I will be flying from Hamburg to Prague. I would like to visit Prague for 2 days before traveling to Krakow. I want to tour Krakow and also book a trip to Auschwitz Birkenau. Two or three days?
Any suggestions on transportation, not to miss sites, accommodations and tours?
Especially helpful would be information about the best way to travel and tour Auschwitz.
I will then travel back to the United States.
Thank You!

There are frequent trains from Prague to Kraków, including overnight sleepers.

I like the PURO Hotel chain, they have two in Kraków; Kazimierz and Stare Miasto.

Two or three days dapends how easily you recover from visiting mass extermination sites, reading about dead children and experimental killing methods.
There is an Underground Stary Rynek Museum, Jan Matejko House , the Pharmacy Museum.
My son came back last week from Kraków and he found the Aviation Museum interesting and had a lot of fun at the Kraków Pinball Museum.

We stayed five nights in Krakow, which included visiting Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine. It's one of my favorite cities in Europe. We found a guide to take us through the Kazimierz neighborhood. He was a famous denizen of the neighborhood, but he has long passed.. He spent 3 hours with us talking Polish and Jewish history. It was an astonishing experience.

Here is an article about our tour guide. Most interesting for you is that you could contact the author of the article and maybe he or someone he knows could help you:

https://samgrubersjewishartmonuments...i-dies-of.html

We took a public bus back and forth from Krakow to visit Auschwitz. The site gives guided tours, nowadays it might be good to reserve if possible for an English tour.

I joined a tour from Krakow to Auschwitz / Birkenau, and although I don’t usually like tours, I was VERY glad to have approached these sites with a tour. The official guides were, IME (which is dated – 1995) excellent. You can get there and back using public transportation, but honestly, the experience left me emotionally drained. I would not have wanted to need to think about anything other than what I had just seen, not even enough to follow a map to a bus stop. YMMV. Likewise, I wanted a very quiet evening; I would encourage you to avoid planning anything else on that day, except, perhaps, to form a backup plan if you find yourself up for something else or in need of distraction.

I missed the Salt Mine, but think I would have enjoyed it.

SO, if you want to visit charming Krakow (be sure to visit Lady with an Ermine if she’s at home) and the camps and the salt mine, give yourself at least 3 days – 4 nights. If you travel fast and are willing to skip the salt mine, 2 days (3 nights) at a minimum, IMO.

BTW, two days seems to me very little for Prague. But it depends on what you want to see and experience.

You'll see some amazing places -- I trust you'll have a great trip!

We had 3 nights in Prague and were desperate for a 4th, but could not make it happen.

Most tourists will go on a tour to Auschwitz that picks them up at the hotel. We wanted to be on our own schedule so that was the reason for the public bus. BTW, the bus stops right at the entrance to Auschwitz. Nothing to think about. However, when you are in Krakow to start off your day, you do have to make sure you get on the right bus!

Krakow is a great city. Wonderful restaurants, a really impressive center city. This is my trip report. And an important caution: Beware of pickpockets in Prague. It's the only place it ever happened to us.Europe 2017

April 12 - We drove to NH and took the luxurious Dartmouth Coach bus to Logan. We had a great Delta flight to Amsterdam – very good front row seats with lots of room and the food was good. Then we had a short flight from Amsterdam to Prague and were picked up at the airport by the hotel's driver. It was all seamless.

We were given a warm welcome at the Hotel Agnes and were met by our daughter and her boyfriend, who are living in Prague. The four of us wandered nearby Prague. We saw the famous clock on the hour – the Astronomical Clock. Then we went to a “typical” pub for beers and then back to the hotel for naps.



Caitlin and Aaron returned and we went nearby Beer Story for dinner. We had sausages and drinks – very good food, with “typical Czech” service.

Day 2, Prague - The hotel can’t do enough for us, they are so accommodating. We had a good breakfast there. Then we went to the Franz Kafka Café to meet our tour guide. She took us to the Old Synagogue, the New Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue, to a Terezin art exhibit, and to the Jewish cemetery and memorials. It was particularly moving to see the name of my friend's grandfather on the the memorial. (Herman Nachmann)

The entire tour was very interesting and informative. Our guide was very knowledgeable and provided us with good history and context of Prague – both the Jewish and overall history. We went to a cafe and had coffee with the guide, where she answered our many questions. Then she took us on the tram to the castle grounds – it is huge, with impressive structures, grounds, etc.

For dinner, the four of us took an Uber to Monastery Restaurant. It has great ambiance and food. We had goose with cabbage and dumplings. It was quite filling!

Day 3, Prague - After another good Agnes breakfast, we took a tram with Cait to another part of the city. She showed us a beautiful church with a very grand interior. Then we took a taxi to a beautiful park with an interesting grotto and an old world ambiance. We had drinks in a café in the park and then took a tram to Wanceslas Square, the site of protests during Prague Spring

For dinner we went across the street from the hotel to a butcher shop where we’d seen long lines. The crowds were totally justified. We had steak tartare, sausages, and steak tenderloin. It was all delectable. After dinner we wandered the Old Town, which was very crowded with tourists. We ended up at a bar near the hotel – Argentina - where we had night caps.

