Auschwitz Memorial Avis 21

My advice looking at these reviews is firstly book in advance of your trip to Poland and directly with the Auschwitz museum website. Tickets are guaranteed and no last minute cancellations as with other tour operators. We stayed in Krakow and got the local bus from the main krakow bus terminal costing £5.65 each way. Great valueas it takes1 hour and 30 minutes roughly on a Sunday. Advice book on line at least the day before as the driver takes all tickets first then people who haven’t booked can get seats only if any left. On a Sunday the bus runs hourly. Take any snacks in a back pack or carrier bag as drivers allow no food or coffee cups on bus. Water bottles are ok.
The museum entrance was busy but looked organised. Our tour was at 11.30am and we got there early at 10am luckily a nice day so once registered with our sticker to identify English speaker we sat and ate the snacks we had brought. There are vending machines with crisps, chocolate bars and juice aswell as a coffee machine. Toilets plentiful but sometimes queues form so leave time before your tour. You can enter through security 30 minutes before your tour with sitting area inside. TAKE PHOTO ID either passport, ID card or driving license as you won’t get in without it.
The tour at 11.30am on 19th April 2026 with English speaking guide was exceptional. I am sorry I did not catch the man’s name, his knowledge was second to none and you felt informed as you went through each section absorbing the details and the realisation of the utter inhumanity of the Second World War and the Nazi regime. It was amazing what I did not know even after reading books and watching films. At no point did I even think or would have wanted to take photos as I feel this is something each person should experience once in their lifetime with your own thoughts and feelings through this tour that allows us to reflect on. We spent just over 1 1/2 hours in Auschwutz before taking the free shuttle bus along to Birkenau a very short journey there where the same tour guide met us again and you go on a hours walk around the site with short explanatory stops, it is on uneven ground so a good pair of walking shoes is advised. All in all a very emotional insight walking through somewhere that saw over a million people killed before the end of the war. A trip I will never forget but glad I was able to experience it and as other people have said it is not a leisure/feel good trip but a poignant experience of something that occured less than 100 years ago and should never be forgotten by us as individuals or those in power throughout the world to make sure it never happens again

We never managed to get inside.. we qued for entry at 08:30 and we waited over 2 hours in the freezing cold to be told that they ran out of tickets…the time was 10:30…so all tickets ran out in one hour (site opens at 07:30 and closes at 15:00 on Sundays).

Apart from the poorly managed headcounting and organisation for the que, the staff were extremely neglectful, unhelpful and outright rude. One staff member had an arguement with this man at the front of the queue when he questioned why there was no tickets left. I left the queue to ask a staff member if there are any tickets left as we only heard rumours of this in the queue to then get told that there is none left and everyone is queuing for no reason. I said to her, that she should announce to everyone in the Queue that there is no remaining ticketing, but she shrugged, cared so little and then of course did nothing about this.
I told most of the queue at the back and everyone started to leave as the staff couldn’t do their job properly. POOR customer service, the staff at Auschwitz do not represent Poland well, real pitty.

Unfortunately, not the experience that it deserves. We booked a 1:10 self guided tour of Auschwitz. Incredible experience. We then wanted to go to Auschwitz 1 which was the museum (this isn’t clear at all on the website, we thought it was all one location)

Went to the museum, it was shut at 3pm. There were hundreds of tourists waiting to get it. I’m not complaining about opening times or anything, that is what it is but the information just simply isn’t clear at all.

I tried to book another ticket after what happened for another day but it’s all fully booked. Brilliant… so no chance we’ll be able to get to the museum.

We looked around Auschwitz II which I’ll be grateful for, but it just wasn’t the whole experience we thought it’d be.

I’m astonished at the negative reviews. maybe we were lucky to have an amazing guide who was able to provide such an in depth insight into Auschwitz and the sufferings of the people held there. I spoke with many of the other people on the tour who agreed what a valuable experience it was. still thinking about it. Will never forget.

Awful tour. You cannot go in on your own to visit the site, instead you have to go on a tour. Wheelchair user in my party was not allowed in any building even though the website said that some could be entered. We were ushered round with no time to look at any of the exhibits and when a member of the tour asked if they could stop at the memorial, they were told 'no' there was no point as the numbers were wrong! I agree with the comment that this is a “push/shove” conveyer belt of paying tourists with no regard to inclusivity which is totally at odds with the history of the site.

Øv. Sikke en dårlig oplevelse
Ren pengemaskine
Guiden vi var tvunget til at gå med talte ualmindeligt dårligt engelsk og vi blev jaget igennem det hele, så vi ikke så halvdelen og kunne ikke nå at læse et eneste af de skilte/tavler der var sat op i museets og ude i lejren, og ej heller få kigget ordentligt på billederne. Hele tiden fik vi fortalt af guiden at vi skulle skynde os. Hvis vi prøvede at stoppe op for at tage et billede, fik vi øjeblikkeligt at vide, at det var der ikke tid til.
Som Auschwitz drives, kan jeg på ingen måde anbefale et besøg.

