I'm toying with the thought of another trip. I've always wanted to visit the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp.

Here my questions:
Has anybody visited the museum recently?
Is it easily accessible by public transport?
What else is there to do in the area?


I thank you for you valuable input in advance.

Yes.
You need to get a bus.
Not a lot.

Sometimes, people should use their brains before posting.

Bus like, from the hotel or from a specific place?

Lol are you serious?
from most hotels or Cracow main bus terminal.

Auschwitz is easily accessible from Krakow main station. Here's a bus schedule in Polish/English:

http://web.pksoswiecim.pl/przewozy_p...p?id_strony=18

I visited the museum about 10 years ago. It's a must.

Some tips in this thread as well.

Poland - tips?

Are you considering to spend some time in Krakow, too? It is a very nice town and good as a starting point.
For a very long time it was the 'capital' of Poland, and it is much nicer than Warsaw. Lots of interesting buildings, museums etc.. The Wawel castle e.g., is quite impressive and I'd recommend it.

That's Birkenau me thinks ... also known as Auschwitz II.

I was born in Krakow and lived there for 30 years, so I'm obviously biased,

but the city is amazing. Apart from the usual touristy bits, you should also

visit Kazimierz - the old Jewish Quarter.

See this link http://www.krakow-info.com/auschwit.htm

I went there about 4 yrs ago.

Easily accessible ... yes
Other things to do ... Krakow is an interesting place to visit/stay-at. Has some really cool underground bars and has real "old world" feeling about it ... unlike Warsaw which personally I would skip if limited by time.

Also while in the area checkout the salt mines.

Getting back to Auschwitz ... the problem with this place is that it is so popular that it gets VERY crowded (well it was when I was there).

The guides keep you moving through the buildings and there is very little time to really look at things in detail or get a feeling/sense of what occurred. Also note that photography is forbidden with or without flash.

Due to it being so busy, you will find that the guides are competing with each other to make themselves heard, so in my case I was hearing English being spoken by my guide, French by the one behind and Spanish by the one in front ... so very difficult to understand/hear the English version.

If you are giong to go, make sure you visit both places "Auschwitz proper" and Birkenau (sometimes called Auschwitz II)

It sounds dreadful - for all the wrong reasons!

I don't want to derail LiB's thread (although he might also be interested in the answer), but do you know of any similarly preserved sites which haven't been turned into a tourist resort, where one can sit and contemplate things without being jostled and hustled from one room to the next?

I found their website which details visiting times and transportation to the camp.

(including GPS coordinates: 19.20363 E, 50.0266 N )

http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/z/

http://www.struthof.fr/en/home/

Long train ride, but worth visiting

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/visiting/index.asp

I have never been there, but Dachau just north of Munich might be a better option. People I have met say it is worth a visit.

Dachau is like that (well was in 2003).

Or try the one in Alsace:

Natzwiller-Struthof

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ_Natzweiler-Struthof

4 British SOE women were executed and burnt there.

http://neohumanism.org/n/na/natzweiler_struthof.html

http://www.memorialgrove.org.uk/

There are regular buses going there from Cracow. But if you really want to have it easy, there is a daily coach that picks people up at all the main hotels. When booking your hotel, ask about it, or ask when you're there. It's quite straightforward.

There's plenty of other interesting stuff in the area. Cracow is a fascinating city with lots of history to it. Copernicus came from there and there is a museum dedicated to him. The food is also excellent and very cheap and there are lots of restaurants all over the old city and in the Jewish quarter (which is also worth spending a lot of time in). Most people speak English. If you're a bit more adventurous go the Wyliza (spelling?) salt mine (there's also a tourist coach going there from the hotels). The mine is commendable not just because its so large and so quaint (its ancient) but some parts are intricately carved.

Dachau is well worth the visit, the museum is good, well balanced and not overpowering, although Dachau was not a Vernichtungslager but a workcamp I would not say you can leave without tears in your eyes.
It was the main base to the concentration camp system that spread all over Bavaria, for a While I lived in Bobingen in a old hardended factory building on what was once the production facilities of IG-Farben, it was a center for explosives production, now it is in the middle of the forest and undisturbed since 1945, the ground in parts of the areal were still classed as explosive as late as 1980. Now it is pristine forest with the remains of blown bunkers and ammo dumps, including a complete railwaystation.
The wildlife love it, the hall I lived and worked in was huge with a set of massive folding doors, one night I was working late my skin started to crawl and I knew that even though I was alone in the building I was being watched…
I turned and there were two deer in the doorway having a gander at what the monkey at the computer was up to.