Wawel Castle tickets: every route is its own timed ticket, from 47 PLN to 95 PLN, and the Cathedral is a separate ticket

💡 The Short Version: Wawel sells every route as its own timed ticket: 95 PLN for the Castle’s first and second floors together (about £18.50, audio guide included), 57 PLN for one floor, and 47 PLN for the Castle Underground, the Crown Treasury or the Armoury. The Cathedral is a separate 26 PLN ticket that the Castle does not sell. Online tickets are released a month ahead and are valid on the day only. The Castle’s second floor and the Crown Treasury are free on Mondays in October and December, by pass at the windows. The Dragon’s Den and the viewing tower close on 31 October. Or book a tour: the Wawel Castle and Cathedral guided tourad (from £46) adds a guide, and the Wawel guided tour with entry ticketsad (from £29) includes the entry.

The tickets, compared

Prices are from the Castle’s what to see page, at about 5.15 PLN to the pound. The operator is wawel.krakow.pl, and its tickets are sold at bilety.wawel.krakow.pl. Look-alike ticket sites turn up in search results. The Castle accepts złoty only.

• Every ticket is timed. Daily limits apply, and the entry time printed on the ticket must be kept.
• A ticket is valid on the day of the visit only, and is sold until 10 minutes before the last entrance, or until the limit is reached.
• Concessions: children under 7 enter free with a free ticket collected at the window, and an adult with children aged 0 to 18 buys a reduced ticket. A fourth child aged 7 to 18 is free.
• Audio guide: 14 PLN extra on the routes that do not include one. It is in English, Polish, Ukrainian, German, French, Italian and Spanish, and the Castle recommends it for visitors over 12.
• A guide for an individual: the Castle sells a place in a guided group for the first floor, second floor, Treasury and Armoury at 20 PLN on top of the ticket, on a separate schedule and in limited numbers. Choose the date online, then “Wawel Royal Castle” and “museum visit”.

The Cathedral is a separate ticket

The Wawel Cathedral has its own ticket office and its own online shop, linked from katedra-wawelska.pl. The Castle’s ticket windows do not sell it.

• The online ticket comes from the Cathedral’s online shop, which katedra-wawelska.pl links to. It is valid for 14 days from purchase, with no booked day or time.
• Reduced means children and school pupils, students under 26, teachers, over-65s and holders of the Polish Large Family Card, with the document.
• Dress: cover your shoulders and back, and switch off your phone.

Wawel Cathedral and the Castle buildings on the hilltop. Photo: Kgbo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

How to buy Castle tickets

• Online: tickets are released a month ahead and are sold up to the day of the visit while the limit lasts. Buy at bilety.wawel.krakow.pl.
• At the windows: the ticket windows are in the Visitors Centre. If the online tickets have run out, the windows may still have some.
• On Mondays: free passes are collected at the windows only, until the pool runs out.
• Groups: a group needs a reservation by email at least 14 days ahead.

Free Mondays and Free November

On Mondays from 10:00 to 16:00 the Castle opens selected exhibitions free of charge, to individual visitors. Free passes are collected at the ticket windows and cannot be booked online.

During Free November selected exhibitions are free of charge on other days too. The Castle announces which ones in October on its what to see page.

The Arcaded Courtyard of Wawel Castle. Photo: Lloyd Tudor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tours worth paying for

The Castle’s tickets are enough for most visitors, and its audio guide comes with the main routes. The products below are on GetYourGuide, which is not the Castle’s own shop. Prices are its lowest “from” prices, per person.

A guided tour of the Castle and Cathedral

From £46 · 4.7 stars from 2,877 reviews · 1.5 to 2 hours

Krakow: Wawel Castle & Cathedral Guided Tourad is GetYourGuide’s biggest Wawel product. The Castle’s own tickets for the two floors and the Cathedral come to 121 PLN (about £23.50), so the price above is for the guide.

