Auschwitz tickets

[mrsconradfisher]

Appreciate it’s not exactly holiday related but figured someone on here might be able to help.
We are visiting Krakow in April for my DS’s 21st Birthday…yes I realise it’s not exactly the usual 21st location but that’s what he wanted to do!
Im trying to book tickets to Auschwitz when I’m there however when you go on the website to book tickets it just says “website under maintenance” and has done for the past few weeks. The whole point of us going is to visit Auschwitz so I’m reluctant to book flights etc without securing tickets first. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or anyone has got any bright ideas of what I can do…

You can book your own tickets but when you get there you are given a coloured ticket and allocated to a group for a particular language. You can’t go off on your own anymore. The tours are with a guide through head sets. I went a few months back and have been many times over the last 20 years. They have stepped up security massively with airport style metal detectors at Auschwitz I. They get a lot of Israeli visitors so this is clearly the reason. The first time I went in 2003 you could wander round both Auschwitz and Birkenau at will but not now. Large areas of Birkenau are out of bounds. This is also why you need photo ID on arrival.

@mrsconradfishersaykng that city mapper is t showing it just walking from the station but I am sure I saw it somewhere…..

Get on the krakow Facebook pages and ask for reliable tour companies.

I laughed my ass off 😁

I went in June on a Get Your Guide tour. They farm out to random tour operators and our tour organisation was a shambles. It left krakow 2 hours later than stated. It was a full 12 hour tour when booked, but when we arrived the guide said they would join the queue, we could go to the v expensive cafe and check back with them in 3 hours. After 3 hours we got tickets and went to Birkenau for 3 hours, ( Auschwitz 1 was full) then we had to go back to queue for entry to Auschwitz 1. This took another2.5 hours. We only had 1.5 hours in Auschwitz 1, which wasn’t enough time . We also had to wait for security, so about 6.5 hours waiting on top of travel time and only 4.5 hours in the camps.
If I was going again, I would look for ‘skip the queue’ tickets. Other things of note- it takes 2.5 hours to walk around Birkenau and although it is important to see, the museum part is in Auschwitz 1. I was also shocked at the disrespect shown by people, I have visited many camps and it must be the huge number of visitors to Auschwitz, but it felt extremely disrespectful.
For the future, the Majdanek camp in Lublin, Dachau visited from Munich, Sachsenhausen visited from Berlin or Terezin (Theresienstadt) from Prague- are actually really worthwhile visits too.

I went in the summer with DD (19) - we went with Get Your Guide (transport and tickets) - we didn’t do the salt mines
Krakow is a fab place - at the other end of experiences we also went on a ‘pub crawl’ which was great fun and I was v impressed that I was one of the last ones standing at 5am (again through Get Your Guide)

We booked tickets directly and got the train from Krakow which worked well. Some tour guides can let you down so booking direct is the best way of being confident of going.

Thank you that’s really helpful. I’d actually considered Dachau as well (DS also wanted to visit Munich) so good to know.

We went six months ago and went with Air b and b - they did show us some things outside the camp which most people don’t see but we did leave early and queue for tickets. Everyone goes around in groups now - if you book independently you will be put in a group for your chosen language. I would definitely book separately and get the local train which would have been a fraction of the cost we paid. We also did the Salt mines on a different day - I enjoyed it and we travelled by Uber which was very good value - £10 or £15 if I recall correctly.
Enjoy Krawkow - we really enjoyed the food in Noah’s kitchen in the Jewish quarter.

Your last sentence is indescribably trite and offensive.

I'm in awe of your son. He is very thoughtful for his age and it is important that everyone should go.

We paid a bit extra and went for a smaller guided tour which collected you from the hotel, and then you skipped the entire line to the front and had a guided tour inside. It was worth the extra money as the queues even first thing in the morning are very very long. They drop you back to your hotel after. They were called 'Hello Cracow' and we booked through GetYourGuide

Although there are tours which also have another visit to the saltmines, thermal bath or the Schindler factory, it can be mentally draining so do bear this in mind.

If you have time I would also recommend visitng the Majdanek camp which is in Lublin (approx 3.5 hours by train from Krakow). This camp is much less touristy, much larger and more preserved.

That sounds good, love restaurant recommendations, I’m not sure I could do the salt mines…there are 100’s of steps aren’t there?
I also want to go to Schindler’s Factory, it’s right near our hotel.

