June 2025: 2 Days in Krakow, Poland Trip Report

Day 1:

We took an Uber from the airport hotel to our city hotel where we were staying the next 2 nights.

We were visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine on our first day by ourselves and had booked an Auschwitz – Birkenau tour through Hello Crakow on next day. We took an Uber from our hotel to Wieliczka Salt Mine which was a 20 minute ride. We pretty much used Uber for our entire stay in Poland (both in Krakow and Warsaw) and did not use public transportation on this entire trip.

We passed by Ghetto Heroes Square on our ride to Wieliczka Salt Mine

Whether you are visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine as part of a tour or as individuals, you can only enter the mine along with the designated guide on specific time-slots. Various time slots in various languages (English, French, German, Italian etc). We had already booked a 10:30 English guide time slot online a few days before. After queuing up for the appropriate line, we entered the mine with our designated guide.

Guide explaining the rules as well as history of the mine before our visit (left), Walking the Salt Mine tunnels (right)

Wieliczka Salt Mine Tunnels leading to different chambers

It was a lot of walking and the entire tour was around 3 hours (with a single 15 minute break in the middle). It was incredible to see all the statues inside the mine all made of rock salt (halite).

salt cauliflowers (left), one of the chambers inside salt mine (right)

Copernicus statue made of rock salt (left), Legend of St Kinga – patron saint of Wieliczka miners (right)

Depiction of miners trying to detect methane (left), Gnomes carved by miners (right)

Towards the later part of the tour, we arrived at St. Kinga’s Chapel. This was an impressive chamber where miners used to have religious gathering (prayers) as a daily routine. To see all the work of art with everything made of rock salt by regular miners was impressive.

St. Kinga’s Chapel (101 meters underground the salt mine)

The underground lake at the Erazm Barącz Chamber is more concentrated in salt than even the Dead Sea. It is formed from accumulation of brine.

After about 3 hours we were guided towards the elevator shaft to make our way to the top. It was quite a bit of walking and were exhausted. We Ubered back to our hotel and then later walked towards Main Market Square (Rynek Glowny) for our lunch at Morskie Oko.

Lunch @ Morskie Oko. Left – Highlanders potato pancake with beef goulash, Right – Pierogi ruskie (Russian style dumplings stuffed with potatoes & cottage cheese/ meat sprinkled with golden fried onions)

I had read that the #1 item to try in Poland was Pierogi so we wanted to start our trip with it. The pierogis were tasty but we ended up liking the beef goulash over potato pancakes even better.

After the late lunch we walked towards St. Florians Gate.

Florianska street – View of the Bell tower (left) and Florians Gate (right)

Holy Trinity Church (left) , Saints Peter and Paul Church (right)

Walking past Main Market square and Grotza street we walked towards Wawel Castle. We reached the Vistula river near the castle.

Wawel Castle (Left), Wawel Dragon (Right)

After watching a couple of reruns of the Wawel Dragon artificial flames :), we continued our walk in the city and came across this cool Dzok the dog statue by a park.

We retired back to our hotel early as we had a very early day next day for Auschwitz tour.

Day 2:

There are multiple options to doing Auschwitz – Birkenau tours from Krakow.

Individual tour without guide (arrange self transportation to Auschwitz and visit grounds without guide)
Individual tour with guide (arrange self transportation to Auschwitz but visit grounds under a designated guide for specific time slot and language)
Group tour without guide
Group tour with an official guide

Since its such a historical location to visit, we opted to visit Auschwitz – Birkenau by booking a group tour with Hello Cracow which included an official guide in the package. We got picked up at a spot next to our hotel and the drive to Auschwitz was about 1 hour by bus. The total tour lasts 7 hours (including a total 2 hours transport round-trip). Upon reaching there the tour operators handed us the ticket and we entered the premises with our guide. Remember, passport (or official photo identification) is required to enter the premises.

Notoriously ironic words “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free) at the entrance of all concentration camps.

Utensils and belongings of the victims (left), Shoes collected from victims (right)

There are certain rules and etiquette in visiting the sites as well as taking photos/videography. Certain areas were marked as forbidden for photography (like the room where they had human hair stored). It is extremely sobering to wander the grounds and realize the depth of human cruelty.

Firing Squad area where prisoners were executed (left), Gallows (right)

After the Auschwitz visit, we handed over our earphones (helps hearing our guide) back at the kiosk and gathered by our bus after 15 minutes break. We were driven to Birkenau camp (Auschwitz 2), which was the largest extermination camp in Nazi Germany.

Walking along the Birkenau grounds we came across a carriage that used to transport victims to be sent to be executed

International Monument to the Victims of Fascism

Most of the Birkenau camp was destroyed by the Nazis before the Allies arrived. However some structures including some of the prisoner quarters are still surviving. We entered one such quarter that highlights the agony faced by the victims before their extermination.

Women prisoner quarter (left), Inside the women prisoner’s quarter (right)

After ending our visit at Birkenau camp, we returned back to Krakow via the tour bus. It really was a long day of about 6-7 hours. We rested a bit at the hotel and then walked to Pierwszy Stopień Restaurant located near Kazimierz neighbourhood.

I had the duck breast while Karen went with chicken shashlik.