How Much Money Do I Need For Łódź?

Łódź is an excellent destination with lots of things to do. It is also very reasonably priced compared to most Western European or big American cities, so your money should last much longer than big ticket names like Paris or Rome. We break down what you can expect to pay for a trip to Łódź.

Raspazjan

Łódź is unlikely to be the first name you consider when travelling to Europe for the first time. Most tourists checklists will be made up of cities like Paris, Barcelona, or Rome. But your money can often go twice as far in an Eastern European city like Łódź, meaning you can afford to do more or stay longer. Even former bargains like Berlin or Lisbon are more expensive, with restaurants up to a third cheaper in Poland.

Łódź is a great place to eat and drink; there are some fascinating museums, galleries, and other attractions; and, despite eternal regeneration, the standard of facilities is very good. The massive Centre for Science and Technology, for example, costs 27zł to visit (currently just over 6€), and many museums are free to visit one day a week. You can even get to most places via public transport for roughly 1€.

This page gives some typical costs for a trip to Łódź.

Despite being a member of the European Union, Poland does not use the Euro. Instead, the Polish currency is the złoty. Obviously the price fluctuates but it has tended to average out at 1zł to 0.23€ over the last decade. So 10zł is less than 2,50€ and 100zł is just over 22€. At time of writing, our budget categories below work out at roughly 47€ per day (cheap), 93€ (mid), and 163€ (high).

Daily Budget

You could get by very cheaply in Łódź, especially if you take advantage of free days at museums and the cheapest places to eat, such as markets and milk bars. However, your money will even go a long way in the upper bracket, with some truly excellent hotels and restaurants. Prices are per person, based on two people sharing.

• Cheap – 200zł: This would include a bed in a budget, basic transport costs, and meals from markets and milk bars, plus a bit of extra spending money.
• Mid – 400zł: This would include shared costs on a mid-tier double room and restaurant, as well as a couple of museum tickets, and some extra spending money.
• High – 700zł: This would include shared costs on a pricier double room and restaurant, as well as a ticket for a live event, and money for shopping.

Museum of Łódź

Łódź Sightseeing

• Piotrkowska Street: free
• Łódź Murals: free
• Manufaktura: free
• Museum of Łódź: 28zł / free on Wednesday
• Łódź Film Museum: 28zł / free on Wednesday
• Central Museum of Textiles / Łódź City Culture Park: 58zł combined ticket / free on Wednesday
• MS1 / MS2 / Herbst Palace Museum: 45zł combined ticket
• Centre for Science and Technology EC1: 27-34zł
• Łódź Fairyland Trail: free

Some of these entry costs are an absolute bargain, especially if you take advantage of free entry where available. This list is a recommended selection but there are plenty of other reasonably priced museums scattered across the city.

A guided tour of Łódź highlights can be an excellent introduction to the city and is absolutely worth the investment.

See our recommendations for Things To Do In Łódź and our series of itineraries for suggestions.

Grand Hotel

Accommodation In Łódź

Łódź has accommodation to suit every budget. Use Booking.com to find the best prices and see our list of Where To Stay In Łódź for more details.

Check Łódź Hotel Availability

Destination

Check-in date

Tue 10 Dec 2024

Check-out date

Wed 11 Dec 2024

Although Łódź has some top-of-the-range hotels with a price tag to match, you can generally expect a room to be roughly a third of what it would cost in Paris or Barcelona. Better still, Łódź is less prone to the seasonal increases you find in more tourist heavy cities like Kraków, although prices can still fluctuate. The main thing to consider is location. A hotel on or around Piotrkowska Street or in Manufaktura is generally more expensive than a less attractive road.

Unless stated, rates are per room (ie, not per person) for twin or double beds.

Budget Accommodation In Łódź

Double rooms at the Hotel ibis Łódź Centrum or B&B Hotel Łódź Centrum are generally available from 235zł (€55) per night (based on two people sharing), with spikes in price for public holidays, big events, like a local stadium concert, or weekends with higher than usual demand. Prices will also rise to at least 280zł (€65) in high summer. There are no single rooms in either of these hotels.

See Best Łódź Budget Hotels for more information.