Pengemaskine.
Efter. 16år tænkte jeg at vores drenge skulle se det.
Men hold hold hold…det er lavet om til en pengemaskine.
4 mand med guide koser 2640 danske kroner med bus fra Krakow ( vi kørte selv da vi skulle hjem efter turen )
Det kostede så 2x parkering 79kr pr parkering.
Oplevelsen er slet ikke den samme som fra første gang.
Ps
En Mars bar koster 38kr i automaten.
Ikke en snakker ordentligt engelsk eller tysk.
Det er helt til grin kommer aldrig igen.

disgraceful treatment by the staff as one of our party did not have photo id, even though it was not mentioned that id had to have photo, totally couldn't care less attitude

This memorial site has been totally spoilt. It is a “push/shove” conveyer belt of paying tourists. You can’t go round on your own, and reflect. You have to buy a tour from one of the thousands of tour operator. You get pot luck whether you have chosen a good one or not. I felt very little as we were herded around. I had no time to look for more that 30 seconds at each exhibit. You had to constantly get out of the way of the tour behind. On occasions you have to just wait while the tour in front moves on. It took away any feelings and reflection

UNA VERGÜENZA!
A menos de 24 horas de nuestra visita a Auschwitz ,nos mandan un mensaje anulando el viaje.
Están jugando con la ilusión de la gente y no me parece serio ni profesional y no entiendo que una institución como el museo de Auscwich permita que estás cosas sucedan.

Espero que estos personajes que se forran a costa de los turistas, cuando vayan a otro país, no sean tratados así .

He's a good man..

I highly recommend booking the Auschwitz tour directly with the museum on their website, as they are the only people who can secure your spot. Many of the private tours cancel last minute. I booked the English tour for around £20 per person for 3.5hrs. This was a really detailed and informative tour, and public transport to the museum is frequent from Krakow and shuttle buses from the museum.

I’m seeing all these negative reviews and I’m flabbergasted. I believe everyone should do this tour at least once in their lives! It is such an important time in history that we should keep alive. From my own experience, what happened during the Second World War now means so much more after having experienced the horrors that happened in Auschwitz & Birkenau. Our tour guide, Ziggy, was wonderful and he deserves a mention. We all had headphones and a machine that connected to Ziggy’s microphone so no matter how far away you were standing, you could hear everything he had to say.

History is an incredibly difficult subject to give, and I can only imagine how difficult it is to talk about what went on in Auschwitz & Birkenau during the war. Ziggy sometimes seemed to be touched by the stories he told us which only added to our experience. He explained everything so well and with so much passion and emotion that we were all able to follow him very clearly, and experience his stories ourselves.

Auschwitz is a horrible place to be, let’s keep it realistic. You’ll go into the original buildings, see original human remains, pictures, numbers, hear personal stories of people who lived and died there in horrible circumstances, etc. But, it is so incredibly important that you visit, learn, remember, and keep the stories alive.

Super dårlig oplevelse.
Vi har været der for 12 år siden, hvor man måtte gå alene og bearbejde alle de indtryk det gav, man kunne gå ind alle stederne og se og læse.
Denne gang var det tvunget tur med guide, vi blev hastet igennem alt ting. Vi så ikke halvdelen af stedet og vores guide kunne dårligt engelsk vi var 30 plus mennesker på turen plus alle de andre kæmpe store grupper. Så dårlig en oplevelse, pengemaskiner rent ud sagt! Så syndt de ikke har bibeholdt det som det var engang, så man kan få lov til at suge til sig af oplevelser og indtryk.

Ingen tid til at læse og få indtrykkene ind. Du SKAL følge en guide, du SKAL have høretelefoner på, ikke muligt at gå som familie og snakke om tingene, og kigge ordentligt. Haster igennem, kun halvdelen bliver vist frem. Kom efter 16 og gå for dig selv. Alt andet er spild af penge.

It was HOT
We booked tickets to a guided tour by bus to Auschwitz
The bus was HOT without air-conditioning
The guide weren’t able to talk loud enough for everyone to hear
She was stressed and yelled at people
We had 15 min for toilets together with the other 500 guests
We walked like prisoners through the blocks in lines listening to the guide telling about things we could not see
And when we got there she talked about something else

Next time I am going on my own
I would really like to dive into what happened and pay my respects in my own pace

What a humbling, educational, harrowing experience.
I recommend that everyone should experience this tour once in their life so that they get to understand the horrors that one human can inflict on another.
The tour takes you across both camps and you learn the history of the camp and the stories of the people who were imprisoned there. The brutality, the horror. Be warned this is NOT a pleasure tour.

There are things that everyone should be aware that isn’t clearly indicated by just looking at this tour. There is a LOT of walking, and all of it on uneven ground there are also a lot of steps in the buildings of camp 1 so if you are unsteady on your feet or in a wheelchair, this tour may not be for you. If you are attending the tour- wear sturdy, sensible shoes and take a good coat, hat and scarf if you’re going in the winter or early spring. It was cold being out in the open for 3-4 hours.

Havde købt billet til kl 16.45. Vi kørte i 4 timer fra Warszawa men der var kø så blev forsinket i 10 minutter. Vi stod foran døren kl 16.58. Desværre valgte de at lukke 2 minutter før selvom de først skulle lukke kl 17. Ingen forståelse og ingen service. Vi kunne så køre 4 timer tilbage til hotellet. Spild af en ferie dag. Vi finder et andet sted at bruge vores penge.

im pretty gassed about the tour ngl BIT SMOKEY tho

Gedemarket, unden respekt for stedet.

Det går kun ud på at tjene penge, på baggrund af en frygtelig historie