3 days in Szczecin – Poland

Szczecin is a great city to go museum hopping in! With a turbulent history and modern development, this city has modern museums, old restored buildings and good food to offer. This year during my Poland trip I spent 3 days in Szczecin at the start of June.

The best time to travel to Szczecin, in my opinion, is in June or September, just outside of the summer travel season. The weather is nice, but there aren’t too many people yet. In this blog post, I have compiled a detailed itinerary for 2 nights and 3 days in Szczecin.

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Overview for 3 days in Szczecin

• Where to stay in Szczecin
• What to do in Szczecin
• Where and what to eat and drink in Szczecin
• Tips for your Szczecin trip
• I don’t want to read, just show me a map for 3 days in Szczecin

Where to stay in Szczecin for 3 days

Szczecin is not walkable, since the interesting spots of the city are located in an area of 10 km2. It also doesn’t have a defined city centre. There is the “Old Town Centre” as well as the district “Centrum”, which are almost 2km apart. Public transport is well established though, with busses and trams that will take you across the city. I stayed in the Focus Hotel Szczecin and although the location is not ideal, the price-performance ratio is good. The room was clean, the breakfast was great and they offer a lunch bag you can take every morning before you head out to the city, as well as lemonade during the day.

What to do for 3 days in Szczecin

The cityscape of Szczecin is marked by socialist cement-block buildings and brutalist infrastructure, mixed with rebuilt churches and restored houses of rich traders. It gives the city a scrappy feeling, especially when you watch the city change every 5 minutes while looking out a bus- or tram window.

Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes in Szczecin

Entering Szczecin from the Oder River bridge you can see two buildings immediately, the red brick Cathedral and a white-beige castle in a Renaissance building style, both with green rooftops. The castle used to be the seat of the Dukes of Pomerania. The castle has five wings and two courtyards, which are undergoing renovations at the time of publishing this post and aren’t open to the public.

You can still visit the exhibition in the basement of the northern wing and climb the bell tower – I have a Reel up on my Instagram @kayawanderlust with the amazing view! Part of the view is also this post’s featured image and the first image of the gallery right below this text.

Szczecin in the PRL

Szczecin in the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) is a private-curated museum that shows the everyday life of people in Szczecin from 1947 to 1989.

Children’s toys, a whole kitchen and a living room, an office and a grocery store from around the 1960s, the museum covers all aspects of life from this era.

They offer binders with explanations for the exhibits and stories from around the city. These are available in Polish, German and English.

In a room depicting a 1960s dressing room, they have clothes and accessories from the above-mentioned years you can take pictures in, which catapult you back in time.

The Dialogue Centre Upheavals

Under the Solidarity Plaza, in front of the Szczecin Philharmonic Hall, you can find the Dialogue Centre Upheavals. It is a branch of the National Museum in Szczecin, but it’s also a separate exhibition, closed in itself. You don’t need to visit one to understand the other.

The newest history of Szczecin and the surrounding region is displayed here with interactive multimedia exhibitions separated into different time periods and events. Special focus is put on revolution and social protests – hence the name “upheavals” – which lead to the independence of Poland in 1989.

They offer free entry on Saturdays.

Szczecin City Museum in the Old Town Hall

From starting as a Viking settlement, to being part of Pomerania Szczecin was ruled by the Duke of Pomerania. Over the centuries it was ruled by Poland, Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire, Saxony, then eventually became a part of Prussia-Germany until the End of WWII.

After the Second World War Szczecin became part of Poland in the East Block, with the socialist government leaving its mark on the previously destroyed city. After 1989 it slowly evolved into the modern city you can see today.

On the first floor of the old city hall, the museum focuses on the beginnings of the city, while the other floors display artefacts from the centuries the House of Pomerania (also called the Griffins) ruled the city.

To this day the city coat of arms is still the head of a Griffin in red, wearing a yellow crown.

Museum of Transport and Technology

A museum of old cars may not sound appealing to everyone at first, but I do recommend it. The Museum of Transport and Technology was my favourite museum in Szczecin. Inside an old tram depot, the exhibition consists of almost 100 beautifully restored old cars, busses, trams, motorcycles, bicycles and more! You can enter some of the bigger exhibits like buses and trams.

