Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD
After a long day of travel, it was already early evening by the time we arrived at the Krakow airport. While planning our trip we had considered public transportation from the airport to the hotel but had decided to just use an Uber (or Bolt) and that turned out to be a good decision. Though it wasn’t raining at the time we were waiting for our ride, it had been raining a good part of the day. Be aware that the ride share pickup area is not covered.
Location
The hotel is located on the eastern side of the city so it’s about a 40-60 minute drive from the airport during evening rush hour. It’s not particularly close to the Old Town (Rynek Główny) but it’s about a 10-minute walk to the tram that runs along Mogilska street. The sidewalk along this route is inconsistent and sometimes quite bumpy so I would not want to be dragging my suitcase this way. In addition, it’s not well lighted in the evenings so I would be wary of walking this way even though it’s not a particularly busy road but it still might be difficult for cars to see people walking.
Hampton by Hilton, Krakow
The hotel is just around the corner from the Dąbski KS Kraków, a local sporting club, and there are associated athletic fields across the road from the hotel. Even though our room faced these fields, we never experienced much in the way of noise (they seemed to be mostly practice fields) and even the lights did not bother us in the evening.
The Hampton is connected to the DoubleTree just next door and the hotels share some facilities as I’ll explain. In general that’s a good thing for those staying at the Hampton.
On the Sunday of our visit (the second Sunday in October), there was a running race that I believe began at the Decathlon (Sporting Goods) Plaza not far from the rear of our hotel. There were quite a few runners staying at both the Hampton and the DoubleTree. When we walked down to Mogilska on Sunday, we found we were trapped on our side of the street until enough runners passed that the police would allow us to cross the street. I’m going to guess, based on bib numbers, that there were about 16,000 runners. It was a good 30 minutes before we were able to cross and even then the tram was not running in our area so we had to walk a good portion of the way to the Old Town.
Welcome and Lobby
When we arrived were helped promptly by an available associate. My Gold status was noted and I was given a coupon good for a free soft drink and snack from the mini-mart.
While it wasn’t mentioned at check-in I later learned that if you want to charge anything to the room you must first leave a card on file and they’ll do a preliminary charge of 100 PLN (about $29 USD). Once that’s done you can charge items from the bar/restaurant at the Hampton or at the DoubleTree. This is a nice way to double-dip points! By charging it to the room you can earn Hilton points and then you’ll earn points on whatever credit card you use to pay the room charges.
The lobby was home to two seating areas. Both the larger one and the smaller one were available during breakfast, while only the smaller one, on the near side of the TV in the photo below, was lit up in the evenings. There was also a high-top table near the bar (which I never felt comfortable photographing as there was always someone there). The Station Restaurant is open from 4-10 PM while the bar stays open an extra hour.
The area beyond the TV was only open during breakfast.
The bar does offer a limited menu. While this is not usual for a Hampton in the US I suspect it’s due to its proximity to the DoubleTree. At any rate my friend and I were so tired we didn’t even want to think about going out so we split a pizza and it was hot and fresh and very good.
Guest Room
We were assigned a room on the second floor. There are only two fairly small elevators but at least they move pretty quickly. Upon reaching the second floor we turned right out of the elevator and then right again.
Second Floor Hallway
Our room, 208, was almost to the end of the hall, before it turned right yet again.
The room was normal size for Europe, which is to say it was smaller than we’d expect from a room in the US. It had the standard layout with the bathroom and closet on one side and then then bed area beyond that.
We’d requested a room with two beds and even though they’re billed as twin beds, they’re somewhat larger than twins but smaller than double beds. They were pretty firm, which I liked, though my friend preferred something softer.
Twin Beds
Between the two beds was a night stand. It had two electrical outlets, which was nice. What appeared to be a top drawer actually folded out and that’s where the safe was. There was an additional drawer underneath that.
Across from the beds was a shelving unit on which the TV sat. The shelf below had the coffee and tea setup. On either end of the unit were a couple more electrical outlets, which was very nice. The desk was a semi-circle with the flat edge against the wall and a large mirror hung over that. The room did require a key card in the slot above the light switch by the door, but we used a similar card that wasn’t a room key and fortunately the housekeeping team left it alone.
Across from the closet was a full-length mirror.
