Depart on an overnight flight to Warsaw

Day 2

Afternoon arrivals in Warsaw

Meet with your guide/host
Transfer to hotel.

Enjoy a walk in the Old Town Square with the many cafes, shops, galleries, museums and the near by university. Here there is much to see and explore on your own… a list of recommendations, tour guidebooks and city maps are available.

You can enjoy a casual dinner at Stacja Rynek on the Old Town Square; outdoor seating, weather permitting. Walk back to the hotel.
 
Overnight Warsaw

Day 3

Our tour today will start with an orientation to the incredible Jewish revival in Poland by one of the Taube Foundation Warsaw office staff.

Later in the day, a tour of Warsaw; this guided tour that includes the “Ohel” for an installation & tour of ultra modern Museum of the History of Polish Jews (scheduled to be opened in 2011). The tour will provide an overview of the nation’s capital and its important landmarks during the last century’s dramatic upheavals. The city was rebuilt after its destruction by Nazi Germany and is undergoing enormous construction and renovations since the 1989 defeat of the communist system. Our tour will also include two important Jewish sites: Mila 18, the last hideout of Warsaw ghetto resistance fighters, and the Umschlagplatz, the Nazi train depot from where thousands of Warsaw ghetto inhabitants were deported to Treblinka.

Later we will visit the Ringelblum Archives and other collections at the Jewish Historical Institute (JHI), the world’s largest repository of 900 years of Polish Jewish history and the first research institution to document the Holocaust immediately following WWII.

We will complete our tour today with a visit to the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. The cemetery director is Yisroel Szpilman, cousin of Wladyslaw Szpilman, portrayed in the Roman Polanski film, “The Pianist”. Yisroel Szpilman who takes pride in his important work of preserving the past, often is available to “guide” the visitors.

Option for this evening is a concert at the National Opera House, one of the nation’s pinnacle attractions.

Dinner and overnight – Warsaw

Day 4

Arrival in Krakow

Transfer to our centrally located hotel, close to the Old Town Square. We will enjoy a comprehensive walking tour of the Old Town Square, called Rynek Glowny and the walled castle. We continue with a visit to the Galicia Jewish Museum, in the Jewish district Kazimierz and the near by 900 seat Tempel Synagogue. Here on Szeroka Street is the district’s main town square, complete with historic and renovated synagogues, coffee houses, restaurants, bookshops and galleries.

Onto a comprehensive tour of Czestochowa. Czestochowa is the world-famous pilgrimage site, where hundreds of thousands of Catholics gather in August to pay homage to the Black Madonna icon at the Jasna Gora convent. Czestochowa was also the home to a thriving Jewish population prior to WWII. Today, city officials, university and secondary school teachers, librarians, archivists and ordinary townspeople are preserving the Jewish past and educating younger generations through innovative projects that have earned awards by the Ministries of Culture and Education.

Dinner and overnight in Krakow

Day 5

Our tour today will pay tribute to the millions who perished by the hands of the Nazis during the war years.  Our tour is to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp. We will be guided by the best guides trained by the Auschwitz State Museum. After touring the Nazi camps, we will visit the Auschwitz Jewish Center in the nearby town of Oswiecim, where the glorious history of the prewar Jewish community is exhibited and where study internships for American college students and military cadets are held. The Center is under the auspices of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

Dinner and overnight in Krakow

Day 6

Day at leisure - spend Shabbat with the Jewish Community, or get on board and explore.... 

To day we will venture into one of Poland hidden treasures in the beautiful country site with a visit to the Dunajec River Gorge.

Undoubtedly Dunajec River Gorge is one of the Poland's prime tourist attractions and this great day trip from Krakow gives the visitors the opportunity to admire some amazing scenery as you float down the river, as well as a visit to Niedzica Castle in the Dunajec Valley.

We begin our excursion with a visit to Niedzica Castle (also known as Dunajec Castle), originally built in the 14th century by the Hungarians to protect an important trade route through the Dunajec Valley. The castle towers over a large water reservoir with an impressive dam built in mid 1990s. While visiting the castle we will admire the delightful view over the artificial lake and learn the amazing story of Inca refugees who found shelter here.

After our visit of the castle, continue to Sromowce Nizne to board your wooden raft to drift at a leisurely pace along the Dunajec River. The river runs from northern Slovakia to southern Poland and is at its most picturesque passing through Dunajec River Gorge. Our adventure down the winding Dunajec River offers breathtaking views of mighty limestone cliffs plunging into the water and stunning native flora, we may even spot some rare bird species such as the Black Stork.

Our highly experienced guide ensures you have a smooth ride, pointing out the sights along the way and teaching you the history of the gorge. Our 2 to 3 hour voyage ends 15 kilometers later in Szczawnica.( It is advisable to bring suitable rainwear or a sun hat depending on the weather). We will then return to Krakow.
Overnight - Krakow

Day 7

To day again we will venture into another of Poland hidden treasures in the beautiful country site with a visit to Wawel. Wawel - The Hill of Fame.

