Krakow is widely known for many interesting places. From quite common shooting ranges or racing tracks, to a more innovative clubs like Bad Axe or cthulu pubs, you can have a great evening just by randomly visiting places on the main market. One of most common places to be, are surely board games cafes. While many people are rather used to playing in board games shop, like it was very popular in 90s, in United States of America, such cafes are a great way to improve this experience and maybe bring some casual friends to share it. Here, we list the best such places to visit in Krakow when it rains.

 

Hex – where it all started

 

If you were to ask around about tabletop related locales, you would probably first bump into the name “Hex”. This board game café started it all few years ago, opening a small locale between the main market and Kazimierz district. While it was not the richest in terms of furniture, it had a lot of good board games, and great food/drinks to it. Combined with growing popularity of board games in Poland at those times, Hex was literally overrun by people. You had to make reservations with week or two in advance, reaching month, when it came to a weekend date. You were very lucky, when you took some friends and found yourself a large table. People were also coming alone and looking for a group to join. Hex quickly became an extraordinary, yet very effective place to meet people, so it was natural that many official meetings and tournaments made its way to this café, instead of a dull board game shop.

 

Boardowa – new and shiny

 

After the peak of popularity was reached in Hex it was only natural, that many other locales would follow with either opening of a new place, or rearranging existing ones to have at least some degree of board games support. While many of those were simply bad, offering a Monopoly and maybe a Talisman to their burgers, some of those places were created with great planning and ideas. One of those was Boardowa. Opened not long ago, near main station in Krakow, Boardowa is a very comfortable and friendly place, where you get to try some great tastes of local beer and food, combined with growing library of board and RPG games. This place has not only opened its doors to dedicated players, but right away started with events and parties involving tabletop games. You can throw a company party here, order a location-based game or make yourself a very nice birthday. It is a place where you can get ready for a Cyberpunk or play some Star Wars Destiny, with one of the biggest communities in Poland. Thanks to big tables, people are also starting to bring some miniature wargames here.

 

 

R’lyeh – thematically enriched pub

 

If you want some more immersion you can also visit some thematically enriched locales, for example R’lyeh, which is also one of the closest places to the main station, so you can even try it out in between journeys. Such places are filled up with climatic decorations, music and people willing to meet up. RPG sessions are more dominant here, including Live Actions Role Playing (LARP) games, however there are also board games in most of such places. So whether you want some tabletop action further immersed within the rooms of such a place, or you want to go all in into meetings with equally crazy people, those pubs are a way to go. And you will find a lot of those in Krakow.

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