Oswiecim Transportation

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The town of Oświęcim lies on the intersection of road 44 and road 933 and is at the northern extremity of road 948 if you are driving there. Oświęcim's old town is located east of the River Soła, with the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) at its centre. The bus and railway station is across the river, in the north west of the town, with the main museum in the west of the town. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is in the village of Brzezinka, to the west of the railway station. The chemical works are located in the east of the town. I saw there was a huge Carrefour supermarket within walking distance to the station too.
The main bus station of the town is in ulica Chemików in the east of town and local bus services are operated by PKS Oświęcim.
The PKP railway services from ulica Powstańców Śląskich are available to Kraków, Katowice and Czechowice-Dziedzice and internationally to Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Bohumin and Prague.
The trains take about 90 to 110 minutes to Krakow depending on what train you take and the return ticket is very cheap at under €10. A return ticket to Bohumin from Krakow costs around €20.

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I never went to the camps so far, either in 2005
or in 2010 as the first visit to Krakow I was with my
daughter and it was a very cold wet snowy February
when we stayed a week to visit my father who was
having hip replacement surgery and had to stay a month.
Ironically I hurt my leg and had to stay in bed after
visiting the hospital a few days.
Then at the VTmeet was on a very short shoestring and
thought it better to come back and see the trips I missed with
my daughter.

Anyway I took the same route that Eichman had sent about half a million
Hungarian Jews from Budapest to their deaths to the concentration camps.
So pulling into the last stop before Krakow, an hour and a half away,
I could feel a cold chill running down my spine..

As it turned out he was great, pointing out the main sights as we left Krakow, letting me practice my Polish on him, stopping off a couple of times en route at interesting little places, then droppping me off at the main entrance to Auschwitz 1, giving me a guide pamphlet then leaving me to make my own way around.

We arranged that he would pick me up in about 2 hrs, but no rush, and take me to Birkenau. I had spent slightly less than the planned 2 hrs but he was there waiting and so off again the mile or so to Birkenau, once again giving me some useful local info such as the fact that the Germans named the camp because of the Birch trees.

As before, he dropped me off and left me to do things in my own time, which he estimated would be about an hour.

It was well over that hour that I exited, sickened and saddened, impressed deeply.

I was glad to escape the place and there he was, parked-up and waiting. Asking him if he was OK to stop off for late a lunch on the way back, resulted in an excellent little restaurant and having eaten he gave me the option of taking me back into town or dropping me at my hotel.

Yep, nice guy and well worth the money when you consider that we set off about 10.30 and got back to the city after 5 pm - I think he was definitely doing this a bit under the board but hey, why not, we all have to make our crust!

Thinking back on it as I update this (Aug 2009) I personally think that using a local guide who just drops you off is the way to make your pilgrimage. This isn't something to do as a "guided tour" nor something to share with a bus load of others.

Nostrovia Kazimierz!

From Krakow train station, buy a ticket for a coach to this site (1.5 hours ride).

It cost 7PLZ in Apr 2005.

The trains do not take you right to the museum (Auschwitz I), unlike the coach, which stops right in front of the gates.

But be warned, the route the bus takes is very winding, and made me feel unwell. I only improved once we reached our destination, and after I walked in the fresh air for a while.

On the way back we (7 of us) took a taxi from Birkenau, & he took a different route! Driving quite fast even he took 1 hour, charging 225PLZ or 36 EUR in all.

Go to main train station and behind it is the bus station. Ask the lady at the ticket counter what time the bus comes and what track to go to Auschwitz. Then take the steps or elevator down one level and look for the track. You will be under ground sort of, almost like in a lower level parking garage as u wait for your bus. Then you pay the busdriver inside the bus. Round trip was 9 zl or about $ 2.87.

I went to Krakow for a weekend with friends. The hellish events of Auschwitz are already well documented by many people far more articulate than I am so I'll add nothing to them. Some of us in the group asked at our hotel about getting to Auschwitz to take a look. The girl in the hotel tried to sell us a trip that seemed expensive in comparison to the price of a lot of things in Poland. We decide to go the train / bus station (they are together side by side). Getting from there to / from Auschwitz by bus was inexpensive and easy. Trains also run.

Basically the bus and train station in Krakow are side by side. If you go there take your pick from the buses or trains that run to Oswiecim as suits your schedule best. I can't remember exactly as it was 2005 was something like 1/10 of the price of the trip that the people in the hotel tried to sell. When you get to Oswiecim it's a short trip by taxi to the camp, again it cost next to nothing.

Getting back to Krakow was just as easy. Either take the train or the bus from the bus stop outside the train station. Take whatever suits you best. Bus times are listed at the bus stop, train times are listed on the wall at the train station.

from krakow you can take a bus directly to auschwitz from the krakow bus station. the bus station is located next to the krakow train station. the 30 mile ride takes approximately 1 1/2 hours because the bus makes numerous stops along the way. they do offer an express bus so check their schedule for times. the express bus will take about 30 minutes off the trip. there also is bus service between auschwitz and birkenau or you can take a cab for about 5 euro. the train is a little faster but you will need to take a bus or cab from the oswiecim train station to the camp.

The journey is 75km from Krakow and there are plenty of buses leving the bus shelter, some take you directly to the Auschwitz museum whilst others drop you near the station so be sure to take one that goes direct to the museum. You can take a train to Oswiecen but there again you need to get a cab or bus to the museum. Also bear in mind that the trains only run up to a certain time, the 2nd to last was departing at 5.30pm & the last was a 2 hour wait. The bus should take 1.5 hours but our bus took much longer so it is a fair old journey along some winding roads. I suggest getting the early bus the cost is roughly 10PLN.