Terezin Half Day Trip from Prague including Memorial Visit

Powerful

This tour is worth your time. The small fortress tour was guided by an employee at the camp, and the tour of the crematorium was guided by the company who operated the tour. In addition, we had time to walk through the museum. I would recommend going on this tour. Transportation went smoothly, and we had enough time to view the area and exhibits.

Don't waste your money or time with this horrible tour operator!

Buyer BEWARE!! Worst experience ever. Pickup was unclear on website resulting in them not picking us up and not offering a refund or any other option. $138 down the tube. Petra the tour operator was rude and dismissive on her later communication. Will have to battle this one with AMEX to get my money refunded. Save your money and find a different tour.

Must do

I highly recommend this tour to gain an understanding of the holocaust and what happened at Terezin. This of course is a very somber tour but one I would highly recommend. Driver and guide were very knowledgeable and approachable.

Somber but valuable trip to Terezin

Truly excellent. .Highly recommend this tour. On our visit to Prague, we felt a need to pay our respects at Terezin. Our guide (Daniel?) was engaging, passionate, extremely knowledgeable and interesting. A very sobering day as we visited the fortress, camp and cemeteries. Our group was pretty quiet on return trip to Prague. Our driver did a fabulous job and our hotel pick up and drop off was seamless and much appreciated.

Meaningful experience

Meaningful excursion. Good guide; knowledgeable guide who provided the history from when the fortress was built to the repurposing of it as a way station of sadness, despair and destruction.

Hard to understand.

We left about 25 minutes late. Our guide was very hard to understand Most of the people on board were very disappointed in the tour.

Poorly organised.

Although the tour guide tried his best and was very enthusiastic, the whole experience was poorly organised. We waited over 30 mins for people who were late. They did add this on at the end, however. We were not informed or clearly made aware on booking that certain areas were closed due to it being a Saturday. Sadly, there were many disgruntled people on the tour, some even left part way through. There were other tours there that looked much more professional and more organised.

dont use this tour company but make alternate arrangements to visit Terezin

The crowded room in Magdaburg barracks and the cells in the small fortress. The experience of an entire village being used used a ghetto was a key experience.

The driver just ruined the whole experience of the tour!

The driver just ruined the whole experience of the tour! We were picked up by the driver from the hotel and took us to meet up with the rest of the people at the main railway station. However, the driver went the wrong way (I believe) and the van got stuck at the entrance of the car park. The ceiling window of the van was broken and it fell on us! However, the driver only said sorry and went to check on the van first but not us! Luckily we were fine. There was another lady from the company explained the situation to us but still tried to get the van out of the car park and continue to pick up the other travellers (full of broken glasses inside the van), obviously it was unsuccessful and they had to call another van to come. The tour was delayed because of the incident and initially they promised us they will extend the tour a little bit. However, we were rushed to join the on-site tour at the ghetto and missed a few bits as we arrived late. The rest of the tour was just fine. We were not happy with the overall tour as we were rushed due to the delay we didn’t make! Would not recommend this tour!

Information and detailed trip

We were picked up from our hotel in a minibus which was very helpful. An English speaking guide, who was extremely knowledgeable, boarded our bus at Prague railway station. He started his commentary immediately. First stop was Terezin camp. We were escorted through all areas by an onsite guide. Although this kind of trip is always harrowing and thought provoking, I feel it is necessary to understand what happened to the Jews in WW2. Next stop, Thereseinstadt. I’d read about the set-up of this place in a book. The museum was excellent. It was hard to believe how the Red Cross and wider world were fooled by the propaganda film - but they were. The recreation of a loft chilling. The artwork of both children and adults was insightful and heartbreaking. Final stop was a Jewish cemetery. The trip was about 5 hours from pick-up to drop-off. I really felt I had improved my understanding of the Holocaust. I recommend this trip if you want to know more.

Recommended

Well organised trip, we were picked up from our hotel at the given time. Our tour guide gave us a commentary all the way on the journey to Terezin. There was an official guide who took over at the small fortress at Terezin., then our tour guide was with us when we visited the museum and crematorium. Afterwards we were dropped near Republic Square which was a central point for most of the people on the tour. Overall very impressed and would recommend.

