The Regis Shaft — Attraction in gmina Wieliczka

Highly Disappointing and Offensive Experience at Wieliczka Salt Mine - Miner’s Route

I was excited to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine today and explore the Miner’s Route, but my experience was ruined by the behavior of our tour guide, Simon ( if I ‘m not mistaken). His conduct was unprofessional and discriminatory, leaving me deeply offended and humiliated.

Throughout the tour, Simon repeatedly made comments about participants’ nationalities and seemed to focus almost exclusively on two men from France and the UK for activities. This has partly sidelined the other participants, especially the girls from Asia, including myself. In one of the sessions, Simon went as far as to mock cultural differences, laughing at our breakfast choices. Such behavior is completely inappropriate for someone guiding a diverse group of international visitors. A tour guide should foster inclusivity and respect for all cultures, not ridicule them! This kind of selective treatment was not only unfair but also highly disrespectful and inappropriate.

As someone who came to enjoy an educational and fun experience, I was left feeling overlooked and diminished. A tour guide should ensure inclusivity and make every participant feel welcome, not create an environment where certain people are prioritized while others are ignored.

However, the one star I’ve given is for the lady who distributed the uniforms and the gentleman who provided the batteries and lamps. Both were friendly, polite, and professional, and their positive attitudes stood out amidst an otherwise disappointing experience.

I left the Miner’s Route tour feeling disappointed and upset. Until changes are made, I would not recommend the Miner’s Route tour to anyone looking for a respectful and welcoming experience, unless it’s with...

TL;DR: Miners' Route at the shaft Regis is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE worth your time and money.

You get some cover clothes (to not get dirty - not really necessary but there are some actvities along the route that could get you bit dirty), personal head light, helmet and some safety gear and you are about to experience the real mine.

No other artificial lights, no fancy floors, no hand rails, no b/s headphones. Low traffic route so it's quiet and if you try to stay slightly behind your group (just warn your guide first) alone, turn off your light then you will get amazing deprivation chamber experience. You see nothing, you hear nothing (real corridors and walls dumps sound very heavily so your group can be like 25 m ahead in corridor and you can still see their head lights but you don't hear them). There are 2-3 bigger chambers along the route I managed to stay alone in with all off. Holly smoke! I'd be happy pay for just that - to go down there again and stay in complete silence and darkness in that environment for longer. That experience alone is worth the ticket price and I will definitely do that again - I wish I knew how great that is earlier to plan multiple runs during this visit...

Its not scary nor claustrophobic if you bother (corridors usually are 1.8 meter in height). It's not black dark either (for my pics and videos I intentional stayed behind - see other reviewers' photos for complete picture) as whole group wears headlights, so if you do not fancy darkness and isolation this will also not be a problem at all as it's not a default felling you get. The whole route is great regardless of your preferences. It's diferent. It feels real. So if in doubt or short of time - skip main boring route and go for Miners'. You...

Very interesting and informative tour in English.

Would be great if the management could state clearly that they welcome russia: tours in russian, books and travel guides in souvenir shops, signboards on entrance, website in russian. Or maybe you don’t respect people whose countries were occupied by russian soviet union and who have been russified for centuries? It’s very convenient, saves some money but not about respect. Polish people know a lot about respect, right?

Every Ukrainian understands Ukrainian and it would be polite either to state that you welcome russians so that Ukrainians won’t bother to visit, or delete those rus. messages and books. I would be happy to buy a tourist guide in Ukrainian, but found nothing.

The English guide who tries to speak to Ukrainians in russian: it is as if I would speak to him in German as Poland once was occupied by Austian-Hungerian empire.

The explosion imitation smeared away the positive vibe of tour for us. Just please take into account that it is necessary to warn about this in advance. In your group there may be those who live with the sound of missiles and drones (launched by thousands of russan-only speaking russians - not putins!) exploding almost every night. To us and our kids this “very amusing” part of the tour was not funny at all. Yes, we who still live in Ukraine are traumatized by war. We go once a year to a peaceful country to get a week of good sleep after horrible nights and definitely not to hear explosions and rus.language at an English tour. Please understand. P.s. “Good” in Ukrainian is “dobre” not kharasho “Sing a song” is “zaspivaj pisniu” not spoi pesniu. Ukrainian language has more in common with Polish than with rus. and is definitely different. Language matters!...