Exploring Warsaw: 5 Ways to Enjoy Poland’s Newly Cool Capital

Modern Warsaw has come a long way in its post-Soviet years, and now offers Michelin-starred restaurants, fascinating museums, and kayaking on the Vistula River.

Evening falls over the city center, the Vistula River, and Swietokrzyski Bridge in Warsaw, Poland. Lukasz Pawel Szczepanski/Shutterstock

Warsaw, it must be said, hasn’t always been the coolest or nicest city to visit. Under communism, gray, brutalist buildings rose up all over town. The massive 1950s Palace of Culture and Science, built by the same architect in Stalinist “Seven Sisters” style, stood looming over everything to remind everyone of Moscow’s dominance over the Polish People’s Republic. People were so poor that they would steal the knives and forks from cafes, so those restaurants resorted to tying the utensils to the tables.

But in the decades since Solidarity, Lech Walesa, and the Revolutions of 1989, a new prosperity has arrived in Poland’s capital. And with it, optimism and creativity, and plenty to see and do. Here are five fun, interesting, quirky, and cool things to do in Warsaw.

Eat

Local chefs will tell you that before 1989, the food in this country wasn’t very good. And even afterward, it took a while for the standard to rise. State-run restaurants weren’t known for any sort of freshness or excellent techniques. A competitive chef’s culture simply didn’t exist. One chef told me that people were so wrapped up in finding the necessities of life that achieving any sort of culinary elevation was the last thing on their minds.