Not worth the money!

The hotel is referred to by the "locals" as the most expensive in Krakow but it was definitely not worth the expense. We were very disapponted with the hotel when my colleague and I stayed in September 05. Despite paying the travel agent for a twin deluxe we were initially given a room on the 3rd Floor with a dreadful view. The room was certainly not the standard we had expected and only had a shower and no bath. When we asked to be moved we told that the hotel only had three twin rooms (we were later told they had five) and we could not be moved. After two nights we were still unhappy and after discussion with the manager, who was very helpful, we were moved to a lovely room overlooking the street. Although this room had a bath it only had a hand held shower. However we had to move back to our original room for the last night of our stay.

It's worth noting that rooms on the 3rd are really in the roof and the ones overlooking the street have skylights and tiny windows whilst the ones at the back have an awful view. Some of the rooms on the first and second floor have internal windows and overlook the atrium and have very little natural light.

The roof terrace was pleasant but despite a view of the castle did not live up to expectations. The roof terrace closed at 10pm as it is directly over one of the third floor rooms. Although you can get a drink late at the hotel, there is little atmosphere in the bar. Many of the rooms overlook the bar area so you have to be very quiet if you are have a late evening drink.

However the staff were very hlelpful and the standard of housekeeping was very high. Bed linen was changed daily and towels twice a day. Dinner in the restaurant was excellent.

We would only stay at the hotel again if I could be certain of getting a room on the first or second floor overlooking the main street. If you are thinking of staying there contact the hotel and check the room you are being given.

Thanks TripAdvisor for this one.

I researched hotels in Krakow before our trip this month, and chose the Copernicus. We got there at 6AM in the morning, after an overnight train trip from Prague (don't do that unless your are really a determined train rider - security checks at the Border at 2AM, smelly bathrooms). We were pretty well done in, and the taxi wandered down a little alley to the hotel, lead me to the front door with a little fear. It was not warranted. THis place is great! They got us to our room, even though we were hours early, fed us breakfast (fabulous spread), and to bed we went. Fabulous surroundings, beautifully configured, and courteous staff. What more can one ask. Stay here, you can't go wrong at any price.

Beautiful hotel in a fantastic location.

If you want to stay somewhere steeped in the history of Krakow (and let's face it - this is what you're here for) then this is the place to stay.

If you are looking for a bland corporate chain hotel this is not the place for you.

On the other hand, if you love to stay in a character filled, beautifully restored old building, with all the modern amenities, small enough to fall into the boutique category hotel, yet with amazingly large rooms - this is definitely the place for you.

Located in one of the many pretty streets in the old town and only a minute's walk to Wawel Castle, this hotel pretty much has it all.

The rooms are very large, with wooden floorboards, lovely wooden furniture to match, pretty flower boxes outside your windows (which open), air-conditioning, mini bar and a luxioursly large marble bathroom which contained a great multi-headed shower - fantastic for an all-over massage after a long day's travel.

Nice touches were the chocolates on your pillow at night, lots of L'Occitane amenities, fluffy white robes and slippers. Beds were large wooden semi-poster style, ensuring a restful nights sleep.

Together with all this was the lovely outdoor rooftop patio/bar area, which had amazing views over Krakow, a glass-topped atrium courtyard within the hotel where you enjoy a very hearty breakfast (ours was included in the rate), and a fantastic swimming pool in what appeared to have otherwise been the wine cellar in this gorgeous old building.

The service was great - how could we complain, after booking the hotel for two nights and having missed our connection, we rang the hotel late that afternoon to ask if we could cancel the first night and they immediately agreed without any surcharge!

An interesting hotel with the best of both the old and modern, very stylishly delivered - not cheap, but then most great things aren't!

Highly recommended.

Central, quiet and relaxing

I stayed for 4 nights in May 05. I originally booked into the Radisson, but it was overbooked and they moved me to the Copernicus. It was a lovely quiet hotel. The inner courtyard was covered in with glass and created a great atmosphere. The room on the 2nd floor was an adequate size, but the shower room was lovely. There's a roof terrace with lovely views of the Wawel. Great place to unwind with a beer. It was handy to be staying so central, but Krakow is a small place and everywhere is central!

