Vacation Overview
Tour Details
Highlights Of Poland - Small GroupTravel through Poland on a Small Group tour that links medieval centers, mountain traditions and 21st-century cities. Move from Kraków’s market square and the Highlander culture of the Tatras to the brick fortresses and Hanseatic streets of the north. Visits with Local Experts provide context at sites such as the Auschwitz Memorial, the old town of Kraków and the shipyards of Gdansk. Your journey concludes in Warsaw, where the Old Town and surrounding districts set the focus for your final days.
Dining Summary- 3 Dinner (D)
- 9 Breakfast (B)
Well-being- Enjoy the comfort of Insight's luxurious, air-conditioned, 40-seat coach with double the standard legroom and onboard washroom. Our customized luxury coaches are sanitized before the start of your tour and are maintained to very high standards. Physical distancing measures have been implemented on our customized luxury coaches.
- Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.
Additional Included Highlights- Personal radio headsets give you the freedom to wander during visits to famous highlights, without missing any of your Local Expert's fascinating commentary.
- Hotel and restaurant tips are included - you'll never have to worry about how much to give, nor search for foreign currency. We also include all taxes and porterage charges at hotels.
- We carry your bags for you and promptly deliver them to your hotel door.
- From time to time, your Travel Director will delight you with an Insight Flourish, which is a local specialty representing the destination.
- Stay connected with friends and family with our complimentary coach and hotel Wi-Fi (where available).
- If your arrival and/or departure flights are as per the itinerary start and end dates, then transfers are available at scheduled times. If your flights are outside these times, or you have booked additional nights accommodation with Insight Vacations, you may purchase transfers or make your own way from/to the airport.
Authentic Dining- Kraków: Share a first dinner with your small group in a local restaurant, enjoying regional dishes and relaxed conversation that marks the beginning of your travels together.
- Zakopane: Enjoy dinner accompanied by Góral Highlander music and dance, with performers using regional instruments such as the fiddle and shepherd’s flute. You’ll hear the sharp, rhythmic patterns typical of the Tatra Highlands and see dance steps rooted in local mountain traditions.
- Warsaw: Come together for a final dinner in Warsaw, sharing regional dishes in a local restaurant. It’s a straightforward moment to reflect on the journey and spend time with your small group before departing Poland.
Top Rated Highlights- Kraków: Join your Local Expert to trace Kraków’s development around Rynek Glówny and the streets that formed the city’s medieval core. You’ll see the layers of architecture shaped by royal patronage, mercantile guilds and university life, noting how each period left its mark on the Old Town’s pattern.
- Kraków: Visit Wawel Cathedral with your Local Expert, stepping inside the burial place of Poland’s monarchs and statesmen. You’ll see chapels added across successive dynasties and the cathedral where Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, served as Archbishop of Kraków.
- Zakopane: Explore Zakopane with your Travel Director, moving along Krupówki Street to see examples of the Zakopane Style, developed in the late 19th century from local timber-building methods. You’ll pass stalls selling Highlander woodcarving and textiles, and view the market area that continues to draw craftspeople from the surrounding Tatra villages.
- Auschwitz: Visit the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum with a Memorial Guide Educator, viewing preserved barracks, guard towers and the barbed-wire perimeter of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.
- Wroclaw: Explore Wroclaw with your Local Expert, moving through the Rynek to see its restored facades and the adjacent Plac Solny, known for its long-standing flower market. You’ll also encounter several of the city’s bronze gnomes, originally installed in the 1980s and now scattered across the center.
- Poznan: Join a Local Resident to explore Poznan’s Old Town, pausing at the Renaissance town hall, rebuilt after the 16th-century fire, and the adjoining market streets. You’ll see facades restored after wartime damage and note how the square links to the streets leading towards the university quarter.
- Gniezno: Visit Gniezno Cathedral to see the monumental bronze doors cast around 1175, noted for their detailed panels showing scenes from the life of St. Adalbert. Inside, you’ll also view chapels and crypts that reflect the cathedral’s long association with Poland’s earliest rulers and archbishops.
- Torun: Explore Torun with your Local Expert, moving through streets lined with Gothic brickwork shaped by the Hanseatic League. You’ll see the market square, the leaning tower, and sections of the medieval walls that still outline the town’s original plan.
- Gdansk: Join your Local Expert to view the harbourfront, including the vantage point towards Westerplatte, before stopping at the shipyard gates linked to the Solidarity movement of the 1980s. Continue into the medieval streets where Hanseatic brickwork and merchant houses define Gdansk’s historic layout.
- Malbork: Explore Malbork Castle with your Local Expert, walking through one of Europe’s largest medieval brick fortresses. You’ll see the High Castle with its cloisters and chapter house, the Middle Castle’s great refectory, and the defensive walls that reflect the Teutonic Order’s building program from the late 13th century.
- Warsaw: Visit the Neon Muzeum during a guide
Daily Itinerary
Insight Vacations: Highlights of Poland - Small Group
Day 1 - Welcome to Kraków
Arrive in Kraków, a former royal capital shaped by Gothic towers, merchant halls and the broad sweep of Rynek Glówny. Meet your Travel Director and join your small group for a walk through the Old Town, passing the Sukiennice Cloth Hall, long central to Kraków’s trading life, and listening out for the hejnal sounded from St. Mary’s Church. Continue across the surrounding streets before sitting down to dinner together, a chance to get to know one another and raise a glass to the start of your journey through Poland.
