We were on the RS Poland tour in Sept 2022, and we spent a couple extra nights in Krakow after the tour. I went against most recommendations and booked an all day group tour to both Auschwitz and the salt mines. I’ve cut and pasted my day recap from the trip report I wrote and posted on this forum:
“I had booked an all-day Auschwitz and Wielickzka salt mine tour with MrShuttle (formerly KrakowShuttle) for $87/pp that included pickup and drop-off and a boxed lunch. Our pickup was at 6:45am and we were dropped off around 6pm that evening. We rode in a compact bus that fit about 25 people. Our driver/guide would walk us to the entrances of each venue and then turn us over to the local museum guide, leaving us with instructions of how to find the bus when returning. It was a very professional operation, and I would recommend this MrShuttle tour to others who are trying to fit in these two must see sights in a one-day efficient manner. The morning drive to Auschwitz was around 2 hrs and we watched an intense documentary video containing actual footage from when the soviets liberated the camp. We had a 2hr guided tour of Auschwitz I museum, then reboarded the bus for a quick transfer over to Auschwitz II Birkenau Camp for another 1hr guided tour with the same guide. Our tour in Auschwitz I included walks through 4 or 5 of the Block building exhibits (we did not visit any of the National Memorial Block buildings), and then ended with a walk through the crematorium. The tour in Auschwitz II Birkenau only covered a walk up the rail line to the ruins of the crematoriums, a walk back up the left side of the memorial back to the guard tower, and a walk through one restored sleeping barrack building. We returned to the shuttle drop-off area for Birkenau where there was a café and pay restrooms, and we were given our sack lunch and about 30min to eat and rest before the next leg of our tour to the Salt mine. Our sack lunch was more than adequate including a bowl of chicken pasta salad, a thin baguette sandwich with cheese and ham, a wafer cookie, an apple and a bottle water. We reboarded the bus and had a quiet 1.5 hr drive to Wielickzka (we napped). At the Salt mine we had a quick bathroom break before being turned over to our local guide who was very good (one of the managers). The salt mine tour lasted close to 2-2.5hrs long, lots of walking. I’ve been in cave tours before, but this was my first salt mine, and I greatly enjoyed all the carvings and rooms throughout that we visited. We got slightly lost finding our way back to the bus at the end of the tour, but I think we all made it back. The drive from the salt mine back to Krakow was a quick 30min, and we were each dropped up as close as possible to our hotels around 6pm. Many warned us that combining these two sights into one day would be too much and too emotional; and while I admit it was a long day and a lot of walking, I felt that it was an efficient way to see both still allowing us to maximize the time spent in Krakow. Of the two sites, I enjoyed our tour of the Salt mine more, as I felt that I would have benefitted from more independent time in Auschwitz to explore more of the Block buildings and barracks for better context than what we saw in our quick visits.”
