Poland: Warsaw, Wroclaw and Krakow

1. Day 1: Arrive in Warsaw

   Warsaw Chopin Airport to your hotel, then the Royal Route to the Old Town

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Warsaw
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW), about 10 km from the centre, where a driver meets you for the short ride to the hotel. Plan to land by about 3 pm to join the evening walk (the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary). At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing, then we set off on foot from beside the Palace of Culture and Science on Marszalkowska Street, the Soviet-era tower that still dominates the skyline. From there we follow the Royal Route along Nowy Swiat and Krakowskie Przedmiescie, past the university and the church that holds Chopin's heart, to Castle Square as the lamps come on. Warsaw's Old Town was almost completely destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt from paintings, drawings and photographs after the war, which is why UNESCO listed it in 1980. We end the walk with a welcome dinner of Polish dishes in the Old Town.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk along the Royal Route to Castle Square
   • Welcome dinner in the Old Town

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: About 3 km on foot, flat, mostly on pavements and cobbles.

   

2. Day 2: Warsaw: the Old Town and POLIN

   Warsaw Old Town and the Royal Castle, then Muranow and the POLIN Museum

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Warsaw
   Day 2 details

   In the morning a local guide joins us in the Old Town, now quiet before the day visitors arrive: Sigismund's Column, the Market Square with its mermaid, the Barbican and the walls. We go inside the Royal Castle on a timed entry; it was blown up in 1944 and rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s, partly with furnishings hidden by staff during the war. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Muranow, the district built over the rubble of the wartime ghetto. Then we spend the early afternoon in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, whose core exhibition follows a thousand years of Jewish life in Poland, not only its destruction. Outside stands the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, where Willy Brandt knelt in 1970. The late afternoon is free. On summer Sundays, free Chopin piano recitals are played at the Chopin Monument in Lazienki Park, a short taxi ride away.

   Included

   • Warsaw Old Town with a local guide: Castle Square, Sigismund's Column, the Market Square and the Barbican
   • The Royal Castle on a timed entry
   • Sit-down lunch in Muranow
   • The POLIN Museum core exhibition with your guide
   • The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes

   Optional experiences

   • Chopin recital at the Chopin Monument in Lazienki Park (summer Sundays, free)

   Easier option: Skip the POLIN Museum and spend the afternoon in Lazienki Park or at the hotel.

   More active option: Go with your guide to the Warsaw Rising Museum in the late afternoon, about 2 hours on the 63 days of the 1944 uprising (entry included).

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 6 km on foot across the day, with standing time in two museums.

3. Day 3: By train to Wroclaw

   Warszawa Centralna to Wroclaw Glowny by express train

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Wroclaw
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we take the express train from Warszawa Centralna to Wroclaw, about three and a half to four hours in reserved seats, with your guide handling the luggage and catering on most trains. We arrive in time for a late sit-down lunch near the Market Square. Wroclaw has belonged to Bohemia, the Habsburgs, Prussia and Germany, and became Polish only in 1945, when its German population was expelled and Poles displaced from Lviv moved in. In the afternoon a local guide walks us round the Market Square and the Gothic Town Hall, the flower stalls of Salt Square and the bronze dwarfs, hundreds of them, which began as a nod to the anti-communist Orange Alternative movement. We cross the Oder by Sand Island to Ostrow Tumski, the cathedral island, and take the lift up the cathedral tower. At dusk the lamplighter makes his round of the gas lamps on Cathedral Street.

   Included

   • Express train from Warsaw to Wroclaw with reserved seats
   • Sit-down lunch in Wroclaw
   • Old Town walk with a local guide: the Market Square, the Town Hall, Salt Square and the dwarfs
   • Ostrow Tumski and the cathedral tower
   • The lamplighter on Cathedral Street at dusk

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 5 km on foot in the afternoon, flat, on cobbles.

