Auschwitz-Birkenau & Wieliczka Salt Mine from Krakow

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1/18

Duration8h–12h

GroupUp to 30

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Two UNESCO Sites in One Day: Auschwitz and a Medieval Salt Mine

You're picked up from your Krakow meeting point and driven to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where a live guide walks you through the permanent exhibition at both camps with headsets. If you book the combo option, you get a lunch break and then descend 350 steps into the medieval Wieliczka Salt Mine, returning by lift. Transport, all entry fees, and the guide are included; you return to Krakow in the evening.

8h–12h

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine

Transfer from Krakow to Auschwitz
20 minute break at Auschwitz I
Visit Auschwitz I permanent exhibition
Visit Birkenau extermination camp
20 minute break after Birkenau visit
1-hour lunch break
Visit Wieliczka Salt Mine underground
Return to surface by lift

The Experience

The van picks you up from your Krakow meeting point in the morning and heads toward Oswiecim, about 70 kilometers away. You'll arrive at Auschwitz I first—the original camp built by the Nazis in 1940. After a 20-minute break, your live guide leads you through the permanent exhibition in the former prisoner blocks. The headsets let you hear clearly as you move through the barracks and learn the history of what happened here: over 1.1 million deaths, most of them Jewish, representing 28 nationalities. It's heavy material, and the guide paces it so you can absorb it.

Then you move to Birkenau, the second part of the camp complex—the larger extermination site. Another 20-minute break follows, and if you've booked the combo option, you get a full hour for lunch before the second part of your day begins. The lunch break can happen in Oswiecim, back in Krakow, or near Wieliczka, depending on the logistics. The air-conditioned vehicle waits for you between stops.

If you chose the combo tour, you're now heading to Wieliczka Salt Mine, 20 kilometers from Krakow's Old Town. Your guide takes you to the entrance and then down—350 steps spiraling into the depths of the medieval mine. The salt walls are carved with sculptures and bas-reliefs that miners left behind over centuries, and the scale of it is something you don't quite expect underground. You descend through chambers and past salt lakes, following the route the guide sets. At the end, there's a lift that brings you back up to the surface, so you don't have to climb all 800 steps on the way out. The whole Auschwitz-Birkenau & Wieliczka Salt Mine day trip from Krakow takes most of your day, but it checks off two major sites without you having to arrange transport or entry separately.

What’s included

Your day includes shared two-way transfers from your Krakow meeting point in an air-conditioned vehicle, admission to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau with a live in-person guide and headsets, and if you book the combo option, admission to Wieliczka Salt Mine with the guide leading you underground.
All fees and taxes are covered.
A lunch break of about an hour is built into the combo itinerary, though lunch itself is not provided.

Good to know

Moderate physical levelInfant seats availablePublic transport nearbyNot for heart conditionsNot for back problems

Operated by Legendary Krakow

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see both Auschwitz-Birkenau and Wieliczka Salt Mine in a single day without arranging your own transport or buying tickets separately—the shared vehicle and fixed schedule make two major sites possible in one trip from Krakow.