We had a good-sized double-bedded room and buffet breakfast included in our room rate of 150 zł per room per night (£29/US$37/€34). The hotel was tucked away and overlooked a small courtyard which meant it was nice and quiet.
We stayed at the Bristol Hotel, which is located near the top end of Sienkiewicza Street.
The palace is now a museum and inside the lavish rooms have plenty of exhibits dating back to that period, while the large garden at the rear of the building is very picturesque indeed.Īrt installation, Kielce Where to stay in Kielce Located in the town centre, the palace was built as a summer residence for the Bishops of Krakow and dates back to the 17th century. So, here’s the bonus – Kielce is worth visiting even if you don’t want to see its space-age bus station.įor normal people, the highlight of the city is undoubtedly the Palace of the Krakow Bishops. What else is there to see and do in Kielce? Visiting the bus station is easy as it is located just to the left of the main entrance to Kielce’s railway station in the north-west of the city.
The good news is that, since our visit, the city authorities have bought back the bus station from its current owners and have plans to renovate it to its former glory. It definitely is a unique-looking bus station and most certainly resembles a UFO. In fact, I even challenge Polish speakers to give that one a shot :-). I challenge anyone who is not Polish to try pronouncing it. (*) PKS is short for Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej. The local authorities, who viewed the building as an important Kielce landmark, urged the new owners to undertake repairs and renovate the bus station, but they refused, claiming that they were running at a loss as it was and couldn’t afford to invest in the building. In post-communist Poland the structure was privatised, having formerly been owned by the PKS public transport company (*), and it is during this period (with the advent of more private vehicles and less Polish people using public transport) that the bus station fell into a state of disrepair. When it was designed and built (between 19), Kielce bus station was considered to be state-of-the-art and could apparently accommodate 1,500 buses and up to 24,000 passengers daily but, when we visited in September 2015, the building was looking very sorry for itself. It wasn’t very busy when we had a poke around, in fact, I’d go as far as to say that the place was darn right depressing. You’re reading a blog by a bloke who has admitted he is officially obsessed with communist-era architecture and all things retro so of course, in my opinion, the bus station in Kielce is well worth seeing. Even regular trains take 3 hours or less to cover the 294km that divides Warsaw and Krakow but if, like us, you enjoy slow travel and want to see beyond the major tourist destinations, then Kielce is a decent enough overnight stop. Regular buses take between 5 and 6 hours to complete the journey, while super-fast, bullet-nosed trains can travel the distance in as little as 2 hours, 18 minutes and will get up to speeds of 200km per hour. There isn’t really any need to break the journey between the two cities. (*) Excerpt from Lonely Planet Poland guidebook, published March 2016 Yep, we are strange like that sometimes but when Lonely Planet make such a headline-grabbing statement as Kielce is home to what is arguably Poland’s coolest bus station – a retro-futuristic, UFO-shaped building that dates from the 1970s, that’s us hooked I’m afraid and we wanted to see it for ourselves.
So I have to admit, we broke the journey between Krakow and Warsaw because we wanted to see a bus station. Near Kraków: St.Kielce – a small Polish town, perfectly placed to overnight and break up the journey between two of Poland’s greatest cities.Including self-guided Royal Way walk and Kazimierz walk, and tours of Wawel Cathedral, Wawel Castle, the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art, and Schindler's Factory.Inside you'll find in-depth, Rick-tested information on the best sights, hotels, and restaurants for: So if all you want is the best of Poland, this compact Snapshot guide delivers everything you'll need to know - for about half the price and half the bulk. Rick Steves Snapshot: Kraków, Warsaw & Gdańsk contains all the complete chapters on Poland, excerpted from Rick's full-length Eastern Europe guidebook - and leaves out the chapters on other Eastern European destinations.
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