Travel logistics for visiting the KL Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

Hello everyone, I'm back from my holiday in Southern Poland and one of the things I did there was to visit the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. Obviously, it's not a 'fun' activity but one that is of historical importance to visit this place and see what the Nazis did there. The site is located near the small town of Oświęcim, 33 km from the city of Katowice and 66 km from Krakow. A lot of tour companies will offer you a day trip there whereby you are picked up from your hotel, taken there and then taken right back to your hotel - if that's what you prefer, then go ahead and pay them for that service (but be warned - they add very little value in simply providing no more than a taxi service and charge you a lot for that) but public transport in Poland is actually really cheap and well-organized. All the local staff I have encountered on the way speak some English (even the elderly bus driver) and it is actually much cheaper to organize this yourself and visit using public transport rather than with an organized tour group. So in this post, I'm going to share with you some information about organizing your visit to Auschwitz Birkenau on public transport and show you how incredibly easy it is! 

Do I go by bus or train? 

Either really, from Krakow Central (Kraków Główny in Polish) you can get the bus or train - the prices are similar, one-way on the bus is 20 PLN whilst on the train it is 17 PLN. The bus is operated by the company Lajkonik and you may click through to their page from here; you can simply buy tickets from the bus driver on the bus without booking in advance. Do not book online from third party websites as you will be paying these third parties a hefty booking fee for the same seat on the bus - the bus is very large and is unlikely to be full, so you really don't need to buy a ticket in advance. Simply turn up for the bus on time at the bus station and be prepared to pay in cash, the bus driver cannot process card payments on the bus. The benefit of taking the bus is that it stops right in front of the Auschwitz museum entrance, but there are three other reasons to take the train: firstly, the buses are not that frequent and secondly, the journey times are more unpredictable (for example, if the bus encounters a traffic jam). Finally, there are toilets on the train but not on the bus; the journey on the bus is approximately 90 minutes and it doesn't make any stops for toilet breaks. Do note that the train station is a good 20 minutes walk from the Auschwitz museum and that is a rather uneventful walk through a quiet residential neighbourhood - it is doable and if you don't mind walking, you could take the train. The trains are more frequent but be warned that some trains will make more stops than others and some even take a different route back to Krakow Central, hence make sure you check whether the next train is the fast train: slow trains take about 90 minutes to make the journey which the fast trains will take just under an hour. Either way, the trains are modern and so comfortable. 

How do you pronounce Kraków Główny?

It is Kra-kuv Gwov-nuh. The y in Polish is not an 'ee' sound but a 'uuh' sound. It is also not a L in Główny but it is the Polish letter Ł which has a W sound. And when you see a W in Polish, it is in fact pronounced as a V - I can just imagine the Polish people rolling their eyes when a tourist pronounces it as Glow-nee station. Polish is great fun for language geeks like me who really love learning new languages, so for example, the city of Łódź in central Poland, it is pronounced 'Wootch'; whilst most foreigners butcher it and call it 'Lodz' - this is precisely why I love the Polish language. 

Should I book a guided tour? 

This is up to you. I would recommend it but it is free to visit without a guided tour: I went on a guided tour - it wasn't free but it was very good mostly because I had a an excellent guide whose uncles were killed by the Germans in WW2 for helping someone who had escaped from the concentration camp, hence for her, it was intensely personal why she wanted to share her story. But you must always book your tour directly with the museum via their website and not via a third party, because the third party will charge their own booking fee on top of that and you will still end up on the same tour anyway when you get there. These tours are very popular and I stress that you really need to book in advance once you decide to do this trip as there is very limited availability on these guided tours. I had to change my travel schedule because the tours on original dates I had in mind were already fully booked and this was in the middle of winter when it was bitterly cold. In the warmer months, you will have to plan much further ahead, they limit the number of visitors as they wish to respect the solemnity and sanctity of this Auschwitz and not let it turn into a Disneyland overrun with tourists.

