My friend in England found this tour online and so we booked a reservation.
The tour starts promptly at 5 in front of St Mary's Basilica. Do not be late! There are two guides: Dominique & a Turkish gentleman who's name I didn't catch. They aren't always both on the tour, sometimes one goes ahead to the next establishment.
This was very interesting in that the tour guides had a plethora of information to share about the making of vodka (information overload). However, one of the guides does not drink which is odd given he is running a vodka tour. And the guides only knew about Polish vodkas, they had no idea about vodkas from around the world and had never heard of Tito's! I know Tito's isn't distributed or sold everywhere in the world but given their market share in the vodka industry, I would expect the guides to be familiar with other brands.
We went to 4 different establishments, we walked to each one so wear comfortable shoes. The first place was kind of an old style Polish pub/restaurant where the waitresses wore costumes and the decorations were dated. We tried a potato based vodka and the bison grass vodka. The food served here was excellent!! Especially the cabbage dish. I would eat something small before the tour but not a big meal as you will want to try everything.
They claim that if you eat fatty food in Poland, you won't get drunk while sipping vodka. But by mid tour you will have a buzz and I have a high tolerance. Most of this vodka is pure so 96% proof and above!
The second place was a stand up bar that was very small but it was various flavors of vodka. Here you can buy vodka to take home, they will bubble wrap to& package the bottles for flight. Try the chocolate vodka! The tour guides will likely serve quince & elderflower; they will tell you the Chocolate is more of a liquor but it is so well made over there!!
The third place we went to was another one of those old timey bars where the decorations are dated. Here we dined on bread and herring with onion but we tried the purest form of vodka. This is the only time we did a shot to drink it fast. It was so good!!
Lastly, we ended up at a Jewish prayer room turned pub that was really cool! The vodka here was the best on the tour. Our group ordered about 5 rounds, we couldn't stop!! This place had wifi too. read more