Explore Malbork Castle with a Local Expert, walking through the vast brick fortress built by the Teutonic Order. See the High Castle’s cloisters and chapter house, the Middle Castle’s great refectory and the defensive walls surrounding the complex.

Built from the late 13th century onward, Malbork was a seat of Teutonic power. Its courtyards and monumental halls show how the order combined religious, administrative and military functions within one of Europe’s largest medieval brick castles.

• 3 Dinner (D)
• 9 Breakfast (B)

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Insight Vacations

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

Explore Kraków with a Local Expert, walking through Rynek Glówny and the medieval Old Town past the Sukiennice Cloth Hall and St. Mary’s Church. Visit Kazimierz, where synagogues and historic streets speak to centuries of Jewish life in the city.

On Wawel Hill, view the royal castle and step inside Wawel Cathedral, the burial place of Polish monarchs and statesmen. Its chapels, added across successive dynasties, reveal how royal and religious history shaped the former capital.

Share a welcome dinner with your small group at a local restaurant in Kraków. Enjoy regional Polish dishes and conversation with the travellers and Travel Director who will accompany you through the country.

Food offers an introduction to the former royal capital beyond its landmarks. A relaxed table gives you room to learn about one another while tasting the flavours of the region in a local setting.

Walk with your Travel Director along Zakopane’s Krupówki Street, the mountain town’s lively centre. Look for carved timber buildings in the Zakopane Style and browse market stalls displaying Highlander woodcarving and textiles.

Developed in the late 19th century from local building traditions, the distinctive architecture expresses Zakopane’s connection to the Tatra Mountains. Crafts brought in from surrounding villages offer a closer look at the Górale Highlander culture that remains part of everyday life here.

Experience dinner with Góral Highlander music and dance in Zakopane, at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. Listen for the driving rhythms of the fiddle and the sound of the shepherd’s flute as performers share traditions rooted in the region.

The music and dance reflect a mountain culture shaped by village gatherings and pastoral life. Shared over a meal, the performance gives you a sense of the living customs behind Zakopane’s timber architecture and craftwork.

Visit the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in Oswiecim with a Memorial Guide Educator. View preserved barracks, guard towers and barbed-wire fencing at the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

The guided visit provides historical context for the people imprisoned and murdered here during the Second World War. Moving through the preserved site is a solemn opportunity to learn, bear witness and reflect on the consequences of persecution and genocide.

Visit Gniezno Cathedral, closely associated with Poland’s earliest rulers and archbishops. Examine the monumental 12th-century bronze doors, whose detailed relief panels depict scenes from the life of St. Adalbert.

Inside, chapels and crypts trace the cathedral’s long religious and political importance. The doors are a remarkable work of medieval craftsmanship, while the building offers insight into Gniezno’s place in the formation of the Polish state.

Explore Warsaw with a Local Expert, visiting the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Muranów and walking through the reconstructed Old Town around Castle Square and the market area.

The monument commemorates resistance during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. In the Old Town, carefully rebuilt streets reveal a different response to wartime destruction: the effort to restore a historic centre that had been devastated during the Second World War.

Discover Poland’s 20th-century design history on a guided visit to Warsaw’s Neon Museum with a museum specialist. View restored signs once made for shops, cinemas and streets across the country.

The collection preserves the colour and typography of Poland’s Cold War-era streetscape. Hearing the stories behind the original designs reveals how everyday commercial signs became expressive public art, offering a vivid contrast to Warsaw’s royal and medieval landmarks.

Share a farewell dinner with your small group in a local Warsaw restaurant. Enjoy regional dishes and conversation with the travellers who have explored Poland alongside you.

The meal offers a relaxed setting to reflect on the places and stories encountered across the country, from mountain traditions to medieval towns and modern history. It is a hosted group gathering rather than an evening left to arrange independently.

Descend into the Wieliczka Salt Mine on an optional visit from Kraków. Explore a network of passages and chambers carved from rock salt, revealing the scale of a working mine with roots in the Middle Ages.

This UNESCO-listed site reflects the labour and ingenuity behind centuries of salt production, once a significant source of wealth for the region. The visit is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit Sopot on the Baltic coast as an optional excursion from Gdansk. Experience the atmosphere of this seaside town, known for its beach and resort setting beside the Gulf of Gdansk.

Sopot offers a coastal contrast to Gdansk’s merchant streets and shipyard history. Its shoreline and promenades provide a chance to take in the Baltic air and see another side of the region. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Listen to a Chopin recital in an intimate Warsaw venue on this optional evening experience. Hear music by the Polish composer performed in the city where he spent his formative years.

Warsaw’s connection to Frédéric Chopin adds depth to the performance: his early musical education and first public successes took place here. A live recital gives you time to focus on the character and expression of his compositions. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore Wroclaw with a Local Expert, walking through the Rynek market square to see its restored facades and the flower stalls of neighbouring Plac Solny. Keep an eye out for the small bronze gnomes tucked across the city centre.

Wroclaw’s architecture reflects a history of changing borders and post-war restoration. Its playful gnome figures recall the city’s anti-communist Orange Alternative movement, adding a distinctive layer to a walk through its historic streets.

Join a local guide to explore Poznan’s Old Town, pausing at the Renaissance town hall and the surrounding market square. Walk the adjoining streets to see colourful facades and the layout of a city long connected to trade.

Several buildings around the square were restored after wartime damage, while the town hall reflects Poznan’s prosperity in earlier centuries. The walk places those architectural layers within one of the centres associated with Poland’s early statehood.

Explore Torun’s medieval Old Town with a Local Expert, following streets lined with Gothic brick buildings. See the market square, the leaning tower and surviving sections of the town walls.

Torun’s position on historic trade routes helped shape its merchant architecture and ties to the Hanseatic League. Its preserved street plan makes the medieval townscape unusually easy to read, from the public square to the fortifications that once marked its edge.

Walk through Gdansk’s historic centre with a Local Expert, where merchant houses and Gothic brickwork reflect the city’s Hanseatic trading past. Explore the Motlawa waterfront and learn how the harbour connected Gdansk to the Baltic world.

The city’s layers of history extend from its medieval streets to the nearby coast, including Westerplatte, associated with the opening of the Second World War. This guided exploration brings those different chapters into focus within Gdansk’s distinctive port setting.

Visit the European Solidarity Centre and Gdansk Shipyards with a local who worked here during the 1980 strikes. Walk through original shipyard areas, including BHP Hall, and hear a firsthand account of the movement linked to Lech Walesa.

The strikes helped launch Solidarity, an independent trade union that became central to Poland’s democratic transformation. Meeting someone connected to these events gives the shipyard buildings and gates a personal dimension. The visit supports education about this history.