Necessary experience

The guide once we got to Terazin was wonderful. She was knowledgeable and respectful of where we were. However, was very disappointed with no drop off back at the hotel once finished. When I booked it it said it included pick up and drop off. Also tour guide on the bus with us not very knowledgeable. I was disappointed

Eye opener

The guide Petr was excellent. He certainly knew his history and was very informative. The tour at the small fortress was done by a a lady called Rosa who again was very good. Highly recommend this tour

Very Distributing

Amazing how cruel Humans can be to others other Humans these people were no better than animals,Animals don't threat their species that bad,Our guide was very knowegable about the history ect,

Life in a Prison

The exhibits with the women and children sharing their stories. The children’s drawings of a life of freedom and the fairytale drawings. The women did not have accommodations for their clothing and other necessities. I thought about my life and how it would feel to be uprooted from family and friends. The artistic talents and how they were used strategically was amazing.

Drop off misleading.

Everything about the tour was great except that the tour description was misleading in that it said we'd be dropped back at our hotel, under what to expect. And unexpectedly, we were dropped at another location that we weren't familiar with and so had to fine our way back to our hotel.

Lots of room for improvement

The trip was really good but the tour guide was under the impression we were all Spanish so began speaking to us in Spanish when we all got on the bus and then was stumbling across her words as to what the English word were for certain things. I’m not saying she was terrible but I couldn’t understand half of what she was saying so I googled things afterwards. We were rushed through the main part which was the actual camp I would have preferred to spend longer there than anything else but then again the woman who did the tour there was terrible her English was atrocious at best I just wandered round not knowing half of the stuff she was saying. Self tour would be your best bet if that’s an option

History Done Respectfully.

It was a sober visit to see all the horrible events that occurred during WWII. But our guide respectfully did a nice tour in bi-lingual languages - English and French. Thank you

Not a concentration camp

Thought this was a concentration camp. It was not Very unorganized. Disappointed in that we had to wait for several people

Impressive

Impressive even though our guide was a bit dull. The silent witness of a terrible periode. A history we have to remember in the hope it will never repeat itself

Day trip

Great guide. Very helpful especially with my elderly mother who isn’t so good at walking. Very interesting place and very moving stories.

A moving experience expertly presented

A moving experience expertly presented by Ludwig a great guide Terezin is a well preserved and presented representation of the horrors of the holocaust which everyone should experience as a reminder of the inhumanity of which humans are capable. The tour was enhanced by Ludwig’s great knowledge of the subject.

Not worth 60€

This tour was not worth 60€. We took a tour of the small fortress and then were simply rushed through 2 small museums. I was under the impression that we would be touring the full ghetto and the crematorium, but this was not the case. There was no mention of the crematorium or explanation of why we did not visit, and this seems to be the most interesting and evocative part of the whole tour, so I was very disappointed. Also, some members of the tour were told that they would be dropped off at their hotels at the end of the tour, but we were simply dropped off at Wenceslas Square. I was fine with this, but some others were upset because they had been promised hotel drop off. My advice is to book with a different tour company.

Trip to Terizen

Guide talked constantly enroute to destination. Spoke very quickly and we were unable to access information. Also at the various places we were hurried and so missed out on accessing the exhibits at length. A disappointing trip overall however the guide at the camp was superb.

Terezin

Very good. Must do. The local guide was just with my daughter and me. Very informative. Quite exhaustive with the second part (big Ghetto and the impressive crematorium).

A great history lesson and tour, not to be missed

Of course, this is nothing like going to the death camps of Germany and Poland, but still a very eye-opening and somber experience nonetheless. This small walled town in northern Czechia should typically house about 6,000 people but during WWII, it housed as much as 55,000 at a time. It functioned as a concentration camp and a stop-off spot between being torn from their homes and most commonly to Auschwitz from here. About 33,000 people died in this camp due to poor conditions. Approximately 150,000 Jews were sent here during the war, of which only about 17,000 ultimately survived, including the loss of about 99% of the children that come through this camp. Pretty heady stuff. Part of the tour is in the small fortress adjacent to the town that was a prison which is interesting as well. For those of us from the US, this is very far removed from anything in our country so it is very important to come to places like this to get a small understanding and insight into a horrible time in human history. The tour was good in that we got to have a history lesson on the way to Terezin to help understand what we would see and the history around the place before WWII. Our guide was very informative and accessible for questions. A great experience all around.

Very disappointing

The van picked me up at my hotel in time. The guide however, had such a monotonous voice that within 15 mins the entire van was asleep. His sentences trailed off at the end so you couldn’t hear him and his command of English, particularly for a sensitive topic such as the Holocaust was poor. He seemed not to care about history or his job. He was completely unhelpful when I lost my hat but when challenged said he didn’t understand me. Lastly he was unkempt.

