Senacki Hotel

Constructed on medieval foundations following a devastating fire, the four-story building this hotel occupies is a creamy 19th-century number blessed with tall, well-ornamented windows and a broad balcony overlooking the Royal Route. Inside, intimate seating areas found in both the hallway and little lobby have a restrained elegance, though there's nothing particularly memorable in the decor. But the low-key guests who book rooms here -- a mix of vacationers and business types -- need only descend to the 14th-century cellars to see evidence of the Senacki’s distant past. The facilities they contains (including meeting, fitness, and breakfast rooms) have brick or stone walls and evocative arches that give them a time-warped appeal.

Hotel Senacki sits on a busy pedestrianized street in the historic heart of Krakow, about midway between the Main Market Square and Wawel Castle. As a result, it provides easy on-foot access to all of the sites and services located within the so-called "Green Circle" (the parkland ring encircling Old Town). Efficient trams and touristy hop-on/hop-off shuttles are widely available if you want to visit farther-flung attractions on the other side of the Wisla River, like the building which houses both Oskar Schindler’s Factory Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK). Airport and train station transfers can be arranged directly through the hotel; ditto for tour guides and car or bike rentals.

• Five-minute walk to Rynek Główny (Main Market Square)
• Seven-minute walk to Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral
• Eight-minute walk to Collegium Maius (Jagiellonian University)
• 10-minute walk to the Czartoryski Museum
• 10-minute walk to St. Florian's Gate
• 12-minute walk to the Kazimierz (Old Jewish Quarter)
• 15-minute walk to Krakow Glowny Railway Station
• 17-minute walk to Galeria Krakowska
• 17-minute walk to the National Museum in Krakow
• 18-minute walk to the ICE Krakow Congress Centre
• 17-minute drive to Oskar Schindler’s Factory Museum and MOCAK 
• 21-minute drive to John Paul II Krakow-Balice International Airport

Despite occasional flashes of zebra print and cow hide, no one would call the guest rooms here “hip.” However, all 20 air-conditioned rooms are clean, comfortable and outfitted with minibars, tea/coffeemakers, free bottled water, digital safes, flat-screen TVs with satellite channels plus reliable free Wi-Fi. Some get a bit more added character from original architectural features (antique moldings here, an exposed beam or sloped ceiling there), while others offer views of St. Peter and St. Paul (a beautiful Baroque church on the opposite side of the street). Suites add higher-quality furnishings, separate living rooms and, in certain cases, a balcony; they have bigger, better bathrooms, too, which offer up shower/tub combos rather than the standard standalone showers. On the flip side, Single Rooms provide budget options for solo travelers that require little more beyond a twin bed, a writing desk, and a snug bathroom.

Although the hotel is geared mainly toward tourists, it also caters to business travelers by providing a trio of multifunctional meeting rooms in medieval marketplace cellars that are located beneath the present-day building. The same atmospheric area houses a tiny workout room with a treadmill and a stationary bike plus a vaulted, brick-walled breakfast room where a sustaining free buffet complete with made-to-order items is laid out each morning. If hunger hits later in the day, the hotel shares its premises with a ground-floor cafe and a restaurant specializing in classic Polish cuisine. Other on-site features include a round-the-clock reception desk; concierge, dry-cleaning/laundry and basic business services (i.e. faxing and photocopying); plus free Wi-Fi.