Warsaw

Castle Square to the Uprising Museum in 48 hours

Two days cover Warsaw's essentials. Start at the Royal Castle on Castle Square soon after opening, walk through the rebuilt Old Town Market Square into the New Town, and spend the afternoon on the Royal Route. Give the second morning to the Warsaw Uprising Museum in Wola, then POLIN in the old Jewish district.

Walk through the Old Town Market Square, where the merchants' houses were rebuilt from pre-war paintings, and carry on north into the quieter New Town. Before lunch, head south down Krakowskie Przedmieście past the university, then eat on or near Nowy Świat. Spend the afternoon in Łazienki Park, ideally on a summer Sunday when the Chopin recital is playing by the monument. Finish on the 30th-floor terrace of the Palace of Culture as the light goes.

Give the second morning to the Warsaw Uprising Museum in Wola, a short walk from Rondo Daszyńskiego on metro M2. It is dense, loud and moving, and three hours pass quickly. In the afternoon either continue to POLIN in Muranów or, if one heavy museum is enough, take bus 116 or 180 down the Royal Route to Wilanów and walk its formal gardens. Cross to Praga for dinner and a drink among the old factory buildings, or sit by the Vistula on the left-bank boulevards if it is warm.

Milk bars, pierogi and Saska Kępa dinners

Eat at a milk bar in Warsaw, a self-service canteen from the communist years serving pierogi, żurek sour rye soup and potato pancakes for very little; order at the till and collect at the hatch. Skip the Old Town square restaurants for dinner in Saska Kępa, and try the city's Vietnamese restaurants.

These self-service canteens, a survival from the communist years, serve pierogi, żurek (sour rye soup) and potato pancakes for very little, and several still trade in Śródmieście. Order at the till, take your receipt to the hatch and eat at shared tables. The food is plain and filling.

For something slower, avoid the restaurants on the Old Town square, which charge for the view. A few streets away the menus get more honest. The cafés around plac Trzech Krzyży, Nowy Świat and Chmielna are where Warsaw sits over coffee and cake, and Hala Koszyki, a restored market hall in Śródmieście, gathers many kitchens under one roof.

Vietnamese restaurants are a Warsaw speciality in their own right, the legacy of a large Vietnamese community, and a cheap, quick lunch. Over the river, Saska Kępa has a run of neighbourhood restaurants on quiet residential streets, and the city's more ambitious kitchens sit in Śródmieście away from the Royal Route.

Łazienki recitals, the 1 August sirens and winter museums

Warsaw has a continental climate, with January highs near 1°C and July and August highs around 25°C. Free Sunday Chopin recitals run in Łazienki Park from May to September, the city stops for the Uprising sirens at 17:00 on 1 August, and winter suits the big museums.

July and August reach around 25°C, but July is also the wettest month at roughly 80 mm, much of it in short summer storms. May, June and September are the sweet spot, warm enough for the river and park but rarely muggy.

The free Sunday Chopin recitals in Łazienki Park run from May to September, and the Vistula boulevards fill with bars and deckchairs over the same months. On 1 August, at 17:00, sirens mark the start of the 1944 Uprising and the whole city stops for a minute in the street. September brings Warsaw Autumn, a long-running festival of contemporary music, and every five years in October the city hosts the International Chopin Piano Competition. In December a Christmas market sets up in the Old Town, and the big museums become the obvious way to spend the short days.