A memorial for the extreme suffering of so many, mainly Jewish peoples, as a consequence of the Nazi Final Solution

An opportunity to see the countryside on the way. Very interesting information from the guide on the way on the history of Czech Republic. Guide at the Terezin Memorial was very informative. For an elder person travelling solo it was what I wanted including being picked up at my accommodation. Such a brutal and sad history. We must never forget. Thank you.

History not to be forgotten

Only issue was the heat and that is totally out of everyone's control. The pre tour pickup and meeting the tour went smoothly and the tour was amazing. It lived up to expectations as I had been to another camp many years ago in Germany. Thank you for keeping the experiences, the history and the wrong doings in our current minds in the hope we can stop it happening again. I learnt lots I was unaware of about the castles previous history. Thanks also to our driver who did a dropoff back out our accommodations. Janet

Terezin Trip

We had an excellent tour guide who spoke excellent English and did a very good job! We enjoyed the trip.

Well worth the trip well organised

Well organised tour we were picked up from our hotel were very moved by the camp and museum Our guide gave us a good testimony on how the local people were treated by the Nazis

Family Europe 2023

We learned beyond common knowledge. Our guide was very kind, knowledgeable, professional, and attentive. We would definitely recommend it for families

Terezin Tour

Interesting, sobering & learned new things. Didn’t realize Hungary did not do extermination, but Terezin was a holding center before the Jewish people were sent to various extermination camps.

Heartbreaking! People of all faiths need to witness and learn from this!

It was extremely informative. Guide was excellent. A lot of walking. I wish that more original buildings of the Terezin Ghetto were available to enter like they were in the Terezin Prison. The exhibits on the children, writers, artists and musicians was heartbreaking. The crematorium visit bought tears to my eyes. An amazing history lesson on what happens when we allow mad men to assume power.

Amazing trip and the best guide!

Great tour and an amazing, engaged guide, Valeria, who told us in detail so much about the horrific history. Really recommend! Could not come up with anything negative.

Solemn and Detailed Tour

The tour instructor was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the history of Terezin. He was thoughtful throughout the trip ensuring everyone was going to the correct places, and communicated well in multiple languages. He genuinely cared about the tour. My only critique would be at the start of the bus ride ensuring everyone can hear, as the bus has buttons next to the air conditioner controls which mutes or unmutes the guide operator. We didn’t realise this for 20 minutes or so and missed some of the history.

Worthwhile, but guide difficult to understand

Overall we really enjoyed this day trip. The major drawback was that our guide spoke English with a very heavy accent so he was very difficult to understand. On the bus journey there, the guide gave some background information on Terezin, but we could barely make him out despite being sat right next to him. The first part of the tour around the small fortress was lead by a different guide, who was very clear and informative. The second part was around the ghetto, consisting of the children's museum and the art museum. This was lead by our original guide, but there was lots of written literature so we were still able to learn a lot. We were rushed through the museums a little and didn't get to look at everything. Finally we were taken to the crematorium and the cemetery. The tour packs in a lot and it is definitely worth doing. I also really liked that we were back in Prague City centre for 3 o'clock, so it did not take up the whole day. I would reccomend this trip, it is just a pity the tour guide was not easier to understand, which would have made it a 5 star experience.

Excellent

It was nice trip. Our guide Ewa spoke both English and French fluently and her explanation was very clear, and took care of us as well. We had enough time to look around the monument and museum. Our car had air conditioning so it was no problem under the warm weather. I truly recommend this trip.

Not worth the time or money

The guide didn't speak English very well and seemed to be reciting a script. There was incorrect information given. Way too much time spent in the prison area and not enough information about the Jewish experience. I would not recommend this tour.

Poor experience unfortunately

I rated the tour experience for 2 main reasons - first was the way the tour was divided up between the prison and the ghetto - we ended up spending more time at the prison site then the actual concentration camp exhibits - we were rushed through the latter yet that was the main area we all wanted to see. So I definitely recommend to the tour organizers to have a look at how the time is divided up. The second reason for the lower score was because the tour guide was difficult to understand - I personally asked questions multiple times to understand the information being shared yet still left with many questions which I don't think is ideal after taking a tour. I have since done some internet searches so many questions have been answered but if that was required I could have saved the $ and done a self guided walk. Overall I would recommend going to Terezin but not with this tour company.

Disappointing

I was very disappointed in the guide, he spoke very fast even when asked to slow down. He had an extremely thick accent and constantly told the conflicting stories.

Well worth doing. This was my second time...having done this back in 2017.. Well worth it.

