Start under the Cloth Hall arcades. The salt mine and the Tatras are a morning away.
What the guided route through Wieliczka costs with a hotel pickup. Which Auschwitz-Birkenau tours include the entry pass and which leave it to you. Whether Zakopane is worth two hours in a minibus each way. Reviews of the tours you can book from Krakow.
Sukiennice and St Mary’s, Rynek Główny
The Royal Road, the salt mine, Oświęcim, the Tatras.
Four bookings most first visits to Krakow are built on, what each one costs, and what the people who went thought of it.
01The first morningOld Town Krakow & Wawel Castle Walking TourThrough the Barbican, across the Rynek and up the Royal Road to Wawel on foot. Takes the guesswork out of day one.
02The salt-mine dayWieliczka Salt Mine TourDown the wooden stairs into Wieliczka for brine lakes, carved chambers and a chapel cut entirely from rock salt.
03The day to plan carefullyAuschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour & Hotel PickupThe Memorial at Oświęcim with a licensed guide and a hotel pickup. It is a long, quiet day; keep the evening free.
04The Tatra dayZakopane, Thermal Springs, Cable Car, Local TastingA cable car above Zakopane, smoked oscypek off the grill and a soak in hot springs before the drive back.
Oświęcim, Wieliczka or the Tatras: choose the day out.
Nearly everyone leaves the city at least once, and the classic days could not be more different. What each kind of day costs to book from Krakow, and what it gives you.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour & Hotel Pickup
Auschwitz-BirkenauThe Memorial and Museum at Oświęcim, about 70 km west, with a guide and the drive both ways.
The salt mine at WieliczkaAround three hours underground on the guided route, down to 135 metres.
Zakopane and the mountainsHighland villages, smoked sheep cheese and a cable car into the peaks.
The Dunajec gorgeWooden rafts poled through the Pieniny along the Slovak border.
All 305 day trips from Krakow →
From the Barbican to Wawel Hill, then over to Kazimierz.
The Royal Road runs from the old city gate through the Main Square to the castle, and the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz begins a short walk south-east of the hill. Most first walks cover both. These are the most popular ways to do each.
- 1Old TownOld Town Krakow & Wawel Castle Walking Tourfrom $26
- 2WawelWawel Castle & Cathedral Guided Tourfrom $57
- 3KazimierzJewish Quarter and Former Ghetto Tourfrom $19
Oświęcim, Wieliczka, Wawel, Podgórze: four tickets with a clock on them.
Most of Krakow can be sorted the evening before over a plate of pierogi. These four run on timed entry and fixed departures, and in summer the good slots go well before you land.
- 01Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour & Hotel PickupEntry passes are issued in your name for a set time. Guided places in English go first, and summer weeks book out well ahead.
- 02Wieliczka Salt Mine TourThe route is guided only, in groups that leave on a fixed timetable for each language. Arrive without a slot and you wait for the next English group.
- 03Wawel Castle & Cathedral Guided TourThe castle sells a limited number of timed tickets for each exhibition every day, and the State Rooms are usually the first to go.
- 04Oskar Schindler’s Factory Entry Ticket & Guided TourThe museum lets visitors in by timed slot with a cap on each one. In high season the next free slot can be days away.
From the Memorial to the salt chapel: what Krakow books most.
Every Krakow review →The eight days out and city tours with the most travellers behind them, and what puts each one on the list.
1
Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour & Hotel Pickup
Ride from Krakow in an air-conditioned vehicle for a guided visit to Auschwitz I and Birkenau. See the Arbeit Macht Frei gate, original barracks, gas chambers, platforms, photographs and personal belongings. Licensed guides have included Nicholas, Nickolas and Ziggy, though your guide may differ. The day lasts 7 to 10 hours, with pickup options that vary by booking.
From · $21
Read our review →
2
Auschwitz Guided Tour with Optional Hotel Pickup
from $69
3
Zakopane: Cable Car, Chocholow Baths, Cheese & Vodka
from $54
4
Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour with Pickup & Lunch
from $21
5
Wieliczka Salt Mine Tour
from $33
6
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Salt Mine Guided Tour
from $54
7
Krakow to Auschwitz Birkenau Guided Tour with Transfer and Ticket
from $36
8
Wieliczka Salt Mine Guided Tour with Transport
from $55
Krakow after dark: a Chopin recital, a vodka flight, pierogi by the plate.