Mid-Range Accommodation In Łódź

Hotel Tobaco Łódź represents the best value here, with prices largely between 233zł (55€) and 259zł (60€), although you can expect quite dramatic spikes around big events at the nearby Atlas Arena. Hotel Borowiecki is priced consistently from around 320zł (75€), whilst you can expect to pay around 443zł (105€) for the Qubus Hotel Łódź at any time of year. Finally, rooms at the Novotel Lodz Centrum can be had for roughly 400zł (95€) during down seasons, but prices rise quite sharply at certain times of year.

See Best Łódź Mid-Range Hotels for more information.

Luxury Accommodation In Łódź

In this class, rates can vary wildly, depending on season and demand. Hotel Pietryna, Hotel the Loom, and Vienna House by Wyndham Andel’s Lodz are roughly equivalent in price, with rates from around 450zł (105€) to 490zł (115€). Rates for PURO Łódź Centrum jump to roughly 548zł (125€) and above. The Grand Hotel is understandably the most expensive with rates ranging from roughly 621zł (140€) to 690zł (160€).

Boutique accommodation seems to fall into two price bands. A basic boutique hotel will cost from around 300zł (70€) per night for a double room, rising to around 360zł (85€). Here, counter-intuitively, it can be cheaper to book closer to your travel dates and risk losing the place completely, rather than months in advance. The Stare Kino Cinema Residence has fairly consistent pricing all year around, although all properties are subject to surges around public holidays and other busy dates.

Boutique hotels with lots of wellness facilities are more expensive, ranging from around 561zł (130€) per night for a double room in the case of Hotel Termalny and up to 738zł (170€) for Fabryka Wełny Hotel & Spa at certain times of the year. Note the location of these hotels.

See Best Łódź Boutique Hotels and Best Łódź Luxury Hotels for more information.

Ato Ramen

Meals In Łódź

Łódź has a thriving restaurant scene, especially around the scattering of repurposed factory districts like OFF Piotrkowska and you shouldn’t have to look too hard to find a good meal to suit any budget. As well as Polish and Eastern European food, the city has the full range of international cuisine covered. And, despite popular misconceptions, Poland is great for vegetarians, vegans, and other special dietary requirements.

See our list of Restaurants in Łódź for suggestions.

Łódź Budget Meals

The cost of food in Łódź is generally cheaper than you’d expect to pay in Western Europe. For example, you can choose from a dizzying range of savoury pancakes in Manekin for under 25zł. Laxmi serves up tasty Indian food for around 35zł a meal. If you are on an absolute budget – or even if you aren’t – you can get a hearty meal from what are known as a milk bar. These are basic and nourishing, and often very good for breakfast. A main course can be had here for 15zł or less. Try Bar Mleczny Łodziak at Piotrkowska 106.

Łódź Mid-Range Meals

There are plenty of mid-range restaurants around Manufaktura, so feel free to browse the menus outside until you find something appealing. A burger meal from Whiskey in the Jar, for example, will cost around 53zł, while the Polish and Eastern European dishes like pork knuckle or Hungarian goulash at Galicja will cost about the same.

Łódź Luxury Meals

Whilst Łódź does not have the Michelin restaurants of Warsaw and Kraków, there are still some fine dining establishments. Stary Rynek 2 looks back to pre-war Polish cuisine, with a 6-course tasting menu for 280zł, with a caviar option. Similarly some of the grander hotels have excellent restaurants on-site.

Owoce i Warzywa at Piotrkowska 217

Łódź Cafes

You’ll find chain cafes in Łódź but there are also a lot of cosy local independents, which aren’t expensive and will generally serve a better cup of coffee. These joints will often do double duty as a bar, restaurant, even a barbers shop!

• Flat white at Starbucks: 15zł
• Flat white at Costa: 13zł
• Flat white at Owoce i Warzywa: 17zł

Hala Zielony Rynek market

Łódź Supermarkets and Convenience Stores

• Litre of milk: 4zł
• Loaf of bread: 5zł
• Kilo of apples: 4zł
• Half-litre of beer: 4zł

Wherever you are in Łódź, you’ll be close to a late-night convenience store, such as 7-Eleven or Żabka. These are well stocked with a range of ingredients, snacks, and drinks, including beers and even hot food, and are reasonably priced. For more serious shopping, a supermarket (such as the excellent Auchan in the Manufaktura mall) or the fantastic Hala Zielony Rynek market will let you buy all the bits of pieces for a picnic lunch.

