Noe847,
We were in Krakow last June and took a bus to Auschwitz. There were a lot of groups especially school children there. Our tour was timed for 90 minutes later and that gave us time to read and go thru all the exhibits in the main hall. The guide we had was excellent and even tho I have read alot about the Holocaust, she had stories and anecdotes I had never heard before.
The tour concludes in Birkenau where the railroad tracks end at the crematoria.
Very moving memorial to the victims and although emotionally wrenching, I feel it is a very important place to visit.
We also enjoyed the salt mines. I thought it would be kind of hokey but it is truly amazing what they carved out so deep inside the earth.
Krakow is now one of my favorites cities and I would love to go back. However, there are so many places I have not been to yet and (sigh) limited time and money!
Have a great trip!

Hi noe847

My OH and I returned from Krakow yesterday(we were there for 4 nights). We had a wonderful time.

We visited Auschwitz on Friday - very moving and emotional experience. We took a bus from the main bus station behind the train station (10 min walk from the old town). The journey took 1.5 hours as others have said and only cost 15 pln each one way. The bus takes you right to the museum carpark. We had a 15 min documentary video introduction and then paid for an english speaking tour guide. The tour lasted 3.5 hours and the guide was very informative. We paid 26 pln each for the standard tour, which included both camps and the shuttle bus between the two. I did not feel the tour was rushed in any way. It was a very poignant experience and the guide was respectful to all those who lost their lives. Should you wish to stay longer then you can walk around by yourself afterwards but I would recommend a tour guide as they do have other anecdotal stories to tell.

I would also like to add that we felt very safe in Krakow and found the people very friendly, so you shouldn't have any problems as a solo traveller.

Thank you, thank you, this is exactly what I needed.

Now another question: favorite guide books for Krakow? I saw julies suggests Rough Guide or Cadogan. Any favorite Krakow books that you used? I feel an Amazon order coming on...

I just bought the Lonely Planet's Best of Krakow book which I found really useful and then researched the rest on the web. I also took print-outs of suggestions from discussions on this forum. A couple of useful websites.

www.inyourpocket.com
www.cracowonline.com

It was goog to see this old thread pop up! Such a wealth of information. I did post another report on Fodors about my trip, which included our visit to Krakow. However, to wrap things up, I've also copied and pasted the Krakow portion below.

Krakow is just wonderful! In no other European city have I felt as much closeness to the locals and felt as much vibrant, alive culture, not as some kind of historic relic, but as something living and breathing.

Best of all, for me, was the sound of music everywhere.

I should use this thread to critique my performance as a tourist, because I know that in our 3 days, we didn't begin to scratch the surface of what was available to see in Krakow.

Here is my copied and pasted report on Krakow from my coplete trip report:
Krakow - Oh, My Gosh! What a Special Place!

Arriving at John Paul II International Airport, we took our chances on the taxi rank in front of the airport, for a ride to our hotel. The ride into the city, over a bumpy, narrow road, through slightly down-at-the-heels neighborhoods, did not seem to me to bode well for what we'd find in the city.

Would we ever be surprised!

Hotel Wawel Tourist. This is a good deal for Krakow - at least if you are able to get the rate we did, through PolishTravel.com, for a rate of 77 euros per day. (Watch out: PolishTravel.com charges the room fee in advance, as soon as you book it.)

The hotel is fabulously located, in my opinion, at the end of a short street just off the Royal Road and a scenic and brief stoll to Rynek Glowny (mappy.com says eight-tenths of a mile, but for once I can say that it didn't seem that far to me). In the other direction, it's also an entirely walkable and equally scenic stroll to Wawel Castle.

Hotel's Website: http://www.wawel-tourist.com.pl/

My photo of the hotel front: http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...;IID=118682099

(The next photo in the album is of the monastery across the street from the hotel, which provided us with the sounds of such nice singing, and the third photo is of a pretty building at the end of the hotel's street, across the Royal Road.)

Our room was comfortable and spacious, on the front of the hotel, with a window that opened onto the lane below. It was a little bit dark and a bit in need of an update in the decor, but there was a table and a couple of chairs beneath the window, which was nice. Ours was a smoking room, which may explain the strong and off-putting scent of air-freshener on enterig the room, which I eventually got used to but which didn't really go away. The bathroom was generous in size, and free WI-FI is supposed to be available in the hotel, though I could never get it to work. Free internet access is also supposedly available through the telephone, but I was unable to access it since I didn't have a thin-wire phone jack. I actually went to a computer store to buy one, but what they gave me was not the thin-wire jack you need to plug into a telephone but was the standard-type wall jack, so it didn't work.

Front desk assistance was adequate but a bit unpoised. They always seemed startled at our approach. The free breakfast is adequate, provided in the adjoining restaurant. The hotel has a spa available for guests' use, but we did't have the wits about us to use it, so I can't comment on it.

