I want to recommend Gdansk

Just back from 10 days in Polands not-so-well-known Baltic coast. Started out in Gdansk. Pleasantly surprised...looks very well and a nice buzz all round! Krakow has something that bit extra but both cities are very Polish. A short train journey then takes you to Sopot. Also very nice with very sandy beaches and very nice cafes and restaurants...all at much cheaper prices than here of course! Finally we went a seaside resort an hour away called Wladyslawowo (pronounced vuady-suav-ovo). A very busy seaside resort with mostly Poles there. We met no Irish and only 2 UK people there in 3 days. Weather great.
By the way Centralwings fly from Dublin a few times every week for budget prices. Only qualm is the time of departure...12.30am. Also most polish food is, well, rank!

Just to give everybody an idea of an alternative to Krakow during the summer months

how did you fare out with the language

ninsaga said:

how did you fare out with the language

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It can be frustrating especially in some cafes or restaurants that don`t have English translations. We found that younger people have a better grasp of English than middle aged/ older people. This makes sense when you think that before communism ended there, everybody was forced to learn Russian before English. Now all the youth want to speak English and they love an opportunity to test it on foreigners. Anyway they have a pretty crazy language that must be an absolute nightmare for any English speaking person to learn. Even young Poles that we spoke with agree that it is a very complicated language. I must say that I like the sound of it!
Anyway food is strange...lots of stewed cabbage soup with hard boiled eggs floating all over the place.....cold polish sausage called kielbasa which only I liked...and the local favourite, Pierogi. I think we call them Dumplings but they are terrible! Their beer is very nice though!

Agree with you about the food & the beer gebbel.

Found though that the odd (phonetically written)

jenkoo-yeah (bardzo) thank you (very much)
pshapresham excuse me
prosheh please

etc is very much appreciated - especially by the older generation.

Agreed - Gdansk is a nice city with a very pleasant old town (I think most of it's not actually that old as there wasn't much left of Gdansk in 1945 - but it's been very well restored) ... Definitely a good weekend destination - if you pick just one city in Poland to visit I think Krakow would still win ... but Gdansk would certainly be pretty high up there

Yippee

Booked RyanAir flights for myself and a friend a couple of months ago. Long weekend in Gdansk. Total cost : 4 cent!!! no taxes, no charges.