Last year my husband and I visited Krakow, Poland. We spent 3,5 days wandering around Krakow and eating delicious Polish food. Everybody knows that Krakow has beautifully preserved historical Old Town and wonderful Wawel castle. However, did you know, that just a short train ride away is a magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site of Wieliczka Salt Mine?

The Wieliczka Salt Mine, near Krakow (Poland) is one of the most famous salt mines in the world. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is renowned for its incredible underground chapels, sculptures carved from salt, and fascinating history, which dates back to the 13th century. Today nearly 2 million tourists visit Wieliczka Salt Mine every year.

Day trip from Krakow: UNESCO World Heritage Site Wieliczka Salt Mine

Getting to Wieliczka Salt Mine

It was my husband’s idea to visit Wieliczka Salt Mine. I didn’t think that I’d like it but I was so wrong. It is a wonderful place and one of those rare once in a lifetime experiences. As usually, all vital information about visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine as a day trip from Krakow can be found online. There are many guided tours from Krakow to Wieliczka Salt Mine but I’m not a huge fan of guided tours because most of the time visiting a place on your own means saving up some money and doing what you want and when you want it. So, I found online that the quickest way to visit Wieliczka Salt Mine is by a train (it is only 15 km from Krakow). We took a train from Krakow Główny (the main train station) to Wieliczka Rynek Kopalnia station. The journey lasted about 20-30 minutes. You can buy tickets even onboard the train (ticket machines) but we bought them at a ticket machine at the train station. One way ticket cost us less than 1,50 EUR per person. Once we got off the train at Wieliczka Rynek Kopalnia we followed instructions from Google map how to reach visitor’s entrance to Wieliczka Salt Mine (Daniłowicz Shaft for Tourist Route). It was a short walk which lasted around 10 minutes. The tickets for Wieliczka Salt Mine can be bought online. My advice is to definitely buy them online because you might not be able to get them on the spot. There are two options for a visit: Tourist route and a Miners Route. We opted for a Tourist Route to see all the most important underground sites such as an unique St. Kinga’s chapel. Miners Route is more adventurous and you perform actual mining tasks but you don’t see all the top attractions. For actual ticket prices and more practical information about visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine click here.

Our visit of Wieliczka Salt Mine

We came around half an hour before our entry time. All visits are done with a guide. You don’t walk alone around the underground tunnels which are like a maze because you would get lost. We joined the English tour. Since we had some time to kill, we walked up to the Graduation Tower and saw some small trains used in the mine. I’ve also had a Obwarzanki (like a pretzl) to give me some energy for the long walk around the mine. The tour lasted around 2 hours and we covered around 3,5 km of underground tunnels. The tour involves a lot of steps up and down so it’s not suitable for people with any heart condition. The first level we reached was 65 m underground. The lowest point we reached was 135 m where you can find the elevator that takes you back up to the surface. There was plenty of fresh air throughout our route and all the corridors were wide. I didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. Also, it wasn’t very cold inside. Our guide was really good and shared with us all sorts of interesting facts about the mine from its prehistoric beginnings to present time.

Why was salt so important before? Well, perhaps you already know it, but before the refrigerator was invented people used to keep their food fresh by preserving it in salt. Salt was actually quite precious in the past. In 13th century first excavations of salt were carried out at Wieliczka mine. Polish king Casimir III used the wealth from salt production to find the first university in Poland among other things. History comes alive in the underground tunnels because there are many monumental salt sculptures depicting important historical events. All the sculptures were made by real miners, not artists. Nicolaus Copernicus, the famous mathematician and astronomer, was the first official tourist in the mine, back in 15th century. Visitors already signed a guest book in 17th century and many foreign kings and queens visited the salt mine too. I’m sure they were equally impressed by these underground tunnels as we were.

At some point during our visit the guide told us that we could taste the salt. He showed us some pristine salt rocks and said that we could actually lick it. Most people in the group did just that. We came across several ornate chambers and a magnificent Chapel of St. Kinga, featuring stunning salt chandeliers and intricate carvings. Pope John Paul II held a mass there. The guide told us that church mass is regularly hold there almost every Sunday. You can even get married in this divine chamber. Our guided visit finished in a wide chamber. From there the path leads to a shop and an underground restaurant. Imagine that, eating your soup more than a hundred metres underground. Since we had some snacks before our visit, we didn’t have lunch in the mine. After you walk through the shop and the restaurant, you have to wait again for the guide to take you to the elevator which brings you back to surface. You can also wait for a guide to take you to the underground museum. We waited for an English guide for some time to take us on a museum tour but then I got impatient and told my husband that I want to go out. It was a pity that we didn’t manage to visit the underground museum too. However, we both enjoyed our visit very much.

All in all, visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine was a truly fascinating experience.

Don’t miss out on this extraordinary piece of Polish heritage during your trip to Krakow!

We visited Wieliczka Salt Mine in April 2023.