Krakow advice - best Auschwitz tour? Any other must see/do average cost of meals etc.

[DobbyIsAFreeElf]

I've booked a long weekend to Kraków for early next year. I'm definitely wanting to do an Auschwitz tour which includes Birkenau. Which is the best website to prebook this? I don't want to risk not having availability by booking whilst there.
Are there any tour providers that offer more than the others?

Are there any other recommendations of things to do whilst there? I've heard the salt mines are pretty impressive. Ive also heard the Jewish Quarter didn't have a lot to see.

Finally, I was thinking of taking £150 worth of Zloty. Will this be enough for lunch and evening meals for 4 days with a little spending money? Not wanting to exchange too much as it's not like the euro where I can put it towards other European holidays?

Try a UA tour. Not sure they do an Auschwitz tour but lots of other interesting Krakow tours available. Can't help with the other questions but hopefully someone will be along to answer soon 😊

www.urbanadventures.com/destination/Krakow-tours

Krakow is lovely.

There are loads of Auschwitz tours : juts use one of the reputable online booking sites. Once you are there, everybody ahs the same (gruelling) experience. The only difference really is how they get you there. We were on rather too small min bus/ small coach and it was uncomfortable when on the way back people nicked our seats and we had to sit in too small row at the back. It is further from Krakow than you might think.

Krakow is very very very cheap. We came back with money . We didn't do lunch as we had breakfast in our hotel . There are lots of pretzel stands etc dotted around.

It's just a nice city for strolling around : it was warm when we were there. I guess it is cold in Winter so strolling might not appeal so much.

What is it you want to 'see' in a Jewish quarter? It is just interesting to stroll around. The city centre is beautiful and the area by the castle is also lovely.

We didn't do salt mines . They are, so I am told , very impressive and I wish we had done.

I have not been, though when my parents went they said how much they enjoyed visiting the salt mines. They did not feel able to visit Auschwitz.

Travel Man on channel 4 is your friend. He went there in his last series which is on catch up it All4.

I'm definitely going to go. Spoiler alert I gasped at the salt mines.

I have been twice. Salt mines are a must-do, go on a local bus, it’s easy and cheaper than a tour, and you can spend as long as you like there. Auschwitz tour is also worth it, I just arranged one via my hotel I think, there are loads and I imagine they are all similar.
Eating out is VERY reasonable. No need to take so much in zloty, I just used my card and ApplePay pretty much everywhere, just like being at home.

I like Ayoade but that programme barely focused on actual Krakow : he always (salt mines aside) does the stuff no actual tourist does!

We took public transport to Auschwitz and walked around ourselves. The bus station is just behind the shopping center.
We didn’t go to the other camp or the salt mines.
The golf buggy tours are great, the food and drink is cheap. We ate on the square every night.

Enjoy

I just got the bus (and then a taxi back because I was tired and had realised how cheap everything was).

You can self guide round most of it - there is a lot of information, or pay to join one of the tours run by the museum itself. The museum guides are incredible experts, have spent a lot of time researching and meeting survivors.

visit.auschwitz.org/?lang=en

Or you can just book a tour from a hotel when you are there - there are loads of tours to places like the Salt Mines and so on available.

I'd put in a special mention for the Trabant tour of Nowa Huta which was prob the most interesting thing I did

www.crazyguides.com/

Plus make sure you go to St Mary's Basilica to see the Veit Stoss altarpiece - check the times so you can be there for the opening of the altarpiece. It is the masterpiece of medieval art. It's huge, took over 10 years to make, and they only open the panels once a day and not every day.

I would say the thing that really made the Auschwitz tour stand out was the lady who was our guide. Her family had been affected by everything that happened there so she was very interesting to talk to and really put everything into context. So I would say consider a guided tour for this reason.
Starka restaurant in the Jewish Quarter is excellent. Miod Malina is also very good. Both have Polish food in lovely settings at prices that seem extremely reasonable compared to the UK!

OP, I know you’re not being disrespectful, and it’s really important that these places are seen, remembered and lessons learnt.
But there is something sad to me about listing Auschwitz along with other regular tourist sites.
Not your fault OP, not finger pointing, it just seems wrong, you know? Just musing really.

