Christmas and New Year in Krakow

Krakow, Poland's cultural capital, is this Christmas offering a great - and usually festively snowy - location for a New Years Eve party.

The centre of life in Krakow, whatever the season, is the city's main square - Rynek Glowny. The bars that surround the square, and the cellars below, are where the night life starts.

In the run-up to Christmas, the square holds a Christmas market, where you can find a range of traditional Polish crafts, sweets and chocolates.

However, the highlight - and main draw for Poles in the cold weather - are the mulled wine stalls. However, you should be aware the warm wino grzaniec does have quite a potent effect, and it may be necessary to retire to some where warm.

If the market doesn't have want you want, then in the centre of the Rynek is the Cloth Hall or Sukiennice - the centre of trade in the city for over 500 years.

Throughout the year stalls sell amber jewellery, carved chess sets, Krakow emblazoned mechanise and folk handicrafts, all of which, rather surprisingly, is not sold at excessive tourist prices one normally finds across Europe.

Perhaps one reason for this is the fact the Sukiennice, the nearby gothic Mariacki church, and of course Wawel castle, with its tales of dragons and kings, are national icons in Poland - so Poles from across the country head to the city.

To keep warm during the day, the place you have to head is the cafes on Bracka street. Prowincja and Nowa Prowincja offer some great mulled wines, warm beers with cinnamon, unfeasibly thick hot chocolate and warm mead, as well as some of Krakow's best hot cakes, apple charlottes and desserts. The warm atmosphere attracts Krakow's celebs and students alike.

Come the evening the choice of dinner is wide enough to suit all budgets, although it is worth leaving the centre and heading to the Jewish quarter, Kazimierz. Originally a separate city from Krakow the streets around Ulica Szeroka hold some great bars and restaurants.

Within the centre and around the Rynek, great venues for a perfect night out include Club Re (relaxed indie crowd), Nic Nowego (modern Dublin styling), Wodka (only serving vodka and coffee, so don't ask for beer) and Lubu-Dubu (retro night out in a 1970s Polish flat).

There are also a number of more laid back places to find, such as the iconic-in-Krakow Harris Piano Jazz Bar on the main square. Within the city's walls – now replaced by Planty Park - there are over a hundred different pubs and clubs to discover with some even claiming Krakow has greatest number of pubs per square kilometre on Earth.

For New Year's Eve - or Sylwester as it is known in Poland - you have two options. Either you can stay in the Rynek for a mass rock concert and fireworks display, usually televised on Polish TV, or you can head to a bar.

One thing to note is most bars and clubs charge high entrance fee for Sylwester - and the best tickets sell out early - but usually for £40 or so you get a very good meal, bottles of vodka on the table, and somewhere to dance the night until dawn. You also avoid the tradition of smashing bottles in the main square.

Although you may fear the cold, what you must remember is to dress for the weather, with a thick jacket, multiple layers and two or three pairs of socks. However, the dry cold of Poland also means while the thermometer shows it is heading towards zero or below it does not feel so bad, and the mulled wine helps in the event.

Christmas in Krakow is a great experience to get in the festive mood, buy some unique Christmas gifts and have a fantastic party.

Daniel Barnes