The tour was in 3 parts...very informative.thd 5 hours is just long enough given travel there and back takes 2 hrs.

Disappointing experience!!

I was very interested to see the history of Terezin camp but it was pretty disappointing in how it was conducted. Being an expensive trip, I had purchased an English language guide. However, our guide, an elderly gentleman was very nice and polite but he was also conducting the tour in Italian at the same time. It felt that for 10 minutes in english he would do 20-25 minutes in Italian. I found this very upsetting as I had especially purchased the time slot with an English guide. If the guide wanted to conduct two groups at the same time then it shouldn't be the guest suffering. The tour was then passed off to a lady at the camp site and it seemed like she just memorized everything and told us like a robot which I could have just read online and saved the money. She didn't seem interested to engage with us and looked bored. With dual language tour, I couldn't understand half the things said. It's a knowledgeable tour but being transparent would have been appreciated. Would do this on my own next time.

Terrible guide who knew nothing. Need more time.

Arthur, our guide. really did not know about the Holocaust or Terezin. He wanted to talk about the 2 "good guards" and nothing else - nothing sad or real, no factual stuff. He even said it was sad about the children and insinuated we not look at the info about them. The museum visit was only 30ish minutes, on our own; we rushed and barely read anything in order to at least see every room and visit the rest room. The visit to the small fortress was guided by someone there and had good information. Arthur gave us no time to walk around the cemetery; he told us about some of it and then we had to leave. Literally we saw it by walking down the main path and to the Crematorium but no where else. We were unable to walk to the edges and pay respects or read any gravestones. Unfortunately it was a Saturday and the Crematorium was closed. Arthur told us in the car that it was "good we booked a tour with a guide like him or his friends because other guides make up stories." Well, he tried to explain multiple things to us that were factually incorrect. We were so very disappointed by this once in a life time visit and truly disappointed to have a guide that really knew or at least shared almost nothing. More upsetting was that he did not want to acknowledge the true sadness that occurred in Terezin. He should have shared some facts an/or stories. He tried to explain the Red Cross Visit but did it so poorly that I had to explain it to another guest. Maybe sharing abut some of the talented people there would have been appropriate- Peter Ginz and his Vedem weekly paper or the famous Butterfly poem by Pavel Friedmann.... Once, he said something that was blatantly passive aggressive, after we did not leave the cemetery fast enough, which totally annoyed him. For this half day tour, the guide only told us about the cemetery. He had us do the museum on our own and the small Fortress provided a guide for us. We did appreciate the driver, George, who maneuvered the car well, especially one time with a bus and arrived a few minutes early to pick us up. We are well traveled and have had many many tour guides. We always tip guides...not this time. We usually have great experiences...not this time.

Terezin tour -highly recommended

This was one of the best tour experiences we have had. Gustav was a wonderful tour guide. He was so knowledgeable and gave us a so much information and stories about what happened at Terezin. Our driver was courteous and drove safely. We got so much more than we expected from the cost of this trip. Thanks for a terrific and educational tour.

They didn't even show up

When booking they asked me what hotel I was staying at, presumably because they would pick me up there. But when I got the confirmation email it very clearly stated that the meeting point was at the main train station. I sent them an email the day before asking them to confirm the time and location of the pick up, to which they replied that the pick up was at the main train station. So, the day of the tour I proceeded to the main train station where I waited for 45 minutes for a tour that never arrived. When I called them they said they went to my hotel but I wasn't there. Again, their own confirmation that THEY sent me said the pick up was at the train station. I was following THEIR direction. I want a refund.

Great, informative guide. Great service (including a.m. collection). Right length comprehensive tour

