Poland/Czech/Austria Summer 2024

In Austria you will be running into Austrian (last week in June first week in July thru September) and German Baden-Württemberg and Bayern (last week in July thru September) school vacations. I would make my preferred reservations soon, especially by lakes and family locations. I do not think the Olympics will have much if any impact in Austria.

You can see bits and pieces of those countries in 30+ days, but Poland in particular is quite large. It has many interesting cities and towns, and they are scattered. The three most popular cities (Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk) stretch the entire length of the country.

You'll need to nail down tickets to Auschwitz and the Schindler Factory in advance if they interest you.

Czechia/Austria/Hungary might be a bit more manageable in the time you have available, though each of those countries could easily keep you occupied for a month or longer.

I am still trying to figure out everything but I originally didn't include all of Austria. Below is what I originally had planned. We want to only take trains or buses for day trips.

Budapest: 4 nights
Vienna: 3 nights
Cesky Krumlov: 2 nights
Prague: 6 nights with day trips to Kutna Hora and Karlovy Vary
Krakow: 4 nights
Wroclaw: 2 nights
Gdansk: 3 nights
Warsaw: 3 nights

We LOVE history especially WW2. Also love nature so I was thinking of adding Zakopane for a couple nights to go hiking. Our exact days haven't been ironed out yet but we would be going beginning of July. I know this is busy season but wasn't sure how busy. We were in Europe back in 2018 from April and May in Italy, Germany, France and UK and the main places were crowded. We are just trying to get an idea what kind of crowds and weather we might be dealing with in July.

Poland is really rich in WWII-related sites and museums. There are also places focusing on the Cold War period. They can be very time-consuming. Some examples:

Gdansk has a brilliant WWII Museum. It took me 20 hours to see it, reading all the English explanatory material (the museum is basically bilingual) and watching all the videos with English subtitles. The Solidarity Museum is also excellent. It's smaller. I got through it in about 8 hours.

In Warsaw the Warsaw Rising Museum and POLIN (history of the Polish Jews) each took close to 8 hours, I believe. There are many, many more museums/memorials/etc. in Warsaw. This website lists a lot of them but by no means all: https://www.culturaobscura.com/dark-tourism-memorial-sites-museums-in-warsaw-poland/. It would probably take more than a week to get to all the WWII and Cold War sights in Warsaw if you did nothing else.

Auschwitz is probably about a half-day excursion from Krakow. I know I spent more time in the Schindler Factory than I expected to, because there were some videos to watch; that may have been close to a half day as well.

This suggestion might fit into your level of interest on WW2.

In Prague I would recommend looking into the Military History and Tank Museum. Keep in mind that in the inter-war years, the Czechs were in possession of the biggest armaments factories in Central Europe located in Pilsen and their army of at least 36 Divisions was regarded as a formidable force.

In Warsaw there is also the Polish Army Museum featuring its military history plus that "tank garden" on the Museum's premises. In 2001 I happened to come across it, too late, as it was a quarter of an hour prior to closing.

Thank you for all the WW2 info. How do you all feel about going in July? We try to avoid tourist season but are unable to this time around. I'm hoping the crowds aren't too unbearable. Also I know July is the wettest month in Poland. Are these short showers or constant rain?

I think you will be fine in July in Poland. I've traveled in Poland in July a few times and never had an issues with weather or tourists crowds, it's still a relatively undiscovered European destination. I think anywhere in Poland will be less crowded than Budapest, Prague, or Vienna. As for summer rains in Poland they are usually quick and actually refreshing showers that freshens up the ambiance.

If I could only pick one country to learn about WWII history as a whole, I'd choose Poland. There are a plethora of sights that cover almost every facet of the war. Here are some of the potential WWII sights you can experience:

Holocaust history (Treblinka, Auschwitz, Majdanek, Schindler’s Factory)

Museum Of The Second World War (single best WWII museum, tells the story of the global war)

Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s Wartime HQ (site of failed July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler)

Westerplatte battlefield and museum (The battle that started World War II )

Warsaw Uprising Museum

Project Riese/Książ Castle (massive secret underground Nazi base)

Various V-2 missile sites

Stalag Luft III POW Camp (of The Great Escape fame)

Outside of a difficult 20th century, Poland has a rich and varied history stretching back over 1000 years, of medieval villages, evocative castles, royal renaissance towns, fascinating culture, great food, bucolic landscapes, and primeval forests and mountains. I'd be sure to add some non WWII sights like Tatra Mountains National Park, Malbork Castle (largest in the world), and Zalipie Village for example. Just so you don't walk away thinking the beautiful country of Poland is only about doom and gloom.

I'll let you in on a secret... there is one region on the border of Poland and Czechia in the Sudeten Mountains that combines almost everything you are looking for in a relatively compact place, it's called the Kłodzko Valley. It's located halfway between Prague and Wroclaw. The landscape is dotted with forgotten medieval villages, baroque spa towns, grand old castles, Prussian fortresses, and secret Nazi installations. This region has been at the center of a constant tug-of-war since the middle ages, between the Germans, the Poles, the Czechs, and the Austrians. The best part it is totally undiscovered by foreign tourists. I was the only non Pole in the whole region I think haha.

