Several months ago, I found myself about 327 meters below ground clad in a red dress, Chuck Taylors (well knock offs haha) and a jacket exploring a historic Polish salt mine. Boy, I was glad I had that jacket. As you can imagine, anywhere that deep would be rather chilly, even in summer.
Our day started with an early wake up call. When visiting a place that over a million people visit every year, getting there early to beat the crowds is important. Alex from East Coast Contessa and I got an Uber out there from our rental apartment in Krakow, but you can also take public transport. In fact, we ended up taking a bus back into the city when we finished our tour.
Starting the tour
When we arrived, we met our English-speaking tour guide and descended the 350 initial stairs down into the mine. Throughout the tour, you climb a total of 800 stairs. The Wieliczka Salt Mine also offers tours in Polish (of course), German, French, Russian, Spanish and Italian.
We were about to embark on the tourist route, a guided tour of the mine that takes around 3 hours to complete. Make sure you wear warm clothing as the temperature gets down to around 18 degrees celsius. Also walking shoes are a must since you walk a lot and often on un-even surfaces.
Once we descended all the initial stairs, we were led through corridors like these. The corridors are set up in a way where the air flows in sort of a circle. This is very necessary when you’re this far underground.
Experiencing it the way it was
Nowadays, the mine isn’t mined for salt like it used to be. Instead it is mainly used for tourism purposes. Throughout the tourist route, you can find old machinery that they used to use.
As you wander through the tourist route, there are all sorts of different statues and monuments. It’s cool to get a sense of what life was like down in the mine.
Take me to church
One of the most impressive parts of the mine is the chapel. Fun fact: if you can show up for church early morning on Sunday (like 6:45-7:45ish), you can enter the chapel for free. This is great if you’re on a budget but still want to experience the mine (and don’t care about a super early morning).
To enter the chapel, you descend some stairs into an open space with an alter. Hanging above the alter is a beautiful chandelier.
Events at a historic Polish salt mine
Another thing that I found to be pretty neat was that this salt mine can host events! Imagine attending a conference in this space! I think that would be such a cool experience.
They have all sorts of different rooms perfect for conferences, banquets and parties. You can also reserve the chapel and have your wedding in the mine!
Staying in the mine and the spa
This was not something we experienced firsthand, but it is still worth noting. If you wish, you can even spend the night in the mine. You can either do a health day, a daytime stay or stay overnight. You can find all the information about their health resort here.
Some last shots
Here are some other shots I took while on the tourist route. At the end, there’s a museum as well where you can see the old uniforms that the minors wore. It’s pretty neat to imagine what life was once like.
Overall, I would recommend a day exploring this historic Polish salt mine. Have you ever explored something about 500 steps underground?
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