How I Spent a Sunday in Warsaw, Part II: Familiarizing Myself with New Town (and Old Town) on Foot (April 2026)

After the tour with Marcin (Part I of my Sunday) I must have grabbed lunch. Most likely was another stop at McDonald's for another McCrispy chicken sandwich. But then I ventured out for a couple hours of targeted roaming. I wanted to familiarize myself with the locations of some relevant hotels in the city and get a lay of the land around Nowe Miasto (aka, New Town).

Nowe Miasto is still old (Wikipedia says it goes back to late 14th century), just not quite as old as Stare Miasto. Both areas date back ~700 years, but Nowe Miasto developed outside the Barbican walls that marked the limits of central old town.

You can see that Nowe Miasto is just to the north of Stare Miasto, with Dluga and Mostowa as the dividing point.

Stare Miasto

Nowe Miasto

My walking plan was to start near the Flaner Hotel, past the Sofitel, on through Ogrod Saski toward PURO Stare Miasto, and then over to Mamaison La Regina via Freta, the central street that runs through Nowe Miasto.

Flaner Hotel has a great location, just off a relatively quieter stretch of Nowy Swiat. Restaurant row is an easy walk to south. Both old town and new town a manageable walk to the north.

Sofitel is conveniently located as well, sitting across from the plaza with the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier monument. Slightly less curb appeal charm on a main intersection, but very close to Saxon Garden, so it balances out.

These pictures are from April 12, so still early-ish in spring, but it was pleasant enough and people were out enjoying the day.

As I crossed the park this building caught my attention.

Cool design with that curved, romantic style ironwork on the balcony. And probably some very nice views of the park. But with buildings like this I always worry about getting the noisy neighbor - the one who is out on the balcony on his/her cel, watching tik toks at max volume, smoking, etc. I'm pessimistic that way.

I continued on to check out PURO Warsaw Stare Miasto.

Understated logo visible just above the handlebars of the left most bike in the row

PURO is a great hospitality brand that we work with a lot around Poland, incuding their Warszawa Centrum property, so I wanted to get a sense of this location. On the map it looks like it has a lot going for it. Proximity to Saxon Garden. Not too far from old town and the Royal Route on foot. But the area around it, at least when I was there, felt a little dull and uninspiring. Fine, but would not be my first choice. Mine might be a minority opinion, though, as it has great reviews.

View one way from in front of the PURO

View other way from in front of the PURO

Generic scenes walking east on Senatorska

Generic scenes walking east on Senatorska

Generic scenes walking east on Senatorska

I weaved my way out to Podwale and then pointed myself toward new town. Took a few of the obligatory shots on my way. Nice in the late afternoon sun.

It was around 4pm local time, probably around 60 degrees more of less. And it seemed like a lovely place to hang out in. Hard to put a finger on it exactly, but more interesting vibes than its larger neighbor just to the south.

New Town square has an undestated charm.

And what looks like a couple of great restaurants to take in the vibes and view on a warmer afternoon. This is Enoteka Warszawska:

And this is Zyto:

Having seen what I wanted to see I started my walk back to the apartment. Couple of smaller shops caught my eye. Of course the Bolesławiec pottery shop. (Judy and I drove out there together last year and I wrote about it.)

I think it's this place

Then the Hello! Gift Shop got my attention with that mermaid bag in the window.

It's a nice shop, definitely worth a few minutes to browse. I was tempeted by the Warszawa bag, but (a) I'd already purchased a couple of more functional shopping bags from Biedronka, and (b) the size / strap combo wasn't really gonna work for us. It would just be another random bag in our collection of random bags that extends literally into the dozens. So I saved the 30 euros and then enjoyed the half-hour stroll back the apartment without taking any pictures. Just enjoying the walk and the scenery in the moment.