You can base yourselves in regional capital, the medieval town of Kłodzko, which is nicknamed as the “Little Prague”, definitely the baroque architecture of the town reflected that. You can also homebase in the spa town of Polanica-Zdrój (like I did) and explore from there. As for hiking/nature in the Kłodzko Valley you have the Stołowe Mountains National Park, a primeval forest deep in the Sudeten Mountain Range, dotted with some very unique rock formations (they actually filmed one of the Narnia movies there). There are some pretty good hiking spots here, between the rock formations themselves.

Here's a great blog post about the Kłodzko Valley https://www.travelsewhere.net/klodzko-valley-poland/

Here is my trip report + photos from the Kłodzko Valley and surrounding area (I went in September) https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/vicarious-travel-poland-2017-wroclaw-silesia

I like your cities and nights. I would probably add a night in Vienna, but I favor that city over some on your list. You also have to remember that getting from city to city will eat time into your schedule. You should probably decide where you will start and end. Then check times for travel from city to city. For instance, Prague to Krakow is a long train ride or most likely a connection air trip that will take a lot of your day. Some trips will be short, but any time you change cities it is important you factor that into your day.

The amount of time in any city is all relative to the style you are as a traveler. While somebody mentioned 20 hours in a museum, others may accomplish that in 4 hours. It just depends on your personal intensity and interest. Some people adore museums, while others would rather spend time outside exploring the city finding interesting neighborhoods and absorbing their surroundings.

Don't worry too much about the crowds. Expect them because they will be there. The Olympics might take some European travelers off the streets, but by the same token the Olympics will bring more travelers to Europe. Most people do not attend the entire Olympics and my guess would be since they are spending money to get to Europe, they will make a long vacation out of their time there and actually Europe may be more crowded weeks before and weeks after the Olympics. Timing and distance might be everything. I think your choice of countries is smart as the closer you get to Paris/France the worse it will be.

Good luck and book hotel rooms early. Enjoy.

Looks like a great trip and would be fine as is. You can’t see everywhere. However, for crowds, I suspect Prague will be the worst. And as much as I love the city, with your WW II interest, I would take a night from Prague and give it to Warsaw.

If you add days near Zakopane (very worthwhile), I would say to add them to your total - don’t take them away from somewhere else.

I'd suggest that in terms of European history and art, Vienna is worth a longer stay. Do you want to pre-book the Lipizzaner dressage show? Budpest is nice, but not as rich (IMHO) a destination as Vienna. Everyone has their own priorities, for example French film devotees might want to visit Marienbad in Czech Republic, or in more recent film, the locations for "Zelary". Anyway, the priority for me was the Baroque Court Theater in Cesky Krumlov, despite the distance and trouble to make a daytrip from Prague.

Here is a old, verbose discussion about WW II sites.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/czech/the-rhetoric-of-war-and-remembrance-focused-on-wwii-and-the-cold-war

Research them and pick the ones that have what interests you. If its WWII history where you can still see and touch the remnants then not sure where would be best. Wouldnt think Vienna would be great for that or Prague for that matter, but not my expertise. Budapest has a lot of WWII history but mostly from the Russian point of view and not too much left that you can touch and smell. But it is dripping in Cold War Soviet Occupation and Revolution History. Krakow hard to beat for still living reminders of WWII. To escape crowds I would take Prague off the list. The opposite end of the spectrum would be Budapest, but not because of fewer tourists, but because how spread out they are; less impact on a trip. Poland I dont know. Ask TexasTravelMom, she is fresh back from Poland. Cesky Krumlov is a fascinating little jewel. But it can become packed with tourists. You can avoid some of the worst be showing up a bit later in the afternoon and departing before noon the next day (you miss the day trippers that way). But it will still be a mini-Prague-like mess i presume.

I am fresh back from some really cool not so often-traveled places, but it’s been a year since I spent a month in Poland. 🤣

Tim is exactly right about everyone having their own set of priorities - no one can determine yours. It’s a philosophical question - how can you know which places you will like best till you see them? Your outline gives a solid overview of these cities. Still, I stand by giving Warsaw and (and to a small degree less) Gdansk an extra night - just because of your stated interest in WW II history.

But I will say that leaving out the Czech Republic this time would give you more time for the other cities, which might be harder to get back to. There’s a direct inexpensive flight Vienna to Krakow. Just food for thought.

I spent late June through early August in Poland in 2018. Krakow and Gdansk were quite touristy; so was Wroclaw, to a lesser degree. Warsaw is a large capital city attracting business travelers as well as tourists. To me it felt more "busy" than "touristy"; there were definitely tourists present, but they were more spread out. I had a feeling that a lot of the non-Polish-speaking folks walking around might be expat residents rather than travelers.

I returned to Poland briefly this summer, at the beginning of September. The only really popular city I went to was Warsaw. On this year's trip I was catching some mostly-secondary sights I missed in 2018, so I was generally not in the busiest part of the city. I walked through part of the rebuilt Old Town, and it didn't seem overrun.

For the purpose of avoiding massive crowds, I really think it's smart to visit Poland sooner rather than later. Krakow and Gdansk are already on all the hot-destination lists.

Re: going in July.

My three main trips to Poland were all in July, in 2001, 2003, and 2005, regardless of the possible crowds, the expected heat , and were scheduled as such.

I haven't ruled out going back in July 2024 to Krakow and Katowice as the trip planning now stands.