Day 4 Prague, Easter Sunday - It was a slow start to the day. We explored the immediate area and discovered a monastery right behind the hotel, with a beautiful art-filled garden and a lovely old interior. Then we walked across the Charles Bridge and met Caitlin and Aaron at the Museum Kampa on Kampa Island. It is a nice small museum on the river, with modern art.

The sun is shining and everyone is out enjoying it. We took a tram to Café Louvre where we had drinks and pastries. It is a very old world cafe and it is crowded on this Easter Sunday. Apparently, it is the place to be.

Jim and Joanne took a tram back to the hotel. The tram was very crowded; there was lots of pushing. It seems that in the midst of this, Jim had his wallet stolen but he only realized it hours later, back at the hotel. Lucas at Hotel Agnes was wonderful. He let us use their phone to call credit card companies. In the end, no damage was done, but it was not a good experience.

We had dinner at La Bottega, around the corner from the hotel. Jim had dover sole. Joanne had small salads. The food was very good.

Day 5, Easter Monday - All is normal in Prague on this big holiday. Stores are open, etc. It is a rainy day. We took the Metro to meet C & A in their neighborhood and then a tram with them to lunch at Wine & Food Restaurant. It was very good; they have a lovely décor, with long tables and a laid back vibe. It is a local clientele.




Day 6, Prague to Krakow - The hotel gave us a ride to the train and we met C & A at the station. We took a very slow train ride through the countryside. We had brought wine and food with us. We arrived in Krakow at 6 pm. We changed money and found a taxi to the hotel – the Hotel Columbus

We walked around the corner to Kamirez, in the Jewish Quarter, where we found a great, small and cozy restaurant – Dawno Ternu. It has very eclectic furnishings and there was a duo playing Klezmer music – a violin and an accordion – very good, authentic feeling, just like we imagined Krakow would be. We shared chopped liver for an appetizer. Joanne had lamb sausage with couscous. Jim had fried liver.





Day 7, Day 1 Krakow - It is a rainy, snowy day (April 18!) The hotel breakfast was good and plentiful, but not the Agnes! We took a taxi to the Schindler Factory. It is a very good museum of Krakow history from 1930s to the end of the war. The exhibits were very well done - informative, comprehensive history, artifacts, lots of personal stories. Then we went next door to the modern art museum – very modern with large spaces, and interesting, and some weird displays.

We took a taxi back to the Jewish Quarter and Joanne and Caitlin went shopping in some great second hand stores where we scored some very good deals.

We had made dinner reservation at Starka Restaurant and Vodka Bar (we had discovered reservations were generally needed). It was a great meal. We shared herring appetizer. Joanne had salmon with beets and Jim had the lamb. We finished the meal with vodka shots (When in Rome.) There was a folk singer, the ambiance was great, and it was very affordable

Day 8, Day 2 Krakow - . Our hotel arranged a driver to Auschwitz. It was a very cold day, which seemed appropriate.





We were back at 6 pm and went around the corner to the Jewish district for dinner, where we ended up in a nice casual restaurant – Alchemia Restauracja. Joanne had gilled cauliflower on couscous. Jim had the cheeseburger. We all shared an appe

tizer of Krakow pretzel with salami and cheese. Everything was very good.

It was an exhausting day.

Day 9, Day 3 Krakow - We walked to the Old Town, to the Square. It is amazingly big and grand. We saw and heard the bugle call on the hour from the church tower, a Krakow tradition. We wandered the back streets and found the popular Herring Vodka Bar – Ambassada Sledzia. It has a nice ambiance and we experienced some new tastes.

On the way back, we wandered more back streets and found more interesting local stores. We had dinner at Klezmer Haus. It is an old house with different dining rooms. We sat at a long table, like a home dining room. We shared gefilte fish. Caitlin had matzo ball soup, Joanne white fish, and Jim turkey breast. We shared a bottle of French wine and again finished with Vodka shots.







Day 10 – Krakow to Berlin (good bye Caitlin & Aaron) - Our first train was from Krakow to Warsaw. It turned out that we didn’t have seat assignments and there were no available seats. It was the end of the Easter weekend and the train was fully booked. We thought we were going to have to stand in the aisle, but six people in a compartment insisted we share their space and we all squeezed in - four to a side, instead of three. Everyone was very nice, and it gave us a very good impression of Poles! The conductor came back to make sure we were all set for our next train, Warsaw to Berlin

In answer to one of the original questions, we spent four nights in Krakow and I would have liked to stay longer. It is a city to be slowly explored and discovered.

From Krakow we went to Berlin and then to Amsterdam. I will plan to add those parts of the trip to this report.

















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