We are a family of 5 (mom, dad, and three teen boys) and will be visiting Krakow (and Auschwitz) via a night train to and from Vienna. We will be staying one night in Krakow in between so we essentially have 2 full days in that area. I have already established that we are crazy taking night trains, so please refrain from your comments on that. ;-)
One of the days we would like to spend touring Auschwitz/Birkenau and the other spent seeing Schindler's Factory and any other reasonable Krakow sights. We are not against seeing that Salt Mine either but have seen a salt mine in Salzburg area so not sure if that would be the same. Let me know if you have done both and felt this one was worth seeing. Also let me know if you are claustrophobic and how you handled it compared to the Salzburg area ones (my husband is claustrophobic but survived the Salzburg area one).
Here is the schedule with trains:
Day 1: Come in on train arriving Krakow Glowny at 06:17 - stay overnight at hotel in Krakow.
Day 2: Night train leaves Krakow Glowny at 22:36
Which day would you do the Auschwitz tour? I am thinking the first day since we will be awake early getting off of the train. I am thinking we will not be able to check in to our hotel that early so we would plan to either store our luggage at the train station or if we take a tour, see if the driver will let us keep the luggage in the van?
I have seen a lot of posts about doing Auschwitz on your own vs. a guided tour and it seemed to me that the guided tour is not that bad of a deal when you have a family of 5. Sure I could do it a bit cheaper on our own but there are other hassles to deal with that make the tour sound like it could be worth it. Plus we could also see the Salt Mine in one day (I know I have read that is a lot so still considering if we should or not).
Thanks for any advice. I know - I wish we could stay longer but we can't and I don't know when we would be in this area of the world again.