Auschwitz Guided Tour Question

Auschwitz does not allow outside guides to conduct tours inside the camp. So, even if you book with an outside company, their guide will hand you over to one of Auschwitz’s official guides.

We hired a driver to take us to the camp where we joined an official tour that we booked (way) ahead. He turned out to have excellent English and was very informative as we drove to and from Krakow. He was also helpful in navigating our arrival at Auschwitz and finding our tour (which was a bit confusing).

I’m not sure you can avoid touring with a fairly large group. However, we found our Auschwitz tour guide to be very experienced and knowledgeable, and able to move our large group smoothly and sensitively. I think headsets were used so we could all hear her without difficulty. At the end of the tour, she left us and we were able to continue exploring on our own before meeting up with our driver.

I believe it is also possible to simply visit Auschwitz on your own at certain times of the day. You would need to check on their website.

My understanding is that only official guides at Auschwitz give the tours so hiring a private guide to do so isn’t an option. If you sign-up with a tour company they would drive you to Auschwitz and then you would go on the official tour. I’ll also be in Krakow this fall and signed-up for the Mr.Shuttle Auschwitz Birkenau & Salt Mine One Day Tour based on very positive online reviews. I hope you have a wonderful and rewarding time in Poland.

The educators at Auschwitz are excellent and also compassionate as the subject requires.They were the only option for guides when we were there.

As noted, there is NO option to hite your own guide.

Also note that typically you take the official short shuttle-bus ride to Birkenau, and your driver picks you up there when you are done.

This is not a criticism of the guides, constrained by massive crowds, sun, and heat. But you may want to spend more independent time at Birkenau (after your guide finishes.) if you have a guidebook and the energy to walk around this also huge site.

You could do limited independent walking in Auschwitz, but you probably went on the bus with your guide to Birkenau. Note that Auschwitz itself is cramped and crowded, with lines snaking through most of the barracks/exhibition halls. Many of the barracks are set up for specific languages, or persecuted ethnic groups, but not clearly marked.

I toured Auschwitz in 2015 and in 2022. The 2015 tour was with a Krakow-based company and the 2022 tour was with Rick Steves Tours. Rick Steves Tours hired a local guide.

Both tours of Auschwitz were fine, lasting about two to three hours each, but I wish I had hired my own guide one or both times. Holocaust and World War II history are fascinating if sobering. (My interest is driven in part by my dad, who served in the US Navy during World War II, as well as my having two liberal arts degrees.)

I wish I could have explored the grounds at Birkenau and lingered over the sites in the museum at Auschwitz I. I have never seen Auschwitz III/Monowitz/Buna, but there are sites to see there. Overall, I wish I could have spent at least twice the amount of time at Auschwitz.

Since you'll be in Krakow, I strongly recommend a visit to Oskar Schindler's factory, Hero's Square and the former Jewish Ghetto and Kazimierz, the fascinating former Jewish neighborhood of the city.

Thank you all for the informative replies and confirming what I thought about hiring private guides at Auschwitz. I am inclined to hire a driver to take us there so if any of you have a recommended driver or company please let me know.

And, I read that taking the early tours are best since it is less crowded then. Any suggestions on time to go and if drivers will pick you up in Krakow for an 8:30 or 9 am tour?

Many thanks.

I just did this with Marta Chmielowska, whose info is in the 2019 RS Eastern Europe guide. It was somewhat expensive but worth it as she gave me some good suggestions about how to spend extra time in the Birkenau part and deal with the heat. I'm working on a trip report now.

Hello,

As mentioned by others hiring a privat guide is not possible unless you hire an official Museum educator for your group only. The easiest way to do this is to contact some local travel agency ( ie. KrakowDirect) which will organize a private guide for you together with transportation. Private guide with private transportation is the most expensive option however you do not depend on the group. Just bear in mind that even that you have a private guide the time of service is still limited by Museum regulations. If standard time of visit is not enough that you can ask for a Study Tour which takes 6-7h and covers extended visit in the Museum.

If you decide to go with one of their guides, I recommend booking your tour a few days in advance online. We didn't (just went a few weeks ago), and the lines to book onsite were long.

You'll be off-peak, though, so your experience may differ.

You may consider asking your hotel. When we visited Krakow some years ago I was confused by the many vendors advertising tours to Auschwitz. I mentioned it to out hotel and they suggested a tour company and they made the call and arranged it for us on the day of our choosing. A small mini van picked us up at the hotel, “handed us over” to the official guide when we arrived and were guided through Auschwitz and Birkenau and then returned to our original folks for the drive back to town. Flawless and excellent with informed commentaries by both our guide and the official guide at the camp. I can recommend the Hotel Wielopole where we had an exceptional stay with immaculately clean room, helpful folks, central location and an outstanding breakfast.

Hello! I'm about to book an 8-hour one day tour of Auschwitz for October. Curious to know how it works: do we break for lunch?

Also, someone posted that she paid a little over $150 for a private car from hotel to Auschwitz and back. I'm grateful for that piece of information as it gives me an idea of how to plan. Is there a shared van type deal where it's not too expensive? I'm sure that at the end of the day, having walked a lot (though it would be nothing compared to the victims of Auschwitz who suffered by standing in formation for hours and hours in the elements), having a private driver/shared van is highly desirable.

My krakow driver gets good Reviews in TA and his price was reasonable for private driver to Auschwitz. Maybe around 150. We will use our tour guides husband who was a bit more expensive but I found out about my krakow driver after we booked with tour guide and didn’t want to change it. We will be there end of September.

Kracow City Tours is about $37.00. It includes transportation to and from Kracow, entrance into both camps with a tour guide at each camp. $150 is way too much for a driver.