How early do I have to arrive before my tour begins?

On your ticket, you will see that they require you to arrive 30 minutes before your tour begins. You need to do a few things before you start your tour: firstly, you should go to the toilet as there are few toilets available on the tour. Then you need to line up to have your ticket and ID checked (that's right, bring photo ID like your passport). Finally, you will need to put your belongings through an X-ray machine like the ones at the airport. I arrived about 20 minutes before my tour and did all that in well under 8 minutes as they were super efficient, so I think 30 minutes might be a little bit too much on the cautious side.  Of course, you certainly don't want to arrive late for your tour but I'd say about 15-20 minutes would suffice. It's like arriving at the airport before your flight, they often recommend getting to the airport 2 hours before your flight, but I often arrive between 90 and 60 minutes, sometimes as little as 45 minutes, knowing that I'll probably be okay. 

Is there a restaurant on site? 

No, surprisingly not - there are very limited food options on both the Auschwitz and Birkenau sites - at Auschwitz there is a gift shop selling a few small items like chocolate bars and biscuits (very expensive prices, may I add, compared to average prices in Poland) but that's it. There are vending machines selling hot and cold drinks but otherwise that's it. You'll have to walk a few minutes away from Auschwitz towards the town of Oświęcim to find some shops and there are plenty of proper restaurants are in Oświęcim town center (I actually had a lovely late lunch at a traditional Polish restaurant there) but remember that's a 20 minute walk away. Most visitors will bring some food with them to eat before and after the tour but you are not permitted to eat on site; please be mindful where you choose to consume your snacks. 

Is the visit suitable for the elderly who may have problems walking long distances? 

It depends, our guide was an older Polish lady in her early 60s (I am guessing) but she had no problems walking with us for that full 3.5 hours of the tour. However, I saw a very obese man in my group really struggling to catch up with everyone else during our tour. He was in agony. You have to keep walking on the tour, even when you stop and listen to the guide, you are standing up. There is no sitting down, there are stairs to be negotiated and on the day I was there, there was thick snow on the ground so the icy surfaces were hazardous as well. It was an intense history lesson, but the lesson is outdoors. I would say that most older people should be able to do this tour and only those with mobility issues should not do it. For instance, the tour certainly wasn't wheelchair friendly as we were touring the concentration camp - there were staircases, sometimes narrow passageways and uneven surfaces as the original features were all preserved. 

What about children - is it not suitable for children? 

I think it is very important to teach children history and start from a reasonable age - the guide wasn't going to tone down or dumb down her tour for the children, there is a recommendation (though this is not a rule that they enforce) that children under 14 shouldn't do this tour or visit Auschwitz Birkenau. I think it really depends on individual child - I have met some very astute 11 year olds who would love to do this kind of tour but I also know some really dumb adults who would just feel bored and uninterested if you brought them there. Thus I believe this really depends on the individual child and for that matter, the individual adult whether or not this is the right activity to do whilst in Poland. I hate to be blunt, but this is a tour for smart people with a keen interest in history - if that is not you, then please go do something else instead. 

Is the tour only available in English? 

The guided tours are also available in Polish, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian. If you don't speak one of those languages, I guess you will have to default to the English tour then and try to improve your English along the way!

Is this a day trip or should I stay overnight? 

There are some good hotels in Oświęcim, but no, you shouldn't stay overnight there; the public transport is good enough for you to get back to either Krakow or Katowice easily after your visit. After all there is really not much to do in Oświęcim.

How do I get from Auschwitz to Birkenau? 

The two sites are 2.5 km apart from each other, there is a free shuttle bus between the two locations for visitors. During peak season, these shuttle buses will run every ten minutes; even during off peak season they still run every 20 minutes. 

How do I pronounce Oświęcim? 

It is 'osh-vien-tsim' - during the German occupation of Poland, a lot of place names were Germanized. Oświęcim was turned into Auschwitz by the Germans occupiers during that period. Polish is a beautiful but extremely difficult language.

