Speed of Auschwitz guided tour

I visited Auschwitz in the mid 90s and did not do a guided tour, probably because I knew quite a bit about its history. Not doing a tour allowed me more time for reflection and to absorb the horror of an integral part of the Holocaust. I think doing or not doing a tour depends on the reason behind a visit to Auschwitz.

I have some doubt that every "barracks interior" location is open to unaccompanied persons. That might also be crowding dependent. (?)

I visited in 2015 so things may be different now. We hired a private driver to get us to the camp (he turned out to have excellent English and a lot of knowledge) and then took one of the guided tours offered directly by Auschwitz. We obtained our tickets well in advance of our visit, directly from the Auschwitz website. It should be noted that only the Auschwitz official licensed guides are allowed to conduct tours inside the camp, so the many companies that advertise Auschwitz tours are really only offering transportation (sometimes with commentary) to the camp and then they turn you over to an official guide.

You can tour the camp on your own, but only at certain times of the day (late in the day). You still need an entry ticket, obtained in advance. Here is their web page that gives the details:
https://www.auschwitz.org/en/visiting/guided-tours-for-individual-visitors

However, I highly recommend a tour. Our official guide was excellent and gave us much more information and insight than we would have gotten on our own. The general tour is more than three hours long. It did not seem particularly rushed, although due to the crowds, the guide certainly needed to keep us moving. And the site is vast! We had a short break between the Auschwitz I part of the tour and the Birkenau part. The guide left us at the end of the Birkenau portion of the tour and we were free to stay there as long as we wished on our own. I don’t remember, but it might have been possible to return to Auschwitz I as well. (We visited in August and Poland was experiencing an unusual heat wave, over 90 degrees, so we were ready to leave.)

I will be visiting Auschwitz in a couple of months for the first time so I've read a lot about it in preparation for my visit. I've studied holocaust history and have read several books and memoirs.

The rules for unguided visits have changed. Tickets for "unguided" visit (tours without a guided educator) are limited an only for entrance later in the day. Between April and September, for example, the earliest ticket available for unguided visit is 5pm. So there isn't much time allowed inside the camps.

All other tickets are with an Auschwitz Museum guide and one must stay with the group. If you get a private driver or "tour" from Krakow, it only includes transportation. Once in Auschwitz, you are only allowed with a ticket for one of the museum guided-tours.
I have decided to take the extended 6-hour study-guide tour which will cover more ground, seems to be a more manageable pace, and the group is smaller (15 max versus 30 on the regular 3.5 hour tours).

When are you planning to visit? I'll be sure to report after my trip.

Hi Joy, we'll be there mid October, so our window for even buying tickets isn't open yet. Your experience would be great to hear, but we'll have purchased tickets by then. The other comments about self-guided tours not be an option until later in the day pretty much seals it, we much more prefer seeing things earlier rather than later, so it will be a group guided tour for us. And thanks for letting us (and others!) know there is a 6 hour option along with the 3h45m tour. Not as rushed with a smaller group sounds great, but a couple hours more might be more than my wife's tolerance level.

Now, the last thing to consider is if we do it as DIY and bus in, checking our timing to make sure we arrive in time for our tour start time, and finish at a time where we aren't waiting too long to head back, as well as the arrangements to get to/from Krakow MDA for the bus - or do we do an outside company that will pick us at the hotel, do the driving back and forth so we won't have to worry about tour timing at all, and pay the small extra premium for that.. If we go with that, I've seen Mr Shuttle have some great experiences and feedback...Thanks for all the comments so far!

By the way, I picked up other Rick books for the trip, but not the Eastern Europe one that details Krakow and Auschwitz.. does Rick do a walking tour for both in that book?

Hi DK - going on your own seems pretty straightforward by train or bus.

Halfway down this post I shared additional link and info on transportation. Whichever time, make sure you have at least 30 minutes for security before start of the tour.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/poland/auschwitz-on-monday-or-tuesday-in-september

DK - I believe that there was a walking tour of Auschwitz in Rick’s guidebook, Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk.

Many people on this site have said that public transportation to Auschwitz was easy and I’m sure it is. As I mentioned in my previous post, we hired a private driver. I think we found him by contacting one of Rick Steves’ recommended private guides (listed in the above-mentioned guidebook) and she connected us with the driver. I don’t remember that it was particularly expensive. The advantages were: he picked us up right at our hotel, he helped us navigate the lines at the entrance, he waited for us for as long as we wanted to stay, and he provided us with a quiet, comfortable ride back to Krakow after an intense experience.

The guide left us at the end of the Birkenau portion of the tour and we were free to stay there as long as we wished on our own. I don’t remember, but it might have been possible to return to Auschwitz I as well.

The guided tour ends at Birkenau and one can linger there afterwards, but CANNOT return to Auschwitz I (beyond security). You can use the free shuttle between camps to return to Auschwitz I parking lot where buses stop for pick up, but not enter the camp.

Yes, I felt rushed during my two tours of Auschwitz. In 2015, when I toured the death camp with KrakVille, a Krakow-based tour company, my local guide was a woman whose uncle had been a Polish inmate of Auschwitz. Getting a tour from a person with a personal connection to Auschwitz was incredible. The lady provided a good tour and patiently answered our questions, but she pushed us through the site. In 2022, I toured Auschwitz with a Rick Steves tour, which had hired a local guide. That tour was even quicker than the one from seven years before. I saw Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of these tours; unfortunately, I did not see what is variously known as Auschwitz III, Auschwitz Buna or Auschwitz Monowitz. I'm told it's also worth seeing.

Given the gravity of Auschwitz, I would have liked to go on a slower tour. It's a site worth spending a day at.

When you go, make sure to see to visit the book store housed in the famed Auschwitz-Birkenau gatehouse. Books are sold in all the major languages. I discovered a couple great books there.