Accommodations: Vienna House by Wyndham Andel's Cracow
Meals: Dinner
Day 2 - The Sights of Kraków
Spend the morning at leisure, with the option to join a visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO-listed network of chambers carved from rock salt since the Middle Ages. Later join your Local Expert to visit Kazimierz, where streets, squares and synagogues reflect the district’s long Jewish heritage. Then ascend Wawel Hill to view Wawel Castle and visit the cathedral, long associated with Poland’s monarchy, before a walk through Kraków’s atmospheric Old Town.
Accommodations: Vienna House by Wyndham Andel's Cracow
Meals: Breakfast
Day 3 - Into the Tatras and Zakopane
Travel south into the Tatra Mountains, following the rising landscape towards Zakopane, a town known for its carved timber houses and Highlander traditions. On arrival, join your Travel Director for an orientation along Krupówki Street, noting the late-19th-century Zakopane Style of wooden architecture and the market stalls selling Góralski craftwork. Spend the rest of the day getting to know the town, perhaps visit the Tatra Museum’s ethnographic displays, take the funicular up Gubalówka Hill for mountain views, or browse local craft shops. In the evening, sit down to dinner with Highlander music and dance, a Góral tradition that anchors the region’s cultural identity.
Accommodations: Radisson Blu, Zakopane
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 4 - Auschwitz Memorial and On to Wroclaw
Travel north from Zakopane to Oswiecim for a moving visit to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum with a Guide Educator. Continue through Silesia and follow the Oder River towards Wroclaw, a city shaped by shifting borders and a long academic tradition. On arrival, join your Local Expert for a walk through the Old Town to view the facades around the Rynek and the flower stalls of Plac Solny. You’ll also see Wroclaw’s cheeky bronze gnomes, a symbol of the city, positioned across the center.
Accommodations: Wyndham Wroclaw Old Town
Meals: Breakfast
Day 5 - North to Poznan
Continue north to Poznan, a city shaped by trade routes and early Polish statehood. Later, join your Local Expert for a walking tour through the center, taking in the town hall, market square and the streets that define the Old Town. Along the way, you’ll see facades rebuilt after wartime damage and gain a clearer sense of how the city’s mercantile past still shapes its layout. Your evening is then free for dinner, with time to choose from the restaurants and bars around the square and adjoining streets.
Accommodations: Sheraton Poznan
Meals: Breakfast
Day 6 - Through Gniezno to Torun
Travel east to Gniezno for a visit to the cathedral, long associated with Poland’s early rulers. View the Gniezno Doors, cast in the 12th century and known for their bronze reliefs depicting the life of St. Adalbert, before continuing to Torun, a medieval town shaped by Hanseatic trade. Join your Local Expert to explore the Old Town’s brick facades and Teutonic history. Later, enjoy free time to explore at your own pace before traveling north to Gdansk, where the evening offers time to get acquainted with the city.
Accommodations: Radisson Blu Hotel, Gdansk
Meals: Breakfast
Day 7 - Gdansk and the Baltic Coast
Spend the morning with your Local Expert exploring Gdansk, moving through the medieval center shaped by Hanseatic trade and along the Motlawa waterfront. Continue for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience at the European Solidarity Center and the Gdansk Shipyards, where you’ll meet a former shipyard worker connected to the 1980 strikes and walk through original shipyard areas linked to the Solidarity movement. Later, free time allows further independent exploration, or an Optional Experience to the seaside town of Sopot.
Accommodations: Radisson Blu Hotel, Gdansk
Meals: Breakfast
Day 8 - Malbork Castle and Discover Warsaw
Leave Gdansk for Malbork to visit the castle with your Local Expert, viewing the brick fortifications built by the Teutonic Order and the courtyards that outline its medieval complex. Continue across northern Poland towards Warsaw, a city rebuilt after the Second World War and shaped by its contrasting districts. The evening is free to explore the surrounding districts, whether stepping into the reconstructed Old Town, walking part of the Royal Route, or viewing the Palace of Culture and Science from its central square. You may also choose to join an Optional Experience featuring a Chopin recital in an intimate Warsaw venue.
Accommodations: The Westin Warsaw
Meals: Breakfast
Day 9 - Warsaw City Highlights
Explore Warsaw with your Local Expert, beginning at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in the Muranów district before continuing into the Old Town. Walk through reconstructed streets around Castle Square and the market area, where post-war rebuilding restored the historic center after widespread destruction. Later, visit the Neon Museum in the iconic Palace of Culture and Science for a guided introduction to a different side of the city’s 20th-century history through signs preserved from the cold war. In the evening, join your group for a final dinner in a local restaurant, marking your last night together in Poland.
Accommodations: The Westin Warsaw
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 10 - Farewell Warsaw
Transfer to the airport, taking time to say goodbye to your Travel Director and small group as your journey through Poland comes to an end.
Meals: Breakfast