9-Nights Highlights of Poland - Small Group from $4,025

Insight Vacations

OFFER ID 1700818

Highlights Of Poland - Small Group
Travel through Poland on a Small Group tour that links medieval centres, 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)

How You'll Travel

Business class coach with extended leg room
Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
4 & 5-star stays

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 Highland.
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 centre.
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 programme from the late 13th century.
Warsaw: Visit the Neon Muzeum during a guided visit with a museum specialist, viewing restored signs preserved from Poland’s Cold War period. Housed in the Palace of Culture and Science complex, the collection includes original neon designs created for shops, cinemas and streets across the country.

MAKE TRAVEL MATTER®

Gdansk: Visit the European Solidarity Centre and the Gdansk Shipyards with a local who worked here during the 1980 strikes linked to Lech Walesa. Walk through original shipyard buildings, including the BHP Hall, and hear first-hand accounts of the Solidarity movement. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.

9 nights from $4,025 per person

Itinerary

Click here for Full Itinerary Details

Itinerary Details

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, Kraków
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, Kraków
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 centre.
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 centre, 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 travelling 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 centre shaped by Hanseatic trade and along the Motlawa waterfront. Continue for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience at the European Solidarity Centre 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 centre 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

Featured Destinations

Warsaw

Gdansk (Gdynia)

Historic Gdansk represents one of the richest, most lavish complexes of architectonic relics in Poland. The entrances to historic quarters are huge stone gateways guarding the main thoroughfare; the well-proportioned tower of town hall makes a powerful impact. The main square is filled with fine mansions. St. Mary’s Church is the world's largest brick church, with a capacity of 25,000. Dominating the waterside is seven-story Great Mill. Gdynia is the modern port for Gdansk. Near Gdansk is Sopot, one of the most fashionable seaside resorts in northern Europe during the 19th century and the country’s most popular health spa with its beach and flair for entertainment. Sopot is known as an important music center, featuring an annual Opera and International Song Festival. Gdansk Historical Museum has lavish decorations and fascinating exhibits. Maritime Museum features a model of every ship produced in local shipyards since 1945 and is housed in the massive 15th-century Gdansk Crane. National Art Museum, one of Gdansk’s highlights, boasts a collection of Gothic art and sculpture.

Excursions

Gdansk - Window to Freedom - Half Day Tour

A Pulsating Harbour - Gdansk/Gdynia/Sopot - Full Day Tour

A Pulsating Harbour - Tri-City Complex: Gdanks/Gdynia/Sopot

Gdansk, as fascinating and special city as one could hope to find anywhere, was once known as Danzig - name etched deep in European history. It is a major harbour, first German, then Hanseatic, Polish, Prussian, Free City and finally Polish. Desired by many, the city was often fought over. Indeed, it was the nearby Westerplatte that the first shots of history’s greatest war were fired in 1939. Later in the late 1970s the city’s Lenin Shipyard saw the birth of the Solidarity Trade Union, which made Lech Walesa a household name and began the process of transformation across the entire region. Gdansk has not forgotten its history. The lovingly restored buildings of the Old Town and waterfront provide picturesque and interesting surroundings, in which one may take a stroll, dine or shop for the city’s famous amber jewelry. In turn, the impressive Monument to Murdered Shipyard Workers gives the visitor a pause for thought about all that has happened since the 1970s.But further surprises await, for Gdansk is just the largest component of the Tri-City of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot. North-south development along the coast left beautiful and unspoiled woods and forests on hills just inland, and allows the visitor to travel smoothly from place to place by road or by local railway. Required stops for all include Gdynia, the lively naval, fishing and commercial port with its historical ships, beaches and the Oceanographic Museum; Sopot, an elegant beach resort of villas and hotels famous for its musical and cultural festivals; and Gdansk-Oliwa, a suburb boasting beautiful parks and a cathedral, whose world-famous organ Poland-largest entertains and entrances all who hear it. Lively, attractive, cultured, historical: the Gdansk area is as varied and eternally fascinating as the sea, which brought its fame and fortune.

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You will be picked up at the port by your guide and driver.

Gdansk & Stutthof - Full Day Tour

Gdansk & Stutthof

Full Day Tour

We start the tour from the Upland Gate - a fragment of the city's fortifications and one of its main gates. Just behind it, we pass by a baked-brick construction consisting of the Prison Tower and the Torture House - relics of the Gothic defence walls from the 15th century. The Golden Gate, situated next to the Prison Tower, opens onto the Long Market - a magnificent street, with Patrician mansions decorated with late Renaissance and Baroque facades - a real feast for the eyes!!! It is here that the richest burghers of Gdansk used to live. Next, we can see the Main Town Hall, with a life-sized figure of king Sigismund Augustus on the top. Beyond the Main Town Hall, we admire the Artus Court - a building used for Hanseatic League meetings, the most beautiful court in all the Hanseatic cities. Just behind it rises the tower of St. Mary's Basilica, a part of the most precious and largest red-brick Gothic church. On our way back we pass by Mariacka Street, with its gabled terraced houses and elegant boutiques, leading to the Long Wharf on the Motlawa River. At the river's edge stands the characteristic Gdansk Crane, where the tour ends.

