(This is the main part of the newsletter we sent to our subscribers yesterday.)
After our recent season summary message, we received quite a few questions about the timing and dates of our trips in 2025. Here’s how it works:
The dates for our custom genealogy, history, cultural tours are entirely up to you. When you fill out the tour request https://polishorigins.com/tour-request, you can specify your preferred dates and regions you are interested in. We then check what is possible and get back to you with a proposal and options.
This initial planning stage is completely free, and there’s no obligation to commit until you have all the details and your questions answered.
Lately, we’ve been getting more and more questions about group tours—especially from those of you looking to combine them with your private tours.
We organize custom tours for families and groups of friends, even for larger groups of more than a dozen people. But that’s not all.
For years, we’ve offered our flagship partition group tours: Galicia Tour, Kingdom of Poland Tour, and Prussian Poland Tour. Now, we’ve added a new itinerary: the North-South Poland Tour.
This 11-day adventure takes you across Poland, offering a chance to experience the country’s diversity. Highlights include:
- Warsaw: Poland’s vibrant capital.
- The stunning Tri-City area: Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot, nestled by the Baltic Sea.
- Toruń: The historic hometown of Copernicus.
- The iconic Lady of Częstochowa Sanctuary.
- The breathtaking beauty of Kraków and the area.
We’re offering two editions of the North-South Poland Tour:
- Spring (May)
- Fall (September)
We’re also planning another edition of our most popular group tour, the Galicia Tour, and we are working with the Polish Genealogical Society of America on a little adapted Kingdom of Poland Tour, which includes visits to Central and Eastern Poland and Lithuania. More updates on that you should soon see here on our website and the PGSA page (PGSA Link).
Thinking about orgaznizing a custom tour for your group? If you’re part of a community or organization interested in a tailored trip to Poland, let us know! We can design a custom group tour based on your preferences—whether it’s focused on a specific region or theme or covers a broader exploration of Poland and neighboring countries. We’ll also provide all the materials you need to present the tour to your group.
See examples of the materials we can provide while working with you on your group tour:
We’re also working with other organizations to offer these experiences to their members. If any of these tours become open to the public, we’ll share more the details in our newsletters and on our website.
If you’re curious about what a tour with us feels like, take a moment to read the beautiful and eloquent blog by our guest, Paul Kiczek. Paul visited Poland with his son and grandson this year. Here are his reflections on their last three days in Kraków : A Heritage Tour of Three Generations: Three Days in Kraków. The whole series by Paul perfectly capture the essence of our tours and starts with part one here: https://polishorigins.com/blog/time-to-discover/ .
As Paul wrote at the end of his blog:“As a Polish American, this journey was more than a vacation; it was a homecoming.”
You’ll find many more stories from our guests, like Julie’s detailed series about her journey: The Wieczkowski Genealogical Tour of Poland, or Shellie’s blog from 2009: Shellie’s Tour to Ancestral Places
If you want to feel even more the atmosphere go and see the film Real Pain by and with Jesse Eisenberg about his tour to Poland. The movie paints an interesting picture of heritage travel but what sets our tours apart from the story in the movie is the human connection. We interact with people in Poland, search for relatives, dig into archives, host countryside gatherings, and if we find then we knock on doors at ancestral homes. These moments often lead to amazing discoveries and unforgettable emotions.
A holiday gift for you!
This Christmas, we have a little present to share: a free cookbook of traditional Polish Christmas Eve recipes.
The ebook, “Polish Recipes: Genuine Recipes of Our Grandmothers”, was created by Ola three years ago, and we thought it it is good time to share it again. Whether you’re a new subscriber or a longtime follower, it’s a great chance to try making one of these traditional dishes together with your family.
To add to the festive spirit, why not play some traditional Polish carols (kolędy) while cooking? Here’s the playlist of kolędy we chose for you: Polish Carols on YouTube.
Wesołych Świąt (Merry Christmas) and a Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku (Happy New Year) from Poland!
Zenon and PolishOrigins Team