Spaleni Słońcem

Cigarettes, Alcohol And Bars In Łódź

• Pack of Marlboro: 19zł
• Half-litre of draught beer: 16zł
• Cocktail: 45zł
• 6 vodka tasting menu: 40zł

Wherever you buy it, beer and spirits are comparatively cheap in Łódź. There are tourist-friendly bars all along and around Piotrkowska Street, and you can even buy a beer in a Costa. A real treat is to try a tasting tray of flavoured vodkas or craft beers.

Smoking is still very common in Poland. Cigarettes are pretty cheap and easily available from the ubiquitous kiosks. However, there is an indoor smoking ban unless the establishment has a dedicated room for smoking in.

T-Mobile store in Galeria Łódzka

SIM Cards, Phones And Data In Łódź

Good wifi is ubiquitous in Łódź accommodation. You’ll also find free wifi and charging points in public buildings like the airport and shopping centres, and in many Łódź parks and public spaces – look out for the signs. Starbucks is a great standby but you shouldn’t need it.

Any call or data plan from another EU country should work in Poland at no extra cost. So even if you bought a SIM in a country like Germany, you should be able to use it in Łódź. This is subject to fair usage, so check the terms with whichever company sold it to you.

If you’re coming straight to Poland from a country outside the EU, and don’t have a decent offer from your existing provider, you’ll need an unlocked device that will work in Europe. This isn’t always the case with US cellphones. You can buy a cheap handset for travel from Amazon or from an electronics outlet like MediaMarkt when you arrive.

The phone market is fairly well regulated in Łódź, so you might as well stick with the main providers. This ensures the best coverage and the most helpful service. Orange is the most tourist-friendly of these and, at time of writing, they offer a 30GB / 30-day SIM card with unlimited calls and texts for 30zł, which is pretty cheap.

We cover the process of getting setup in our guide to Where To Get A SIM Card In Łódź.

Inside the Manufaktura shopping mall

Łódź Shopping

• Pair of Levis jeans: 365zł
• Dress from H&M: 143zł
• Nike trainers: 295zł
• Men’s leather shoes: 390zł

If you find that you’ve left anything important at home, you’ll be able to replace it in Łódź, often for something like 15% less than you’d pay in London. Most of the big European brands like Zara and H&M have branches in Łódź shopping centres.

Toiletries In Łódź

• Shampoo 400ml: 18zł
• Roll-on Deodorant: 5zł
• Tampons 16 box: 13zł
• Toothpaste: 8zł

You can buy basic toiletries in a convenience store like 7-Eleven and pretty much anything else in a drogeria, such as Rossmann, which are dotted around central Łódź.

Łódź Fabryczna train station

Łódź Transport

• Bus / Tram: 4,40zł for 20m, 5,60zł for 40m – these are temporarily extended to 40m and 60m respectively
• Taxi: 6zł + 2zł per km during the day or 3zł per km at night, weekends, and public holidays – i.e., a 5km trip costs around 16zł (or 21zł at night). Expect to pay + / – 30zł to get to the airport
• One-day travel card: 18zł for Zone 1 (which should suffice), 18zł for a weekend ticket, and 63zł for a 5-day Zone 1 ticket
• Bicycle rental: There is a city scheme for bike hire. The first 20 minutes are free, with 4zł added for the rest of the hour and 6zł for the second hour. Look for the stands with full instructions dotted around the city. Electric bikes and scooters are also available. The main roads in Łódź can be very busy but there are some good routes that are largely car-free.
• Litre of gasoline: 7zł

The Łódź public transport system is cheap, well-networked, and simple to navigate. Our guide for Getting Around In Łódź has more information.

Łódź Airport check-in

Flights To Łódź

Łódź Airport runs a very limited service by a handful of budget airlines, and are particularly prone to surge pricing. Provided you book early enough, you can find flights around the following prices in each direction:

• Alicante: 45€
• Birmingham: 60€
• Brussels Charleroi: 35€
• Dublin: 50€
• London Stansted: 32€
• Malaga: 90€
• Milan Bergamo: 30€

Instead, it is likely that you’ll want to travel in via Warsaw Chopin Airport, an international airport, served by most of the main transport hubs around the world. As of October 2023, typical round-trip tickets from selected cities direct via Lot cost:

• Chicago: 636€
• Dubai: 699€
• London: 105€
• Paris: 209€
• Frankfurt: 204€
• Amsterdam: 237€
• Krakow: 58€

Use a comparison site like 12go to find the best deals.

See our guide for How To Get To Łódź and dedicated page for Łódź Airport for more information.