Evenings here start late and run underground, in the brick-vaulted cellars below the Old Town and the bars of Kazimierz. Three good ways to spend one.
A Trabant through Nowa Huta, a raft down the Dunajec, the Black Madonna.
The salt mine and the Tatras are on every list. These three are not, and each says more about southern Poland than another lap of the square.
Nowa Huta
Built from 1949 as a model town for the workers of a vast new steelworks east of the old city, Nowa Huta is wide avenues fanning out from Plac Centralny, arcaded socialist-realist blocks and a modernist church, the Ark of the Lord, that residents spent years fighting to have built. Guides take you round it in a Trabant, the two-stroke East German car of the era.
- 1Nowa Huta Guided Tour in Vintage Car★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 277 reviews
- 2Legendary Private Nowa Huta Communism Tour with Crazy Guides★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 262 reviews
- 3Nowa Huta: Steelworks Administration Buildings/Shelters Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 160 reviews
Down the Dunajec by raft
Where the Dunajec cuts through the Pieniny on the Slovak border, highland raftsmen in embroidered waistcoats have poled visitors down the gorge since the nineteenth century. The rafts are narrow wooden boats lashed side by side, the run takes a couple of hours under the limestone cliffs of the Three Crowns, and the season runs from spring into autumn.
- 1Traditional Dunajec River Rafting with Mountain Chairlift★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 127 reviews
- 2Dunajec River Gorge and Zakopane: Full-Day Trip from Krakow★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 57 reviews
- 3Dunajec River Gorge from Krakow★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 33 reviews
The Black Madonna
The icon at the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa is the most venerated image in Poland, the dark-faced Madonna with two scars on her cheek. Pilgrims walk there for days each August, and the icon is unveiled to a fanfare at set times through the day. From Krakow it pairs naturally with Wadowice, the birthplace of John Paul II.
- 1Black Madonna of Częstochowa & Home of John Paul II★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 97 reviews
- 2Full-Day Wadowice & Czestochowa Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 77 reviews
- 3Czestochowa the Black Madonna Day Tour from Krakow★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 64 reviews
Krakow at minus five: go underground, or into hot water.
From December to February the light is gone by four and the cold settles over the Planty. The city’s answer lies below ground and in the hills: the salt mine holds steady at around 15 degrees whatever happens above, the medieval market lies under the Rynek, and the thermal pools at Chochołów steam in the snow. Finish with Chopin in a warm room.
Krakow prices: a walk round the Rynek, a coach to Wieliczka, a private car to the Tatras.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it costs a head. Krakow is one of the cheaper cities in Europe to book a day in, and it shows.
The shared coaches to Oświęcim and Wieliczka, Old Town and Kazimierz walks, river cruises, golf-cart loops and Chopin recitals.
- 1Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour & Hotel Pickupfrom $21
- 2Wieliczka Salt Mine Tourfrom $33
- 3Evening or Night River Cruisefrom $24
Full days with pickup: Zakopane with the hot pools, the salt mine with transport, the food and vodka tours.
Private drivers, both big day trips in one, and the long runs south into Slovakia.
Old Town, Kazimierz, Oświęcim, Wieliczka: the order most first visits take.
Old Town
Wawel Hill
KazimierzSalt, mountains, cellars or cobbles: every kind of Krakow day
Fresh from Krakow: the newest tour reviews.
Newest Krakow reviews, all of them →
Private Full-Day Zakopane and Thermal Baths Tour from Krakow
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Private Guided Walking Tour in Krakow Wine Bars
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Polish Countryside and Tyniec Abbey Bike Tour from Krakow
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Pierogi Cooking Class: Mastering the Art of Polish Dumplings
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Panorama of Krakow from the Vistula River during an hour-long cruise
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Krakow Jewish District and Ghetto Guided Tour in a Small Group
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Kraków Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory Museum skip the line tour
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One day tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau & Salt Mine from Krakow with private driver
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One-Day Wadowice & Czestochowa Tour from Krakow
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Ojców National Park and Ogrodzieniec Castle Tour from Krakow
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