There are miner’s lifts at the salt mines. We’ve always gone down the spiral steps (there are lots) and back up in the lift

Be careful if you book through a tour operator as some of them overbook and don’t get enough tickets. If you can’t book directly then I’d suggest the company Mr Shuttle.
We used them after much research as all direct tickets had sold out. All tours are
then led by people employed by Auschwitz.

Fo the salt mines you can easily take a grab (like Uber) or a bus, and buy tickets through their website. Much cheaper than an organised tour. You get a tour guide in the mine.

Pinball museum is also really good and free walking tours around the city.

Really? I’ve spent this entire thread saying how important it is that people go. I had people stating me for suggesting I take my son there and you pick on me for that??
Im not entirely sure what is offensive about it. The Jews were taken there during the Holocaust by train therefore logic would suggest there is a train line going directly there. When I was researching how to get there I was shocked that there wasn’t a direct train line considering that was the mode of transport they had to take. To me that’s quite ironic. I mean no offence by it and I’m sorry you have taken it that way.

Schindler’s factory is on the opposite side of the river to the main square. It was filmed in Krakow and you can do tours that point out filming locations.

We are staying at Lwowska 1 which I believe is about 5 mins away from it. The tours sound great, we are only there 3 nights so we might need to go back another time as there seems so much to do.

I did this a few months ago.

pick up from hotel, tickets, auschwitz and the salt mine

it was excellent

https://www.getyourguide.com/krakow-l40/krakow-auschwitz-birkenau-and-salt-mine-guided-tour-t92097/?utmsource=getyourguide&utmmedium=sharing&utmcampaign=activitydetails

i also recommend this

https://www.getyourguide.com/krakow-l40/krakow-zakopane-cable-car-chocholow-baths-cheese-vodka-t116293/?utm_source=getyourguide&utm_medium=sharing&utm_campaign=activity_details

and a trip on the river

I just went to Dachau and Mauthausen at the beginning of December. I really enjoyed Munich - I paid £132 for two of us for a small tour from central Munich out to Dachau. Short train ride. The museum there is extensive but I think having a guide talk you around the site really helps. We had a private guide around Mauthausen - extraordinary place.
It is a usually unspoken topic but the most profound, extraordinary site I have visited is Treblinka on a day trip from Warsaw. There is a memorial (huge) and museum. This would be closely followed by the Sobibor and Belzec Memorials. The Belzec Museum has a ‘contemplation’ area which is indescribably moving.
The death camp memorials are deep in the countryside near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. You can access with tours from Warsaw and Lublin.

id be very very wary of booking any kind of tour that isn’t directly though Auschwitz themselves, I’ve seen all sorts of horror stories of people booking a “tour” that is actually just a coach. Said coach then moves the pick up time from say 10am to 1am and drops you to queue for tickets (you have to go so early as they only have a limited amount for the day on each day) and no tour involved other than the audio one you get there anyway.

Definitely try to book direct - perhaps email them if you still can’t book on the website.
Booking direct is the best way to guarantee your entry.

We visited last April, and booked via Get Your Guide. At 9pm the night before we were due to go, we got a message to say the trip was cancelled.

We got very lucky that I was able to book direct for the following day, although we could only book a Polish speaking tour. It was still worth it though - there were plenty of signs to read so we could understand what was going on, and they let us swap to an English speaking tour at Birkenau.

We went on the bus - very easy and cheap, and drops you right by the main entrance. We booked this via Flixbus, and it went from the lower floor of the bus station, just behind the main train station. If you are booking a bus back, allow at least 4 hours from the time of your tour entrance.

We also went on the public bus but it was ages ago, I would avoid the tours unless you really can't sort tickets. I had the same issue with the website looking at it just now, wonder if they've moved it somewhere, can't imagine they are not selling tickets right now.

Just checked and site is working now

Yes I managed to get on this morning. Can only book up to end of March at the moment so presumably April will open up over the next week or so.

I went with a tour booked on getyourguide - it worked really well. The pick up time was confirmed the day before (ended up being an hour or sonlater than I had booked) but they had organised the tickets for us, so no queueing. The ticket covers Birkenau as well which is about 5k from auschwitz so it was great having the transport.

I did the salt mines on a different day - easy to get there by train, and you can book the tickets in advance. Worth seeing the ghetto wall and the Jewish quarter while you're there as well.