Tour itself: This was a very comprehensive tour and our guide, Eva, was superb. She had a mix of English-speaking and French-speaking people (10 of us in total) and she seamlessly transitioned between the two languages, giving the exact same info, and without compromising any of us. We partly chose this company because they collected from our hotel, which was definitely a bonus. Eva provided intricate detail and gave a good sense of what happened at Terezin. Only one niggle - at the small fortress (one of the key stops), the English-speaking group was split off from the French speakers. A different guide (probably employed by the small fortress) showed us around. She gave us good detail but I think gave some facts that were subtly, but significantly, different. My feeling is that Eva’s description would have been more satisfying. We were running early, so Eva arranged for us to have an extra stop. The coach dropped us back in central Prague, which was perfect. Why Terezin? I strongly recommend visiting Terezin (also known as Theresienstadt). It provides an understanding of the horror of the Nazi regime and the annihilation that it perpetuated. Terezin was a ‘transit/holding’ camp, not an ‘extermination’ camp. It was used as Nazi propaganda for how Jewish people lived under the regime. A faux ghetto was created where musicians, dramatists, artists, actors were allowed to flourish so that the International Red Cross could be (and was) tricked into believing that Jewish people were not being treated harshly and deflected the idea that concentration camps were not extermination camps. If you visit the museum, you will see that nearly all prisoners ended up in Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Terezin is a complex: the first point of call is the small fortress, which was built in the 18th century by King Josef as a military base and prison. It was barely changed by the Nazis, so does not look bleak externally. The tour around the fortress takes approx one hour, including a 10 min video about the propaganda of the Nazis, and a walk through a low level tunnel that runs through the fortress. You can miss out the video if you feel too emotional, and you do not need to walk through the tunnel if you have claustrophobia. There is a Memorial and cemetery outside the fortress. A couple of kms from the small fortress is the main camp/ghetto area (the bus drops off here), where you will see exhibitions and a museum about life in the camp. It is particularly poignant to see an example of a room/cell where the women lived, with authentic articles of luggage/clothes/bed articles that were gifted to the museum by survivors. The main museum commemorates the children who lived in Terezin, including examples of the pictures, poetry and music that they created, and the work of the musicians, artists, dramatists, craftspeople and others. How might it make you feel? Terezin is an emotional place. It was quiet, rainy and cold when we visited, which heightened the atmosphere. No-one felt comfortable taking photographs. It feels more like a memorial, especially as people still live in the ghetto area. In other words, it does not have the horrific feel of an extermination camp such as Auschwitz, or the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem. What about taking children? I took my 18 year old with me, who has a good knowledge of the Holocaust and felt able to deal with the emotion. We both reflected that it is possible to take children here, if this is something that you are contemplating. You are able to avoid giving too much detail to your children if you are concerned about their emotional well-being, and use your intuition as a guide to how much information that they access. Be mindful that the round trip is 5 - 6 hours, so younger children may get bored and find it difficult to sit still or look at the exhibition boards. The tour should be accessible with a fold up buggy. There are toilets at each stop en route.

Informative tour

This was a very informative tour with the knowledgable Albert as our guide and George, our reliable driver.We we’re promptly picked up at 8.30 and we’re soon on our way to Terezin with Albert giving us background to what we were about to see. The main part of the event is to see where the political prisoners were incarcerated- There we had a very able guide, Rosa. My only criticism is that although herEnglish and knowledge were both excellent, her Philippine accent made it a struggle to catch some of what she said. It was hard to fathom the depth of the cruelty meted out in this cold, bleak and atmospheric place. On to the town of Terezin that was a ghetto for all ages of Jews. Time to look at the informative, if over wordy, museum dedicated to the holocaust victims in the town. It would have been good to hear more of the life of these poor folk from a guide rather than wander rooms reading a lot of writing. The final part of the visit was to the mass graves, memorials and crematorium - time to contemplate human’s inhumanity to humans. The tour ends back in Prague for about 2. Take food if you want to avoid a late lunch.

Brilliant experience

We paid extra for the hotel pick up which was about 40 min before the start time (the itinerary said it included drop off at the hotel at the end of the tour but the guide said it did not. He checked with the office who confirmed there was no drop off, but the driver brought us close to the hotel anyway. Watch out for this if you choose the pick up option & pay extra). We started off with another group (Italian) despite choosing the English speaking tour but when we arrived at the Small Fortress we were split into other separate groups for that part of the tour. We then met up with the driver and guide (and 2 Italian people) for the remainder of the tour, including other parts of the Fortress area, cemetary, and the other advertised sites which were each a short drive from one another. Gustav(I think that's the correct spelling of our guides name) was very knowledgeable and passionate about his job; it was a better experience for us to be able to experience and hear his passion for the history he was explaining. If he reads this for any reason I want to apologise for not tipping - the cash machine at Terezin does not work (it says it does, but will only allow minimum withdrawals of €500) and there were no other working atms. Keep this in mind if you think you will need cash (entrance fees were included and the toilets at the venues were free to use). The eta says 3 hours, plus roughly 1 hour each way for travel. Allow yourselves more time if you have evening plans: our your took over 3.5 hours and the return drive was about 70 min (going there was about 50). It was worth every minute though. Highly recommend.

A necessary experience

Haunting but necessary to really understand the horror of Nazi atrocities against Jewish people. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable