One of the attractions for people visiting Krakow is to visit the former Auschwitz Birkenau camp in Oswiecim. How to arrange a trip to Auschwitz from Krakow? How to get from Krakow to Auschwitz and Birkenau? We check how to get to Auschwitz museum from Krakow and to Krakow.
After visiting the attractions in Krakow, many people also decide to take a trip to Auschwitz Museum. Walking around Krakow you will find many different offices offering tours of the former camp area. Of course you can pay them and go, but it is definitely more expensive than going alone. A trip to Auschwitz is very easy to plan on your own so there is absolutely no sense in overpaying. So how to get from Krakow to the museum in Oświęcim?
Travel to Auschwitz by car
The best and easiest way to get to Auschwitz from Krakow is a car, of course. From Krakow, there are three good roads leading to Oswiecim. You can take the A4 motorway with an exit in Chrzanów and from there follow the road through Libiąż. Note that the motorway is tolled at the toll gate in Balice near the Airport. You can also drive through Alwernia. The route takes about one hour and 60 kilometres. You can also choose to go through Spytkowice and Zator. How Far is Auschwitz from Krakow? It is about 70 kilometres and 1h 30 minutes way. The best compromise is the road through Alwernia.
Travel to Auschwitz by bus
You can take a bus from Krakow to Oswiecim. The best way is to go to the bus station in the centre of Krakow (18 Bosacka Street) and buy a ticket to Oswiecim. There are plenty of buses and minibuses on the route between Krakow and Oswiecim. They leave sometimes even every ten minutes or so on the weekdays.
The price for a bus or minibus ticket from Krakow ranges from 13 to 15 PLN depending on the bus operator. The ride takes about 1h 25 -1h 30 minutes. You can see the timetable on the website of MDA bus station in Krakow. We can take a bus to Oświęcim even to the very museum at Oświęcim Prisoners’ Street (Więźniów Oświęcimia street), so it’s worth checking if the operator you’ve chosen goes there, and if not, choose the one that does.
Travel to Auschwitz by train
The train is not the best way to get there, but it is quite cheap. It is possible to get to the area of the former Auschwitz camp by train from Krakow. How to get from Krakow to Auschwitz by train? It is best to go to the main railway station. Trains going directly through Oświęcim and stopping at the railway station leave several times a day. Usually these are trains operated by Polregio.
Which is the better choice? Bus or train? The train ride from Krakow takes about 2 hours and the ticket costs only PLN 10. However, the train journey has disadvantages. Firstly, it takes longer, and secondly you still have to get from the station in Oświęcim to the former Auschwitz camp. It takes about 20 minutes on foot or you have to take public transport in Oświęcim. The ride takes a few minutes. You can find timetables of public transport in Oświęcim on mzk.oswiecim.pl. The cost of a ticket is 3 PLN.
Access between Auschwitz and Birkenau Museum parts
The museum is located on the grounds of two former concentration camps, between which you also have to move. Auschwitz and Birkenau are less than 3 kilometres apart, but it takes about 40 minutes on foot so it is better to ride there. If you want to visit both, you can use public transport or the free museum bus for visitors. The free bus runs every 10 minutes in high season and every 30 minutes in low season.
Getting to Auschwitz Museum from Krakow – what is the best way?
The best way to get there is by car, of course, but if you’ve flown to Krakow and don’t want to rent a car, a good way to get there is by bus or minibus. Buses are cheap, they run very often from early morning till late evening (the last one from Oswiecim to Krakow usually before 8 pm) so there is no problem to get to and from Krakow by yourself. It is cheap, fast and comfortable. Buses are so frequent that if you miss one, the next one will arrive in a few minutes. In this case, there is no need to overpay and make money for anyone who organizes this type of trips. A reminder that visiting Auschwitz Museum is free. You need only to pay bus tickets to get there.
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