Hotel Indigo Krakow Old Town has a great location about 400 meters north of the KrakÃ³w Barbican and Florian Gate into Old Town. The train station for connections to the airport is inside Galeria Krakowska 300 meters from the hotel. This last trip we simply booked Uber at the airport for door to door service for about $14.Â

a building with many windows and a crosswalk — Hotel Indigo Krakow – Old Town

The hotel has 56 guest rooms in a last decade conversion of the 19th century building. The rooms are small, like most properties in the Hotel Indigo brand where I have stayed. Hotel Indigo Krakow rooms are only about 200 sq.ft. I think we stayed in one of the largest rooms at the hotel in the top corner Floor 3 room with two windows on one wall seen in the photo above and another two windows on the other wall overlooking Stary Kleparz covered market stalls.

And our Premium King City View room was still relatively small.

a chair next to a desk — Hotel Indigo Krakow Premium King corner room

a room with a desk and a tv — Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa Street windows.

a brick wall with white curtains — Hotel Indigo Krakow corner room Stary Kleparz facing windows.

a woman lying in bed with a sign over her head — Hotel Indigo Krakow, Kelley cheering Poland during World Cup 2022 Netherlands-Poland match. Polska lost.

a coffee maker and cups on a table — Hotel Indigo Krakow coffee table by door.

a white shelving unit with a blue and white wallpaper — Hotel Indigo Krakow closet with empty refrigerator, safe, hair dryer and iron.

a desk with a chair and a book on it — Hotel Indigo Krakow desk.

a chandelier from a ceiling — Hotel Indigo Krakow concrete ceiling and light.

a bathroom with a round mirror — Hotel Indigo Krakow small bathroom.

The bathroom sink photo does not show the shelf below, however the shelf with towels and a tissue box was the only space in the bathroom to place items. The bathroom only had a shower stall.

a shower with a shower head — Hotel Indigo Krakow shower stall.

a floor with colorful tiles — Hotel Indigo Krakow bath tiles.

One nice feature of the Hotel Indigo bathroom is the heated floor, although Kelley turned off all the heat in the room and kept the windows open throughout our stay when the temperature outside was generally 30-40 F./ -1 to 4 C. during the six nights of our stay.

a rooftop of a building with snow on it — View of Stary Kleparz market from Hotel Indigo Krakow room.

Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa 18 Restaurant breakfast

We ate breakfast each day at the restaurant, complimentary as my Diamond member welcome amenity choice. There were only a few other diners on the weekday mornings and about a dozen diners on weekend mornings.Â

a room with tables and chairs — Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa 18 restaurant.

a room with a round table and chairs — Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa 18 restaurant.

a sign with black text — Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa 18 restaurant breakfast hours.

Overall, I was disappointed in the breakfast buffet at Hotel Indigo Krakow compared to our stays at Holiday Inn Krakow and Holiday Inn Gdansk. We ate during the last hour of breakfast service each morning, so I never saw the full spread of food early in the morning. My impression was food items were not replaced because some mornings there were no baguettes and only small rolls or sweet breads. One morning I used the toaster which totally burnt one side of the sliced bread, while the other side was not toasted at all. We had sufficient food for breakfast with fruit, meats and cheeses, but the dining room did not seem like an inviting space with so few people and a kind of lacklustre energy and attention among some of the staff working the room.

a menu with a picture of a man holding a trumpet and a fork — Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa 18 breakfast menu.

We worked our way through the made-to-order menu during the six mornings we ate breakfast at Filipa 18, with the exception of pancakes. The cutlery looked stylish, but it was hard to cut bread with the knife edge.Â

Looking back at my made-to-order cooked meals from a previous stay at Hotel Indigo Krakow shows the food presentation looked better in past years when there were some vegetable garnishes on the plates.

a plate with food on it — Hotel Indigo Krakow Filipa 18 eggs benedict.

a plate of blueberries — Hotel Indigo Krakow porridge with blueberries at Filipa 18

a omelette on a plate — Hotel Indigo Krakow made-to-order omelette at Filipa 18.

Hotel Indigo Krakow Bar

a bar with bottles on shelves — Hotel Indigo Krakow bar.

One discovery I made on this stay, which I think was my third time staying at this hotel, is the rooftop SkyBar. I was not aware of a rooftop terrace bar when I stayed at Hotel Indigo Krakow during the summer a few years ago.

a sign on a wall — Hotel Indigo Krakow Floor 6 rooftop Sky Bar.

a covered patio with a grey tarp — Hotel Indigo Krakow Sky Bar rooftop terrace in winter.

There is a gym on the -1 floor level. The lobby has a small, cozy library space. As we were checking out of the hotel, there were staff members decorating a Christmas tree.Â

a room with a fireplace and a couch — Hotel Indigo Krakow library room off lobby entrance (old photo from a different stay).

The lobby had a KrakÃ³w szopka – Krakow Nativity Scene.

a colorful castle in a glass case — Hotel Indigo Krakow szopka in lobby.

KrakÃ³w szopki are part of a traditional Krakow annual competition and an item listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. I have photos of about a dozen different szopki of more than 50 displayed around Krakow for winter this year that I will display in another article about Krakow.

IHG One Rewards loyalty benefits and points earned for stay

I originally booked this 5-night December 2022 at Hotel Indigo Krakow in July 2022 for 72,000 points, or $360 in IHG points. Then, I got in on the IHG instant Diamond upgrade deal on October 13. The combination of my new Diamond elite status, IHG One Rewards promotion for 10,000 points every 4 paid nights and an offer for 5,000 bonus points per night for only 39 PLN extra per night motivated me to change my points stay to one reward night for 12,750 points ($63.75) and 5 paid nights for 3,148 PLN or $631.11. At the time I made this cash reservation the highly favorable USD-PLN exchange rate was 1 USD = 4.99 PLN for a $126.22 per night room rate that included 5,000 bonus points per night.

My plan was redeem my IHG 20-nights milestone confirmed suite upgrade for the 5-night stay. IHG confirmed suite upgrades can only be applied 14 days prior to the stay. To my disappointment, I was told upon trying to upgrade that it was not allowed due to booking the 5,000 bonus points package rate. And I could not rebook my stay due to no availability for the weekend nights.

In the two months from booking Hotel Indigo Krakow and completing my five night paid stay the exchange rate dropped from 1 USD = 4.99 PLN to 1 USD = 4.44 PLN and my hotel stay at checkout cost $709.20 USD.

IHG Points Earned from Hotel Indigo Krakow 3,148 PLN/$709.20 USD 5-night paid stay

6,478 base points for hotel spend
6,478 Diamond Elite bonus points
7,092 IHG Mastercard points for $709.20 hotel spend.
25,000 bonus points at 5,000 bonus points per night for 5 nights.
10,000 bonus points for IHG Stay 4 nights = 10,000 points.
55,048 total IHG points earned from $709 Hotel Indigo Krakow stay.
55K IHG points is equivalent to $275 rebate in points.
$709 – $275 = $434 net cost I paid for this stay.Â

My original reservation for Hotel Indigo Krakow using 72,000 points would have been equivalent to paying $360 for the 5-night stay, so I paid an extra $74 for these 5 nights compared to using points.

US Dollar exchange rate losing value against the Polish zloty from the time I booked the 5-night paid stay in early October when 3,148 PLN = $631.11 and completing my stay two months later when 3,148 PLN = $709.20 accounts entirely for the $74 more I paid for my stay compared to a 72,000 points stay.