Private Guide / Tour to Auschwitz

We went last summer and did the guided tour you mentioned. We kind of regret not going later in the day and doing it on our own. I say this because we would have moved at a slower pace in Auschwitz 1, looked more carefully at the displays and read the information. There wasn't time for reflection. We did have time in Auschwitz Birkenau to walk around, take our time, and reflect, as after the tour ends you can stay as long as you want. Maybe, ideally, you take the last tour of the day, and then go back in to do the first part at your own pace.

IMO you most definitely want to take one of the camp's tours. The guide's are very knowledgeable and will point out and explain things that you may miss on your own. The bus will take you from Auschwitz to Birkenau and that portion of the tour is much shorter. If the back of Birkeneau is open when you are there, be sure to walk there on your own to see this. It was called "Kanada" and is very moving. We hired Andrew Durman to drive us from Krakow to Auschwitz. Along the way to there, and back to Krakow, he showed us several other things of interest. Andrew is one of the finest guides you will ever meet and he has a wealth of knowledge about Poland. I'm not sure if he is still guiding people, but if not, I would bet he can refer you to one of his colleagues. Our time with Andrew is one of our most cherished travel memories. You can read many of his reviews on Trip Advisor.

Private guides are NOT permitted to conduct guests inside Auschwitz. Note that the word guide is sometimes used in the marketing of private or semi-private transportation between say, Kraków and Auschwitz. Don't be confused or deceived by that.

Because it is going to be unpleasantly crowded every moment you are inside Auschwitz (Birkenau is a little less crowded), I think it is easier to start with the 3.5 hr guided tour. You can always walk around on your own after the tour (and shuttle bus to Birkenau) are over.

One reason for the language choice (besides the obvious reason) is to take you through the barracks-museum (hard to differentiate from outside) most closely related to your nationality. These are also crowded, hot, and slow-going.

I apologize for putting words in your mouth here, and WE normally never hire private guides. But let go of the idea that you are some sort of "loser" if you let someone drag you around a famous place. In this case, it is helpful. There is food available if you have any appetite.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/four-cities-in-poland-2019

Thanks for this information. The site is a bit confusing to me but you have cleared up that confusion.

On guides, we have used them when it is mandatory (an opera tour in Paris comes to mind) or when it comes with some special access ( night time tour of the Vatican museums), but we usually educate ourselves or use audio guides mostly so we can pace ourselves…skip the parts that don’t interest us or spend longer on the parts that do.

Anyway, I think what I need to do is find a date that has an English tour (most likely the 3.5 hour and not the 6 hour), book that, and then arrange for transportation to and from Krakow either via public transport or a driver. Is it just that simple?

Yes, it is just that simple, and I would suggest you book the earliest time available to try and mitigate some of the crowd. If you do want to hire a driver for the trip from Krakow to Auschwitz, my advice would be to do that ASAP.

I didn't think they let people wander around Auschwitz I on there own. Is that not true? I recall our guide shooing along stragglers to keep up so the next group had space.

Sadly, the immense over-crowding of the site makes shepherding groups a crucial part of the guides' job. The barracks museums usually have a line to enter, and are a solid line of people who may stop at one display case or another, blocking some forward progress. Also, the many consumer-grade floor fans desperately trying to move some hot air around each barracks are obstacles.

Stan, the rules on their website are so voluminous that it's hard to cite the black-and-white. We were there in 2019, and we were totally unsupervised after our Auschwitz camp tour; Our guide told us to meet him at Birkenau some time later, and we had time to eat before that. I believe he told us which shuttle bus departure to take, and he was with us on that general-access bus. He invited us to return to Auschwitz if we wished, after finishing our (rather cursory, I thought) tour of Birkenau.

Here is some black and white:

7 [paragraph seven]. Individual visitors who are not members of an organized group may visit the Museum on the basis of the Entry Pass for a tour without an Educator or an Entry Pass for Guided Tours, including the obligatory use of headphones, and the Entry Pass for Tours – online tour, according to the Price List, which is an integral part of the Terms and Conditions for reservations and purchases of Entry Passes, available at the Museum website: visit.auschwitz.org/cennik.
https://www.auschwitz.org/gfx/auschwitz/userfiles/_public/visit/50_en.pdf?_gl=1*1vnncia*_ga*NjMxMTM2MzYxLjE3MTMyNzU3NjI.*_ga_ES4EZDDBMD*MTcxMzI3NTc2MS4xLjEuMTcxMzI3NjI0OS4wLjAuMA..

