Top attractions in Krakow

You may be able to visit Auschwitz cheaper, as entrance to both sites is actually free. Auschwitz ii, you just walk through the entrance, no ticket required. A ticket is required for Auschwitz i, you can get them from the official Auschwitz website for free, but you can only enter at certain times of the day. Using this tour took out all the hassle of sorting tickets and travel to and from Auschwitz. We watched an informative video on the bus, and got free 25pln (£5.50 ish) guide book included within the cost. We didn't mind not having a tour guide as the booklet you receive has more than enough information in it. Also, the guy on the bus sorts everything out for you, tells you best bits to visit on each site and tells you where to be and where to go for tickets. Highly recommend if you want a stress free day visiting Auschwitz.

The 4 stars are for the guided tour, not the camp. The camps are very well maintained, just excellent. What a place, wow. The tour however is too rushed, it’s like the guides are in a rush to finish, running around and no time for visitors to take their time to appreciate the moment. I was feeling emotional in several of the exhibits and I felt tears coming in, but then I realised the guide is already moving on to the next exhibit so it completely ruined my moment being emotional. It’s a shame really. The breaks are too short, 10 minutes to go to the toilet, have a snack, visit the shops... obviously no time at all. Also we didn’t enter the museum.

Pavel had waited forever as we were the last through immigration. That was a shambles. We then had to find our luggage. As it was now an hour since arrival the carousel didn’t show which one for our Liverpool flight. Two lonely bags were found at the back of a stationary carousel after searching them all. Pavel was still there waiting and smiling. He had his own Mercedes limousine with lovely cream leather interior. He was friendly an d spoke great English. He gave us a lot of local info also.

The guide was lovely and was obviously very passionate about her country. Some of the stories were very moving. I highly recommend. A guided tour is optional; however, everything is explained in a lot more depth than if you went solo and read it all yourself. Very factual and accurate history. We bought a ticket online, as it was slightly cheaper and saved about 20 minutes waiting in a queue. They also accept mobile tickets, so you don’t have to find a printer, which is ideal.

Our guide Filip was very passionate about Auschwitz and really set the mood for our visit to Auschwitz. He spoke with a lot of emotion and it left everyone on the tour feeling a great sense of sorrow for the people who had been sent there many years ago. We also visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam and having visited Auschwitz gave us a better appreciation for what Anne Frank had gone through. The salt mine was a good experience. I would recommend this tour