Hi,
I'm claustrophobic and wondering if I should omit the salt mine from my itinerary. It looks plenty spacious once you're down there, but I'm worried about the path down and the elevator ride up. I generally don't take elevators. How long is the elevator ride? Do they pack you in there like sardines? (I had a terrible experience with this at the Holocaust museum in DC.)
Thanks!
Yes as I recall the elevator is the only way out and its full and a long ride up. Sorry if that rules it out for you.
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Getting down to the mines is easy. You mostly use very wide sturdy wooden stairs that gradually get you down to the mine. The elevator ride up freaks a lot of people out. During my visit there were several people who had no issues being inside the mine and walking around, but once the tour ended and they saw the tiny industrial sardine-packed elevator back up, they had panic attacks.
The tour guides are used to handling this and told them they can wait and take these elevators back up solo, but it will involve a bit of waiting around until the tour groups have made it back up and the back log is clears.
I'm a total panicker in tight spaces and I worried about these same things. Here's what I found: I was fine on the way down. There's a ton of stairs that take you down. They wind around and around in a path. I was okay with them but they did make me wonder how I was going to feel at the bottom. Turns out, though, I was fine at the bottom. The caverns below are absolutely huge and I wandered around with the tour no problem. I was pondering the elevator ride up the entire time, though. It was ok but not great. They packed about ten of us in there, shoulder to shoulder. I closed my eyes and hid my face in my partner's chest and we were done.
I don't know what your terrible experience at the Holocaust Museum was - but if it was really really bad, I'll share this with you: the salt mine is interesting but it's a way longer tour than I thought it needed to be. I could have been in and out happily in 20 minutes and so if you think you just can't hack the elevator ride, look at a YouTube video of that main cathedral and don't worry about it further. It was the least interesting of the fabulous things I saw in and around Krakow.
Thank you all. This very helpful info. Sounds like I'll just have to watch the Rick Steve's episode where he goes down. :) Thanks!
The Wieliczka salt mine tour was really cool and unique. But, it required some effort and time (guided tour was over 3hours as I recall, not to mention getting there and back, plus a LOT of walking - and my already-tired feet were pretty wiped by the time I I finished). I would do the mine tour for sure if I weren't claustrophobic and had plenty of time to see and enjoy Krakow itself - but I wouldn't put it at the top of a short visit to Krakow, personally. Krakow is a lovely, charming city, and I'd want to have time to enjoy and explore it too, for sure.
If it's any consolation, in 5 nights in Krakow, the salt mine was my least favorite sight/experience.
When we toured, we were given the option to walk back up instead of waiting for the elevator. Don't known if that's an option.... but I agree with the other advice that there are lots if other good things to do at Krakow
