The eight apartments in the Kazimierz Apartments family are run by the same management team that organizes Old Town Studios. Expect lush flats with huge bedrooms, roomy kitchens, and equally large common spaces.

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.

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

Karmel is one of the most gorgeous small hotels in Krakow. Located up a stairway in an impossibly cute corner of Kazimierz, the 10-room Karmel is a Krakow favorite.

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

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.

Hotel Logos gingerly straddles the line between impersonal Eastern Bloc monstrosity and quirky, retro Eastern Bloc artifact.

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.

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

Kazimierz's 35 rooms are basically run-of-the-mill, with a number of dainty touches that veer into fussy aunt territory, such as lacy curtains and a pink-orange color palette.

Hotel Eden is a medium-sized, 27-room hotel in Kazimierz dedicated to serving a highly observant Jewish clientele. Located in the heart of Krakow's old Jewish neighborhood on a cramped cobblestone street, Hotel Eden occupies a restored row of 15th-century buildings.

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.

Hotel Astoria, a 33-room hotel in the heart of Krakow's Kazimierz 'hood, is a fairly unremarkable midrange hotel with better than adequate rooms.

Barebones, baby. That's the Trzy Kafki Plus ticket. Encompassing 24 rooms on an anonymous street west of Stare Miasto, Trzy Kafki Plus is an ideal nesting place for backpackers and other budget-minded tourists.

Janexim is a funky guesthouse located just west of Stare Miasto. Encompassing 20 rooms (and an additional 10 apartments) Janexim feels more like a pension than a hostel.

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.

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.

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.