Puzzle tour of Cracow

WELCOME TO OUR "PUZZLE TOUR OF KRAKOW" !!!

Read, please the next 5 questions and make some arrangements for your possible tour to Krakow.
Next and sum up the points at the end.

1. How are you going to come / leave Krakow:
a) by train to Krakow train station - 30 points (each way for station - hotel transfer)
b) by air to Krakow-Balice airport - 70 points (each way for airport - hotel transfer)
c) by air to Katowice - Pyrzowice airport - 300 points (each way for airport - hotel transfer)

2. How long are you going to stay:
a) 1 night with breakfast - 180 points / double room or 140 points / single room
b) 2 nights with breakfast - 360 points / double room or 280 points / single room
c) 3 nights with breakfast - 540 points / double room or 420 points / single room
d) 4 nights with breakfasts – 720 points / double room or 560 points / single room
each next day more with breakfast + 180 points / double room or + 140 points / single room

3. Which tour would you like to participate in (any tour takes one day of your stay, you can chose more than one):
a) Sightseeing tour of Krakow - 130 points / person
b) Wieliczka Salt Mine - 130 points / person
c) Auschwitz - Birkenau tour - 130 points / person
d) Częstochowa - Black Madonna Monastery tour - 220 points / person
e) In the footsteps of John Paul II - 140 points / person
f) Zakopane - Tatra mountains tour - 220 points / person
g) Nowa Hura tour - 160 points / person

4. What standard of accommodation would you like to book:
a) 2 star hotel - 0 points
b) 3 star hotel - 100 points more for each night for double room or 80 points for each night at single room
c) 4 star hotel - 200 points more for each night for double room or 160 points for each night at single room
d) 5 star hotel - 300 points more for each night for double room or 240 points for each night at single room

5. What kind of attractions would you like to book additionally
a) dinner with live music - 100 points / person
b) dinner with cabaret-show - 130 points / person
c) whole day private tour with guide in English - 500 points / day

Now sum up all your points and divide the score according to the actual Excitingpoland rate:

Your score divide by 3 and the result is your price in Euro
(f.e. your score is 1450 : 3 = 483 Euro)

Next, if you are satisfied with your score inform us, please about all chosen answers and possible date of your visit by e-mail, sent to: info@excitingpoland.com

The same day we will contact you with our final tour program and available hotels names for you.

We stay at your disposal !

Excitingpoland Team

GO UP

1) City tour in Cracow

City tour program
You will begin your tour by visiting the Jewish District of Kazimierz to explore the area which used to be inhabited by one of the most diverse Jewish communities in Europe. Then a short drive will take you up the Wawel Hill which is the embodiment of Poland's former monarchical glory. Its summit is the Royal Castle and a 14th-century cathedral which hosted almost all coronations and funerals of the Polish monarchy. Having descended the hill, we stroll along Kanonicza and Grodzka Streets to reach Collegium Maius (Great College), the oldest building of the Academia Cracoviensis. After visiting the charming Gothic courtyard we continue to the Main Market Square. This bustling heart of the city is a perfect place for picking up souvenirs, especially in the Cloth Hall which has been the local market place for centuries. Complete your tour by visiting St Mary's Church, where the stunning medieval altar sculpted by Veit Stoss is located and a bugle call sounds towards the four corners of the world every hour on the hour. The tour lasts approx. 4 hours.

Price: 35 Euro / person

Price includes: English speaking guide, hotel pick up from selected hotels and places, admission to Wawel Castle and Royal Cathedral, admission to St Mary's Church.

Departure time and place: see schedule.

Additional info: daily tour, The Royal Chambers of the Wawel Castle are closed to the public every Monday. On Monday the Collegium Maius is visited instead.

PHOTO GALLERY

Puzzle tour of Cracow, 1) City tour in Cracow

2) Wieliczka Salt Mine tour

Tour program
As you walk down 360 steps into the salt mine, you get the impression of entering a vast underground city, complete with huge caverns and underground lakes. This underground world has earned a place on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list thanks to the creativity of the miners who carved chapels out of the walls, hundreds of metres below the surface. You will visit the largest of the chapels dedicated to St Kinga, the patron saint of salt miners. This subterranean church is richly decorated with chandeliers, sculptures, and religious figures carved out of salt. As you follow the 2 1/2-kilometre walk, you'll pass statues dating back to the 18th century depicting mythical, historical and religious figures. The last stop in the mine is the souvenir shop and snack bar. From here, the lift carries you back to the surface. The tour lasts approx. 4 hours.

