Visit to Auschwitz Travel Plan?

Do you actually want to stay in the Auschwitz area? The more conventional approach is to
stay in Krakow and do a (potentially long) day trip to Auschwitz using either public bus if you
are content to self-guide, or a tour company that will offer a guided tour.

There are posts in the forum about how to actually do the day trip.

Krakow is a lovely place to spend a few days.

TY Shoeflyer. Your feedback is what I'm looking for to figure the better options. Coming from New York, would I fly into Warsaw? Krakow would be a nice place to stay as you suggest. I'll look into other posts as well. ty again.

Well, your original post mentioned other cities you might visit, so I would think about
how that fits into the overall plan for your trip.

Train service in Eastern Europe exists but may not be as available as in Western Europe.
You may find that buses are a more viable option for getting between cities, and they
for the most part are perfectly reasonable for a short-medium (say, up to 4 hours) trip.

If I was not planning to visit Warsaw, I'm not sure I'd fly there to start the trip, it's a bit
away from your other cities. But it also depends on airfares and schedules.

We also stayed in Krakow, a lovely historic city.

TY again . I did update my original to give more detail context. I was primarily looking to visit Auschwitz and Krakow may be the best option. Warsaw is a bit of distance as you mention. Lots of options as I am trying to focus in on where I want to go.

Krakow is well worth visiting itself, and it has an international airport so no reason to fly to Warsaw. I wouldn't stay in Oswiecim (Auschwitz). There are bus tours that pick up from hotels and do the transport. Your hotel could help with that.

Fly into Krakow, out of Budapest on a multi-city fare, or vice-versa.

Ty Stan. That sounds like a plan.

Train service in Eastern Europe exists but may not be as available as in Western Europe.

Poland is now considered Central Europe. When I was there I found the Polish train network to be modern, comfortable and efficient. Think about it - with decades of economic underperformance in the past, trains were the primary means of travel throughout the region.

If you are looking to visit Auschwitz, fly into Krakow. There is a train that goes directly to Krakow Glowny, the main station, within walking distance of the main square & the Jewish quarter of Kasimierz. Krakow has an excellent transportation system in place with trams, buses & trains, in addition to being a wonderful city to walk in. Auschwitz can be reached by train or bus to the town of Oświęcim. Be sure to reserve your tickets as far in advance as you can as they go fast & book directly with the Auschwitz Museum.

TY Mark and Flo,

I am planning on September, and will check the Auschwitz reservation timetable, hopefully this is not too late in May.

We just left to Krakow two days ago. We were there for a week and just went to Auschwitz three days ago. It is very easy to go to Auschwitz from Krakow, and as noted by others, Krakow is a beautiful city. Two different bus lines go from the main bus station at Krakow to the camp. Lajkonik drops you off right in front of the gates. Flix bus drops you off about a block away.
The train is also pretty easy. Again, there are two companies and it is important to know which train line you are using. KML trains leave from both Krakow Glowny train station and Krakow Zabłocie which is right near the Jewish Ghetto. At least in May, this train went once an hour. The other train line is PKP intercity which goes a bit more frequently. The train drops you off at the station which is about 1.5 km from the camp. We took the train, but I think taking the bus, either one may have been a better choice, although we found walking through this very typical city rather interesting and confounding.

We chose to walk through Auschwitz on our own for a variety of reasons. I would not recommend this because they only provide tickets (these are free) at the 5:00 hour. At that time, they do not play the movie, and also close the book store. Minimal staff is available. Auschwitz 1 stays open until about 6:30 and the tram to Auschwitz-Birkenau continues to run and that portion of the camp stays open until 7:30. They are also very strict about timing with the entrance ticket so make sure you are there on time. The Auschwitz website is the only place you can buy tickets ( https://www.auschwitz.org) and yes, the tickets do run out so if you know your schedule, it is helpful to book.

Trains and buses often take the same amount of time when traveling through Poland and it varies which is less expensive.

This link which others have provided is super helpful for checking train and bus schedules. https://en.e-podroznik.pl

Ty so much pln. I now have a great deal of workable info to get me going. Appreciate.

Just starting to plan for 2027 trip Auschwitz is high on the list. From what I have researched, is that the only guides that actually provide the waking tour through Auschwitz are the certified tour guides there at the site. NOT the trip escorts

The are several companies that do tours to Asuchwitz, from Krakow. So I believe they are basically just providing transportation and maybe a movie about Auschwitz on the bus and possible some verbal information from a tour company escort. So my thought is that no matter what tour compay from Krakow I would use, the actual tour guide for the camp is not provided by the tour company but a certified guide at Auschwitz. so it won't really matter what tour company I use to get there.

Many of these company say they provide "skip the lines" tickets. What is that. and are there lines?

Many of there tours also combine a trip to the salt mines, not sure this is really worth my time.

I appreciate any comments or suggestions thanks

Ord5079, I would say that the Wiesliczka Salt Mine is worth the tour if
you've not done something like it before. You descend quite a ways
via stairs and then walk through multiple passages and rooms, some
of which are quite large and have obviously been carved/sculpted out
of the removed salt.

But, you can get there via public transport from downtown Krakow, and
you take a guided tour purchased at the facility. And I would not want
to do both Auschwitz and anything else in the same day.

TY ord5079 and shoeflyer for the info. The bus sounds like the way to go and not having been to Poland before, the salt mine is on the list already.

Add'l question. I would like to spend about a week in Poland, and Auschwitz for sure one day. I would like to see Wroclaw for possible 2 nights. After Krakow, I will be moving on to most likely Budapest, flying out of Krakow. Should I still fly into Krakow and take the train to Wroclaw first and finish in Krakow? TY

Many of these company say they provide "skip the lines" tickets. What is that. and are there lines?

They are referring to the nominative timed entry ticket for the Memorial. My experience with Discover Cracow was that they obtained my ticket for me. If you've booked a commercial tour that includes transportation, they will drop you at the entrance shortly before your scheduled time and hand you off to an official Memorial guide who will take you through both sites.