Gdansk is an undiscovered gem in Europe. It’s a beautiful city with great museums and things to do. Here’s my guide to enjoying the best of Gdansk in 3 days.
Gdansk is a small city on the North coast of Poland. It has an international airport, with direct flights from many other European cities, including London. It’s a fairly small city, but there’s still plenty to do in Gdansk in 3 days.
Gdansk is a lot less tourist-y than many other European cities. It’s nowhere near as busy as some of the more popular cities like Prague, Vienna or Budapest. This means it can be more relaxing to walk around, as you won’t be battling with big crowds of tourists. It also means that Gdansk is more affordable than a lot of other European cities. You can get flights and hotels for a really good price. But even though Gdansk is less tourist-y than many other European cities, it’s still a really beautiful city with lots to do.
I think 3 days in Gdansk is perfect. You can see most of the highlights of the city in 2-3 days. And you’ll also have time for a day trip outside of the city if you want. You can easily explore Gdansk on foot or use the excellent public transport – there’s definitely no need for a car. So here’s my guide to exploring Gdansk in 3 days.
Day 1: Walking around the city of Gdansk
Start your first day in Gdansk by walking around the main sights in the city. The city centre of Gdansk is fairly small and compact, so you can easily see the main historic areas on foot. I thought Gdansk was a really pretty city, with beautiful buildings and also a nice river. A lot of the city was destroyed in World War Two, but it’s been beautifully restored in the historic style.
Golden Gate and the Royal Way
Start your walk around Gdansk city centre at the Golden Gate, Brama Zlota. This is one of the old gates into the city. It’s a really impressive structure, and a great place to start your walk around Gdansk.
If you walk straight through the Golden Gate, then you end up on the pedestrianised street called Ul Dluga. This wide, cobbled street is one of the main streets in Gdansk. There are lots of shops and restaurants on both sides of this street. It’s a lovely place to walk down and discover the shops and restaurants.
The street Ul Dluga is also a great place to admire the tall, colourful, gabled buildings that are iconic in Gdansk.
Dlugi Targ – the main square
Keep walking down Ul Dluga and you get to Dlugi Targ – the main square in the centre of Gdansk. I really liked this huge, impressive city square. The gabled buildings were so colourful all around the outside of the square.
A highlight in the Dlugi Targ city square is the Neptune Fountain. This fountain is a great place to take photos and admire the intricate carvings.
The square is dominated by the really impressive Town Hall building. This building has a really interesting history as one of the centres of the political world in historic Gdansk. You can get nice views from the steps of the Town Hall.
The Town Hall is really impressive from the outside. But it also has a museum that you can go inside. The museum inside isn’t huge, so you only need about half an hour to look around inside. But it’s a nice museum. You can see some of the old rooms where meetings used to happen.
And upstairs, there are some recreations of what some of the shops would have looked like historically. There’s also a really interesting display that shows some old photographs of Gdansk after the Second World War. The old photographs show the scale of the destruction of the city after the war. It’s amazing how beautifully restored the city is now after all the damage.
St Mary’s Basilica
Back outside, continue walking the short distance to St Mary’s Basilica. In Polish, it’s the ‘Bazylika Mariacka w Gdańsku’. It’s the main Cathedral in the city. And like many of the buildings in Gdansk, it’s impressive from the outside. It’s a huge brick-built cathedral.
Inside the cathedral is nice as well. It’s free to go inside and have a look around. It’s not as ornate as some Cathedrals around Europe, but I still thought it was nice. The astronomical clock is a highlight, as well as the impressive altar.
Gdansk river waterfront and Gdansk Crane
Another of my favourite areas of Gdansk is down by the river. The river runs very close to the centre of Gdansk, so you can reach the waterfront in a few minutes from the city centre.
The buildings along the waterfront are just as beautiful as those in the city centre, with the iconic gables and colours.
The Gdansk Crane stands out along the waterfront. The Gdansk crane dates back to the medieval times, from around the 15th century. It’s one of the best examples of a medieval crane in Europe. It really shows how important the maritime history is to the city of Gdansk. For so much of history, Gdansk was a really important port city with important industry.
