Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital of Poland with a population of 1.9 million. Since Poland joined the EU Warsaw has seen extraordinary inward investment in infrastructure and administration. It has a rapidly growing business and financial sector and a deficit of new housing stock, estimated to be over 150,000 units. Property prices have risen by over 25% each year for the past four years.

Warsaw is situated in the Mazowieckie province, in east-central Poland, the city spans the Wisla (Vistula) River. All the main tourist sites are on the left bank while the right bank contains the increasingly fashionable Praga district. The tourist epicentre of Warsaw is the ‘Royal Route’, which runs north–south from the New and Old Towns, past the fashionable shops of Nowy Swiat, the palaces that survived the war and the Royal Gardens of Lazienki Park, before reaching Wilanow Palace to the south.

The city also boasts many green spaces, with leafy parks where row boats cruise past outdoor cafés during the summer and free classical concerts attract crowds in a scene far removed from the dull Communist-era images of Warsaw. The nightlife scene today is equally surprising, with the city’s clued-up and increasingly well dressed youth flocking to the countless bars and clubs of a city that now buzzes after dark.