A guided tour with the entry tickets

From £29 · 4.3 stars from 417 reviews · 1 to 2 hours

Krakow: Wawel Castle Guided Tour with Entry Ticketsad is a skip-the-line guided tour with the entry included. One Castle floor is 57 PLN at the Castle (about £11), and the Castle’s own place in a guided group is 20 PLN more.

The Cathedral with an optional Castle

From £25 · 4.4 stars from 484 reviews · 2 hours

Krakow: Wawel Guided Tour – Cathedral with Optional Castlead covers the Cathedral’s underground royal tombs, and the Castle’s royal apartments if you choose that option.

What to see

Wawel Hill holds the royal castle and the cathedral with the Royal Tombs, about a 10-minute walk from the Main Market Square. The Castle’s routes are separate buildings and floors, so plan by the time each takes.

1. The Castle, first and second floors (about 110 minutes). The first floor holds the Royal Private Apartments and the Porcelain Cabinet, and the second the State Rooms and the Ottoman Turkish Tents. Book this one first, because its last admission is 120 minutes before closing.
2. The Cathedral (about 40 minutes with the bell tower). The Sigismund Bell and the bell tower are on the same ticket. The Royal Tombs take about 10 minutes and the Cathedral Museum about 20. The Sigismund Bell rings on 22 October (17:15) and 11 November (09:45).
3. The Crown Treasury (about 40 minutes). It holds Szczerbiec, the coronation sword used at almost every coronation of a Polish king from 1320 to 1764. The treasury’s jewels were melted down after 1795, so the room is mostly Old Polish silver, jewels and military trophies.
4. The Castle Underground (about 60 minutes). The Lost Wawel shows the archaeological reserve under the hill and the Renaissance tiles, and the Lapidarium shows stone sculpture dug up in the excavations.
5. The dragon route, to 31 October. The Dragon’s Den is a 10-minute cave visit, and Between the Walls is a walk along the defensive walls.

A chamber of the Dragon’s Den under Wawel Hill. Photo: Craig Nagy, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

What to skip: the Armoury, if you are short of time, since it takes 40 minutes and costs 47 PLN. The Treasury and the Cathedral together take about 80 minutes and cost 73 PLN (about £14). Wawel for Enthusiasts at 199 PLN suits only a visitor who plans a day on the hill.

Hours, rules and getting there

• Closed: the Castle on 1 and 11 November and from 24 to 26 December, and on 31 December except for the second floor and the Crown Treasury. The Cathedral is closed on Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday, 24 December and 25 December.
• Cathedral museums: the Cathedral Museum is closed on Sundays and holidays, and the Archdiocesan Museum on Mondays. The Cathedral’s ticket sale stops 30 minutes before closing.
• Bags: backpacks, large bags, umbrellas, strollers and Nordic walking sticks stay out of the exhibitions. The checkroom in the Arcaded Courtyard takes nothing larger than hand luggage.
• Quiet hours: Wednesdays from 15:00 to 17:00 on 7 and 28 October, 4 and 25 November, and 2 and 30 December 2026, with no group tours. The Castle’s first and second floors, the Treasury and the Armoury take part.
• Getting there: Wawel Hill is about a 10-minute walk from the Main Market Square and a 20-minute walk from the train and bus station. The nearest tram stops are Wawel and Stradom. No bicycles are allowed on the hill.

The Kraków Card does not cover Wawel. The Castle’s ticket is separate from the Cathedral’s, and what to book before you go to Kraków has the other bookings. The Main Market Square is a short walk away, with the Rynek Underground and St Mary’s Basilica. Kazimierz is the next district south, and 3 days in Kraków and Kraków in one day fit Wawel round the closed days. The Czartoryski Museum and Schindler’s Factory are the other tickets to book ahead. Kraków walking tours include Wawel on the Old Town routes. To sleep nearby, where to stay in Kraków compares the areas, and where to eat in Kraków lists places to eat. Kraków airport to the city centre compares the train and the taxi. Vistula river cruises leave from the pier below the hill, and show the castle from the water.