As I've mentioned earlier, Peg and I always travel with ear plugs for sleeping, so night noises aren't a big problem for us. If you sleep with the window open, as we did in this hotel, you'll likely hear some merriment on the street below late at night, as there are a couple of restaurant/bars nearby. You will also hear church bells, and, best of all for us, the sounds of choirs singing at churches in the area, especially at the monastery kitty-corner from the hotel. Oh, and the songbirds! The songbirds I'm so jealous about not hearing from my own bedroom widow back home. To me, with the exception of the night noises from partiers outside, the sounds from the neighborhood that wafted into our room, especially the music, were among my favorite things about this hotel.

The British are Coming! The British are Comig! Krakow Tourist-free No More! Krakow has been discovered, especially by the Brits. Rynek Glowny, especially, is full of tourists. However, for me, the buzz of the crowds generally seemed to contribute to a liveliness I found appealing. The town was also filled with groups of school children on field trips. Hey! They definitely should have priority.

General Ambience and Appearance. Krakow is just a beautiful town, full of wonderfully preserved, colorful buildings. I don't recall seeing graffiti here. As noted above, the sounds of church bells and choirs in the many churches fill the air. Krakow is a deeply religious town and its long history of Catholicism is evident on every hand.

The Sunday we were there was First Communion Day for the little Roman Catholic Children, and they strolled the streets with their families in celebration, dressed up all in white, like little princes and princesses:

Peg asked permission to photograph this darling little boy, all in white, from head-to-toe, with his suit topped by a short white cape, the costume of the day for little boy communicants, and she was initially told no by one man in the party, but another quickly reversed the direction and said it was fine:

http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...;IID=118682003

(The photo following is of a lovely little girl, with a white floral wreath in her hair.)

Rynek Glowny. This is one European square that lives up to all the hype. It's great fun and very beautiful. Having lunch at Wierzynek's sidewalk café, we enjoyed the small orchestras serenading diners for small change, the passing parade of carriages containing tourists, pulled by colorfully adorned matching horses, and the town bugler, who, as promised by the great posters on this board who provided suggestions for our visit in Krakow, emerged on the hour in the tower of St. Mary's church (Kosciol Mariacki (St. Mary's Church) to play the Koœció³ Mariacki, commemorating the legend of the rakow bugler whose throat was pierced by a Tartar arrow while giving alarm. Th song stops abruptly to commemorate the arrow piercing the poor bugler's throat, after which the bugler appears from every window at the top of the tower to wave to the crowds below, proving over and over that all's well that ends well.

I found this link to an MP3 file you can play to hear it, including the sudden stop:

http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/articles/hejnal/hejnal.mp3

Other people have given excellent descriptions of Rynek Glowny on this board, including those in the following thread posted prior to our trip where I asked for suggestions and was blessed with brilliant and thoughtful responses:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34773892

Sunday Mass at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. The morning after our arrival in Krakow, Peg and I needed to decide where to attend Sunday Mass. As noted earlier in this report, we are demanding in selecting a site for Sunday Mass attendance. We need a beautiful church and great music.

As a monk emerged from the monastery next door to our hotel, I put Peg up to asking him for a recommendation. (She speaks German, which I thought he might understand if English didn't work.) I think he suggested the nearby Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. In any event, we happily headed off to church and found a beautiful church, with a small choir of school children, which sang very sweetly and competently.

One of eight pictures of the interior of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in my album:

http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...;IID=118679437

St. Mary's Cathedral. We left church feeling quite satisfied as well as virtuous and headed down to Rynek Glowny, where we learned: WE WAS ROBBED! The place for Sunday Mass in Krakow is St. Mary's! As we attempted to enter St. Mary's for a bit of sight seeing, we found that the church was temporarily closed, for Sunday Mass. We waited, ad when Mass was over and the congregation was emerging, out the doorway thundered the sounds of a glorious, powerful organ and magnificent choir! Word to the wise: For Sunday Mass in Krakow, St. Mary's is the place to be, for the music alone, if not for the beauty and elegance of the interior.

One of four photos of Kosciol Mariacki (St. Mary's Church):

http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...;IID=118681587

Wawel Castle. Wow. This is one of Krakow's sights, like Rynek Glowny, that lives up to the hype and then some. We walk up, visit the cathedral, and enjoy a cappuccino at a sidewalk cafe on the castle growns, before walking partway down the hill and coming upon one of the little golf-cart tour busses, which we happily board for the remainder of our tour of some of Krakow's sights we'd missed, like the Jewish quarter, ending back at Rynek Glowny.