Next to the old modes of transport (there even is a tank outside) they have an exhibition on the Stoewer brothers and their companies story, from producing sewing machines in Stettin (Szczecin’s name when it was still part of Germany) to bicycles and finally cars. Complete with examples and old advertisements.

Some of the highlights include the micro-cars Smyk and Messerschmitt Kabinenroller, the only SUV version of Fiat 126p called “maluch” (tiny) in Polish and several fully functioning Stoewer cars like the Greif and the Arkona.

Where and what to eat and drink for 3 days in Szczecin

E. Wedel chocolate house

Next to the Dialogue Centre Upheavals, you can visit E. Wedel, a chocolate house from 1851!

It is located in one of the former Royal gates near the Karlowicz Philharmonic. Here you can taste three of their hot chocolates on one plate (dark, milk and white chocolate) or indulge in one of their many chocolate-themed desserts. Like a strawberry chocolate waffle or a chocolate coffee.

Before coming here I had no idea that Szczecin has a long-standing history in processing cacao beans and producing chocolate bars and other sweets.

From Albert Krey Kakao -, Schokoladen- and Zuckerwarenfabrik founded in 1890, to PPC “GRYF” S.A. from 1946 onwards, there has always been a chocolate factory in the city.

Browar Pod Zamkiem

At Browar Pod Zamkiem you can taste beer locally brewed in Szczecin. With machines from Munich, a complete production line for beer was set up in 2017. However, the restaurant remained the heart of the operation, now being supplied by the in-house brewery.

They serve good beer food, such as fried chicken, fish and chips or sweet potato fries with kimchi (delicious!). Next to beer, or instead of beer, you can also have soft drinks or cocktails. For example, the Negroni they have on the menu is made with a local, award-winning magnolia Gin.

From left to right the beers were:

• Dark Lager
• Light Cozlak
• Wheat Beer
• Light Lager
• Pils Beer

My favourite was the Cozlak, I didn’t enjoy the Pils.

With a Szczecin Tourist Card, you get a beer-tasting board for free with every order!

Paprykarz Fish Market

Paprykarz is a Szczecin famous spread, made from minced fish meat, rice, onion, tomato paste, vegetable oil, salt and spices, sold in metal cans, which had a long-standing history in the city. Today there are three producers who still make it.

This canned spread is what this seafood restaurant is named after and with every order, you get a starter of Paprykaz on bread (first picture). While the mix of ingredients might not be pleasing to every palate, their seafood is really good. I recommend the risotto with calamari, mussels, shrimp and scallops.

17 Schodów (steps) Cocktail Bar

If you’re looking for a great bar to spend an evening in, look no further than 17 Schodów Cocktail Bar in the old town centre of Szczecin. Next to some traditional cocktails like Penicillin and White Russian, they also serve their own creations like the Butterfly Effekt with honey vodka, butterfly pea tea, lemon cordial and ✨ a surprise ✨ or Rumlovers Capybara with bark-infused Lapacho tree rum, cocoa liqueur and lime.

Their menu changes every season, so if you go here in winter or next year you will have a completely different selection of drinks to choose from. The bar has an old-timey vibe and it felt like you took 17 steps into a century-long gone.

Tips for your 3 days in Szczecin trip

Visit Szczecin Card

When you plan to visit the museums from this blog post and more seriously consider buying the Visit Szczecin Card as it offers a 50% discount in all museums and more discounts in restaurants and stores all over the city! You can also use public transport within the city for free.

This is not sponsored by them, I just like to share budget hacks.

Street-art

Never before have I been in a city where street art (graffiti and sculptures) is embraced within the cityscape as much as it is in Szczecin. On tram stops, fences and bridge posts, there is street art everywhere. And since it has a designated space it isn’t destroyed by other sprayers or the public order office.

Map for 3 days in Szczecin

How to read the map for 3 days in Szczecin: the blue are spots to visit I mentioned above, the orange are the restaurants, bars and cafes and the green spots are free things to do and see. You can open the menu on the top left and choose the layers of the map.

You can save the map to your google maps by clicking here.