The bathroom had a very heavy sliding door with opaque glass. When the door was closed the closet space was opened. The closet had an iron and ironing board, a luggage stand and quite a few hangers.
The bathroom had the shower on the left side, the vanity with mirror in the middle and the toilet on the right side.
The hand soap and lotion were in wall-mounted dispensers beside the sink.
We so often see the “half glass panel” on showers in Europe, which does a lousy job of keeping the shower spray inside the glass. The glass panel on this shower was curved, which definitely helped, as did the fact that the shower floor had a tiny little lip on it, which kept the water from running out too badly.
I really liked that not only was the shower head a hand-held unit, the holder for it could easily be adjusted up and down and the spray itself could be made stronger or gentler as desired. The shower controls were quite easy to use as well, with one control for the temperature and the other turning the water on and off.
Toiletries were in wall-mounted units at the back of the shower. They were Spa Therapy Water L’eau brand and did the job, though the conditioner was especially hard to get out of the container. I was just happy to see three separate products for shampoo, conditioner and body gel vs. some places we visited last year that had a single product for all three functions!
Across from the toilet was a shelving unit where the clean towels were rolled up. Even though we hung up our towels each day, they were still refreshed daily by housekeeping. A heated towel rack was above the shelves.
My biggest complaint about the bathroom is the lack of counter space or storage space. I have too much stuff in my toiletry kit to fit all the little pockets so I can’t hang it up and the counter space was really too narrow to leave it just sitting there, especially when we set out a glass to use as a toothbrush holder. I also hate the garbage can where you have to step on the pedal but that’s just a personal gripe.
Common Areas
As the Hampton and the DoubleTree are connected, that means they also share many of the amenities. The hallways on both the ground floor and the lower level where the gym, pool and spa reside connect both hotels.
Meeting Area
This open-air meeting area was sometimes used at breakfast and at other times of day I’d see people working in here. The hotel also had some private conference rooms of various sizes. The neighboring DoubleTree was an actual conference center with many more conference rooms.
Kids Room
On the ground floor is this kids room complete with a surprisingly large ball pit complete with its own slide. Looks like it would be fun for the little ones to run around and expend some energy.
There was also this kid-sized table where it looks like maybe they play office or something. And an adult-sized sofa for supervision.
Gym, Spa, and Pool
As the saying goes about communism, “everyone is equal but some are more equal than others” and that applies here. While guests from both hotels can use these amenities, those staying at the Hampton must pay 50 PLN (about $13.50), unless you have Gold status or above with Hilton Honors. If staying at the Hampton you must get a voucher from the front desk to take down to the representative for the gym, pool, and spa.
Gym
The gym was surprisingly large. It was not particularly wide but was pretty deep and had several different types of aerobic machines as well as weight/resistance training machines. The gym is open 24/7 and only to guests over age 16.
Pool
The pool was not very large but my photo only shows a portion of it as I was maintaining the privacy of guests using the pool. The pool opens at 6 AM and those age 16 and under must leave by 8 PM while adults may stay until 10 PM.
There was also a large hot tub that looked very inviting after walking around the Old Town all day long!
Breakfast
As mentioned above, breakfast is served in the lobby each morning and is complimentary for all guests. It opens at 6:30 AM and closes at 10 AM weekdays and at 10:30 AM on weekends and holidays. If you need to check out before breakfast opens (we did) they’ll fix you a sack breakfast. Just be sure to let them know a day ahead of time. I was impressed with what we got.
I was quite impressed with the breakfast spread compared to Hamptons in the US. While the buffet might not be up to the standards in Asia, for a limited service property I thought this was very well done.
Parking
If you’ll have a car, be aware there is a 60 PLN parking fee per day. You can pay at the machine at the DoubleTree entrance or let the front desk know and you can pay when you check out. I assume they give you some sort of tag to display on the dash.
In the end
While the location was not perhaps ideal for visiting the Old Town, the tram system was easy enough to navigate and a one-way ticket was only 4 PLN, or just over $1 USD. As long as you don’t mind walking the 10 minutes or so to the tram you’ll be fine.
The hotel itself served our needs quite well and while I might look for something closer to the Old Town next time, if I ended up back here that would be just fine.
2B Traveling 
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