Wieliczka Salt Mine tour from Krakow

How the day works

We collect you at our departure point at Wielopole 2 in central Krakow — the Przystanek Turystyczny stop — and the journey takes thirty to forty minutes each way. Return transport is included; you are not left to find your own way back.

Underground you are with a guide from the Mine itself, on the Tourist Route, for around two and a half hours. Allow four to five hours for the whole outing door to door.

What you actually see

The Tourist Route runs about 3.5 km through the upper three of the mine’s nine levels, down to roughly 135 metres. Chambers, timber structures and sculptures carved by miners, brine lakes, and St Kinga’s Chapel — a full-sized church about 101 metres underground where the floor, the altarpieces and the chandeliers are all salt.

Before you book

• Eight hundred stairs. Three hundred and eighty of them at the very start, going down. There is a lift back to the surface at the end, but the descent is on foot and it is the part people are not warned about.
• Dress for 17°C. The temperature underground is the same in August as in January. A light jacket, whatever the weather above ground.
• Sensible shoes. Salt underfoot can be slippery and the surfaces are uneven. Not the day for sandals or heels.
• No pushchairs. The Mine does not recommend them because of the stairs. Small children can come, but they will be carried for parts of it.
• Children pay less. A reduced rate applies; choose the numbers in the calendar and the total updates before you pay.
• Guided in English. We run this tour in English only. If you need German or French, call the office and we will tell you honestly whether we can arrange it.

If you are also going to Auschwitz

Most people do both, on separate days. They are not comparable outings and putting them back to back tends to leave neither of them any room. If you are travelling with children, Wieliczka is the one that works.

Auschwitz-Birkenau tickets and tours →