Kraków has exploded with city centre strip clubs in recent years, many of which are increasingly shady - often closing down and reopening only days later with a new name. Fetching female employees of these clubs often prowl the tourist hotspots of the market square, ul. Floriańska, ul. Grodzka and other major Old Town thoroughfares - some overtly with umbrellas, strip club flyers and drink promotions; while others use more subtle and subversive tactics.

If you find yourself being approached by a young lady or ladies taking an overactive interest in you and suggesting you join them for a drink, please exercise common sense and skepticism. While we don't wish to suggest you aren't the handsome dude you surely must be, we do receive reports of situations in which men are lead to a ‘random’ bar or club by flirtatious young women, where upon later attempting to leave they are intimidated into paying vastly inflated bar tabs by thuggish bouncers. Others have reported being drugged in strip clubs, while unauthorised credit card charges, or charges vastly exceeding the amount on the card reader, are also a complaint we hear too often. Unfortunately the dodgy, dangerous and sometimes criminal behaviour of strip clubs is a problem now affecting most major Polish cities, and the local governments and law enforcement seem either unable or unwilling to stop it.

While we don't want to suggest that a great time can't be had in any of Kraków's strip clubs, we do urge you to be mindful, mind your manners, deal only in cash, don't let anyone order drinks for you, and generally keep your wits about you.

With the speed that local strip clubs earn bad reputations and reinvent themselves, we can't possibly cover them all or capably keep track of them on our website. Though we do list a few strip clubs on our site, that doesn't mean that we vouch for them. Because we - and by extension our readers - have been burned too many times by this industry, we simply don't feel comfortable identifying any strip club as 'safe' and we no longer recommend specific strip clubs. We encourage you to help us, and your fellow IYP readers, by leaving comments here about the places you've visited and your experiences there.