Visiting in winter
What changes
- The day is short and the last entry is earlier. Two in the afternoon in December, three in January and November. A late-afternoon booking simply does not exist, and much of the visit takes place in failing light.
- Birkenau is cold in a way the city is not. Open ground, no shelter, wind across the whole site. An hour there at minus five is not the same as an hour in Krakow at minus five.
- It is quieter. Fewer groups, fewer people in the exhibitions, more room and more silence.
- But it is no easier to book. There are fewer visitors, but the Museum is open for fewer hours, so there are fewer entry times to go round. One largely cancels the other out: winter dates do not need booking any later than summer ones.
The distance is the same
A winter visit is still four to five kilometres of walking, including an hour on the open ground at Birkenau. The difference is that you cover it in the cold and partly after dark.
What to wear
- Warm boots, not trainers. The ground at Birkenau is uneven, and in winter either muddy or frozen.
- Hat and gloves. Even if they seem unnecessary in Krakow.
- Layers. The blocks at Auschwitz I are heated and the visit involves going in and out of them repeatedly. A coat you can open beats the warmest one you cannot take off.
- A hood rather than an umbrella. An umbrella is no use in the wind.
What winter does not change
- The bag limit. Still 35 × 25 × 15 cm. A thick coat does not count as a bag.
- Photo ID. Checked at the entrance as usual.
- The length. Still about four hours.
- The Museum’s guidance on children. Still not recommended under fourteen — in winter all the more, with the cold and the early dark on top of the subject itself.
Is winter a good time to come?
If the question is whether it will be worse than summer — no. It will be different. Quieter, colder, dark earlier. For many people that is a visit closer to what the place is.
If the question is whether you can walk five kilometres in the cold, an hour of it in an open field, that is the right question, and the answer depends on how you dress.