Wieliczka Salt Mine and Oskar Schindler Factory Guided Half Day Tour From Krakow

Our driver was on time in the morning and very clearly explained how the day was going to go. He dropped us off for the salt mines tour and organised our tickets, then handed us off to the salt mines guide. This guide wasn't so good. He shared a bit of the history of the place, but it seemed like there could have been a lot more history. We stopped at a few places where he sort of paused for a moment and mentioned a few things and then we kept walking. He repeated himself quite a few times without seeming to realise that he had done so, which made it seem like he was following his script and didn't deviate from it much. Overall, I was a lot more bored by the salt mines than I had expected to be. It seemed geared quite a lot just for tourism - our guide mentioned a lot about the tourism and at the end we were forced to exit by walking through the entire gift shop and cafeteria area, then another gift shop at the top. Afterwards, our driver was right on time to pick us up and since we had a fair amount of time before the Schindler's Factory tour, he took us as an extra treat to the Heroes plaza and the ghetto wall, which was nice of him. He also gave us a bit of history about both. The Schindler's Factory tour guide was very knowledgeable, but spoke very quietly and since the museum has sound effects that could be quite loud, a lot of the time I couldn't actually hear him unless I stood very close. Earpieces would have been much better. Also the guide did not shoo away the randoms we seemed to pick up along the tour, which meant we were combating for space with them at each place we stopped (again, making it hard to get close enough to hear him). Overall, it was poor guides at the actual places that were lacking, thus the four stars, not the driver for this tour as a whole. He was fantastic. I recommend this tour, but I hope you get better luck with your guides at the salt mines and factory than we had!

The salt mines are well worth a visit, really fascinating and the tour guide is very informative. Did feel a bit like I was on a school trip at times!! Schindler museum is very sobering and informative, my only criticism of the tour is that there wasn’t really a tour, and there wasn’t long enough.

This was a really fun way to spend an afternoon. I didn't know exactly what to expect but was pleased with the results!