Auschwitz Tour from Zakopane

Private day trip from Zakopane to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, around 3 hours each way, with hotel pickup, reserved tickets and a guided visit of both camps.

Tour Details

• Duration: approx. 10 hours, including up to 3.5 hours at the Memorial
• Tour type: private tour by car or minivan with an English-speaking driver
• Drive time: around 3 hours each way
• Pickup: morning pickup from your hotel in Zakopane; time set according to your guided visit slot at the Museum
• Drop-off: in Zakopane at the end of the tour
• Guide languages at the Memorial: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish
• Price: from 95 EUR per person

Description

The morning pickup time for this tour depends on one thing: the time slot available for your guided visit at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Once the visit is booked, the Auschwitz tour from Zakopane is planned backwards from it. Your private driver collects you from your hotel and allows around three hours for the journey to Oświęcim. The whole day takes about ten hours, and you are back in Zakopane in the evening.

At the Memorial, a local guide takes your group through the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp for up to three and a half hours. You spend around two hours in Auschwitz I and around an hour and a half in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Tickets are reserved in advance as part of the price. Afterwards, there is up to an hour for lunch or rest before the drive back.

A guide gives the visit its structure and its meaning. Over the course of the route, you learn how the camp was built and expanded from 1940, and how the deportations were organised. You also learn who the victims were: mostly Jews, along with Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities. The commentary links each building and each ruin to the people whose lives ended there.

Auschwitz Tour from Zakopane Itinerary

1. Morning pickup in Zakopane
   Your driver collects you from your hotel in the morning. The exact time depends on the guided visit slot available at the Museum, and it is confirmed by email once the booking is in place.
2. Drive to the Memorial (around 3 hours)
   The journey from Zakopane to Auschwitz takes around three hours in an air-conditioned car or minivan reserved only for your group.
3. Meeting the guide
   On arrival, your guide meets you, and your reserved tickets are ready. Headphones are provided so that you can follow the guide clearly throughout the visit. Each ticket is issued by name, so have your passport or ID card with you.
4. Auschwitz I (around 2 hours)
   The route starts in the original camp, created in 1940 in former Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Oświęcim. You pass beneath the “Arbeit macht frei” sign and enter the brick blocks, which now house exhibitions about the prisoners and the people deported to Auschwitz. The guide also takes you to Block 11, the camp prison, and to the Death Wall in its courtyard.
5. Transfer to Birkenau
   Auschwitz II-Birkenau lies about 3 km from the main camp. The short transfer is part of the guided visit.
6. Auschwitz II-Birkenau (around 1.5 hours)
   Birkenau was the largest section of the complex and the site where most of the Jews deported to Auschwitz were murdered. You stand at the railway unloading ramp, walk among the wooden and brick barracks, and see the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria that the SS blew up before liberation. The visit ends at the International Monument to the Victims.
7. Lunch or rest (up to 1 hour)
   After the guided visit, you have up to an hour of free time to eat or rest.
8. Return to Zakopane
   The drive back takes around three hours, and the tour ends with drop-off in Zakopane about ten hours after pickup.

Prices

This is a private tour, so the price per person is based on the number of travellers: the more people share the vehicle, the lower the cost for each.

What is Included

• Private car or minivan with an English-speaking driver
• Transport in a high-quality, air-conditioned minivan or minibus
• Pickup from your hotel and drop-off in Zakopane
• Reserved entrance tickets to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau
• Guided visit of up to 3.5 hours at the Memorial in the language of your choice

Before you go

• Book early: Guided visits at the Memorial are often booked out weeks ahead, especially from spring to autumn. Booking early gives you a wider choice of visit times and guide languages.
• Flexible morning: Your pickup time follows the visit slot at the Museum, so keep your morning open until the time is confirmed by email.
• ID for every traveller: Tickets are issued by name, so each person needs a passport or ID card.
• Bag limits: Bags taken into the Museum may not exceed 30 x 20 x 10 cm. Anything larger can stay in the vehicle.
• Children: The Museum does not recommend visits for children under 14.
• What to wear: A large part of the visit, especially at Birkenau, is outdoors. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes suitable for the weather.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions