Insight Vacations

• 3 Dinner (D)
• 7 Breakfast (B)

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

Dine with your Travel Director and fellow travellers at a local restaurant in Kraków. Regional dishes and conversation offer a welcoming introduction to the city and the people sharing your journey.

Polish cooking draws on hearty soups, seasonal produce and recipes shaped by centuries of Central European exchange. This hosted dinner is a chance to encounter those flavours in a relaxed local setting.

Walk around the Cloth Hall in Kraków’s Rynek Glówny and browse the surrounding Christmas Market stalls. Look for handmade decorations, Baltic amber jewellery and regional treats beneath the square’s Gothic spires and historic townhouses.

The Renaissance Cloth Hall recalls Kraków’s importance as a trading city. In winter, the medieval square fills with lights and the scent of festive food; you may spot oscypek, a smoked cheese from the Tatra Mountains often served with cranberry sauce.

Explore Kraków with a Local Expert, tracing its medieval streets and ascending Wawel Hill to visit Wawel Cathedral, the burial place of Polish monarchs and statesmen. See how royal patronage, trade and university life shaped the Old Town.

The guided exploration also crosses Kazimierz, Kraków’s historic Jewish quarter, and reaches the former ghetto area in Podgórze. At Ghetto Square and the surviving wall remnants, encounter physical reminders of the city’s Jewish history and the persecution of its community during the Second World War.

Visit Auschwitz, the site of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp near Oswiecim. This is a place for sober reflection on the people imprisoned and murdered here during the Holocaust.

Its preserved grounds and historic buildings stand as evidence of the crimes committed under Nazi occupation. The visit offers an opportunity to confront this history at the site itself and consider why its memory remains essential today.

Taste your way through Prague’s Malá Strana on a progressive Dine-Around at local restaurants. Enjoy Czech soup, a sample of pear brandy or herbal Becherovka, and beef goulash with bread dumplings and wine.

The hosted evening also includes a walk across Charles Bridge and a visit to the Christmas market on Kampa, where mulled wine and a Czech festive treat await. Cobblestone streets and riverside views give the meal a strong sense of place.

Explore Prague Castle with a Local Expert, walking its courtyards and visiting St. Vitus Cathedral. The cathedral’s Gothic towers rise above the castle complex, one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks.

For centuries, the castle has been a seat of Czech power, while the cathedral has hosted royal ceremonies and houses important tombs. This included Insight Choice activity is an alternative to the guided Jewish Quarter visit; travellers select one of the two experiences.

Walk Prague’s Jewish Quarter with a Local Expert and learn how its community shaped the city’s history, traditions and legends. The visit includes the Old-New Synagogue and Jewish cemetery, two enduring landmarks of Jewish Prague.

The medieval synagogue remains a centre of worship, while the cemetery’s closely packed gravestones bear witness to generations who lived in Josefov. This included Insight Choice activity is an alternative to the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral visit; travellers select one.

Meet a local stallholder at the Christmas Market in Prague’s Old Town Square and savour Svarák, Czech mulled wine, with Trdelník pastry. Browse the decorated wooden stalls beneath a brightly lit Christmas tree.

Gothic towers and historic facades frame the market, bringing Prague’s architectural character into the festive scene. The hosted tasting adds a personal introduction to two familiar market flavours while leaving space to take in the square’s winter atmosphere.

Explore Dresden with a Local Expert, seeing the rebuilt Frauenkirche, the Procession of the Dukes mosaic, the cathedral, Semper Opera House and Zwinger Palace. Together, these landmarks reveal the grandeur of Saxony’s former royal capital.

Hear how Dresden’s historic centre was damaged during the Second World War and painstakingly restored. Your expert also introduces the traditional German Christmas pyramid, a tiered festive decoration closely associated with the wider Saxon region.

Discover Berlin with a Local Expert, passing along the Ku’damm and through the Tiergarten to see the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. Pause at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and see landmarks including the State Opera, Museum Island and remnants of the Berlin Wall.

The ruined church spire recalls wartime destruction, while the Wall’s surviving sections speak to the city’s decades of division. Imperial avenues, rebuilt civic buildings and contemporary streets reveal how Berlin’s history remains visible across the capital.

Share a festive Celebration Dinner with your fellow travellers at a local Berlin restaurant. German cuisine, wine and conversation make this a hosted evening rather than a routine meal.

Berlin’s dining scene reflects both regional traditions and the capital’s varied communities. Around the table, the focus is on enjoying local flavours and sharing impressions of the places, markets and people encountered across the journey.

Visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Kraków on an optional excursion. Descend into a network of chambers and passageways carved by generations of miners, with salt sculptures and underground spaces revealing the scale of this working heritage site.

Salt was an important source of wealth for medieval Poland, and mining at Wieliczka continued for centuries. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; confirm the visit’s arrangements with your Travel Director.

Explore Wroclaw’s Christmas Market with an orientation in Rynek, the historic main square. Browse wooden stalls filled with local crafts and seasonal food amid colourful facades, Baroque architecture and strings of winter lights.

Taste Lower Silesian gingerbread made with locally sourced ingredients and recipes that revive a regional tradition. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience connects a festive market treat with the people and food heritage of the surrounding area.