Essentials for visiting Warsaw from what's new to classics

From skate parks and roof gardens to historic palaces and some of Europe's most modern buildings, visitors of all ages will find plenty do see and do in this city that aspires to be trendy.

The museum is located in an area that was the heart of the Jewish Ghetto during World War II, when Nazi Germany occupied Poland, and stands next to the monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto, who in 1943 staged an uprising against the final transport of Warsaw's Jews to death camps.

The building is a piece of exquisite, inspired glass and concrete architecture.

The pre-World War II ammunition depot and post-war motorbike factory was an abandoned, rundown neighborhood, just like industrial sections of downtown New York City, before being turned into an arts community with galleries, exhibition and conference space, a chic restaurant and a museum about life under communism.

The museum offers tours of communist-era architecture, a look at a typical small apartment, a taste of cherry vodka and a ride in a militia van.

The visit can be combined with a walk in a nearby garden on the roof of the Warsaw University Library.

Don't miss the Old Town : colorful Renaissance houses on cobbled stone streets, rebuilt from the ruins of World War II.

Another must-see is the Lazienki Park (the Royal Baths Park) with the 17th century ornate Palace on the Isle, an open-air Greek-style theater, and sculptures of nymphs and satyrs along sand-and-gravel paths.