Amber?
 

Visiting Poland in Aug. what's the best place to buy amber and any suggestions for hotels?

In Krakow, the Cloth Market has loads of it. We stayed at the Dom Turisty hotel and liked it.

One little piece of info that might be useful for amber shoppers. A test for genuine amber is to drop it into a saturated salt water solution. If it floats, it's really amber. Something I learned from my grandmother.

dont know about poland but if you gret anywhere near prague that is the place to but amber. there are huge amounts of good amber there from loose stones to premade items. may be worth a side trip to investigate

Right in the middle of old town is this old large building with rows of small open shops on the ground floor under the main building. I found beautiful bracelets and earrings for very reasonable cost. You will enjoy Krakow and take at least a day trip to Zakopane (2-hour bus ride from train station) -- has nice shops and beautiful scenery.