Here is a less specific, but relatively clear clause from the main website page:

Individual visitors may tour the Memorial independently or in organised groups with a guide.
https://www.auschwitz.org/en/visiting/

The following quote is more restrictive, but it depends on how you read the meaning of "detatch from the group." To me, that means "in the middle of the tour." I DO NOT believe that the guides take you outside the "paid zone" before dismissing you, which would mean that you did NOT "detatch from the group." You were severed by the monument staff, from the group!

1. The Museum may be toured independently or with an educator authorised by the Museum, according to the Entry Pass held by the visitor. The educator provides content-related guidance during the tour of the Museum. In the case of purchase of an Entry Pass for a tour with an Educator, it is prohibited to detach from the group for a self-guided tour.

Despite the above and other thread here (and elsewhere), I am still confused. I feel like I must be dumb because I find the 'how to tour Auschwitz' to be very confusing.

I go to https://visit.auschwitz.org/?lang=en.

I want to visit in person, so I assume I select "On-Site Tours".

I am presented with a "Visit for Groups" and a "Visit for Individuals" option. The description of the former is "...with a Museum educator for organised groups or for individuals who wish to have a private tour with an educator" and for the latter the descritpion is "... for individuals, for whom a group tour with a Museum educator is organised on site, or individuals who wish to visit without an educator". It appears both have a museum educator, and there isn't any explanation as to what the difference is; what is the difference between these two in layman's terms?

If I select "next" for Visit for Groups, I am taken to a page that tells me to log in to send my request. What request am I sending? How can I tell if the dates I want are even available? What is this process (trying) to walk me through?

If I select "next" for Visit for Infividuals, I get a Captcha. If I complete that, I get a calendar with hotlinks for each day. If I pick a day, I see a lot of options such as "8:15, General 3.5 h, Polish, N places available." What are these spots, what do they see, what do they not see that otherwise is available to see? I didn't go much beyond this page, but I assume I pay for the tickets.

I feel dumb because this seems like it is easy for others to follow, but I just don't get it. I can't find anything that clearly describes the options for tickets and official tours, that tells me I must (must) take a tour organized by the site, and so on. I think that if I don't want one of their tours, I wait until late in the day which I don't want to do...but there is nothing that I find that clearly explains that.

I hate to be a pain, but can someone slowly explain this place to me in terms of getting tickets, tours, and so on? I'll take care of the transportation on the side; I can understand that part of things.

If you are going on your own, choose "Visit for individuals", then date and one of the following options:

1/ General tour 3,5h (choose language)
2/ One day study tour 6h (choose language)
3/Tour for individuals without an educator (= free entry pass in the afternoon)

click next and indicate number of passes you need and pay.

I don't follow what you mean by "If you are going on your own...". Can you please clarify?

There are three of us so I understand the options to be:
1. We join in with a larger group in a specified time slot for a guided tour in a specified language.
2. We try to get a full day study / tour in a specified language. (Would it be only the three of us or do we again join a larger group?)
3. Go in the afternoon and tour on our own.

Are you using the RS Krakow, Warsaw & Gdansk guidebook to help plan your trip? I would highly recommend it - get an additional guidebook if you intend to visit places in Poland that RS doesn't cover. Note that Auschwitz is well covered in a separate chapter following Krakow.

If you intend to arrange your own transportation, the steps documented by qq above should be all you need to purchase tickets for individuals to visit and join a mandatory guided tour. For public transportation, information is available on the official site, although you have to dig for it: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/links/information-for-visitors/

RS also lists several drivers that will provide transportation from Krakow to the site. However, you must make your own arrangements [purchase tickets] to join an official tour. A web search would most likely come up with more options for drivers.

I was there on 4/15/24. I chose to purchase a guided tour package from Krakow - from Discover Cracow. Transportation was via a 30-person Mercedes extended van with 2+1 seating. It picked us up in front of Krakow Glowny - there may also be options for pickup from some hotels. The advantage of a packaged tour is convenience - they get you there, have your entrance ticket ready for the tour, take you to Birkenau, then take you back to Krakow. It was coordinated with the official Auschwitz docent, who was excellent. Note that the bus ride is 90 minutes each way - the route is entirely on secondary roads.

RS mentions these additional firms offering packaged tours: See Krakow, Krakow Booking & Cracow City Tours. There are most likely others.

I think that if I don't want one of their tours, I wait until late in the day which I don't want to do...but there is nothing that I find that clearly explains that.

