R. S. Poland Tour

I'm also quite interested :)

I saw this in the RS Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/107843659931266/search/?q=poland

Also, Cameron Hewitt guided and posted his thoughts: http://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/?fbclid=IwAR03qClbF-WNbcLbyWgAl9mmLFJx5RhMskrZ158tHxdTEr_eS7F2O36nva0

I was part of the tour which ended on June 2nd. Poland is beautiful and the people we met were wonderful. This tour explores Polish history, both medieval and recent history. The history is important and I’m not suggesting we should ignore or minimize it, but I found the tour to be heavy on the depressing aspects of the history, ie WWII, Nazi and Russian control of Poland. For me personally, on the last day, I skipped out on the Schindler’s list museum. Don’t get me wrong, there is more to this tour than that, vodka tasting, gingerbread baking and perogie making were so much fun. We were treated to a piano recital in Warsaw and dinner accompanied by music in Krakow. When we were sent the survey, I rated the tour at the highest possible but I also suggested a possible side trip to a national park or similar just to add a little more nature.
With regard to the war, the only evidence we saw the the outpouring of support for the Ukrainian people by the Polish people. The owner of the hotel in Warsaw, employees Ukrainian’s and on our last night we were served a wonderful dinner of Ukrainian dishes. A lovely young music student played the Bandura and when they all sang the Ukrainian nation anthem, here wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
I highly recommend this tour.

Thank you for your insight Vanessa, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! I also agree that they should try to balance the recent dark history in Poland in future tours with the joyful aspects of Polish culture.

I especially like the idea of visiting one of Poland's great national parks. One of my favorite experiences in Poland was mushroom hunting (Polish people's favorite pastime) in the forest with a group of locals.

Poland has had a long and illustrious history stretching back 1000s of years, there is so much to see from the Primeval Forests, to Royal Renaissance Palaces, laid back spa towns on the Baltic, and World Class art galleries both big and small.