Can You Visit Auschwitz and Kraków in One Day? We Did.

Yes. You can visit Auschwitz-Birkenau and still spend the evening in Kraków in one day.

We landed at Kraków Airport at 11:05 in the morning, went straight to Auschwitz for a 1:30 guided tour, finished around 5:15, came back to Kraków for dinner, walked Old Town at night, slept for a few hours, and headed back to the airport the next morning.

It worked.

Would I recommend giving Kraków this little time?

Yeah, probably not.

But if Auschwitz-Birkenau is one of the main reasons for your stop and you are trying to figure out whether the whole thing is actually possible in 24 hours, it is.

The trick is that you cannot be messin’ around.

Go straight from Kraków Airport to Auschwitz

This is the decision that made the day work.

We did not land, go into Kraków, check into the hotel, leave our bags, get lunch and then try to head back out.

We left the airport and went straight to Auschwitz.

Our flight landed at 11:05 AM and our English guided tour was booked for 1:30 PM.

We opened Uber/Bolt, put in Auschwitz, and got in the car.

The ride took about an hour and cost 204 złoty, roughly $49 at the time.

That sounds like plenty of time until you remember that a plane landing at 11:05 does not mean you are sitting in an Uber at 11:06.

You have to get off the plane, make your way through the airport, find the car and hope nothing is running late.

We had already replaced our original flight to Poland after thunderstorms screwed up the first itinerary out of Portland. Bypassing Chicago and getting a direct to Amsterdam became the new route - and we were grateful it worked out.

Next time we will skip the layovers in the United States and just find the best nonstop to somewhere in Europe. You gotta at least make it that far before something goes sideways! 😂

Book Auschwitz first

Do not build the whole Kraków trip and then decide you will figure Auschwitz out when you get there.

Build the day around the Auschwitz reservation.

We paid about $37.50 per person for our guided visit, and the tour lasted from about 1:30 until 5:15.

That is most of the afternoon.

And it should be.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a quick attraction where you walk in, take a picture, and leave 45 minutes later.

If you are going, you have to give it some time.

The official Museum currently requires individual visitors to reserve entry online, recommends arriving at least 30 minutes before the tour, and says standard guided visits take about three and a half hours.

That is another reason I would not make the airport-to-Auschwitz window any tighter than ours.

If you have luggage, figure that out before you land

Going directly from Kraków Airport to Auschwitz creates one obvious problem.

You still have all your stuff.

We travel with small backpacks, which made the day much easier. If you are dragging a big suitcase through this plan, you need to know what you are doing with it before you get there.

The Museum currently limits bags brought inside to 35 × 25 × 15 centimeters, although paid luggage (€5) storage is available onsite.

This is the kind of boring travel information that becomes extremely interesting when you are standing somewhere with a suitcase you cannot bring inside.

Check the current rules before you go.

This is also a perfect example of why I travel Europe with one backpack.

You are already dealing with an airport, a car ride, security, several hours of walking, another ride into Kraków, a hotel and an early flight the next morning.

Dragging a massive suitcase through that stretch sounds horrendous.

Auschwitz I and Birkenau both take time

You do not need an Auschwitz history lesson from me to plan this day.

You do need to understand that Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau are two separate sites.

The visit starts at Auschwitz I. Birkenau is about 3.5 kilometers away, and the Museum runs a free shuttle between them.

That matters for your itinerary because you are not just walking into one building and walking back out.

The guided visit moves through both places.

Auschwitz I is the part with the brick barracks and many of the buildings people recognize from photographs.

Birkenau is much larger, with the railway tracks, barracks and an enormous amount of land.

That is why you should give the visit the afternoon.

If your plan says “Auschwitz, 1:30–3:00,” you will find yourself wishing you stayed longer.

I made the ride back more complicated than it needed to be

After the tour, we needed to get into Kraków.

I had already talked to our driver about coming back for us.

That sounded convenient when I arranged it.

Then we ended up paying him about €60 in cash for the return ride.

I would not do that again. (He wanted to do the transaction on the side, which meant, we were completely off the grid in a stranger’s car weaving in and out of trees on a two-lane highway in Poland.)

There are public transportation options, taxis, and you can check Uber/Bolt again when the tour ends.

I basically solved a transportation problem before I knew whether I had a transportation problem, then paid extra for my creativity.

Not my finest work.

But we got back to Kraków.

And that is where the day became happier and less heavy.

If you only have one night, stay in Old Town

We stayed at Mikołajska 5 Apartments for $85.

For this trip, the location mattered much more than the room.

We had one evening in Kraków. I did not want to spend part of it sitting in another car.

We dropped our bags and walked outside.

This was the surprise.

Kraków was packed!

People everywhere. Restaurants full. Music. Food stands. Huge historic buildings. Everybody walking around and enjoying life.

By complete accident, we had arrived during Kraków's annual Pierogi Festival.

We had spent the whole afternoon at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and then suddenly we were standing in the middle of this incredibly lively city.

I did not expect Kraków to feel like that at all.

Dinner was about $30 for two people

We went to Krakowska Koliba and ordered grilled Polish sausage, pierogi and two half-liter beers.

The total was 113 złoty, about $30 for both of us.

Then we walked around Old Town.

No complicated evening itinerary.

We were already where we wanted to be.

Eventually we ended up in Rynek Główny, Kraków's Main Market Square. It was laid out in 1257 and is the largest medieval market square in Europe.

St. Mary's Basilica, the Cloth Hall, restaurants, bars and huge old buildings surround the square.

It was late and the place was still full of people.

Then we went back to our $85 room right next to everything and somehow could barely hear the party outside because the windows were insanely good.

Useful travel advice comes in many forms.

Sometimes it is “book Auschwitz in advance.”

Sometimes it is “these windows make everything outside seem quiet!”

The plan works. Kraków is the problem.

Not because Kraków is difficult.

Because you are going to want more of it.

If Auschwitz-Birkenau is the priority, I think this is a very good way to use a short stop in Poland.

Land before noon.

Go directly to Auschwitz.

Give it the afternoon.

Stay in Old Town.

Eat dinner.

Walk Kraków at night.

Head back to the airport the next morning.

You can do it.

What you cannot do is pretend you have really seen Kraków.

We barely did.

We came to Kraków because Auschwitz was here.

I left wishing we had another day because of Kraków.

That is a pretty good problem to have.

Want to see how the whole day actually played out? I filmed the trip from Kraków Airport to Auschwitz-Birkenau, back into Old Town, and out again the next morning.