4. Day 4: Wroclaw: the Panorama and Centennial Hall

   Wroclaw Old Town to the Panorama of Raclawice and Centennial Hall

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Wroclaw
   Day 4 details

   We are at the Panorama of Raclawice for its first slot of the day. The painting, about 114 m long and 15 m high, was made in 1894 by Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak to show the 1794 battle in which Kosciuszko's peasant scythemen beat a Russian army. You stand in the middle of the rotunda, and the foreground of real earth and props runs into the canvas so it is hard to see where one ends. Then a short tram or van ride east to Centennial Hall, Max Berg's reinforced-concrete dome of 1913 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006, with its pergola and, from April to October, the Japanese Garden beside it. Your guide brings you back to the centre by late morning. The rest of the day is free: the university's Baroque buildings, the market hall, a river cruise on the Oder, or a long lunch in one of the squares.

   Included

   • The Panorama of Raclawice on a timed entry
   • Centennial Hall, the pergola and the Japanese Garden (April to October)

   Optional experiences

   • Half-day trip to the Church of Peace in Swidnica, a timber church built in the 1650s and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about an hour each way (priced at booking)

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free. For dinner, your guide can suggest a milk bar (bar mleczny) for pierogi and soup at canteen prices, or a cellar restaurant on the Market Square, and book a table for anyone who wants company.

   Activity: An easy morning, about 3 km on foot.

5. Day 5: By train to Krakow, the Old Town and Wawel

   Wroclaw Glowny to Krakow Glowny by train, then the Old Town to Wawel Hill

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Krakow
   Day 5 details

   A mid-morning express train takes us through Opole and Katowice to Krakow Glowny, about three to three and a half hours, and our hotel near the Old Town is a short walk or ride from the station. After a sit-down lunch a local guide leads us through the Florian Gate and down Florianska Street to the Main Market Square, laid out in 1257 and still one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Cloth Hall in the middle. Inside St Mary's Basilica we see Veit Stoss's carved wooden altarpiece, finished in 1489, and on the hour the trumpet call from the tower that stops mid-note. Krakow's Old Town was among the first sites UNESCO listed, in 1978. We walk down Grodzka Street, past its Romanesque and Baroque churches, to Wawel Hill, and visit the cathedral where Polish kings were crowned and buried before its last entry of the afternoon, which we time when we confirm your dates. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Express train from Wroclaw to Krakow with reserved seats
   • Sit-down lunch in Krakow
   • Old Town walk with a local guide: the Florian Gate, the Main Market Square and the Cloth Hall
   • St Mary's Basilica and the Veit Stoss altarpiece
   • Grodzka Street and Wawel Cathedral

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 5 km on foot in the afternoon, with a short climb up Wawel Hill.

   

6. Day 6: Auschwitz-Birkenau

   Krakow to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in Oswiecim and back

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Krakow
   Day 6 details

   We leave Krakow at 8 am for the drive of about an hour and a quarter to Oswiecim. At the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum a certified Memorial educator guides the group, as the Museum requires for all groups. The visit takes about three and a half hours: first Auschwitz I, the former army barracks where the blocks now hold the evidence, then a short shuttle of about 3 km to Birkenau, where most of the roughly 1.1 million people murdered here, the great majority of them Jews, were killed. Walking the railway ramp and the length of the camp gives a sense of its scale that no exhibition can. Photographs are not allowed in a few rooms, which the educator points out. We drive back to Krakow for a quiet, late sit-down lunch, about 2 pm, and the afternoon is deliberately left free. Your guide stays nearby for anyone who wants to talk it over.

   Included

   • Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau with a certified Memorial educator, about 3.5 hours
   • Shuttle between Auschwitz I and Birkenau
   • Sit-down lunch back in Krakow

   Easier option: Birkenau is large and open: the educator can shorten the walk there, and the van can wait at the gate.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3.5 hours on foot, much of it standing, with uneven ground at Birkenau. Bags no larger than about 30 x 20 x 10 cm; the Memorial does not recommend the visit for children under 14.

