Michael Hardenfelt (E-mail: m@hardenfelt.pl) – Tour guide in Warsaw and the rest of Poland. Phone: +48 600 43 53 83

Dansk version

2 hours strolling in the centre of Warsaw

A two-hour Warszawa city tour aims to give you an impression of Warsaw, both as a historic city and as the capital of Poland – one of the great countries of Europe.

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Tour no. 1. Price: 350 zloty (25% Christmas discount – 260 zloty in December)

Always individual planning

It’s impossible to create a fixed formula for what such a trip includes, because it depends on your interests and whether you want to stroll or run. A group never moves faster than the slowest, and I often have guests with walkers or wheelchairs. They also need to be taken into account. A group of high school students, on the other hand, can move at an astonishing speed.

Start from the hotel

Usually, the Warszawa guide tour also starts at your hotel, which means that the tour will be planned according to where we start and where you might want to end.

Let me try to make an example of a trip where we move fast. In this case, we start either at Hotel Sofitel Warszawa Victoria, Hotel Bristol or Hotel Raffles Europejski Warsaw.

1. Pilsudski Square – an enormous square packed with symbols

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and plenty of other memorials. Here we hear about Poland’s freedom hero from the first World War and the 2010 Smolensk plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski died along with 96 other top political leaders in Polish society.

With Warszawa city tour to the old castle is being rebuilt on the square
Pilsudski Square – Poland’s large ceremonial square

2. At the Presidential Palace – one of the few buildings not destroyed during World War II

Here we get an account of the Polish president and what he is doing. We also talk about Thorvaldsen’s statues in Warsaw and the 1989 Round Table talks that led to the collapse of the communist regimes in Central Europe.

Warszawa city tour talks about the presidential palace
The presidential from 1643 was not severely damaged during WWII

3. Castle Square in the Old Town

Here we see the National Football Stadium from 2012, the rebuilt Royal Palace, the walls surrounding the city and the column of the Wasa King from 1644. Here I’ll tell you a little bit about kingship and nobility in Poland and Lithuania in the Middle Ages.

Warszawa city tour will show You the royal castle and the square
Castle Square in Warsaw

4. Cathedral and Jesuit Church – do Polish people go to church?

Through the old town we pass the cathedral and the Jesuit church. I tell you about the churches. We won’t go into them, but I will tell you about the position of the church in Poland.

Warszawa city tour take you around the cathedral in Warsaw Old Town
Next to cathedral in Warsaw we find the the Jesuit Church

5. The old Market Square with reconstructed town houses

Rynek or the old Market Square. Here I talk about the reconstruction of the Old Town in Warsaw after WW2. and some legends about the square. We also see the Little Mermaid, a Warsaw landmark.

Warszawa city tour takes you through the different legends from the square
The old city hall Square is called Rynek in Polish towns

6. Barbican – defending Warsaw in the middle ages

The division between the Old City and the New City. I talk about how the two cities came to be.

Warszawa city tour walks around the defense system in Warsaw Old Town
Barbican as a part of the walls and the defense system

7. Monument to the Warsaw Uprising – suicide or heroism

About the uprising against the Germans in Warsaw in 1944, how the Red Army and Stalin dealt with the uprising and how the Polish people see and have seen it. In the same place we see the Military Cathedral and the Krasiński Palace.

Warszawa city tour talks about the Warsaw uprising
Monument to the Warsaw uprising

8. The Supreme Court and political conflicts in Poland

Here I talk about the legal system in Poland and the political controversies surrounding the courts in Poland.

Warszawa city tour talks about the judicial reforms in Poland
This is where we talk about the judicial reforms in Poland, that has split the Polish society

It’s a compressed programme and I can’t promise that we’ll be able to do everything, but I’ve also had groups where we’ve gone even further.

I let the group set the pace and I answer any questions you want to ask.

If you haven’t written anything about what you’d like to see, I’ll ask about it when we start, and I’m also usually good at guessing what people are interested in.

Write to me at m@hardenfelt.pl to arrange a guided tour in Warsaw