Poland · best May-June and September

Krakow

Krakow survived the war with its bones intact, so you get a real medieval core instead of a rebuilt facsimile — Wawel Castle brooding over the Vistula, a market square that still runs on the hour with a trumpet call cut short mid-note. It's cheap, it's serious about pierogi and vodka in equal measure, and Kazimierz after dark feels like the whole city let its collar down.