I always Google whether a new-to-me city has a “CityPass” because that will tell me what are the most popular tourist sites with helpful links to both hours and ticket prices. In the case of Warsaw, there were 4/5 activities that, if done together with one 24 hour CityPass, would be worth the purchase at roughly $50 USD.
The key to a CityPass is not to activate it until you really plan to use it because the clock against the 24 hour starts ticking as soon as you buy the first online ticket. It’s one of the few times to leave purchase to the last minute.
There are two types of CityPasses you can buy for popular tourist destinations, the kind that include all public transport for each 24 hour increment, and those that just include both free and discounted admissions to the more popular attractions. In my experience, only the ones that include all public transport really give you value for money and peace of mind that if you jump on the wrong bus/train/metro, you can get off on the next stop and reset.
The one psychological aspect to the attraction-only card is you prepay, and then it forces you to stick to the schedule and actually go to multiple attractions to get the full value vs getting lazy after the second long bus ride and calling it a day. I tend to fall into the second category, if I’m honest. But part of this trip is to get out of my comfort zone and push myself so I set my goal on Wednesday to hit four of the more expensive attractions in Warsaw:
Royal Lazienki Museum in Warsaw
Palace of Culture and Science – Viewing terrace
Copernicus Science Centre with The Heavens of Copernicus Planetarium
Polish Vodka Museum – Guided Tour
Bonus: A Chopin piano concert in Old Town
I do my best multiple attraction days if I wake up naturally, which for me is the crack of noon (Optimal) or at least after 10 am. I routed out the four/five attractions I intended to go to on Google maps, sent backups to my phone and even screenshot the walking maps to ensure I would get to all four attractions before it got too late and still make the Chopin concert.
(Wo)man plans and God laughs….In fact God laughed so much that day, I will split this up into a post per attraction, mostly because there are a LOT of pictures.