Poland Cultural, religious and historic sites Trips

Our tour manager, Monica, was exceptional. She was always available to help with any issues or questions. Very knowledgeable about the region. Meals were always excellent, including breakfasts. Local ethnic food was always served at the meals. Our favorites were the ethnic folk dinners in Vienna and Krakow. Don’t miss the World Market in Budapest! So much fun. If you can’t find it there, it doesn’t exist in Hungary!

An amazing tour with great experiential visits to the cities. Can’t pick out one favorite but here’s a few: cooking class in Prague, kleezmeer restaurant and dance, visit to and guided tour of Benedictine monastery and so many more.

Varied opportunities from waltz class to spa experience to symphony and historical sights, the Hapsburg dynasty, the Ottoman influence, and remnants from WWII and the Holocaust. Particularly, I was most impressed with our tour manager Pavel. Not only ws he fluent in the needed languages but he was also of lover of history and quite knowledgeable. Collette should work to keep him as he prefers to work free lance.

I thought the itinerary for this trip was good. Warsaw, Wrocław & Kraków are lovely cities. I would suggest that Auschwitz is added to the itinerary as the majority of the group had booked the trip to visit there. Even with the links provided by Explore, and booking far in advance, one member of our group ended up having to leave the hotel at 2:30am to queue for hours to get tickets. I think if Explore organised this, it would make things much easier for everyone. The traditional Jewish dinner with music was an absolute highlight for me, make sure that stays on the itinerary! The Salt mine was incredible & the Gnome hunting was also fun. While our tour leader was a lovely person, this was her first time doing the trip, which meant things were not always what I've come to expect from an Explore tour leader. She seemed a bit disorganised at times, we didn't get a proper introduction and she didn't always communicate to the entire group. At one point we were having a walking tour and I didn't even realise, I had been told it was later and that this was the walk to lunch! I'm sure though with a few tours under her belt this will change. The local tour guide we had in Wrocław was excellent, very funny. No complaints about the accommodation. The place we stayed in Wrocław, which had been changed last minute, was a bit quirky but not unpleasant. A note about the food, the portions are very large, so you might not spend as much money on food as you would expect. I would recommend this trip but just be aware that some of it is very emotional at times, due to the nature of the places you visit. For the free time in Warsaw, I would suggest visiting the Rising museum. I also did the optional excursion to the Ksiaz Castle in Wrocław which was well worth a visit.

I felt it was a good solid pace with a lot of nice variations in location. My only wish was perhaps start at Auschwitz instead of ending on it (a bit depressing) if possible.

This trip was packed with so many great experiences and places! Highly recommend for anyone who wants to see as much Poland as possible. Be ready to walk at a leisurely pace in many truly awe inspiring places where history was made. The tour guide and driver were exceptional at their jobs and we all felt very taken care of the entire time.