Cheap hotels in Stare Miasto & Wawel, Krakow

One of Krakow's best theme-driven hostels, Goodbye Lenin Hostel takes the aesthetics of pre-1989 Poland as its focus.

City Hostel is that unusual beast, a hostel put together at an aesthetic level that few hotels manage. The entire hostel is beautiful if austere, like a super glamorous monastery.

Rooms are dorm-like, with light wood bunkbeds, naked walls, and utilitarian duvets. That said, while there's no question that these rooms are barebones, they're also quite new and clean.

Hotel Campanile, a cookie-cutter hotel abutting the Stare Miasto greenbelt, offers 106 rooms in an imposing, modern building.

The eight-room Pensjonat Trecius is one of our favorite pensions in all of Krakow. Hidden away in a gorgeous building on Św. Tomasza near the Old Town's Rynek Główny, it's a quiet and special little place.

Occupying a bewitchingly charming corner of Stare Miasto, Hotel Saski carries itself with the sophistication of a faded, grand old hotel. The century-old elevator is a showpiece, and the expansive, empty lobby calls to mind vanquished grandeur.

Old Town Studios manages a string of 40 apartments cast throughout Krakow's Stare Miasto. Apartments are fairly anonymous, with particle-board bed units, simple kitchen areas, and en-suite bathrooms.

One of three RT hotels in our Krakow listings, the 59-room RT Rezydent arguably has the best location of the mini-chain: It's a 30-second walk from Rynek Główny, Krakow's Main Market Square.

The 38 rooms of Bed & Breakfast feel as much like a hostel as the do a B & B.

Business hotels like PTTK Wyspianski may be a bit antiseptic for those chasing charm or authenticity. For the rest of us, sparklingly clean rooms, a bar on the ground floor, and proximity to Krakow's Main Square do the trick.

Hotel Jan is most notable for its location, smack dab in the center of the Old City. Rooms dispense with the need for stylistic intervention in favor of good, solid basic furniture.

Pollera's exquisite reception area is an art nouveau masterpiece. Rooms, as is so often the case, do not live up to the grandeur of the reception area, but they have their antique charms.

Wit Stwosz's 17 rooms are a bit more expensive than those in the average Krakow hotel, but the set-up is welcoming and deeply charming.

From the flat roof to the windows that appear to simply wrap around the building, the 48-room Pod Wawelem extends an enticing invitation to the modernism junkie in a city better known for its medieval and baroque heritage.

Hotel Classic is a self-consciously midrange hotel with some lovely amenities and a pleasant location just inside the Stare Miasto greenbelt, but it isn't a bargain by Krakow standards.

Sitting on the edge of splurge-worthy EuroCheapo territory, Hotel Wawel is a cut above most Krakow accommodations: Amenities, location, and ambiance all put it ahead of the pack.

The friendly La Fontaine Bed and Breakfast is one of the few Krakow hotels actually on Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square).