Auschwitz from Prague

The arrival station you want to search for is Oświęcim.

I checked buses on Flixbus.com. It's about a 12 hour journey, so you'd have to do an overnight.

Checking trains on cd.cz (Czech railways) there is a 7:09am train that arrives Oświęcim at 1:02pm. The latest same-day return leaves Oświęcim at 4:58pm and arrives back at Praha hl.n. at 10:19pm.

That gives you just under 4 hours to get from the station to the actual location, and back, get tickets and then, let's estimate, 3 hours to see both Auschwitz and Birkenau. At the time of day you will arrive, you'll be required to join a tour. So it depends on the tour times whether you could even make it work. Much less spend the time you would want.

My round trip from Krakow, including transportation and tours at the sites, was 6 or 7 hours 4-5 spent at the two sites.

Is an overnight bus or train in either direction an option?

Looking at rome2rio.com (for buses, trains and driving) and bahn.de (for trains), it looks like a minimum of 5' 40" one way (by train, Prague main train station to Oswiecim train station) or almost 5 hours (driving). Bus takes even longer. Schedules don't look like there would be any way to use public transportation to do this in one day. Could you possible spend one night in Oswiecim?

Sorry to say but this seems like an impossible day trip. Trains from Prague to Oswiecim don’t arrive until 4 PM and there are no return trains after that. And the site closes at 7PM during the summer. My visit there was one of the most emotional stops on many trips I have taken and I hope that you are able to visit. Consider going the day before and spending a night in Oswiecim.

This is definitely a trip that's better combined with Krakow as the base, as opposed to a a far-flung (not to mention inefficient and tiring) day trip from Prague. By the way, "Oświęcim" (train station name) means Auschwitz in Polish.

This is all extremely helpful, thank you so so much!

I few additional thoughts/questions: Once I arrived at the train station (Oswiecim), how would I get to the site? Can I walk, do you know? Or, do I need to take a cab or Uber or something?

Have you stayed in Oswiecim? I wonder how easy that would be. I really need to be staying in Prague, but I may be able to "sneak out" for one night.

Agnes, it is very helpful and sobering to know that Oswiecim means Auschwitz. Ugh.

Noel

I'm a bit confused as I re-read: Phillip, it looks like CWSocial says that I could arrive at 1:02pm but you say 4pm? Curious.

Also, it seems like several of you are referencing different train and bus schedules online. How did you find those sites/schedules and how do I know how reliable any of them are?

Noel

Here's a link for the train option I mentioned, set to English and showing the 7:09am departure:
https://www.cd.cz/en/spojeni-a-jizdenka/spojeni-tam/81e78ba1-ebdd-48bd-bc8b-94320b1b449b

I've searched for a departure "tomorrow" - you can change to your date. This site is the Czech national railways. Perfectly reliable in my experience, though every form of transportation has potential for delays.

You can buy the ticket online on the site, in English. Price for tomorrow (one way) is 694 czk, just under $31; it's 477 czk, about $21 for a random date I checked 2 weeks from now.

Edited: new link above that should work.

bahn.de is the site for the national railways of Germany. It is usually pretty darn accurate for train schedules in middle Europe. However, CDSocial has found very useful info for you on the cd.cz site, which is the site for the national railways of the Czech Republic, showing a train that bahn.de does not list. I suggest that you look at those sites yourself, to determine what might work for you. Rome2rio.com is a site that shows all kinds of transportation options throughout the world, including usually air, train, bus, taxi, and driving between any two given points. It's useful for an overall view of what might be possible, then you go to the actual plane/bus/etc. website to get specific schedules. Rome2rio usually will list for you the plane and bus companies, with links to their own websites.

I'm going to throw out one additional question for you. Are you particularly wanting to visit Auschwitz? Or are you interested in visiting a concentration camp? Terezin is about an hour from Prague. It's not the same (an understatement, I realize) as the Auschwitz death camps where so many were killed, but played a sobering role in the holocaust.

It's very easy to take a bus from Prague to Terezin, either by yourself or as part of a tour.

Edited: I see in your other post that you are also planning to visit Terezin.

Auschwitz (Oswiecim) as a day trip from Prague - bad idea. idos.cz is website for train and bus schedules. Use combined bus and train schedule and it will show you the fastest connection. You can switch the website to English.

Hi all,

Am in Prague. Sure enough, the only way I can really get to Auschwitz from Prague (and return to Prague the same day) is to book a private tour (e.g., through Wittman).

I know this is a long shot, but is there anyone out there who is also interested in such a trip (one long day trip to Auschwitz from Prague), this week?

I suspect the trip would begin very early in the morning (5am-ish?) and we would return late that evening - before midnight.

Despite what might seem more practical, I need to return to Prague in the evening and can't spend the night elsewhere.

Thanks,
Noel