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A visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau asks for more than simply adding another day trip to your Krakow itinerary. The former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp is a memorial site and a place of mass murder, where the scale of what happened can be difficult to understand through buildings, photographs and numbers alone. Reading before you go cannot prepare you for the visit itself, and it should not try to. What it can do is give some of the history a human dimension. Names, individual stories, memories and difficult choices become easier to recognise when you arrive at the site. Instead of knowing only what happened, you begin to understand something about the people who experienced it. The six writers below approach this history from very different perspectives. Four of them experienced Auschwitz as prisoners, writing about the camp from their own memories and experiences. Zofia Nalkowska encountered its aftermath from a different position, collecting testimonies and evidence about what had happened there in the months following the war. Hanna Krall offers yet another perspective. She survived the Holocaust as a child but was never imprisoned at Auschwitz. Her writing instead brings readers closer to the Jewish world destroyed during the Holocaust and to the people who carried its memory into the years that followed. There is no single book that can explain Auschwitz. Taken together, however, these works can help you arrive with more context and a greater awareness of the human stories behind the place.

When the Main Market Square starts to feel a little too busy, you don't have to leave Krakow to find a different side of the city. Just beyond the usual sightseeing route, you'll find former quarries turned into green spaces, riverside paths, hilltop viewpoints, monastery gardens and neighbourhoods where life moves at a much slower pace. There is nothing wrong with spending your first day around Rynek Glowny, St Mary's Basilica, Wawel Castle and the Royal Route. They are famous for a reason, and for a first visit, they belong on the list. But after a few hours of following tour groups, waiting for a table and navigating busy streets, you may start looking for somewhere with a little more breathing room. That's when Krakow gets interesting. You don't need a complicated day trip or a long journey out of the city. Sometimes, a 15-minute tram ride or a short walk is enough to change the atmosphere completely. Suddenly there are more trees than souvenir shops, locals walking their dogs instead of organised groups, and paths where you can simply keep walking without having to stop every few metres. And these places aren't abandoned corners of the city. Krakow residents use them every day, particularly at weekends. You'll see people jogging, cycling, meeting friends, taking their children out or simply sitting somewhere with a coffee and enjoying the afternoon. So, if you're ready to put the guidebook down for a few hours, we've collected some of the best places to experience a quieter, greener and more local side of Krakow - all without straying too far from the city itself.

Leave Krakow’s cobblestone streets behind and head south towards a completely different Poland. Beyond the city, the landscape opens into forests, meadows and mountain villages, with the Tatra peaks rising in the distance. A quad tour through Podhale gives you a chance to experience this landscape from the tracks rather than from a coach window.  The ride is the obvious highlight, but it is the journey that makes the day special. You move through quiet countryside, forest trails and highland landscapes, stopping along the way to take in the views and experience a slower side of southern Poland. Add a bonfire, local food or a soak in the thermal baths, depending on the tour, and a few hours outside Krakow can quickly turn into one of the most memorable days of your trip.