Prague/Terezin Jewish Tours

In spring of 2017, we had the pleasure of taking several tours in and around Prague with Helena Sedlmajerova. Unfortunately, I do not know how to direct your contact - she was assigned to us by the Avalon River Cruise we took. She was excellent - and our tours included both the Jewish Quarter of Prague and Terezin. Highly recommended!

Oh wait.....I just found this link.......
http://www.guidingprague.com/en/our-private-guides-1/helena-sedlmajerova.htm

@Blue, thank you for your suggestion! Subsequent to your response I finally received a return email from my last reported link. Terezin-private-tours@hotmail.com.

Janis, I hope you get to do your tour with Pavel. He was our guide for Terezin this past October and was fantastic. I can not recommend him highly enough. There were 8 of us on the tour and one of the tour members told me that they had specifically requested Pavel. You might want to do this as you may get another leader who may be very good, but get Pavel if you can, you won't regret the effort it might take. Good Luck

May I suggest Wittmann Tours for your tour to Terezin? In late August 2015, we toured Terezin with Helena Katzlingerova-Rakytkova ('Helen'). Although I had previously taken this tour with Wittmann (but not with Helen) 8 years prior, my wife wanted to visit Terezin, so we signed up for a group tour. Unfortunately for Wittmann - but fortunately for us - we were the only two persons on the tour that day, so it was essentially a private tour. However, for this we did have to pay extra, which was made known to me up front, but it was not an issue as the cost was reasonable. Helen, who had been guiding for Wittmann since its inception over 20 years ago, gave a fantastic tour! In fact, we went to places that I did not see on the previous tour, such as inside the walls of the Small Fortress. Helen was extremely knowledgeable about Terezin and had personal ties to a survivor, about whom she and her husband wrote a book (Life Forbidden, by Jan Rakytka - about Prof. Felix Kolmer). I don't think one can say that he or she 'enjoyed' a visit to a former concentration camp, so I will say that it was extremely informative, historical, thought-provoking, personal, and sad when one realizes that most of the Terezin prisoners did not survive the war.

Glad you connected with Pavel. Our day with him at Terezin in 2017 was memorable. His knowledge is scholarly; his demeanor pleasant and charming; his passion for the story and history is amazing. At an appropriate time -- perhaps lunch or the ride back to Prague -- ask him about his family's ties with Judaism. It's an amazing story, but one he didn't bring up during the actual tour at Terezin, probably because there's so much ground to cover on that subject alone.

Thanks for all the heartfelt recommendations. I am sure this will be an experience we will never forget.

Hi Janis -- I'm glad you were able to make contact with Pavel. We toured Terezin with him in June and he was excellent!!! I do think who your guide is matters. While we loved Pavel, we had a tour of the Jewish Quarter in Prague with one of his colleagues and did not like it at all. In fact, we would have been much better off doing that part on our own. I have spoken with others and it appears there are two Jewish Quarter guides from the group that people really like, and one (the one we had) with decidedly mixed reviews. If you'd like more information on who we had as a guide and why we didn't like her, please message me on the forum.

We had the Jewish tour with Prague Cool Guide (https://www.prague-cool-guide.com/prague-tours), our guide was Marketa and we really enjoyed the tour with her. She is very helpful, kind and patient, she has the licence for the museum and she is really knowledgeable.