As well as enjoying the views of Gdansk Crane from across the water, you can also go inside. The Gdansk Crane is part of the National Maritime Museum in Gdansk. This museum has various different sites across Gdansk, so the Gdansk Crane is just one part of the museum. Inside the Gdansk Crane, you can learn more about the maritime history of Gdansk.
Amber Sky at sunset
For some beautiful sunset views over the city of Gdansk, the ferris wheel called Amber Sky is perfect. It’s not a huge wheel, but it gives great views over the city. It’s only a short walk up the river from the Gdansk Crane.
Your ticket to the Amber Sky gives you about 10-15 minutes on the wheel, which is enough time for it to go around quite a few times – I didn’t count, but it was at least 5 times. It doesn’t move super fast, so you can enjoy the views and take some great photos. The views from Amber Sky are great during the day or night time, but I loved going at sunset for the sunset views.
Dinner at Pierogarnia Stary Mlyn
Gdansk is one of the best places in Poland to try authentic and affordable Polish food. There’s a great selection of Polish restaurants in Gdansk.
My favourite Polish restaurant in Gdansk is Pierogarnia Stary Mlyn. It’s a really popular restaurant – you often have to queue to get a table. But that just shows how good the food is!
The pierogi here is just amazing. There’s a great choice of fillings, with meat and vegetarian options. There are sweet fillings as well. And you can have pierogi that are steamed and then fried, or baked. Both are great! This restaurant also serves amazing potato pancakes as well with goulash stew.
Gdansk waterfront at night
After dinner, take a relaxing walk along Gdansk waterfront as night. I felt really safe walking around Gdansk at night. And I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful city all lit up at night.
Day 2: The best museums in Gdansk
On day 2 of your trip exploring Gdansk in 3 days, I recommend spending some more time enjoying some of the great museums that this city offers. Gdansk has a great selection of different museums. If you want to see all of them, then you’ll definitely need more than one day. I visited my top 3 in one day, and really enjoyed all of them. But I could easily have spent another day exploring more of the museums as well.
Breakfast doughnuts at Dobra Paczkarnia
Start your day with some breakfast doughnuts! Doughnuts are a speciality in Gdansk, so you should definitely try some during your time here. My favourite doughnuts are from the small bakery called Dobra Paczkarnia. There are the traditional small, round doughnuts which are just amazing. And they also do a selection of other doughnuts with a range of fillings, including Nutella, Kinder Bueno, Salted Caramel and more. I just loved the doughnuts here!
World War Two Museum
Undoubtedly the best museum in Gdansk is the extensive World War Two Museum. It’s a huge museum, with lots to see. You’ll need 3 hours, or more, to see this museum. As well as being very informative, it’s also incredibly moving and painfully sad.
The museum starts with explaining the origins of the Second World War, with the rise of the extreme ideologies following World War One.
The museum continues to tell the story of the start of World War Two, and how countries across the world got involved. There are examples of some of the weapons and military uniforms from the conflict.
As the museum continues, it gets even more sad and moving. There’s an excellent, but completely harrowing, section about the Holocaust. The museum explains how the Jewish people were treated in the concentration camps. Many of these concentration camps were in Poland. Walking around this museum, you really get a sense of the importance of this part of history for Poland and how the country is still recovering from the atrocities of the war.
There are exhibits showing some photographs that were taken at the concentration camps. And some artwork, done by the people who were living in these awful conditions. And a really moving display of photographs, showing the faces of Jewish people who were killed in such an awful, cruel way.
The museum was quite busy when I visited, but there was complete silence here. No one was talking at all. The only noise was the occasional sniff, as people were moved to tears.
Visiting the World War Two museum in Gdansk was truly moving and emotional. It’s such an important part of history that should never be forgotten. And this museum is excellent.