Tasteful and well located

I checked out the reviews on several sites prior to going to Hotel Copernicus and the ones on Trip Advisor nearly made me cancel but we perserved and are we glad we did! This is an important heritage building, tastefully restored - modern yet managing to offer a contemporary flair - a superb location in what the tour guides still refer to as the most charming and historically important street in Krakow. our room was one of the biggest we have ever had outside of the USA. sure the maid kept insisting on turning up the heat ready for our return, but we just used the temperature dials on the wall and turned it right back down again. I loved the heavy velvet and silk brocade drapes which I had to use all my strength each day to pull back to let in the light and the furniture was beautiful wood to match the floors and ceiling. A luxurious marble bathroom with power shower ( no bath but we shower so no complaints there) and a breakfast location which made us look forward to sitting there each morning with ample choice provided. It was November and the best time to avoid the crowds that are starting to discover this wonderful city. Having been three times already, we will be back - and it will be the Copernicus again. This is no ordinary hotel, so don't measure it against those homogenous chains.

Overpriced

Seriously overpriced. Try Pollera or Elektron for 50% less.

Difficult to judge

A difficult hotel to judge. We stayed for four nights and would rate the rooms and common areas as five star - a real medieval atmosphere - entirely appropriate for a 15th century building although lighting could have been more inventive in common areas. Some rooms were dark but we were lucky and had a room on the top floor overlooking the back but plenty of light - rooms lower down would have been darker unless you overlooked the street. Shower was fantastic!

Staff were at best anonymous and nobody seemed to be in charge. The first morning we went down to breakfast, the dining area was full (35 seats for potentially 60 customers?) and we had to wait for a table - a young waitress acknowledged us but was clueless as to how to solve the problem and there was no supervisor to help her.

On another occasion the waiter was totally disinterested so we had to ask for milk with our tea and he was busy talking to someone else while taking our order.

Reception staff did not acknowledge you when you were going in and out of the hotel (it was quiet) and really the whole atmosphere was impersonal and would not make you want to return.

With cleverer use of lighting to brighten up the atrium and some of the bedrooms and a trained, friendly staff, this would have achieved a five star rating but whoever is running the place must improve the way their staff interact with customers (except for the chamber maids who were always friendly) - nobody seemed to be keeping an eye on them. The staff get two stars and the hotel itself five stars hence my averaged rating of three star overall.

Overpriced

We stayed here for five nights in August 2004. We knew we were paying a lot for accommodation in Krakow, but thought it would be worth it - it wasn't. The staff were unhelpful, we were originally given a room with a shower and asked for a room with a bath as we had a young child with us. They asked us to pay extra, and when we refused they said they'd try to sort something out. We waited an hour but no-one came back to the room. Eventually we went down to reception to ask what was happening, and got a room with a bath (without external window). The roof terrace bar wasn't open throughout our stay, and the bar on the interior courtyard shut at 11pm (despite at least two guests asking the staff if they could serve drinks). There is no room service. Breakfast service is slow. There are no tea and coffee facilities in the room, not too bad if you manage to get someone to give you a couple of cups of coffee at breakfast - but it's difficult here. The swimming pool and fitness suite is unattended and frankly strange. It isn't a welcoming hotel. The location of this hotel is fantastic, but I just don't understand why they don't open the roof terrace with the view over Wawel Castle and improve the service.

Wonderful Hotel

We stayed at the hotel in early April and thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. The staff was friendly and reasonably knowledgable about the city. The pool was also closed when we visited, which was a little disappointing but nothing too major. The rooms had very high ceilings with exposed beams. We upgraded to a "nicer" room which was larger than we needed. However, we had a shower rather than a tub. The location is excellent for roaming around the city and the breakfast was quite nice.

We had the hotel arrange a driver to pick us up from the airport which was about 16 EUR and we paid him extra to take us to Auschwitz and the Salt Mines - all in all lasting about 7 hours and not costing too much.

Our upgraded room was about 130 EUR per night. We will definitely stay here again if we make it back to Krakow.

Great location, but some shortcomings

Excellent location, situated at foot of the castle on Krakow's oldest street, just a few minutes walk from the Market Square. The hotel has a pleasant, well-designed, internal, covered courtyard, where breakfast area, bar and restaurant are situated.

Room 104 was of reasonable size, furnished in antique style - too antique and not particularly comfortable, with lighting which was too dull. Worst feature was the excessive heat in the room, at end of March. Turning off the heating and opening the windows facing onto the interior courtyard did little to alleviate the heat.

Very well equipped bathroom with bathrobes and plenty of towels and shampoos, but only a hand-held shower. Getting into and out of the bath might be a problem for elderly or infirm guests due to the very wide bath ledge which one had to climb over.

At the end of March the indoor swimming pool and panoramic roof terrace were both closed, inaccessible to guests.