Price: 35 Euro / person.

Price includes: English speaking guide, hotel pick up from selected hotels, admission to Wieliczka Salt Mine, guided walk through Wieliczka Salt Mine, lift pick up to the ground level on exit.

Departure time and places: see the schedule.

Additional info: tour twice a day, temperature 14 °C/57 °F of all year round.

PHOTO GALLERY

Puzzle tour of Cracow, 2) Wieliczka Salt Mine tour

3) Auschwitz-Birkenau tour

Tour program
KL Auschwitz – in the years 1940-1945 - the biggest Nazi concentration and death camp in occupied Europe. Situated at a distance of 70 km from Cracow in the town of Oświęcim. The Auschwitz Memorial Museum (founded in 1947) was included in the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1979. During the tour you will visit both parts of the Museum located in Oświęcim (KL Auschwitz I) and Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II Birkenau). You will also watch a documentary on the history of the KL Auschwitz concentration and death camp. The tour lasts approx. 5 hours

Price: 35 Euro / person

Price includes: English speaking guide, hotel pick up from selected hotels, guided walk through Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, documentary screening.

Departure time and places: see the schedule.

Additional info: tour twice a day, offer directed for adults mostly.

PHOTO GALLERY

Puzzle tour of Cracow, 3) Auschwitz-Birkenau tour

6) Jewish style dinner

Your evening program
We would like to invite you to a Jewish style dinner complete with traditional Jewish music at ARIEL – a very special place in the old Jewish district of Kazimierz. The Ariel gallery was transformed into an artistic café several years ago and is decorated with many paintings, drawings and ceramics. Today, Ariel is actually a three-in-one establishment housing a restaurant, café and a gallery all with delightful ambience. The restaurant's culinary delights feature splendid traditional dishes including various roasts. As Jewish music concerts and performances are held here every night, you can dine and listen to klezmer music – traditional Jewish folk melodies and songs in Yiddish – or to a performance of a musical theatre drawing on Jewish, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian culture.

Price: 28 Euro / person
(minimum 2 persons)

Price includes: three-course dinner, coffee or tea and mineral water, Klezmer music concert.

Additional info: meeting point - ARIEL RESTAURANT, 18 SZEROKA ST.

Available dates: March, November: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
April – October: daily.

PHOTO GALLERY

Puzzle tour of Cracow, 6) Jewish style dinner

4) Nowa Huta tour

Tour program
Nowa Huta Tour gives you a unique chance to see the town built by communists after the Second World War, mainly to destroy aristocratic and intellectual character and traditions of Cracow, by erecting a huge "Lenin" Steelworks with its "healthy working class" neighbourhood. The tour starts in Central Square, in the very heart of Nowa Huta, near which an enormous statue of the city’s patron – Lenin – used to stand for years. Afterwards, the tour continues to the Steelworks – now owned by the "Mittal Steel" Company, which closed its gates for visitors, but we will be still able to admire its size and learn about its history. After that we will pay a visit to the Museum of Nowa Huta, which holds exhibitions dedicated to the history and tradition of the city. After that we will see the Nowa Huta Cross which symbolizes the bloody fights for the establishment of a church in the town. Later we will visit "the Lord’s Ark Church". The final stop of our tour is the Monument Commemorating the Site of Bogdan Włosik’s Death, which is dedicated to all victims of Martial Law, imposed in Poland in 1981. Our journey into the past ends in a typical communist era bar, where over a glass of communist times booze you will find out more about the absurdities of life under the communist rule. The tour lasts approx 4 hours.

Price: 45 Euro / person.

Price includes: English speaking guide, hotel pick up from selected hotels, admission to the museum, a drink in Stylowa Restaurant (Avenue of Roses).

Departure time and places (on Tuesday and Friday only): see the schedule.

Additional information: minimum number of participants - 2 persons.

