Day Trips from Warsaw and Krakow
 

We will be staying five days in Warsaw and five days in Krakow. Any suggestion for days trips from these cities. We would need to do tours or use buses and trains.

Hi, Auschwitz-Birkenau is an hour away from Krakow and really worth going to. There are buses from Krakow.

Easy..From Warszawa (use search)
No.1. Visit Licheñ, the site of Poland's newest cathedral
No.2. Visit £ód¿, the Manufactura Mall and perhaps The Radogoszcz Memorial.
Check the Warszawa opera schedule.
Kraków...The Salt Mine and Oœwiêcim are 'givens'. Then either Zakopane or Wroc³aw.

We got a tour booked at our hotel -very reasonable prices. A comfortable car with driver who took us to the Salt Mines and Auschwitz. He saved us a lot of time because he came in with us to show us where to go and helped us get our tickets.
In Warsaw we just walked -and ate our way around the city. The food was so good there!

If given a choice between Zakopane and Wroclaw, I would pick Zakopane. It is about a 2 hour drive into the Tatar mountains. The ride is lovely and the town is charming. Make sure you take the finucular up to the top of the mountain. The salt mines are also worth a visit. And of course Auschwitz and Birkenau must not be missed.

From Warsaw

about 220kms away to Bialowieza National Park and Surrounds

The Bialowieza National Park is the last and only place in Europe where forests are preserved in their primeval state and European bison still lives. (restricted numbers to some parts of the park)

Grabarka in the same area is the most important Orthodox sanctuary in Poland. It is also called a Hill of crosses around 7000 scattered around

Hajnowka – there is a bar there called “U Wolodzi” – lots of communist era things there (on the way to Bialowiza)

About 50 kms from Warsaw is the birthplace of Chopin, a small manor house in Zelazowa Wola in a lovely park. In summer piano recitals are often held there

Treblinka, the second biggest Nazi extermination camp in Poland, where 700 000 killed within one year. It is not reconstructed like Auschwitz, it sits among the woods and fields

Nieborow for the baroque Palace of the Prince Radziwill family surrounded by a park in the English-French style, then to Arkadia, and its amazing garden


From Krakow

Dunajec Raft trip plus Nidzica,a medieval castle

Czestochowa - Black Madonna", a Gothic painting which has been the most powerful spiritual symbol in Poland for centuries. It is located in the Jasna Gora monastery. (read up on it as it is a critical part of polish cultural consciousness0.

Eagles Nests' Trail which is a series of castles (now mostly in ruins) which lined Polish border. Pieskowa Skala is still standing –it dates back to 14th although was redesigned in the 16th century and is now a museum/art collection.

If interested in the Polish pope and associated beautiful religious buildings see Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Bernardine monastery (both baroque) and Via Dolorosa (the Stations of the Cross) - lots of chapels set in the countryside. Also town of Wadowice where the Pope was born

I was born in Wroclaw, although now live in Sydney, so am biased in its favour but I think as a day trip it is too far from Krakow.

GSteed, my husband's family is from Opacie, about 2 hrs from Krakow and not far from Jaslo. I haven't been able to find much of anything on this town on the internet. Any suggestions? We're mainly trying to find out about the local church or cemetery where relatives may be buried.

Any help would be appreciated.

bettyk, This link may help you some. Scroll down and read the posts from Stu T. (tower).

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34864386

You may want to start another thread to get more answers. :)

Thanks, lucy_d. Unfortunately, my husband's parents aren't Jewish, which maybe would have made the task easier. Also, the link given in the last post doesn't seem to work. Oh well, I appreciate the reply though.

May I suggest that, from Krakow, you consider the National Park at Ojcow, if you would like a day in the country? It is a beautiful place, with lovely stone formations, an old church, a woods, and a lovely castle/museum with a major collection of Polish furniture and other antiques. There is a nice restaurant, a lovely garden. It is a nice respite from the cities you will visit.

Also be sure to go to Wilanov in the southern suburbs of Warsaw, again for a beautiful castle, and lovely gardens.

On these drives, which I am sure can be arranged from your hotel, you will see suburbs and how the Polish live. Have a wonderful trip. I was in Poland in October, 07 and I was so impressed.

I found those links which may give you more information and ideas

http://www.staypoland.com/poland-city-tours.htm

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel..._bus-BR-1.html

Would appreciate name and contact info
from carlyspall for tour guide to Auschwitz-Birkenau, or from anyone else with a recommendation.

Bettyk: check emails in those 2 links and email them with your questions

http://www.gminajaslo.pl/
http://jaslo.bip.krosoft.pl/?mainid=62

Opacie village is in Jaslo region ...

You also may try this as well...
http://www.opacie1.za.pl/

Good Luck ...

Thanks, Peter, will see if I can get these websites translated.

No need to translate pages ... emails from those web pages are:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

http://jaslo.bip.krosoft.pl/

[email protected]

2 with "urzad.gminajaslo.pl" are gov't official addresses for that area - so be best source to give you the info or forward your question to others with this knowladge ...

Good Luck

POLAND - A Guidebook. Roman Marcinek. Cultural heritage, Landscape. History. Tourist information.
email <[email protected]> This is a simply wonderful book detailing Polish sights...It could be used to plan local trips, or general Polish visits. It also lays out 'Trail Routes'. This book is one of a series, each detailing an aspect of Poland.

When (there are ski resorts in the Tarta mountains)

The salt mine for me
Don't forget Stalin's Christmas Cake in Warsaw and watch the air and your lungs in Krakow