Could I combine a trip to Auschwitz with another activity like the Wieliczka salt mine in the same day?

It could be possible with a very early start but you'd be so very rushed. You would have to do the very first tour at Auschwitz which begins at 8:30 am, that would take you all the way to about 12 noon, then you would have to rush all the way back to Krakow for your next activity. If you had a rental car, you'd have to drive all the way over to Wieliczka and you would get there around 2 pm or so - in time for their afternoon activities. If you're dependent on public transport, your journey will take longer but it is still doable but very rushed. You might consider doing something in Katowice instead of Krakow, given that it is only 33 km away from Oświęcim whilst Krakow is 66 km away. I didn't want to rush like that, I left Krakow reasonably early to get there for the 11:30 tour, then I finished the tour at about 3 pm, walked into Oświęcim town center, had late lunch, saw some of the shops before getting the trains back to Krakow, by which time it was already 6 pm - by then, I was already cold and rather tired by that point, I just wanted to get some dinner and have an early night. 

Why do some people refer to this place as KL Auschwitz-Birkenau - what does KL stand for? 

KL is taken from the German name of the place and KL is an abbreviation for Konzentrationslager (concentration camp).

Why are you so against booking this through a third party? Are they trying to scam us?

Well, nobody is trying to scam you per se, but it is very poor value for money as they add very little value to the process but they charge you so much for that service. The challenge is that when you walk down the street in Krakow, there are so many tour agencies with English speaking staff offering to help you with your logistics and do the bookings for you but they are not offering discounts, they are not doing it for free: instead, they will charge you a hefty fee for their services as they need to make money. Likewise when you go online and try to look for information, you will often stumble upon the websites of all of these tour agencies out there persuading you to book online with them so they can charge you a fee. What they are doing isn't illegal of course but they are preying on those ignorant tourists who don't realize that they can pay much less if they simply book directly with the place you wish to visit. You don't really need to speak Polish in order to use public transport in Poland, you just need to do a bit of research to plan your journey to find out which bus or train you need to take and how long the journey will take - simply using Google will get you all the answers you need and there's absolutely no need to pay a hefty fee to a third party to arrange that for you. I am surprised that so many tour agencies can still thrive in this day and age - I saw so many of them in Krakow and was even approached several times in the streets by the tours offering me various tours (including the ones that I had already arranged myself). I know how to look up the information I need on Google, I'm not some kind of Poland expert - is doing a Google search such a rare skill these days? I thought it was just a part of our everyday life now but apparently some people would still go on holiday, turn up in Poland and still have no idea how to plan their holidays. This is Poland, it is a very modern, tourist-friendly country where public transport works well - I recently went to Transnistria and the trip there was a lot more complex but I was still able to do it all on public transport thanks to the information I found from other travel bloggers; thus that is why I wanted to write this piece today for you in the hopes that you would find this quite useful for your next holiday in Poland. 

Did you enjoy your visit there? 

I don't think the word 'enjoy' is appropriate. It was harrowing, disturbing and I was crying during the tour when our guide told us so many stories about what happened there. It's not an enjoyable experience and you might even call it distressing. However, I think it was important to visit that site and remember what happened, because if we don't learn from our history, the same mistakes will be made in the future and sadly, if you look at the war in the world today, we have learnt little from history. I am certainly glad I went there and would encourage anyone visiting Poland to make the effort to visit too. I also visited the Oskar Schindler's factory museum in Krakow which I highly recommend as well. Having watched the movie Schindler's list, I wanted to see these places for myself and it is not the same as watching it on film; it was an experience that I wanted to have on my travels. I know it may not be for everyone but this is what I like. 

I hope you guys found this useful. Any comments or questions, that is what the comments section below is for - I shall be starting my jury duty on the 22nd January, so this would be my last trip until that is finally over. Many thanks for reading.