Visiting the museum located in the former Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, or the Auschwitz Birkenau museum, is one of the biggest tourist attractions for foreign tourists coming to Krakow. A one-day trip to visit Auschwitz is organized by many companies that charge sky-high rates for the tour. Foreign tourists, unfamiliar with real prices in Poland, are happy to pay, but some wonder if Auschwitz can be visited without a tour or without a guide. Is such a tour possible?
There are two questions worth answering about organizing a trip to Auschwitz. First, it must be emphasized that any museum located in the former Nazi concentration camp established during World War II in occupied Poland can be visited for FREE.
Once we know this, it’s time to consider the second issue, that is, the question of tour organization. Is it possible to visit Auschwitz without a tour? Of course it is. As with any museum in Krakow and Poland, you can buy tickets directly from the official website of the museum and go there on your own. This is the best and most appropriate way to visit Auschwitz in Oświęcim.
Now we have a choice of either visiting the museum with a museum guide, the price of which is 110 zloty for a tour in English (in conversion, that’s about 25 euros or about £22). The museum guided tour lasts about 3.5 hours, and that’s a lot so you can book free passes on the official website, which allow you to visit the museum absolutely on your own for free.
We do not need any middlemen to buy tickets for guided tours or to book free passes. Just go to the museum’s official website located at https://visit.auschwitz.org/?lang=en.
Anyone can organize a trip to visit Auschwitz on their own, without having to overpay for travel or have someone book the tickets for us. On one of the Polish blogs you can read how to get to Auschwitz tour cheaply and on your own. A one-way ticket costs about €5, so a tour of Auschwitz Birkenau can cost us about €10 if we get there by public transportation and book a free pass, or about €35 for a guided tour. It doesn’t make sense to pay someone £50-100 each for a tour when you can have it for much less.