48 hours in Warsaw

WHY GO NOW?

WHY GO NOW?

Because, as a short-break destination, Warsaw has suffered from an image problem for long enough. True, it might not be as picture-postcard pretty as Krakow down the road, or the Czech capital Prague, that traditional Eastern European favourite, but Warsaw's historic old town is a fascinating maze of cobbles and pastel-hued townhouses, all the more interesting for having been rebuilt, brick by brick, after the Second World War. Also, the Polish capital's first boutique hotel opened recently and, on Monday, the first low-cost flights to the city touch down.

BEAM DOWN

I flew with British Airways (0870 850 9 850; www.ba.com), which has flights from Heathrow from £137. LOT Polish Airlines (0845 6010949; www.lot.com) was, until recently, the only other airline offering direct flights from Heathrow (and Manchester) to the Polish capital. However, on Monday Air Polonia (00 48 22 575 0000; www.airpolonia.com.pl) will begin flying between Stansted and Warsaw every day except Friday with fares from £43 return. Fryderyk Chopin Airport is 10km from the city centre. The 175 bus takes you into town for 2.40 zlotys (35p). Buy a ticket from the machine outside and validate it on the bus. Avoid the taxi mafiosi in the arrivals hall and only take a taxi from one of the main taxi booths; the journey costs around 30 zlotys (£4.50).

GET YOUR BEARINGS

Although the city was flattened at the end of the Second World War by the Germans in revenge for the Warsaw Uprising, and was then rebuilt by the Soviets, it is not the eyesore you might expect. True, there are chunks of grey Communist-era blocks, but the old town was meticulously rebuilt and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site. The Vistula river runs north to south, slicing the city in two. The New Town, or Nowe Miasto , dating back to the 15th century, is adjacent to the Old Town or Stare Miasto . In the centre of the burgeoning business district is the Stalinist skyscraper (and reminder that Big Brother was watching), the Palace of Culture and Science ; in the south the elegant Lazienki park . There are tourist-information offices in the airport (8am-6pm daily), the central railway station (8am-6pm daily), and near the old town , Krakowskie Przedmiescie 89 (9am-6pm daily). For more information call 00 48 22 94 31 or visit www.warsawtour.pl. Also, pick up a copy of Warsaw In Your Pocket guide from city newsagents (10 zlotys/£1.50).

CHECK IN

The opening of the boutique Art Deco-style Hotel Rialto , ulica Wilcza 73 (00 48 22 58 48 700; www.hotelrialto.com.pl) has catapulted the city into the designer hotel market. The hotel's 44 rooms are decked out with original pieces from the Twenties and Thirties. Doubles from €225 (£158), including breakfast. The Hotel Bristol , Krakowskie Przedmiescie 42-44 (00 48 22 625 2525; www.lemeridien-bristol.com) is the grande dame of Warsaw's hotels with doubles from €170 (£119), including breakfast. A value option is the Hotel Ibis , aleje Solidarnosci 165 (00 48 22 520 3000; www.ibishotel.com); doubles from 340 zlotys (£51). The popular School Youth Hostel , ulica Smolna 30 (00 48 22 827 8952) has doubles from 114 zlotys (£17).

TAKE A VIEW

Look out from the 30th-floor viewing deck of Stalin's unwanted gift to the Polish people, the Palace of Culture and Science . This aging Soviet monolith, built in the Fifties, is now surrounded by neon lights and and peers down on a branch of M&S. A hated reminder of Soviet domination for the older inhabitants, for younger Poles it has no such connotations and is simply an innocuous part of the cityscape. It costs 12 zlotys (£2) to take the 20-second ride to the top (open 9am-6pm).

TAKE A HIKE

Along the Royal Way, traditionally stretching from Wilanow Palace, south of the city, to the Royal Castle in the Stare Miasto. Start at Belvedere Palace , once the President's residence, on the fringe of Lazienki gardens . Embassies in grand 19th-century villas - and the odd modern monstrosity - line Aleje Ujazdowski. Pass the old Communist headquarters , now, ironically, the Stock Exchange, before the road becomes the recreated 19th-century boulevard Nowy Swiat, lined with boutiques and cafés, and the location of the one-time home of novelist Joseph Conrad. Cross Swietokrzyska and the name changes to Krakowskie Przedmiescie. On your right is the statue of Copernicus , who was born north of Warsaw; and across the road the Church of the Holy Cross , the final resting place of Chopin's heart. Continue on, passing Chopin's old home on your left, then, on your right, the entrance to Warsaw University, and the Church of the Nuns of the Visitation , where Chopin used to play the organ. The Hotel Bristol is now on your right, next door to the current Presidential Palace, where the Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955. At the end of your walk, you'll find yourself in the square outside the Royal Castle .

TAKE A RIDE

Warsaw is manageable on foot, but for those who fancy hopping on to one of the jangling trams or trolley-buses that criss-cross the streets, a single ticket costs 2.40 zlotys (35p). Tickets can be bought at newsagents, from machines at stops, or from the driver, and need to be validated on board. A one-day ticket costs 7.40 zlotys (£1.10). The same tickets can be used on all forms of transport, including the buses and the one-line metro.