I think they make it pretty clear - an official tour is mandatory for entries before 16:00. On the same page offering tours for individuals for the various timeslots for a given day, you will find "Tour for individuals without an educator" starting at 16:00 - those tickets are free, but a reservation is still required - and tickets are limited for each timeslot. So if you want to visit on your own without a tour, find your day, Visit for Individuals, then scroll all the way down to the timeslots for late in the day.

Note that you will miss the excellent narration provided by the official docent - in our case she was incredibly knowledgeable and greatly added to the experience. RS offers a detailed walking tour in the guidebook, but then you will still have to navigate between the various buildings. So unless you have the details memorized, you may have to stop and refer to the guidebook quite often to determine what you're looking at, where to go next, etc.

Birkenau is easier because of its vast size - you won't encounter the crowding you'll experience at Auschwitz I. But the scale is the real message - seeing the infrastructure that was in place to execute 8,000 people at the same time. We were told that we'd walk three kilometers for this part of the visit.

I don't follow what you mean by "If you are going on your own...". Can you please clarify?

I believe qq means that you're purchasing tickets directly, as opposed to going on a packaged tour from Krakow, where everything is arranged for you.

I don't follow what you mean by "If you are going on your own...". Can you please clarify?

I mean if you don't want to go with a tour company - you arrange your own transport and get entry passes from the Auschwitz website. If you go with a tour company, transportation and entry passes are sorted out for you by the company.

You join a larger group.

We were just there a few weeks ago and like you I did not want to feel rushed or "herded' through. After a good deal of thought, we opted for the 6 hour study tour and it was excellent. There were either 12 or 15 slots available on the English tour, so it was not a large group. In addition seeing to the barracks and buildings shown on the regular tours we were also taken to several others that our guide had to open with a key, turn off an alarm, etc. Most of these were barracks that have not been fully restored, just cleaned up and left as found. We did have to keep moving at a steady pace due to crowding in the areas open to regular tours, so there were some areas where I would have lingered longer if given the opportunity.

We had a brief lunch break before going to Birkenau. We grabbed sandwiches from the vending machines and I had taken some apples in my bag. We didn't have much of an appetite but knew we needed to eat something on such a long day. There weren't many options for eating nor was there much time, either.

At Birkenau, we went up into the tower which other groups did not seem to do, and we spend a good bit of time in the gas chamber and woods area. Normally the study tours go into Kanada but it is currently closed for restoration and will be for the next year or so. Our guide let us wander alone in Birkenau after the tour was over but I don't think she was really supposed to do so.

I was glad that we took the 6 hour tour. The guide was excellent, the group was smaller than the others, and we got to enter some extra areas. The only negative (for us anyway) was that the only Jakojade bus that would get us there in time for our tour left Krakow Glowny at 6:20. There might be more bus times available in peak season. The bus itself was nice and on time going both directions.

The other option that you might consider is to do the regular 3.5 hour tour then book yourself a second entry time later in the day when you can re-enter and wander without a guide.

To add couple of things- I am a retired history teacher, so I was already very familiar with almost all of the information presented in the 6 hour tour, but I was still taken aback by the site itself. I guess I knew, but I really didn't.
Before you go I would definitely recommend doing some reading and watching some documentaries on you tube. There are lots to choose from. I would also watch (or re-watch) Schindler's List if you haven't already, and watching it together with your daughter if you think she can handle it. If not, watch the Boy in the Striped Pajamas with her. I used to show it to my 8th graders (with parental permission). Having a good idea of what happened in the Holocaust and Birkenau's purpose as a mass extermination camp will greatly enhance your daughter's experience at Auschwitz and any other camps you may visit. Poland suffered greatly in WW11 and the scars of that seemed palpable to me in Krakow.

@CW

Thank you for your post(s)...lots of information. Also thank you for teaching students about the Holocaust. My wife's grandfather and mother were both docents at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and spent much time speaking for students in their classrooms.

Circling back to this. We ended up booking a timed 3 1/2 hour tour dircectly with the camp, then hired a driver to take us to/from Krakow with a trip to the salt mine along the way.

There is an option to book a group tour on the website of the camp, but it is frustrating. You fill out a form and request a date and time. You can enter comments which can include alternate days/times that you are requesting. It takes five business days to get a response. I did this three times and each time the response is an automated response that just says 'rejected', try another day/time and start over again. The cost of this group tour is not incredibly expensive and is what I would have preferred, but I panicked with the long delays and the lack of insight into when it was available so I booked into a group that I could clearly see as being available.