Salt Mines are out of this world.

I just got the regular public bus to Auschwitz and had booked my ticket online. Super easy.

It’s cheap as chips, honestly take like £200.

Walking tour also very very informative. You get them at St Mary’s Basilica. Ahh I love Kraków.

The Schindler factory is now a really interesting museum - well worth a visit. Beware of rogue taxis that charge crazy prices. After getting caught once we got a card from the hotel taxi and called them - taxis are very cheap in Krackow

Use the trams as much as you can and always punch the ticket when you get on, I've no idea why but there are large fines by plain clothes inspectors. I enjoyed Schindler's factory and the chairs monument in the Jewish quarter is the most moving monument I've ever seen. Try some of the vegan/ vegetarian restaurants, I found them amazing.
If you go to the salt mines make sure you're getting a lift up and down, apparently there's a lot of steps. We ate in polish restaurants a few nights and it was very cheap. It's a lovely clean, safe city.I visited in March and needed thermals, gloves, hat, heavy coat, it was freezing.

YY, @EleanorLavish. I was struggling with this too.

Eleanorlavish me too.

I went to Krakow recently for work. I didn’t have much time for tourist stuff but ate out a few times and in restaurants on the main tourist square you could easily get a two course meal for about £12 per person, and obviously there will be much cheaper options available.

I am not at all bothered by pope on MN asking questions about Auschwitz : it ahs built its 'popularity' as a travel destination partly out of its proximity to Auschwitz and I don't think OP asked in a crass way. (unlike the time someone asked if they could take their 5 year old)

More taken aback by the idea that there might not be enough entertaining sites or activities in the Jewish quarter , which is also a poignant place to find out about. I visited a cemetery there with all the stones and little notes. It was a very salutary experience.

Forgot about the Schindler Museum , which is very interesting, and the Old Pharmacy (near the chairs).

Tbh, I didn't use taxis or trams : the whole place is walkable.(apart from salt mines and other outlying places). The only time we used a taxi was when we came back from Auscwhitz and took a taxi back from the centre to our hotel and to get to the station. Both times we were a bit ripped off.

people obviously in first line...

Auschwitz a must but don't fit anything else in that day, other than eating and reflecting.
Schindler museum another must, it was more interesting and moving than I'd expected. You can just use the city maps and walk over there, which is an experience in itself.
We stayed in the Jewish quarter, ate out there a few times. It's another great part of a fascinating and beautiful city.
We did a couple of city guided walks, the guide was knowledgable. Our guide's family always lived in Krakow so his personal experience was an added bonus.
We did go to the Salt Mines - amazing place.
I loved Krakow and would go back

I found Auschwitz took the whole day, especially if you go to both Auschwitz and Birkenau (which you should as Birkenau is probably the place you are thinking of).

If you don't go when you are on holiday, then you never go at all and that to me is worse.

You will find there are groups of bored looking school kids, people winding themselves up to feel overwhelmed, idiots taking selfies. But mostly there are respectful people learning about what happened who want to be better informed and not make the mistakes of the past.

You can't really avoid this history by just not going - anywhere you go in Krakow has the history of who lived in these houses and doesn't live there now. Once you go to Auschwitz you start seeing the effect of intolerance in more and more cities and countries.

Same as if you go to an English stately home and start wondering how they made their money - 9 out of 10 times it will be slavery, even if you decide not to go to the slavery museum.

Hi
We were in Krakow on September and we used www.krakowdiscovery.com for trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Salt Mine is well.
I recommend also visit Wawel Royal Castle, Schinder musuem and Jewish area (Kazimierz district).
Avarage price for a lunch/dinner is 40-50zloty so around 10-12 pounds. :-)

My son went on the yearly school trip there, he is a typical teenager and whilst the cost included expenses, he came back with very little spent.

They visited the following:

• Visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
• Visit to the Galicia Jewish Museum
• Meet a Holocaust Survivor
• Tour the city of Krakow
• Visit Oscar Schindler’s factory
• Wieliczka Saltmines
• Spend an evening at a Jewish Restaurant