LUNCH ON THE RUN

Pierogi is a tasty Polish-style ravioli filled with everything from apple to cabbage, meat to mushroom. Stop off at Pierogarnia , a cosy eaterie with wooden tables and benches on Na Bednarskig, a steep cobbled street, open 11am-7pm; dishes from 10 zlotys (£1.50). Alternatively, a window in a wall on Piwna, in the old town, opens on to the sizzling hotplate of the Pod Golebiami crêperie . Fillings include jam, butter, chocolate and cheese, and pancakes cost from 4 zlotys to 8.50 zlotys (50p-£1.25).

CULTURAL AFTERNOON

At the start of the Second World War, Warsaw was home to 350,000 Jews. Today, there are only around 2,000.There is little remaining of the old Jewish quarter; after the Ghetto Uprising, the heroic month-long fight to the death of the remaining ghetto population in 1943, the area was flattened by the Nazis. (For the filming of The Pianist, Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning portrait of that time, the largely untouched tenements of the east bank had to be used.) There is still a small section of the ghetto wall at ulica Sienna 55 . The Jewish Ghetto Memorial - ironically built with granite blocks ordered by Hitler for his victory monument - is at Plac Bohaterow Getta, where the heaviest fighting took place, surrounded by trees and tower blocks.

WINDOW SHOPPING

Stroll along the partly pedestrianised Nowy Swiat, Warsaw's showcase boulevard, with its ornate lampposts and atmospheric cafés, and check out the antique shops, perfumeries and designer boutiques. Across the river is an edgier alternative - in the old football stadium, Stadion Dziesieciolecia , you can pick up black-market goods from Russia and the Ukraine.

AN APERITIF

Warsaw has a vibrant nightlife. Favourite hangouts include Tam Tam , ulica Foksal 18 (00 48 22 828 2622) and the buzzing microbrewery Browar Soma (00 48 22 828 2133) opposite. The coolest bar of the moment is NoBo , ulica Wilcza 58a (00 48 22 622 4007), with its deep-red walls, shutters and comfy sofas - perfect for lounging before or after dinner.

DINNER WITH THE LOCALS

The hottest new place in town is Sense , Nowy Swiat 19 (00 48 22 826 6570), a fashionable Fusion restaurant - although the menu plays on a rather dubious Thai massage-parlour theme. Starters are listed under the heading Foreplay, mains under Wild, Hot and Hardcore, side dishes Brief Affairs. For posh Polish fare, try Polska, on the same street at Nowy Swiat 21 (00 48 22 826 3877; www.restauracjapolska).

SUNDAY MORNING: GO TO CHURCH

Churches are two-a-penny in this very Catholic capital. And all have fascinating histories. St Benno's , at ulica Piesza 1, was built for Warsaw's German population - the Polish king Sigismund III was a devotee of the German saint and invited Bavarian priests to the city to minister to the 17th-century expats. In one of those bizarre twists of fate, it was bombed to bits by the Nazis. Inside the porch, grainy photographs show the church in 1935 and then 1945, when it was mostly destroyed. The whitewashed baroque St Casimir's , round the corner on Rynek Nowego Miasto, served as a Polish field hospital in 1944; and from the rococo St Anna's on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, a pilgrimage begins every year to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, 250km away, in time for the feast of the Assumption.

OUT TO BRUNCH

Blikle , at Nowy Swiat 33 (00 48 22 826 66 19; open Sunday 10am-10pm, Monday-Saturday 9am-10pm), a one-time literary salon and the oldest coffeehouse and cake shop in Warsaw, dates back to 1869. In plush wood-panelled surrounds, choose from the Polish breakfast (32.50 zlotys/£5) of fruit juice, cured meats, cottage cheese, horseradish, bread, and tea or coffee; the French breakfast of brioche, coffee and juice; the New York breakfast (includes eggs sunny-side up); the English breakfast complete with Gloucestershire sausage; or the Russian breakfast (58 zlotys /£9) of French champagne, red caviar and toast, and Russian tea.

A WALK IN THE PARK

There's no shortage of green spaces in Warsaw, but the most elegant has to be the former royal gardens of Lazienki . Red squirrels feed from your hand, peacocks perch in trees, ducks waddle across lawns. The gardens are criss-crossed with tree-lined avenues; there's a miniature island palace, a quasi-Greek amphitheatre; and a statue of Chopin. In summer, there are concerts here among the red rose bushes.

THE ICING ON THE CAKE

From the Stalinist to the reconstructed Gothic to the cutting-edge contemporary, Warsaw offers an intriguing mix of architectural styles. With its spectacular green façade decorated with languages, mathematics and music score, the new university library , ulica Dobra 56-66, is a Polish-designed architectural extravaganza. Inside the soaring glass-ceilinged atrium, statues of four great Polish scholars stand on concrete plinths.

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