Begeleide tour van een hele dag in Auschwitz-Birkenau vanuit Krakau met privévervoer

We had planned the visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau for a long time. Our hotel arranged for the tour and we opted for the private transfer for us two. The drive (in a van) from Krakow took about 1,5 hour and the return a little longer. It was a longer drive than we had anticipated, perhaps because driver didn’t take the highway route with tolls, saving some money for the company. In any case, when we arrived we had to wait around 15 minutes for the remaining group (in total around 25 persons) arriving with busses (not been informed of this when we made the booking). The guide was very nice and friendly but her english was so poor that we could only understand around 40% of what she was saying. Furthermore, her voice was very low and from time to time she even whispered. For the length of the tour (about 3,5 hours) this was a big let down and frankly ruined a big part of the visit. If we would have known it’s possible to make the visit (only certain hours - check website!) on our own, we would have had a much better experience. Auschwitz 1 have the most remaining buildings. Even if our visit was late in the season, there are a lot of visitors and many tour groups at the same time, so to avoid long queues several buildings have similar exhibitions. Though not everywhere. Some buildings our guide hurried us through which made it almost impossible to take in the terrible conditions the people had to endure. However, on the other hand, our guide was able to stop at a photo and talk about it for a long time. If we had made the visit ourselves, we could have decided where we wanted to spend more time. In addition, the part of what we managed to understand from the guide was nothing new to us, so if you already have good knowledge of the terrible things that happened here, a visit with a guide does not add anything more. We started our tour at 15:00 hrs and the guide had to rush even quicker in order for us to arrive to Birkenau (or Auschwitz 2) before it got dark. Our driver took us two there (abt 10 min drive) but again we had to wait 10-15 minutes for the remaining people. At Birkenau we had no headphones so you can imagine how much we could understand and hear from our guide. Almost nothing. And then it got dark. We had to use our mobile flashlight to see the inside of the only building that you can visit in Birkenau. To summarize. The visit was important but we really regret that we didn't do it on our own, or that we had a guide who could speak clearer and better English.

Olek was amazing taking care of us and driving us there and back, our tour guide Natalia speaking English was amazing with all the explanations and information provided to us and the experience was memorable.

De Tour Gids / chauffeur was zeer behulpzaam, maar de tour van Auschwitz / Bireknau was uiterst teleurstellend. Geen tijd om iets te absorberen zoals gehaast met andere grote groepen. Het was net als een bezoek aan een oorlogsmuseum, maar met minder informatie en authenticiteit, net als het zien van ruïnes, maar niet in staat om zich naar binnen te wagen. Jaren gewacht om dit te doen, maar totaal teleurgesteld. Helaas zou niet aanraden om deze tour te doen.