ostrogski Palace offers interactive exhibitions on the composer, born in 1810 in Żelazowa Wola near Warsaw. Daily Chopin concerts are held in small venues around the Old Town. The International Chopin Piano Competition, held every five years, took place in 2025.
Palace of Culture and Science
Love it or hate it, the 237-metre Palace of Culture and Science dominates the skyline. Take the lift to the viewing terrace on the 30th floor. Inside are theatres, cinemas, a museum and the Museum of Modern Art's new building next to it, which opened in 2024.
Wilanów Palace
This baroque palace, built for King John III Sobieski, who defeated the Ottomans at the siege of Vienna in 1683, survived the war largely intact. Its gardens host light shows in winter.
Copernicus Science Centre
An excellent interactive science museum on the riverside with a planetarium and robotic theatre, great for families. Book ahead at weekends.
The Vistula riverside
The Vistula is one of Europe's last largely wild rivers. Walk or cycle the boulevards on the left bank, relax at the beach bars on the Praga side in summer and take a free summer ferry across the river.
Praga and street art
Explore the courtyards of Praga, the Neon Museum, which preserves Cold War-era neon signs, and the Polish Vodka Museum at Koneser.
Food
Try pierogi (dumplings) at a milk bar (bar mleczny), cheap canteens that are relics of communist times, such as Bar Bambino or Prasowy. Also try żurek (sour rye soup), pączki doughnuts, especially on Fat Thursday, and modern Polish cuisine at Warsaw's growing number of fine-dining restaurants. Hala Koszyki and Elektrownia Powiśle are great food halls.
The Palace of Culture's surroundings
Beyond the viewing terrace, the area around the Palace of Culture and Science is being transformed, with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw opening its new building on Plac Defilad in 2024. The nearby Złote Tarasy shopping centre has a striking wave-shaped glass roof.
The National Museum and Zachęta
The National Museum in Warsaw holds the largest Polish painting in the country, Jan Matejko's Battle of Grunwald, as well as a gallery of medieval art from Faras in Sudan. Zachęta National Gallery of Art presents contemporary exhibitions in a nineteenth-century building.
Vodka and the Polish Vodka Museum
In the restored Koneser complex in Praga, a former vodka factory, the Polish Vodka Museum explains the history of Poland's national spirit with tastings. The complex also has restaurants, bars and a hotel.
Neon Museum
In the Soho Factory in Praga, the Neon Museum preserves the glowing neon signs of Cold War-era Poland, rescued from shops, cinemas and cafés. It is a colourful look at socialist graphic design.
Day trips
Żelazowa Wola, Chopin's birthplace, is an hour away. Kampinos National Park, on the city's edge, offers forests and dunes. Łódź, with its industrial heritage and Manufaktura complex, is 75 minutes away by train. Kraków can be reached in just over two hours by high-speed train.
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