The Krakow Old Town is surrounded by a green ring called the Planty Park (or Krakowskie Planty), gently separating the city center from the noisy outside world. The 52-acre park is a great place to sit in and regenerate after an exhausting tour of the Krakow Old Town. Taking the four-kilometer walk around the old Krakow is worthwhile – some of the city's jewels are hidden between the trees of the Planty.

The Planty Park was created in the beginning of the 19th century, when Krakow's City Walls were brought down, as a part of the Krakow Senate's plan to refurbish the city. The idea came from Feliks Radwanski, the same architect that saved the Florian Gate and the Barbican from being pulled down with the rest of the walls.

In the 1880s several monuments of famous Poles were erected inside the Planty Park. These include king Wladyslaw Jagiello and his wife Jadwiga, Copernicus, the painter Artur Grottger, and a few characters from the works of Polish writers, like Adam Mickiewicz or Juliusz Slowacki.

The Planty Park is in fact composed of about thirty gardens, each of them having its own unique style. A walk around the city centre takes about an hour, but at virtually any moment you can decide to end it and just go back to the Old Town at a place of your choice. While strolling around the Planty Park, you will come across the Palace of Arts, the Juliusz Slowacki Theater and the Barbican. The Planty are also a very good way to reach the Wawel Castle.