Transfers for your hotel depart Kraków airport at 12:30 and 15:00. Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers at 17:00 for a Welcome Dinner with wine at a local restaurant. Afterwards, get your first taste of Polish old-world charm with a walk around the magnificent Cloth Hall in the Market Square. Wrapped in romantic gabled townhouses and Gothic spires, the festive Christmas Market stalls are a Disneyesque dream, offering all sorts of delicacies and delights - from Highland woollen slippers to amber jewellery from the Baltic. Maybe try the traditional oscypek cheese with cranberries, a delicacy from the Tatra mountains?
Ascend Wawel Hill with your Local Expert to see the Renaissance castle and visit the cathedral – the final resting place of the Kings of Poland. Then cross the former Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz to Old Podgórze, the Old Town, to see Ghetto Square and remains of the Ghetto Wall. The rest of the day is at leisure or perhaps choose to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine? There is time to explore the traditional Christmas Market located in the Old Town's historic district. You'll find yourself immersed in festive spirit as you shop for authentic Christmas decorations, gifts, toys and tasty treats.
Perhaps spend some reflective moments and visit Auschwitz concentration camp? Later, continue to the city of Wrocław, known as the Venice of Poland, made up of five rivers, 12 islands and over 150 bridges. Try your hand at traditional Polish pierneki during a gingerbread workshop at a small family business, followed by a tasting. Rated as one of the finest in Europe, Wrocław’s Christmas Market offers a delightful, fairy-tale charm. Enjoy an orientation of the market, located in Rynek, the historic main square which is surrounded by Baroque splendour and adorned with thousands of twinkling lights. Spend time exploring the vast array of stalls bursting with local crafts and tasty treats.
Cross the Czech border and head for Kutná Hora, a town that flourished during the Middle Ages thanks to vast deposits of silver. Continue your travels to the Czech capital of Prague.
Explore Prague with Insight Choice. Choose to walk the courtyards of the Castle and visit the imposing St. Vitus Cathedral. Alternatively, join your Local Expert through the Jewish Quarter and hear about the history, traditions and legends of the Jewish people. Then, down at the Old Town Square, Prague’s colourful Christmas Market contrasts with the Gothic skyline. Beneath a giant Christmas tree, draped in a blaze of lights, locals browse the decorative wooden stalls. Meet a local stallholder and savour a glass of Svařák, traditional mulled wine, along with the local Trdelník pastry.
Cross the German border to Dresden. Gaze up at the Frauenkirche, risen once again from wartime ashes. Your guided exploration with a Local Expert will continue past the colossal 'Procession of the Dukes' mosaic, the cathedral, Semper Opera House and Zwinger Palace. During your free time perhaps seek out the delicious Christstollen, a Christmas cake recipe dating back to medieval times, or shop for a traditional Christmas pyramid. Then journey on to Berlin.
Join a Local Expert to see the Brandenburg Gate, State Opera House, remnants of the Berlin Wall, Unter den Linden, and the beautifully-restored Reichstag building. Feel free to soak up the Weihnachtszauber, or Christmas magic, at the Gendarmenmarkt, which is Berlin’s most magnificent square. In the evening, join your friends for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience during a festive Celebration Dinner with wine and good cheer at a local restaurant supporting refugees to integrate into German society.
Your journey draws to a close after breakfast. Departure transfers arrive at Berlin airport at 07:00 and 10:00.
Prices shown are per person based on two people sharing a twin room. To request a personalized travel quote, click "Request Quote" and a Travel Specialist will send your custom quote including airfare if requested.
Optional Experiences are subject to change. Your Travel Director will supply you with a final list of Optional Experiences available on your trip. Optional Experiences cannot be booked online; they can be purchased during your trip through your Travel Director.
Available on Day 2
Enjoy a generous selection of traditional Polish cuisine and drinks in the countryside outside Krakow. A local, beautifully-dressed folk group and live band will entertain you with songs and dances and you might even get to join them for a polka or two! Don't miss this enjoyable evening.
Adult Price: € 63
Visit the 700-year-old UNESCO World Heritage-listed salt mine, located on the outskirts of Krakow. On a guided tour, learn about the mine’s long history, and explore the vast underground labyrinth of chambers filled with unique salt sculptures carved by the miners themselves.
Adult Price: € 56
Available on Day 3
Take a sobering but worthwhile trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the memorial sites of former concentration camps during WWII.
Adult Price: € 35
Available on Day 5
Discover the hidden world of Prague's Malá Strana district on foot, accompanied by our Local Expert. Continue to the famous Charles Bridge, built in 1357, before enjoying a private cruise on the Vlatava. Enjoy a drink as you glide past the magical sights of Prague.
Adult Price: € 44
Hearty and delicious, Czech cuisine borrows heavily from its Central European neighbors, but also boasts a few unique twists of its own. In a local restaurant, enjoy a traditional Czech meal accompanied by the planet's most perfect pilsner. During dinner, lively musicians in traditional dress set the mood with songs and dances from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.
Adult Price: € 60
Available on Day 6
This evening you are treated to traditional Berliner cuisine in a lively local restaurant with live music and drinks. Guten Appetit and Prost! afterward embark on a scenic illuminations drive through the center of Berlin, with splendid views of the historic buildings and monuments, lit up in all their glory. See the Unter den Linden, Brandenburg Gate and more.
Adult Price: € 60
Available on Day 7
Explore the shadows of the past with our Local Expert and visit the staggering Holocaust Memorial. Stop for a photo at ‘Checkpoint Charlie,' location of the tense stand-offs between U.S. & Soviet forces during the Cold War. Then a real highlight as we visit the Berlin Wall Memorial. The memorial contains the last section of the Berlin Wall with a guard tower and preserved grounds and is thus able to convey an impression of how the border fortifications developed until the end of the 1980s. Learn about this focal point of 20th-century history and of the fate of those who attempted to cross it.
Adult Price: € 32