Amber Museum
For a more light hearted museum in Gdansk, I recommend the Amber Museum. Amber is important to Gdansk. One of the biggest sources of amber is in the Baltic Sea near Gdansk, so this precious stone is important to Gdansk. There are lots of shops selling amber all around the city. But the best place to see and learn about it is at the Amber Museum.
There are two floors at the Amber Museum. The first floor shows impressive pieces of amber that have been found near Gdansk. You can see pieces of Amber with creatures inside. And you can also read about amber and how it is made from tree resin.
The second floor of the Amber Museum in Gdansk is even more impressive. It’s almost like an art gallery that showcases how amber is used in culture.
There’s a chess set made of amber, and some other really impressive artefacts. The black background and lighting in the museum really makes the orange stone glow.
Gdansk Wax Museum
For a really fun museum in Gdansk, head to the Gdansk Wax Museum. It’s a great museum for all ages – suitable for children as well as adults.
There are wax sculptures of various famous people and fictional characters. Some of them are slightly questionable, but there’s always a sign to tell you who it’s meant to be! There are politicians, such as Boris Johnson and Barack Obama, and members of the UK royal family. There are famous singers and musicians such as Freddy Mercury. And there are fictional characters too, from Harry Potter and Star Wars and more.
On the upper floors of the museum there’s the horror section. I was surprised how scary this was, with horror-themed models and scenes that move and make you jump. There was a good mirror maze as well. It was scary, but good fun!
Dinner at Gdanski Bowke
After a day exploring some of the best museums in Gdansk, I recommend having dinner at another of Gdansk’s top Polish restaurants. The restaurant called Gdanski Bowke is right on the waterfront in the centre of Gdansk. It does a great selection of Polish food. I had amazing ribs with sauerkraut and dumplings. It was so good! And the beer here is great as well, so you can try some local Polish beer with your meal.
Gdansk city centre at night
After dinner, you can enjoy another evening stroll around Gdansk. The city centre looks beautiful at night.
I really enjoyed visiting the main square, Dlugi Targ, at night.
You can see the Neptune Fountain and Town Hall building lit up at night.
The streets around Dlugi Targ look lovely at night as well, especially the street Ul Dluga.
Day 3: Day trip from Gdansk to Malbork Castle
On day 3 of your time exploring Gdansk in 3 days, I recommend heading out on a day trip from the city. Of course, there’s more you could do in Gdansk, with many more museums to explore such as the National Maritime Museum. But there are lots of great places to visit that are an easy day trip from Gdansk.
In the summer, you can visit the seaside town of Sopot. It’s only about 20 minutes on the train from Gdansk city centre. And the beach at Sopot is beautiful. It’s a huge, golden sand beach. There’s a large pier as well. And Sopot is known for having great nightlife in the summer.
Another great option for a day trip from Gdansk is Malbork Castle. Malbork Castle is a great option for a day trip from Gdansk if you’re visiting outside of the summer season.
Getting from Gdansk to Malbork Castle
It’s really easy to get from Gdansk to Malbork Castle by public transport. There’s a direct train from Gdansk Glowny station to Malbork station. The train takes about 30 minutes – but some trains can be quicker or longer. Check out the train times here.
It’s a 20 minute walk from Malbork train station through the small town to Malbork Castle.
Malbork Castle
Malbork Castle is the largest brick castle in Europe. It’s a huge place – you’ll need at least 3 hours to explore it, but you could easily spend longer. You get an audio guide with your ticket which tells you the route to take around the castle. So you can listen to the information and then be directed to the next part of the castle to see.
The central courtyard of the castle was really impressive. There are multiple rooms to go inside as well, including an armoury. And there are several chapels as well.
The views of the castle from the river are great too – the outside of the castle is really impressive.
You can read my more detailed guide to taking a day trip from Gdansk to Malbork Castle by train here.
Hope you enjoy my guide to exploring Gdansk in 3 days! Make sure you also check out my detailed guide to the best places to eat in Gdansk. And if you’re visiting Gdansk at Christmas, check out my guide to the Christmas Markets in Gdansk. There are lots of other great cities to explore in Europe, including Vienna, Berlin and Prague.