Wawel Hill in Krakow is the Mecca of every Pole and a must visit for all foreign tourists, it is a microcosm of Polish history and culture.  From the 11th century on Poland’s monarchs took their residence here in the Royal Castle. And they were both crowned and buried here, in the Wawal Cathedral where later the Polish national heroes have also been laid to rest since the 19th century.  The place not only overflows with priceless art treasures, architectural beauties, it is also full of glory magic, history and fable. We will visit here the Wawel Castle - home of three dynasties of Poland Monarch.  Its stately halls and exquisite chambers are filled with priceless art, best period furniture and rare ancient objects.  The 16th century monumental Flemish tapestry is matchless. On to the Wawel Cathedral - Poland's most impressive national shrine shelters plenty of superb art.  18 chapels are true architectural masterpieces. Here we will view the Crown Treasury and armory - Polish memorabilia, jewels and other precious exhibits.  On to the Royal Castle with its priceless displays and splendor. The Cathedral Museum will be our next visit and last but not least, a visit to the dragon den. This is a huge natural cavity inside the Wawel Hill. Many Polish legends are associated with this enormous natural phenomena.

Day 8

Today we leave Krakow for Lodz.

Lodz, the largest city in Poland, aside from Warsaw, is a cultural phenomenon and a fascinating place inhabited by distinguished artists, scientists and industrialists. It is a modern city deeply

rooted in tradition. A city of the multicultural heritage of Poles, Germans, Jews and Russians. A city of the industrial revolution, of the steam engine and the electrical era. It is the city housing the
world-famous Modern Art Museum (Museum Sztuki Współczesnej) and the Lodz Film School (Łódzka Szkoła Filmowa). Łódź – a city of creative energy, vibrating with the pulse of our modern era.

From the 19th century Łódź has been the Promised Land for many nations: Poles, Germans, Jews and Russians. Among them were many great industrialists, merchants, bankers, architects and writers who created a modern city and its culture. The Jewish community at the turn of the 20th century was estimated at two hundred thousand and in that number there were the great industrialists - Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański, musicians - Artur Rubinstein and Aleksander Tansman, the distinguished architect - Dawid Lande and a master of poetry - Julian Tuwim

The Shoah (holocaust), the darkest episode in the history of Europe, took the lives of all the members of the Jewish community in Łódź. The way of death led from the ghetto in Łódź, (called Litzmannstadt by the Germans), to the Nazi death camps in Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and Chełmno (Kulmhof). The remaining material symbols of the Jewish culture, the inherent parts of the cultural landscape of Łódź are historic buildings such as the centre of the Jewish community (no. 18, Pomorska Street), the Reicher synagogue (no. 28, Rewolucji 1905 Street) and the biggest necropolis in Europe covering an area of 4100 acres (no. 40, Bracka Street) where one hundred and sixty thousand graves and seventy thousand Jewish headstones.

Overnight - Lodz

Day 9

Today we leave Lodz to Lublin

For many ages on the borders between Western and Eastern Europe Lublin played an important cultural role. Centuries ago, trade and diplomatic activity crossed here; today Lublin is a meeting place of artists, scientists, students and businesspeople. When in 1317 Lublin was granted civic rights, it strengthened its position among the important towns of Poland and Europe. The celebrated Lublin Fairs attracted merchants from the Caucasus and Black Sea regions, Lithuania and the interior of Russia. In 1569 the Lublin Union treaty was signed – binding Poland and Lithuania into a one body state in existence until the end of the 18th century. During this time king Stefan Batory established in Lublin the Crown Tribunal – the gentry’s highest court. In 1918, after almost 130 years of occupation, the Temporary Government of the Republic of Poland was formed in Lublin, giving birth to the modern state, and the Lublin Catholic University (Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski – KUL) was established. One of the most significant social movements of the 20th century – ‘Solidarity’ („Solidarność”) began in Lublin and nearby Świdnik, where, a month before the strikes in Gdańsk and Szczecin, the Lublinian workers demonstrated against the Communist Party.

Lublin through centuries has given a noble example of tolerance; the town has been inhabited by Jews, the Rusins from Belarusia, Ukraine, Lithuania, the native inhabitants of these lands, Protestants, Catholics and other nationalities Podzamcze – a district in the Old Town – was the place of residence of the Jews and an international intellectual center of Jewish culture. From 1554 a Jewish printing house functioned here; from 1567, the famous Wisemen Academy; from 1580 the Parliament of the Four Lands (Waad Arba Aracot) – the main Jewish legation of the 1st

Republic of Poland, and the rabbi called the Seer of Lublin, the originator of Hasidic mysticism, lived here. During the era of the Reformation (17th century) next to the Catholic parish, Calvinist and Arian temples existed. The religious debates were resolved in the spirit of tolerance and science, the religious wars, which haunted Europe, bypassed Lublin. The Russ community has written an interesting chapter in the town’s history.

Overnight - Lublin

Day 10

Warsaw

Back to Warsaw, visiting Tykocin on our way back, this picturesque village in eastern Poland, the 17th century Tykocin Synagogue is the oldest preserved structure in Poland and the second largest synagogue, after Krakow.

Overnight - Warsaw

Day 11

Catch our flight back home, or and perhaps an optional European extension, or perhaps Israel?

Our summer tours to Poland are based on groups of 15 and more. Individuals and smaller groups can still enjoy the tour at additional supplement.

Book online or Call: 1-800-355-9994

Our Jewish Heritage Tours are based on groups of 15 and more.
Individuals and smaller groups can still enjoy the tour at additional supplement.