Many tourists come to Krakow by plane and the number of passengers at the Krakow airport is constantly growing. After landing in Balice you need to get to the city centre of Krakow. How to get from the Krakow Airport to the Krakow Old Town and Market Square? How to get from Krakow city center to the airport Balice? Here is a guide and all the easy ways to get to Balice and the centre of Krakow. How to get to Krakow Airport?
Uber, Bolt, taxi
The easiest and most obvious way to get from Krakow Airport to Old Town or from city center to the aiport is to order a taxi, Bolt or Uber. Everything has already been written about the honesty or lack thereof of taxi drivers in Poland, so we won’t write about it here, we refer you to the local media.
To get from Krakow airport to the city centre, it is also possible to take a taxi collected at a taxi stand near the airport entrance. Rides tend to be more expensive in such cases. There is Airport Taxi from 29 PLN for the ride up to 4,9 km from the airport, 49 PLN for 5 to 8,9 km ride, 69 PLN for 9-12,9 km. It is possible to get to and from the airport cheaper.
As a reminder, there is a Bolt and Uber service in Krakow, but even with prices lower than taxi prices in Krakow these are not the cheapest ways to get to the airport either. Krakow airport is located in a town away from Krakow, so the cost of getting there is higher.
Public transport bus
You can get from Krakow city center to Krakow airport and from the airport to the centre by public transport. After landing you need to go to the Krakow Airport bus stop in Balice. There are two daily lines to the city departing from this stop – line 208 leading to the Krakow Glowny railway station. On your way to the centre, get off the bus at the Pl. Inwalidów stop. Here you can comfortably change to another means of transport as it is only a few tram stops to the Market Square in the Old Town district.
If you go all the way to the end, you will pass the Galeria Krakowska building, from where it is easy to get to the railway station and Market Square. Alternatively, you can just take a quick walk towards the Main Market through the Karmelicka Street from Pl. Inwalidów.
You can also take bus line 252 from Krakow Aiport to Osiedle Podwawelskie. Bus stops closest to the city center are called: Muzeum Narodowe and Jubilat.
There is also a night bus to the airport. The bus line number is 902. This is a night bus running from 11:25 pm to 4:55 am. The night bus from the airport actually runs every hour. It goes around Blonia and the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) to the main railway station (Dworzec Główny). The best way to get to the centre is to get off at the Bagatela Theatre (Teatr Bagatela) stop and the best way to get to the airport is to wait for the bus on this stop. Tickets can be purchased on the bus by paying by card.
Train from Krakow Glowny railoway station to Balice Airport
One of the most convenient ways to get to the centre of Krakow and from the centre of Krakow to the airport is a train. The train runs on the route from Wieliczka Rynek to Krakow Airport. The train, operated by Koleje Małopolskie, stops at the Krakow Glowny railway station in the center of Krakow and finishes it’s run at the station by the airport.
The train ride takes about 20 minutes and a ticket for the train to the airport from the city center of Krakow costs not more than 3,30 EUR. The railway station at Kraków Airport is located behind the car park.
Getting by minibus or bus
There are also minibuses and buses from the Krakow bus station (Małopolski Dworzec Autobusowy) to the Krakow airport in Balice. Buses run daily. There are buses of companies such as Neobus, Flixbus, Leo Express and private minibuses that will get you to the aiport. However, the travel time here depends on the traffic jams in Krakow. At rush hour it can therefore take a long time to get there.
Usually the trip from MDA takes about 30 minutes, but if you don’t want to be late for your flight, it’s better to plan an earlier departure from the city center. The price of a minibus to the airport is around 3,30 EUR, so if you are travelling with several people it may turn out that it’s cheaper to choose Uber or Bolt.
Getting to Balice by car
The airport terminal in Balice near Krakow is located at 1 Kapitana Mieczyslaw Medweckiego Street. The airport is situated about 11 kilometres west of Krakow city centre, not far from A4 motorway. If you’re travelling by car, we don’t need to explain how to get there – you can enter the airport address into your car’s navigation system. At Krakow Airport you can leave your rented car or park your car in one of the many car parks located nearby.
How to get to Krakow airport – summary
The airport in Krakow is not too close, but also not too far from the city centre, so getting there is not as complicated as from some airports located in large Western European capitals or smaller but attractive tourist regions.
Thanks to the relatively short distance from Krakow’s Main Square, getting there even by public transport is not too complicated and takes about 30 minutes. You can get from the airport to the centre and from the centre to the airport by quite efficient public transport or using Uber, Bolt or taxi.
It’s better not to use private companies operating shuttle buses because they can be very expensive in compare to the described methods.
The current timetables from the Balice airport can be checked on the websites of MPK Kraków (mpk.krakow.pl/en), Koleje Małopolskie (malopolskiekoleje.pl/index.php) and the official website of the bus station (rozklady.mda.malopolska.pl/?lang=eng) in Kraków respectively. If you read in Polish you can also read polish article on how to get to the Krakow Aiport on one of polish travel blogs (Jak dojechać na lotnisko w Krakowie?).
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