Entertaining Things to Do In Warsaw

An Overview of Warsaw

In the Eastern portion of Europe, the Polish capital of Warsaw stands tall. The metropolis is home to beautiful old town streets, peaceful central squares, lively parks hubs of science and culture and many cool museums. While the capital is a large, metropolitan area, it receives fewer tourists than other locations in Poland, making it easy to navigate and explore. There are many entertaining things to do in Warsaw, including experiencing a decent nightlife, trying out Polish cultural food and viewing the vast number of prominent monuments throughout the city.

Advice While Visiting Warsaw

Warsaw can be visited in two or three days with plenty of time left over to enjoy the local culture and food. English is widely spoken, making navigation easy.

Despite being a part of the European Union, Poland uses their own local currency called zloty.

Note that Polish people are very proud of their national identity, which has been the subject of various revival movements following their independence and long-sought freedom following the removal of the Soviet Union. Polish people don’t consider themselves Eastern Europeans, but rather as distinctly Polish.

Entertaining Things to Do In Warsaw

Old Town

This series of buildings, shops and restaurants makes up the core of Warsaw. The site is a faithful reconstruction of downtown Warsaw after the city’s devastating fate during Polish resistance fighting in WWII.  It is a brightly colored, extremely ornate portion of the city.

Old Town Market Square

An impressively faithful post-war replica reconstructed after the Luftwaffe destroyed the historic market district. The market square is home to the most famous of Warsaw’s legendary Mermaid (Syrenka) guardian statues.  

Pinball Station

This is a wonderful interactive pinball museum located in Warsaw. Visitors can enjoy playing games on the vintage machines.

Zoological Gardens (Miejski Ogród Zoologiczny w Warszawie)

The large walkthrough park that doubles as a serene home for various animals on the banks of the Vistula River. The park is free to enter and animals are kept in separate platforms in enclosures. Over 5,000 animals call the park home, including elephants, penguins, lions, zebras, hippos and more.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

A tomb honoring the many unknown defenders of Poland, errected in honor of those lost in WWI. The tomb was established in 1925 and remains a part of several important memorial ceremonies.

Saxon Gardens

The home of the distinct but never-rebuilt Saxon Palace, these large grounds are a shady, lush forested grounds traced with stone and flower lines. It is a popular green space in the center of the city with statues, fountains walking paths, several buildings and small lakes.

Royal Route

This is a fifteen kilometer route wandering through the center of Warsaw which visits a large majority of the monuments within Warsaw. It is considered the most expansive historical walking tour for experiencing Polish history in Warsaw. This is one of the most entertaining things to do in Warsaw.

Łazienki

This serves as the anchor point for the Royal Route. Łazienki is a sprawling park with amphitheaters, water features, old buildings and rows of grand old trees. It’s a beautiful area to visit and has many statues, monuments, fountains and historical markers vital to Polish history.

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

An astoundingly complete museum and historical record, this building houses the last millennium of history of Jewish culture. The Museum includes a grim additional exhibition recording the events which happened under Nazi Germany, including the Holocaust.

Warsaw Uprising Museum

In August of 1944, the Polish resistance attempted to overcome the five year Nazi occupation by aligning their efforts with the arrival of a Soviet ally and liberating force.  However, Stalin chose to hold back and force the uprising to operate independently for 63 days, until it’s defeat.  The current historical consensus states that Stalin had hoped to severely hobble the post-war anti-communist movement in Poland following the German crackdowns and executions.  This museum tells the story of Europe’s largest resistance movement in WWII

Palace of Culture and Science

An impressively stately building, Poland’s Palace of Culture and Science Art Deco building was a Stalinist-architecture, Soviet gift to the Polish people in 1955.

The Neon Museum

An eye-jarring display, The Neon Museum’s displays come from after the death of Stalin when Poland began entering an era of lessened repression. Western consumerism influence entered the Polish nightlife in the form of artistic, blazingly bright neon signs. These neon signs were eventually retired and restored in this museum.

Galleria Forty/Forty

A guerilla artistic gallery crafted in the depths of an abandoned fort, this location is a bit difficult to reach and is tucked out-of-the-way from mainstream sights in Warsaw

Mały Powstaniec (The Little Insurrectionist)

A tragically worthy monument depicting the 13-year-old soldier Antek, slain during the General Polish Uprising.  The monument is a homage to the many children soldiers of the nation.

Praga

A neighborhood in Warsaw once considered a seedy gangster portion of town, this is now the only area of Warsaw which remained intact following WWII

Okopowa Jewish Cemetery

Caked in ivy and cluttered with an immense number of graves, this cemetery is one of the largest Jewish graveyards in the world

Read more about seeing the world and other entertaining things to do in Warsaw by visiting the Leftfade Trails Blog.

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