ALT Tours

Since the collapse of Communism, tourism in Poland has shot up, and nowhere more so than in Krakow, where 14 million visitors explore the city each year. Much of this tourism is devoted to learning about Krakow’s Jewish history and to visiting nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau. In recent years, the city’s Jewish heritage tourism has neared a breaking point: the Jewish Quarter’s streets were clogged with tour groups and buses, and golf carts crisscross the city blaring pre-recorded audio tours. While some tours are of course very informative, there is such a glut of offerings that the cultural wires of the city have become crossed: competing billboards advertize 2-for-1 trips to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mines; every day, hordes of visitors stop by courtyards and buildings that appeared in Schindler’s List; golf carts broadcast tours that are often misleading or downright inaccurate.