Question on approximate 12 night itinerary for 2 adults

One option is to fly into Gdansk and out of Krakow (or vice versa), transiting in whatever city offers the best transatlantic flight from your home airport. If you can fly direct to Warsaw from home, great, but I would still suggest flying between Gdansk and Krakow to save yourself a whole day of travel between them. RyanAir has direct flights between Gdansk and Krakow, so you might have to check your bags even if you're otherwise carrying on.

Thank you G3. Appreciate the advice. Yeah we will be coming from Newark so United goes direct to Warsaw so that will probably be starting point. Flexible from there. I will look into the inter Poland flights (in lieu of train)

Chris

We are visiting Poland in July for the Rick Steve’s tour. We are flying on SAS from Newark to Copenhagen and connecting for the flight to Gdansk. Then we depart Krakow to Copenhagen and back to Newark. SAS had great rates when I booked our flights.

Thank you ETA appreciate the info. Enjoy the trip. Safe travels

12 days for those three cities is totally doable. You may even want to add Poznan, Wroclaw, or Torun. You can use the jakdojade app for train travel between cities and public transport within each city.

If I'm not mistaken, the United non-stop flights from Newark to Warsaw are a codeshare that is flown on LOT (Poland's flag carrier) metal. You may check the LOT website if you have not for flights. You could fly into Gdansk and out of Krakow with a short flight to/from Warsaw for each. That way, you can keep flight days down to two and move in a straight line.

And, yes, 12 nights would be great for the 3 cities.

Thank you airmaro. I believe flights from Newark, NJ go direct to Warsaw so that's why I mentioned it. Thank you for your advice. I will definitely include Wroclaw in the itinerary. Much appreciated

Like I said Im in the beginning planning stages so plenty of time to nail down locations.

Safe Travels

Chris

Wroclaw is a fun city, but Warsaw has a lot of very interesting historical museums (which can be time-consuming) as well as some art museums. Sight-driven tourists might prefer Warsaw; folks who prefer to walk around casually will probably prefer Wroclaw.

Gdansk is also museum-rich. It took me 8 hours to cover the Solidarity Center in its entirety (reading all the information posted in English). The WWII Museum required about 20 hours.

Online tickets to Auschwitz often sell out really early, so that's something to keep tabs on as you get closer to your travel time. It appears tickets go on sale about 3 months in advance. You don't need to buy that early, but I'd keep tabs on the date(s) you could visit the camp to be sure ticket availability isn't dropping too fast. Here's the website ticket: https://visit.auschwitz.org/?lang=en&gl=1ocvsjmgaNTQzMTYxNzIuMTc3MTc5MTg0Mg..gaES4EZDDBMD*czE3NzE3OTE4NDEkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzE3OTE4NDEkajYwJGwwJGgw

You can get to Auschwitz by public bus. Tours from Krakow are also available, but all tours of the camp itself are conducted by camp employees, so that part of the experience doesn't change if you take a tour. I would hope a tour would provide some background information during the drive to the camp, but I don't know for sure; I took the less expensive option, traveling by public bus.

Thank you acraven. Appreciate the insights. Ill definitely keep all the suggestions in mind when I finalize the itinerary

Chris

I spent 19 days in Poland last Sept/October. 2 nights/days in Wroclaw, would have loved 4 but we were going to stay with people near Katowice for 3 days. Heart of Silesia. Then 5 nights in Gdansk, 4 in Warsaw and 5 in Krakow. I wouldn't subtract any days from any of that except would have loved 2 more in Wroclaw. Loved every bit of everywhere! I used Discover Krakow to visit Auschwitz and was very satisfied. Happy to recommend hotels if you need.

With 12 nights, you have enough time to cover Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk, but do your 12 nights include arrival and departure days.? While we spent more than a week in each and were definitely not bored, there are plenty of interesting sites in all three but you'll have to narrow your choices considerably. Someone mentioned Wroclaw. I agree that it's cute and fun, but lacks any serious museums, if that's your thing. It really depends on your interests whether or not to include it. I'd give it none two days on a short itinerary just to get a flavor of it, if you decide to go that route, maybe deleting a day from Warsaw and one from either Krakow or Gdansk. That said, we had a couple of great meals there and really enjoyed just walking around (finding dwarves and enjoying Cathedral Island and the main square). In retrospect, personally, I would have added one more day there as the popular "vacation from our vacation) option, although for us Bydgoszcz and Torun served that purpose, too. In all three/four cities I'd definitely try for the orientation tours with Walkative. They cover a lot of ground in a couple hours and if you haven't chosen your main sites, they could help you narrow your choices in order to return for those spots that most interests. My only regret, other than choosing to spend a short time (for us) in Wroclaw, was that we never made it to the countryside. Being of Polish ancestry, I really wanted to get to my grandfather's home town, but several hours by dirt roads didn't thrill my husband, so we skipped it. The emigration museum in Gdansk made up for it for it (along with the ethnographic museum in Krakow), but when I return I'd make the trek. The countryside intrigues me. With your proposed (and if you add Wroclaw) definitely you won't need a car. The trains are easy and cheap. I'd be sure to select two forward facing seats, not the two sets of three that face each other. They are pretty tight, especially if your seatmates are large young men! You can't go wrong with anything you'd choose. Enjoy your trip. We all know you will!!

Thank you for additional thoughts Jennie and Wanderlust. Very helpful. Once I start to nail down a final itinerary Ill let you know. In terms of nights we are flexible (approximately 12 overnights in Poland. Somewere between 11 and 13 ). Travel from Newark not included in those nights. We are not huge museum people so perhaps 1 in each city but not full day museum people. Definitely will do Auschwitz when in Krakow

Regards
Chris

I've been to all these cities recently and would prioritize them in this order: Krakow, Wroclaw, Gdansk, and then Warsaw. I fully understand why Warsaw is on the list, because of flights from the USA. What village/town did your husband's ancestors come from? I might be able to suggest visiting a skansen instead. You really can't get an idea or what the village looked like back then, but an outdoor ethnographic village would be a great option. Poland has over 50 of them. To be honest, the average person wouldn't appreciate the subtle differences between them. Visiting one would give you a great perspective!

Forgot to mention three recent books that might be helpful: Travel Back to Your Polish Roots, Our Polish Ancestors and Poland at Your Pace. All on Amazon.