7. Day 7: Wieliczka, Kazimierz and Podgorze

   Krakow to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and back, then Kazimierz and Podgorze on foot

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Krakow
   Day 7 details

   A short drive south-east takes us to Wieliczka for an early English-language tour of the salt mine, worked from the 13th century until 1996 and listed by UNESCO in 1978. The Tourist Route goes down a wooden staircase of about 380 steps and on through chambers and galleries to about 135 m below ground, where the air is cool all year, about 14 to 16 C. Miners carved the Chapel of St Kinga entirely from salt, chandeliers included. A lift brings us back up. After a sit-down lunch in Kazimierz, the old Jewish town, your guide walks us along Szeroka Street to the Remuh Synagogue and its old cemetery, then past the Old Synagogue and the market at Plac Nowy. We cross the Vistula footbridge to Podgorze, where the wartime ghetto was, to see the empty chairs on Ghetto Heroes Square and the Eagle Pharmacy. The evening is free in Kazimierz's cafes.

   Included

   • Wieliczka Salt Mine Tourist Route with a mine guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Kazimierz
   • Kazimierz walk with your guide: Szeroka Street, the Remuh Synagogue and cemetery, the Old Synagogue and Plac Nowy
   • Podgorze: Ghetto Heroes Square and the Eagle Pharmacy

   Optional experiences

   • Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory museum in Podgorze, timed entry (priced at booking)

   Easier option: After lunch, rest at the hotel instead of the Kazimierz and Podgorze walk.

   More active option: Add Schindler's Factory museum at the end of the Podgorze walk, about 2 hours.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 3 km and 800 steps in the mine, most of them going down at the start, then about 4 km on foot in Kazimierz and Podgorze.

8. Day 8: Zakopane and the Tatras

   Krakow to Zakopane and back

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Krakow
   Day 8 details

   Today's drive is the longest of the trip: about two hours each way on the road south to Zakopane, between four and four and a half hours in all, which is over our usual four-hour cap. We split it into a morning leg and an evening leg, with the whole day in the mountains between, and stop for coffee if the traffic is heavy; the time depends on the single main road, the zakopianka, which is busiest on summer and winter weekends. Zakopane sits under the Tatras, the highest range of the Carpathians. We ride the Gubalowka funicular for the view across the town to the peaks, cloud permitting, then walk down to the Old Church and its cemetery at Peksowy Brzyzek, where wooden grave markers carved in the highland style stand among the trees. Lunch is highland food: soups, grilled oscypek sheep's cheese and cranberry jam. Afterwards we visit Villa Koliba, the house that launched the Zakopane Style of architecture, and walk Krupowki Street to the Tatra Museum. Back in Krakow, we sit down to a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Gubalowka funicular, up and down
   • The Old Church and the cemetery at Peksowy Brzyzek
   • Sit-down highland lunch in Zakopane
   • Villa Koliba, the Museum of Zakopane Style
   • Krupowki Street and the Tatra Museum building
   • Farewell dinner in Krakow

   Easier option: Stay at the top of Gubalowka for a long coffee with the view, and meet the group for lunch.

   More active option: In place of Villa Koliba, walk up the Strazyska Valley in the Tatra National Park to the Siklawica waterfall with your guide, about 2 hours there and back (park entry included).

   Free time: An hour free on Krupowki Street

   Activity: About 2 hours each way in the van, split by the day in Zakopane. Easy walking in town; the valley walk is on a rocky path with a steady climb.

   

9. Day 9: Krakow and home

   Krakow to Krakow John Paul II Airport or Krakow Glowny station

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   The last morning is free. Have breakfast without hurrying, then go back to whatever you liked best: a coffee on the Main Market Square, the Cloth Hall stalls, the Planty gardens that ring the Old Town where the walls once stood, or a last look at the Vistula from below Wawel. If you have time, the Czartoryski Museum's Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci is a short walk from the square. The hotel can hold your bags after check-out. A driver takes you to Krakow John Paul II Airport (KRK) at Balice, about 15 km and half an hour west of the centre, at a time that fits your flight; or, if you are going on by rail, to Krakow Glowny station, from where trains also run to the airport. Your guide sees the group off and checks everyone's onward plans before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 11 am to enjoy the morning.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Krakow John Paul II Airport (KRK) or Krakow Glowny station

   Free time: Morning free

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 11 am.

Wildlife and weather: Summer days in Krakow and Wroclaw can pass 30 C, so the long visits start in the morning. Zakopane is cooler and often wet, and the Tatra views depend on the cloud. Spring and early autumn are mild and quieter.

• Warsaw2 nights
• Wroclaw2 nights
• Krakow4 nights