24 Apr 2025
Our trip to Auschwitz and later the salt mines was booked by a friend with Alicia who maintained good contact prior to us travelling to Krakow. The meeting point arranged near to where we were staying and she met us bang on time. Ali was very friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the area now and during WWII. Which made the hour and a half journey fly by. She stopped at a cafe so we could grab a coffee, a god send as it was an early start. She had snacks and water aplenty to see us through the journey also. She had pre-booked our tickets and got us to the entrance and explained fully what we needed to do (At Auschwitz you must take photo id which matches the name on your ticket and go through airport style security)
After we had been around Auschwits you go on a 10 bus ride to Birkenau extermination camp. Whilst waiting for the bus Ali met us with more water and snacks. Rode the bus with us, again imparting great knowledge and endured we knew where to go and what to do. After we had finished we returned on the bus to Auschwitz where she met us from the bus, more snacks and water then drove us to the village where the salt mines were. She asked us what sort of lunch we were looking for and took us to a lovely local restaurant for authentic Polish dumplings. She explained everything about the food and helped with our ordering.
We had arrived an hour ahead of schedule so took us to and around the nearby graduation tower. Very cheap to go into and around and again was very knowledgeable.
At the allotted time took us to the mines and explained again what we could expect. There are two exits from the mines (tour takes 2-3 hours) which are quite far apart. We exited at the furthest point but Ali was there to guide us where we needed to go.
More great knowledge of all things whilst we drove back to Krakow and even took the time to drive us to her favourite ice cream shop to sample the gelato which was great.
This was not the cheapest tour but we all thought well worth the money!