Afterwards, drive to see the former Nazi Concentration Stutthof Camp established at the beginning of September 1939 is the oldest camp of mass-extermination in Poland. The first prisoners of camp thought for "desirable Polish elements" were representatives of Polish associations in Free City of Danzig. Within the 5 years of camp existance 110.000 mens, women and children were kept and almost 65.000 prisoners died as result of murdering in gas chambers, beating, hanging, torturing and making medical tests by Nazi mad scientists. Stutthof was freed at the beginning of May 1944 by troops of the Soviet Army.

Nowadays there is the National Museum of Stutthof established in 1962 including post-camp buildings, prisoners' barracks, gas chambers, crematory, gallows. There is also permament exhibition dedicated to prisoners of Stutthof inside post-camp buildings.

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You will be picked up at your port by our guide and driver.

Gdansk: Gdansk & Sopot – 5 hours

Poznan

Set on the banks of the Warta River 165 mi/270 km west of Warsaw, 1,000-year-old Poznan, Poland, blends Gothic and baroque in much of its architecture.

Highlights of this industrialized city include the 10th-century Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Gorka's Palace (that houses the Archaeological Museum), the Greenhouse (10 pavilions that contain more than 17,000 plants), Raczynski Library, the Opera House and the Museum of Musical Instruments (it houses Chopin's pianos). In Old Town Square, a crowd gathers on the hour to watch the clock on the old town hall that dates from 1550.

Poznan has all the requisite charm Americans typically look for when traveling in Europe. Its vibrant Old Town bustles with outdoor bars, restaurants and shops, and the Royal Imperial Route walking trail wends past historical and cultural attractions.

In warm weather, the Old Market Square comes alive with shops and outdoor entertainment, and during the winter holidays, it becomes the site of a picturesque Christmas market, with everything from local crafts to regional food and drink.

There is a modern side to Poznan, too, evidenced by the dramatic, multicolored Freedom Fountain sculpture in Plac Wolnosci that turns colors at night, and the Stary Browar (or Old Brewery) shopping center, a combination art and retail space. Familiar franchises such as Starbucks and Zara may not appeal to visitors, but the center's artful renovation bespeaks the attitude of a city eager to preserve its heritage while moving aggressively into the next century.

One of the Poznan's most notable geographical features is Malta Lake, host to international rowing regattas as well as a place to rent boats or visit a water park. For families, there is an outdoor amusement park, minigolf and even an artificial ski slope, for visitors who can't wait for winter.

In addition, Poznan, located about halfway between Warsaw and Berlin, is accessible from either city in about three hours by train, and flights from Berlin to Warsaw offer additional flexibility for travelers who want to start in one city and depart from another.

Finally, like many parts of Poland, Poznan is a bargain. The country has not yet adopted the euro, and while some aspects of the tourism infrastructure are more advanced than others, it is not hard to find hotels and restaurants that are up to, but priced below, Western European standards.

Poznan is also home to the Poznan International Fair, which is a large exhibition and trade center that hosts numerous events during the year. For a schedule of these events, see http://www.mtp.pl.

Wroclaw

Zakopane

Krakow

Vacation Details

Valid Date Ranges

04/18/2027 - 04/27/2027

from $4,025 per person

05/16/2027 - 05/25/2027

from $4,150 per person *

05/30/2027 - 06/08/2027

from $4,175 per person

06/13/2027 - 06/22/2027

from $4,175 per person

07/11/2027 - 07/20/2027

from $4,095 per person

08/08/2027 - 08/17/2027

from $4,075 per person

08/22/2027 - 08/31/2027

from $4,095 per person

09/05/2027 - 09/14/2027

from $4,175 per person *

09/19/2027 - 09/28/2027

from $4,225 per person *

10/03/2027 - 10/12/2027

from $4,050 per person

10/17/2027 - 10/26/2027

from $4,050 per person

10/31/2027 - 11/09/2027

from $4,050 per person

* This departure has been designated a guaranteed departure by the operator, meaning that the minimum number of guests has been met, although still subject to weather and other conditions.

Prices Start At

from $4,025 per person

Length

9 Nights

Air City

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Vacation Rating

Deluxe

Remarks

Trip prices are per person, land only, based on double occupancy and reflect applicable discounts. Trip prices and discounts are subject to change. Airfare is additional. Tour prices, dates and itineraries are correct at the time of the website going live, however are subject to confirmation at the time of booking. Other restrictions may apply.

All fares are quoted in US Dollars.

OFFER ID

1700818

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