Where to stay in Warsaw
Śródmieście keeps everything within walking distance. Praga, across the river, has cheaper evenings in genuine tenements, and Powiśle has quiet by the river below the escarpment.
- Śródmieście
- The centre
- Praga
- Across the river
- Powiśle
- By the river below the escarpment
In Warsaw you choose between three parts of town that behave quite differently once the sun goes down. Śródmieście keeps the Palace of Culture, the main station and the Old Town within walking distance. Praga, across the river, holds genuine 19th-century houses and cheaper evenings. Powiśle is the quieter quarter below the escarpment, by the river and the University Library. A hostel bed is €11–23, and the hotel price comes further down, with Śródmieście.
Everything within walking distance
Outside the door is a wide avenue, Marszałkowska or Aleje Jerozolimskie, with tram tracks down the middle and a mix of glass towers and socialist-era blocks. The main railway station, the Palace of Culture and the Old Town are all here, within half an hour on foot. You rarely need a taxi. A three-star hotel is €32–65 per person, sharing a double.
This is the quarter for a short stay, and for anyone arriving by train or plane with no plans for a car. If you want quiet in the evening you won't find it here, because the avenues carry traffic past midnight.
A lower price and genuine tenements
Across the Vistula begins Praga, whose facades came through the war as they were. The six-storey tenements have inner courtyards, and here and there a bullet hole still marks the plaster. Ząbkowska street is the quarter's spine, and around 11 Listopada street the courtyards open bars and clubs in old ground floors at night.
Praga is for anyone after a lower price and an evening out away from the tourist crowd. The Old Town is across the river, by tram or metro.
Quiet by the river, below the escarpment
The third quarter lies lower, below the escarpment, the ridge that separates Powiśle from the centre. From the escarpment you go down towards the Vistula by steps or a ramp, along a green street. Along the river itself run boulevards with bars that only open in summer, and above them is the roof of the University Library, with its garden. The Copernicus Science Centre is here too, within walking distance of Powiśle station.
Evenings here are quiet, and the river and the library are right there. With heavy luggage or a pushchair Powiśle is an awkward choice, because getting to the centre means climbing the escarpment.
- A car isn't worth it for where you sleep. The metro and tram cover all three quarters, and the city centre is a paid parking zone.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Which of the three quarters is the only one that needs no tram or metro at all?
Śródmieście. It's the only one where both the Old Town and the station are within walking distance, no transport involved.
Ready for Warsaw?
Where to next
What Warsaw costs
→A day in Warsaw per person, in euros — and two days in a row when the three big museums charge nothing.
Lublin · 153 km
→A city in eastern Poland whose castle chapel dates to 1418, with the Majdanek camp on its edge
How well does Warsaw suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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