We're going to Krakow in August and of course we need to see Auschwitz with two teenagers, 18 and 16. Does anyone have any suggestions on which tour to take? 3.5 hours? 6 hours? 8 hours?
We did a full day tour of Theresienstadt several years ago that was very insightful and had a private guide. I'm thinking we should seek out a guide for this as well. Any insight is appreciated!
I think our English guided tour was around 4 hours including RT van transportation from our Krakow hotel. We declined a trip offered to the Salt Mines which would have followed Auschwitz-Birkenau. We were emotionally drained after the camps so were glad we hadn’t signed up for the Salt Mines too.
Our tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau was arranged for us by our hotel’s concierge in advance of our arrival in Krakow. They had sent us a message offering to sign us up for a tour. We stayed at the Hotel Amber Boutique and recommend it especially for their service and helpfulness. It is a few blocks from the city square.
You need a guided tour to appreciate what you are seeing and the history. We were the only native English speakers on our tour.
I think you are required to have a guide at Auschwitz. Length of tour depends on level of interest. But I would make sure you your tour includes the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau where you will see the barracks, and platforms where the trains unloaded, and the section process occurred. That is the most sobering part of it.
The time spent onsite at the two locations should be about 4 hours combined with a guide. Additional time for more intensive reflection may be an option. This does not include travel time to the site.
Can anyone recommend a particular company that provides transportation and the entry tickets to Auschwitz 1 & 2
I’ve read mixed reviews for Viator and GetYourGuide
Thanks for any information
The tours at the actual camps are onsite guides, so the role of the GetYourGuide and Viator offerings is to coordinate the commentary and logistics to, from and between the camps, along with any services such as hotel pickup and dropoff. Once at the camps, the site guides are required to take over for the site tours.
+1 for CWSocial
My husband and I are doing a tour today. I will let you know how it goes.
We did a tour with a private guide booked through Auschwitz. She was excellent and having her made the experience much more meaningful to us all... especially my teenagers. I highly recommend booking a private guide. I wish we had done it for the Schindler Factory... another excellent museum, but someone was there with a private guide and her commentary was very insightful.
Thank CWSocial
I’m unclear if these companies GetYourGuide etc
Provide the entry ticket as well as transfers?
The tour I booked (through my hotel) did include the entrance tickets, along with hotel pickup/dropoff and transfers to, from and between the camps. I just checked the "Includes" and "Full Description" section of 4 or 5 Auschwitz tours available through GetYourGuide; each says it includes the entry ticket. I would think they would all include the entry ticket, but if the one you are looking at isn't clear, there are plenty that explicitly say the ticket is included.
Thank you for your help
I would really suggest this tour company. Everything went smoothly and the onsite guide did a wonderful job.
See, for example,
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/four-cities-in-poland-2019
(Search down for Auschwitz report in the trip report)