PHOTO GALLERY

Puzzle tour of Cracow, 4) Nowa Huta tour

7) In the footsteps of John Paul II

Tour program
Your tour begins with a visit to Wadowice, "the place where it all began" as the Pope referred to his hometown in 1999 during his visit here. We will see the dearest places to Karol Wojtyła during his childhood and adolescence, including the parish church where he was baptised and the house where he was born. Our journey to and from Wadowice also gives you a chance to view the peaks of the Popes beloved Beskidy mountain range where he used to hike. On return to Cracow we stop at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki. In this developing place of pilgrimage you can pay homage to the holly relics of St. Faustyna Kowalska, who was canonised as the first saint of the Third Millennium by John Paul II, and admire the impressive modern basilica consecrated by the Pope in 2002. Then we travel to the foot of the Royal Castle to visit the Archdiocese Museum located in the most picturesque street of Cracow. In the museum you can see the flat where Karol Wojtyła lived while working as a lecturer of theology. Finally, we visit the Archbishop's Palace which is Wojtyła's last residence before leaving for the Vatican in 1978. There one can see the famous "papal window", where John Paul II used to show up to chat and chant with the youth of Cracow during all his visits and where thousands of people lit candles and prayed during his last days.

Price: 40 Euro / person

Price includes: English speaking guide, hotel pick up from selected hotels, admission to the Archdiocese Museum.

Departure times and places: see schedule.

Additional info: tours organized on Tusdays and Saturdays for min 2 person group.

PHOTO GALLERY

Puzzle tour of Cracow, 7) In the footsteps of John Paul II

8) Częstochowa - Black Madona tour

Tour program
Visit Poland's spiritual heart on a tour to the town of Częstochowa. Follow in the footsteps of millions of pilgrims as you gaze upon the "Black Madonna" at the Jasna Góra Monastery.

Our tour takes you to a place which receives around 5 million visitors a year (including over 150 thousand pilgrims on foot). After arriving at the monastery we visit the chapel of the miraculous painting of the Black Madonna, which is the embodiment of the attachment to the Cult of Mary so typical of the Catholic faith in Poland. Next we visit the Basilica, which is the main church of the monastery. You can also visit the 600th-Anniversary Museum and the Treasury on your own, if you wish, or attend Mass while others on the tour have a break for lunch and a visit to a souvenir shop. On the way back we alter our route slightly to admire the most spectacular limestone rock formations typical of the Kraków-Częstochowa Uplands. This allows us to visit the only remaining castle of the so called Eagle Nest Trail at Pieskowa Skała.

Price: 65 Euro / person

Price includes: English speaking guide, roundtrip transportation (pick up and drop off from Hotel Wyspiański only).

Departure time: 08:00 on Tuesdays and Fridays (other days on request only)

9) Zakopane - Tatra Mountains tour

Tour program
Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains Travel to Zakopane, a mountain resort nestled at the foot of the Tatra mountains and boasting breathtaking views of Poland's countryside.

Zakopane is the winter capital of Poland, thanks to its splendid natural scenery, its pistes and hiking trails, and a rich folk culture. You will begin your exploration of the area by taking the funicular railway to the top of Mount Gubałówka for views over the granite and limestone peaks of the Tatra Mountains. Having returned to the oldest part of Zakopane, we will visit the charming wooden old parish church and the most unique cemetery in Poland. To complete your experience, you have a chance to visit the enormous regional market and enjoy lunch in a regional restaurant serving local specialities. If you wish to find out more about this unusual region you can visit the Tatra Museum or the village of Chochołów (famous for its 150-year-old wooden log cabins and a serene atmosphere).

Price includes: English speaking guide, hotel pick up from selected hotels, admission to the funicular railway and the Tatra Museum.

Price: 65 Euro / person

Departure time and places: See our schedule here.

Additonal informations: tour goes on Wednesdays and Saturdays ( other days on request).

11) Polish show & cabaret

Show description
Ralf Schmidt from Germany: “We are here, friends from all over the world. Every year for the last 23 years, we have met in different cities. Nowhere have we seen a show like this.

Unique! Truly superb!”

Kurt Siebel from Zurich: “I liked the show very much. It talked about the family, sex, booze and money – really, really funny. Poles must like to have fun and to drink as we do. The show made clear and courageous statements. I have never seen anything like this before”.

The Cabaret show entitled “Entertain the Dragon” is an introduction to Poles and Polishness. It is performed in English.

During the break the guests are invited to help themselves to some Polish specialties laid out on a buffet table.

Price: 40 Euro / person

Price includes: traditional Polish buffet dinner, cabaret programme.

Time and place: MOLIERE THEATER CAFÉ, 4 SZEWSKA ST. Fridays between 7.00-09.00 p.m.

Additional info: JULY 4TH – AUGUST 15TH ONLY

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