Exploring Wroclaw with Kids in 3 Days is a travel blog posts that recounts our adventures around gorgeous Wroclaw (Poland). We arrived in Wroclaw on Thursday so we had less than 3 full days to explore it before our return flight on Sunday morning. But that was plenty of time to wander around the Old Town, climb St.Elizabeth’s church tower for gorgeous views of the Market Square, explore the Cathedral island and walk around the University quarter. We’ve also visited a very interesting science museum called Hydropolis. Furthermore, we found over 150 adorable dwarves around Wroclaw and made a great score in the dwarf app. If you want, you can read all about our fun dwarf hunt here.

Thursday afternoon: arrival, Market square & dwarves

Why did we go to Wroclaw in the first place? Well, I wanted to fly from our local airport to ensure that my kids’ first airport experience goes as smooth as possible. I discarded all the flights to the places that I’ve already been to such as Stockholm, Brussels and London (of course, I’ll take my kids to London one day). Then I saw a flight for Wroclaw and that made me think. I remembered how my husband and I were very impressed by Krakow a few years ago so I told my husband that we should go to Wroclaw with our kids. He had no other option than to agree with my brilliant suggestion. And it was a brilliant idea since my kids had a blast searching for dwarves around Wroclaw.

Our flight from Rijeka to Wroclaw lasted only 1 hour. My kids weren’t afraid of flying. On the contrary, they were quiet excited about it and they acted like experienced flyers after only ten minutes on the airplane. After landing, we waited briefly for the local bus from the airport to the city center (number 106 to the main train station). It was a convenient and very cheap option to reach the city center even though the ride lasted for around 45 minutes because of the many stops on the way. My son almost fell asleep on the bus since he was watching Croatia’s football match the night before.

We got off at the last stop (the train station bus stop) and turned on Google map to reach our accommodation. I’ve also decided to turn on my free dwarf app and that’s how we found our first dwarf across the train station. Considering that we were already near the train station we decided to have a snoop around it. The train station looks like a castle from the outside and it’s got a beautiful timber ceiling inside.

Later we stumbled upon a park with a colonnade and a fountain so we just had to check it out. After resting in the park shortly, we continued on our way and came across the shopping mall Galeria Dominikanska. Kids wanted to have lunch there at Mcdonald’s so we complied. However, I got myself a delicious big bowl of salad from a salad bar and my husband got himself some traditional pierogi later on.

We also saw an interesting church near the shopping mall. It was St. Adalbert’s church. It wasn’t my intention but we ended up walking across the square behind the Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene and the Main square (the Market square or Rynek in Polish) en route to our accommodation. Never mind, we were delighted by the beauty of the Market Square and saw some more dwarves. My husband and I also noticed that this Market square resembled the Main Square in Krakow quite a lot. Our accommodation was across the river Oder, less than 10 minutes on foot from the Market square so we’ve also passed by two very unusual houses near St. Elizabeth’s church. Before reaching our flat we did a bit of grocery shopping at Żabka (you can find those small convenience stores practically on every corner). Thus armed with some supplies for dinner we proceeded across the bridge towards our lovely, modern flat.

After a short nap ( for my husband) and some play time (for my kids), we were ready to take on Wroclaw and do some proper sightseeing. First of all, we stopped off at Jatki street where the old butcheries used to be. Nowadays, this charming medieval street is full of souvenir shops and art galleries. There was a group of Polish school kids climbing on animals’ sculptures so naturally my kids had to try that too after the Polish kids left. Afterwards we headed to the main tourist information center at the Market square to buy the dwarf map with stickers which we saw earlier in the hands of two adult tourists. My kids were overjoyed with their Old Town dwarf map and ran around the Market Square to find the required dwarves and fill the map with stickers. There are gorgeous, colourful houses all around the Market square which is one of the largest medieval squares in whole of Europe. We’ve also walked all around the New Town Hall and the Gothic Old Town Hall in the middle of the Market square.

Suddenly, a few rain drops fell so we decided to have a drink at Świdnicka Cellar restaurant which is situated in the cellars of the Old Town Hall. It claims to be the oldest pub/restaurant in Europe since it’s been established in 1273. We found a place at the terrace from where we enjoyed some people watching while the kids played with their dwarf map. Of course, kids can’t sit for too long, so I got up with them and let my husband finish his beer. We wandered around the Old Town Hall and saw a large astronomical clock on its East front. We’ve also noticed a kind of fair around that side of the Old Town Hall.

Because it was very hot an ice-cream break was mandatory. We cooled down while eating our ice-creams. Luckily, there are also a few fountains around the Market Square to help the tourists and the locals to take the edge off the heat. It was time to take a look at St. Elizabeth’s church. It was founded in 13th century and managed to survive both World Wars but it completely burnt down in 1976. Today, it’s completely rebuilt and restored. We were tired so I decided that we should climb the church’s tall tower the next day. Kids were curious about the two unusual houses connected with arcade. Those adorable houses are called Hansel and Gretel and they were inhabited by people who took care of the church’s altars.

It was getting late so I decided that we should go back to our flat and have dinner. My son pointed to yet another dwarf for our app and map but this time I got really intrigued because that dwarf had a chocolate in his hands. I looked up from the dwarf and saw a sort of chocolate shop/patisserie. I couldn’t resist getting in and buying some overpriced but very delicious chocolate pralines. And that’s how our first day in Wroclaw finished.

Friday: St. Elizabeth’s tower & the Cathedral island

Our second day in Wroclaw was actually our first full day there. I woke up quite early so I took a solo walk around our neighbourhood before my kids and husband got ready for our exploration of Wroclaw. The plan was to climb the tower of St. Elizabeth’s church for beautiful panoramic views of the Old Town and the rest of Wroclaw’s city center. However, we got there before 10 AM so it wasn’t opened yet. Therefore, we strolled towards another lovely square called Solny square. There you can find stunning baroque townhouses and a flower market. Of course, there were also a couple of mischievous dwarves and I’ve also noticed some interesting sculptures on the buildings close to the square such as the sculpture of the Three Black Warriors.

It was soon time to retrace our steps back to St. Elizabeth’s church. We bought tickets by cash and that was actually the only instance when we couldn’t pay with our bank card. The main tower was originally 130 meters tall but the church was severely damaged in the fire in 1976 so the reconstructed tower is now 91,5 meters tall. It took us a long time to climb 293 narrow, steep steps. I was completely out of breath by the time I reached the observation deck while my kids looked as fresh as daises. But it was so worth it! St. Elizabeth’s tower is the highest viewing point in Wroclaw and the views are incredible. You can see the whole Old Town and beyond.

After we descended the tower we entered the church and had a look around. It’s an interesting church with a lot of beautiful details. There was also a sculpture of the pope John Paul II who was Polish.

views from St. Elizabeth’s tower

And that’s it for this blog post. I didn’t want it to be too long so you’ll have to read about the rest of Friday and the rest of our Wroclaw trip in the next post. Stay tuned!

Have you been to Wroclaw? Or elsewhere in Poland?

We visited Wroclaw in June 2026.