Auschwitz & Birkenau Tour from Krakow

Book a tour from Krakow to visit the place of the most tragic genocide in world history – the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. If you are looking for the best organized and guided tours in Poland, we are the answer! Our company has been operating trips since 2003 and we can guarantee the most professional and comfortable service – including door-to-door transportation, English-speaking driver and guide, with no need to wait in line.

What is Auschwitz & Birkenau Tour?

Auschwitz & Birkenau Tour is a one-day guided tour from Krakow city. By participating in this tour, you will explore the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum, experiencing the memory of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humankind. An English-speaking tour guide will show you around the Auschwitz I Museum and Auschwitz II Birkenau Camp, providing historical context and an explanation of the exhibitions and memorials you will witness. The whole guided tour takes around 7 hours, including transfer. 

What is Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum?

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is an institution dedicated to preserving the memory of the victims who suffered genocide at the hands of Nazi Germany in World War II. The goal of this international project is to honor the memory of the dead and promote awareness of Holocaust atrocities. The exhibits and sites that constitute Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum have witnessed around 1.1 million senseless and horrible deaths. As part of your Auschwitz Tour, you will take a trip around the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and learn about the history it was created to safeguard and teach.

When visiting Auschwitz, you will see the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria used for mass extermination, prisoner barracks, railway ramps, as well as personal belongings of the people, mostly Jews, who died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps.

Auschwitz – the darkest UNESCO World Heritage Site

There are 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Poland, many of which you can visit by taking some of our other tours. All of them were chosen for different reasons, but all of them embody something positive, beautiful, unique, and worth preserving.

The sole exception is the former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Why is it listed along with the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, Wieliczka and Bochnia Salt Mines or the historic center of Krakow? 

The answer is simple. While all these places are worth celebrating and preserving, Auschwitz Birkenau cannot be forgotten. It has to be preserved as evidence of how far humanity can go in its hatred.

Why visit Auschwitz?

Embarking on an Auschwitz tour is a harrowing experience. It is not a happy day trip. Not a tour to take pictures of yourself smiling. It is a heavy, dark, and unpleasant tour.

And yet, it remains one of the most popular and important historical landmarks in the world, with countless visitors arriving each year to pay their respects. It might be quite possibly the most popular tour from Krakow. Why do people come to see the place where more than a million people were annihilated? Why wander around the former Nazi concentration camp and learn about gas chambers? What brings people to Auschwitz Birkenau Museum?

Why is it important to visit Auschwitz?

Why should you visit Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp? Because it is important to remember and honor the victims. As time passes and fewer and fewer Auschwitz survivors remain, the memory of Auschwitz dims. Some research shows that the awareness of the crimes that took place at the Auschwitz concentration camp drastically dropped in age groups under 40, especially in the United States. People forget. Those who know about it often can’t imagine what it really meant and see it just as a distant historical fact, a bunch of numbers detached from human lives. In less than 25 years, Auschwitz will be something that happened 100 years ago. There will not be a single person who remembers the horrors of World War II from personal experience.

Those who forget history are bound to repeat it. To visit and take the Auschwitz Tour is to keep the memory alive. To see it with your own eyes makes you understand it in a way that no textbook or documentary can. Everybody should consider seeing the Auschwitz Memorial at least once in their life. You should come and visit. Keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and help humanity never repeat that mistake again. 

Why book the Auschwitz Tour with MrShuttle?

1. You save time. Our drivers take a direct, and the fastest route between your hotel location and the Auschwitz Birkenau Museum. There are no unnecessary bus stops, and the smaller car is able to navigate the traffic easier. 
2. Your round-trip transport is covered. Because we offer Door-to-Door services, you don’t have to be afraid that by the time you finish the tour, you don’t have the strength, will, or means to return to Krakow. 
3. Ease of communication. Our drivers and staff speak fluent English, and some speak other languages too. Getting the language barrier out of the way helps. 
4. The comfort of air-conditioned cars. While a bus can take you to your destination, you can’t sit back and relax in it as you can in our minivan. 
5. No hassle. We pick you up, and we drive you back. You don’t have to look up public transport schedules, locate the bus stops, and work around bus arrivals and departures. 
6. Hotel pick-up and drop-off. We can pick you up from anywhere in Krakow and drop you off anywhere in Krakow as well. This includes the airport in Balice.
7. You get to start your Auschwitz tour earlier than others – because you can start watching an introductory documentary in the car that will make everything much easier to process.
8. No standing in lines. You don't need to buy entrance tickets or stand in line. We guide you directly to where you need to be, affording you the leisure to focus on your tour rather than all the unnecessary hassle.
9. Free cancellation. We understand that sometimes things go wrong. No worries – you can cancel your booking free of charge by giving at least 24 hours' notice.

A range of Auschwitz Tours

Another reason to consider visiting the Auschwitz site with MrShuttle is the variety of Auschwitz tours we have on offer. We understand that not everyone wishes to see places in the same way. You may prefer a private tour to share the experience only with your close ones or you may not be interested in a guided tour and need only private transport. To offer you more flexibility and control over the way you visit the Auschwitz Museum, we propose some tour variations. Apart from this general guided tour which you can join among other tourists, you can choose our Auschwitz Birkenau Private Tour or opt for an Auschwitz tour that includes only transportation both ways. We can also assist you with a one-way transfer between Krakow and Auschwitz or the other way if that's the only thing you need.

How to prepare for the Auschwitz Birkenau Guided Tour?

Here are some quick tips that will help you prepare for the tour:

• It is tempting to schedule something else for the day. After all, it is just 7 hours, right? You could probably fit something in the evening? However, we recommend against it. The tour is draining and exhausting, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Give yourself space to rest after the experience.
• The maximum size of bags and backpacks on the museum grounds is 30 x 20 x 10 cm. So prepare smartly – take an extra jacket, an umbrella, maybe an extra jumper or different shoes. And if in the end, you don’t need them, don’t bring them along – just leave them in the car. They will be awaiting your return safely.
• Talking about shoes – make sure to wear comfortable ones! You are going to spend more than 3 hours walking around. Choose shoes that will serve you well, regardless of how they look. In Auschwitz, nobody will have time or energy to think about fashion.
• The weather in Poland is tricky and finicky. Unless it's summer, you can experience snow in the morning only to then have a nice, sunny and warm afternoon. It is better to take an extra jacket than to regret it.

What else is available around Auschwitz?

If you want to look for more interesting tours and trips, check out our Krakow page. We have been operating from Krakow since 2003 and trust us – there is more to see than you can fit in a single visit! The best opportunity near Auschwitz-Birkenau camp to visit is Wieliczka Salt Mine. In fact, they go so great together, that we have a combo day trip that makes you visit both on the same day! So if Auschwitz & Birkenau Tour is for you but you want to see Wieliczka too, go and book that tour!