Visiting the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration and Extermination camps is one of the most profound experiences that you will go through in life. This place is less of a tourist destination, and more a place for paying homage to the thousands of Jews who were killed during the holocaust at the various concentration and extermination camps across Europe. Birkenau is historically also referred to as Auschwitz II. Take a bus from the main railway station in Krakow and try to be there as early as possible. The camps are roughly two hours away from the main city bus stand. You are not allowed entry without a guide, who is more of a historian or an interpreter. The two sprawling concentration camps are on the opposite side of the roads roughly couple of kilometre apart. You will enter Auschwitz after you have been assigned to a group with a guide and will be left after the tour finishes in Birkenau. There are buses that leave every few hours back to the main bus stand in the city. Photography is allowed but there are specific places where the guide requests you to not click pictures to respect the departed, for example the showcases where the belongings of the holocaust victims are guarded.