Krakow - private tour to Auschwitz

[Longhotsummers]

We are going to Krakow next weekend and I am looking to book a tour to Auschwitz. Ideally it would be us and a guide but if not, a small group tour. Can anyone recommend one please?

Join Krakow best travel trips on FB lots of advice. I'm Polish lived 30 minutes drive from Auschwitz. I took my kids 2 years ago I have booked free late afternoon tickets and we went around without a quide. It was good enough to 14 years old to take on. We later went for a walk around Birkenau.

I just had a look on Auschwitz website and all is booked no English language queued tours available. Maybe with private company they will have spaces.
Is also the best to book in advance and just take a train from Krakow.
I know is horrendous queues and waiting time to get in.

I was there recently and the best way is to avoid third party organisers because there are so many cancelling with very little notice and leaving people disappointed. Book your ticket direct from the museum website, you pick guided with English language (it will not be a private tour, you will be with others) they provide you with headsets to hear the guide. We used the train to get there which was easy and cheap but meant a 15 minute walk from the station to the museum but the buses run direct from the station to the museum and back, we returned by bus, they are also cheap. Book your ticket ASAP. They sell out fast and you may miss out. If you do not manage to get a ticket it is possible to arrive early (extremely early) and queue for an unguided ticket but there is no guarantee that you'll get one (and you may queue from 6am and get a ticket for evening time). I'd highly recommend the guided tour instead of unguided, if I return I may do the unguided but found the guide provided so much information I would have missed otherwise. We used taxis to get to and from the train/bus station, the Bolt app is the cheapest for that, we also used the tram system. There is a Krakow hints and tips (I think that's what it's called) on Facebook which is very helpful but be careful because there's a few groups that are sponsored and of course only recommend those who are paying them. I'll check the name of the group and come back if it's something else.

It's probably too late to book a tour directly with the Auschwitz museum, as it's been extremely busy over the last few weeks. But it might still be possible with a local tour company. From what I've heard, Mr Shuttle gets good reviews, but I don't have any first hand experience with them.

Avoid booking with Tripadvisor or Get Your Guide. They just pass the booking on to local tour companies, some of which are not at all reliable. We recently visited and had our tour cancelled at 9.30pm the day before we were due to go. We were lucky and managed to get tickets direct with the museum for the next day, although we had to go on a Polish speaking tour - but it was still worth doing as there were many information signs in English. It was very easy and cheap to go on the bus (we booked this with Flilxbus) and the bus took us right to the museum door.

As the previous poster has said, you could possibly arrive very early and queue for some last minute tickets, but this is not guaranteed, and the queues recently have been up to four hours long, with many people still not getting a ticket.

If you want a private tour, I think you can contact the museum directly to request one, but I doubt very much that you would get one at this short notice

If you can't get to Auschwitz, you might be able to see Plaszow, also close to Krakow.

Thank you @Mudflaps and all. It looks like it won’t be possible this trip from what I’ve read. Thanks for your help.