The first of Many Photos of Wawel Castle in my album:
http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...;IID=118682832


Dining in Krakow: I was so excited, leaving for Krakow, with the list of Krakow restaurants I'd carefully gleaned from brilliant Fodorites recommendations and could hardly wait to eat in as many as possible. Things fell apart, as they usually do where my travel dining plans are concerned, and I checked off only two from my list:

Wierzynek, but in the sidewalk café. I had wonderful cheese-filled Pierogis.

Chlopskie Jadlo: Peg and both made unfortunate choices. Emboldened by my success with the cheese pierogis at Wierzynek, I ordered a meat-filled version and was sorely disappointed. Peg had cabbage rolls, which also left a good deal to be desired.

With the exception of our experiece at Chlopskie Jadlo, we generally were happy with our food choices in Krakow and wish we'd experienced more.

"It was goog ..." This site is so maddening! I previewed and corrected that, along with making other changes, but when I then posted, the changes weren't made. Grr! Oh, well, it's the people here that make Fodors' so spechttp://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=MaryFrances&P=&AID=3531254&T= 1ial, and not the sometimes limited site features.

Thanks again to all here who helped make my trip so special. Here's the link to my photo album:

http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...531254&T=1

Double Grr. That time I didn't preview! Let's try it again:

"It was goog ..." This site is so maddening! I previewed and corrected that, along with making other changes, but when I then posted, the changes weren't made. Grr! Oh, well, it's the people here that make Fodors' so special, and not the sometimes limited site features.

Thanks again to all here who helped make my trip so special. Here's the link to my photo album:

http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=Mar...531254&T=1

Thanks, Mary Fran, for posting your experience of Krakow. It's always useful to include the info or a link in other places, because I find the Fodor's search function to be very spotty.

As it happens, I happily followed your report of all the places you and Peg went last year - so many of your destinations are our favorites (Prague, Vienna, Munich, and now Berlin - although I know you didn't love those last two as much.) In fact, I have your trip report bookmarked, and in case anyone wants to read the whole report, here it is:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34819219

I'm hoping for a good 4 days in Krakow, or maybe even more, but haven't gotten that far in planning my itinerary. I'm pretty sure the flight you took from Berlin to Krakow is no longer available.

You can fly Berlin-Warsaw, which is a 2 - 2.5 hour train ride, as I recall.

I have been reading alot about the "stag-dos," men's weekends (often quite debauched...) in various Eastern European cities (access to cheap airfaire and cheap beer...), and am definitely a bit concerned. TripAdvisor carries alot of posts about these, and the European edition of the Wall Street Journal just ran a story as well. But, Mary Fran, I guess if it just appeared to you like the "sounds of merriment" then I won't be too worried...

But, I am excited to visit Krakow. I hadn't even thought of visiting the city until I read various posts on it, and readjusted our whole itinerary to go there. Our trip is a "roots" trip, with the original intention of visiting the towns of my husband's ancestors. It's evolved more into visiting areas that have to do with Jewish history, and being in the general regions of our ancestors (we are also going to Vilnius, so we will be in the Pale of Settlement, at least..)

Noe, you should also know that "Schindler's List" was filmed on location in Krakow. Up until now, the factory was not open to visitors, but i believe that it is now.

We ran into a small group of these guys in Krakow. They were annoying and loud, but fortunately, they're not going to Krakow in the same numbers that go to Prague. There were about six of them on our tour to Auschwitz (hardly a stag activity, IMHO, but who knows how these guys think). They were pretty rude at first, sniggering and clowning around. But after about 20 minutes, they started to "get" Auschwitz and behaved themselves.
I also ran into a few of them on the main square. I was trying to take a photo and a couple of the drunker ones kept trying to jump into the shot. Finally, one of their companions shooed them away and apologized.

We were there from Tuesday night to Saturday lunchtime last week. A few stag parties had arrived on the Friday night so I was a bit worried. We decided to eat in a restaurant down a little side street on the Friday night instead of eating on the main square and didn't have any problems.

Don't let the stag dos put you off visiting this lovely place!!!

Mary-fran, your photos are wonderful. It's lovely to see what other people experienced.

Stag parties - now, there's an angle I hadn't heard about! Those low cost airfares within Europe have really opened up travel. One more reason to see the city before it gets any more discovered. I probably won't see lots of partying at any rate, as it looks as though I will be in Krakow on weekdays and heading to Vienna by weekend where I hope to get a direct flight home.

What a shame that louts on stag parties are coloring the experience of locals and visitors to cities like Krakow.

This story from the bbc website shows the problem certainly not confined to Krakow. I hope that the countries plagued by these drunken idiots can find a way to stem this tide.

http://tinyurl.com/2of9o2

We were fortunate in that when we were in Krakow in late May last year, we really didn't encounter drunken tourists, except perhaps in some late night noise coming up to our room from the street to our room, which we were able to muffle through the ear plugs we always travel with.