Self-guided
POLIN entry ticket
Valid all day
- Valid1 day
- Re-entrySame day
- ClosedTuesdays
Cost for your party
Is the Jewish museum free? POLIN tickets, hours and the free day
Look at 3 options
POLIN tickets and guided options for your party
Choose your party size and compare a ticket with guided options.
- POLIN entry ticketValid 1 day · starts at, per person €10
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View - Walk ending at POLIN2 hours · starts at, per person €60
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View - Our Ghetto walk3 hours · from just €66
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Converted at the ECB reference rate, from-prices as listed by GetYourGuide. The precise amount is shown when you book.
Is the Jewish museum free in Warsaw? On Thursdays, yes. Here is what POLIN tickets cost on other days, when the museum is closed, how long the core exhibition takes and how to plan it.
Editorial team, warsawghettotour.click · Updated November 9, 2026 · Allow 7 min
When POLIN is free, and when it is closed
Is the Jewish museum free? On one day a week it is. Warsaw's tourism office lists the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews among the museums with free entry once a week, on Thursdays, from 10.00 to 18.00.3,1 The office adds a caution worth repeating: those times can change, and you should check the museum's own website before you go.4
The museum is closed on Tuesdays, as both the ticket listing and a tour provider state. That matters more than it seems. A traveler who arrives on a Monday evening and plans POLIN for Tuesday finds a locked door; plan the museum for another day. Put it on the calendar before you book anything else in the city, since every other visit is easier to move.
Public holidays are the other trap: the tourism office warns that attractions may shut or change hours, and some museums close entirely.5,6 If your visit falls on a Polish holiday, check POLIN's calendar first. The tourism office publishes the list of public holidays for the year, and a quick look saves a wasted trip across town.
The essentials
POLIN tickets and rules in one table
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Free entry | Thursday, 10.00 to 18.001 | Tourism office |
| Closed | Tuesday | Ticket listing |
| Ticket | From €11, valid 1 day | GetYourGuide |
| Last entry | 2 hours before closing | Ticket listing |
| Children free | Aged 7 or younger | Ticket listing |
| Audioguide | Included with Warsaw Pass10 | Tourism office |
| Address | ul. Anielewicza 611 | Tourism office |
Hours and rules change with exhibitions and holidays: confirm on the museum website before you go.4
Ticket prices and the Jewish museum entrance fee
On the other days you pay. A POLIN entry ticket booked through GetYourGuide starts from €11, and it holds 4.7 from 1,347 reviews. The Jewish museum entrance fee on that ticket covers a whole day: you can enter when you like, leave for lunch and come back the same day. Entry closes 2 hours before the museum does, so do not arrive late in the afternoon.
Children aged 7 or younger enter free, and children aged 12 or younger must be with an adult at all times. Every visitor passes an electronic security scan before the core exhibition, which takes a moment at busy times. Large bags slow this down, so pack light and have the voucher ready, on screen or paper, and the line moves faster.
The Warsaw Pass, a city card described on the tourism office's website, includes free admission to POLIN with the audioguide.10 It pays off only if you plan several of the museums it covers in a short stay. For a single visit, a POLIN ticket or the free Thursday is simpler. Do the sums for your own plans before you buy a pass, and count only the museums you will really have time for.
Time to allow
Hours suggested for the POLIN core exhibition
- Ticket listing2
- Tour provider2.5
- Tourism office3
Estimates from the POLIN ticket listing, a tour provider that ends at the museum, and the Warsaw tourism office.2
Opening hours of the Jewish museum in Warsaw
The museum's own website is the authority on hours, and it should be your last check before you set out. For orientation, a tour provider that ends its walks at the museum lists the opening hours of the Jewish museum in Warsaw as 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, with the last entrance at 4:00 pm. POLIN's own visitor page, checked for this guide, gives the same pattern of days.
The same provider lists Saturday as 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, last entrance 6:00 pm, and Tuesday as closed. That fits the tourism office's free Thursday, 10.00 to 18.00.1 Treat these as a planning guide, not a promise: museums change their hours for exhibitions and holidays. A provider's list can lag behind a change the museum has already made.
The practical rule is simple. Arrive by early afternoon, since entry closes 2 hours before closing time, and give the core exhibition the time it needs. A late start leaves you hurrying through the galleries on the Holocaust, which is the last thing they should be. Those rooms ask for slow reading and silence, and they deserve the best of your attention rather than the end of it.
Plan your visit
Which way into POLIN suits you
Pick what matters most and see how to plan your museum day.
If I want to pay nothing
Go on a Thursday
Free entry from 10.00 to 18.00, as the tourism office lists it.1
If I want to explore at my own pace
An entry ticket
From €11, valid all day with re-entry.
If I want a guide inside
A private POLIN tour
2 to 4 hours from €124, skipping the ticket line.
If I want the streets first
The private Ghetto walk
3 hours outside, then the museum after lunch.
If I am seeing many museums
The Warsaw Pass
The city card includes POLIN with the audioguide.10
Three ways in
A ticket, a guided visit or a walk that ends there
Guided
POLIN with a guide
Private, skip the line
- Length2 to 4 hours
- Ticket lineSkipped
- SecurityStill applies
Walk first
Daily life walk
Ends at the museum
- Length2 hours
- TravelFoot and transit
- Then2.5 hours inside
How long to allow for the core exhibition
Estimates differ, and all of them are honest. The ticket listing estimates 2 hours for the core exhibition. A tour provider suggests at least 2.5 hours. The Warsaw tourism office allows 3 hours for POLIN in its itinerary for a short city break.2 If you read the panels and watch the films, plan for the longer figure.
The exhibition follows a route through 8 theme galleries, across the centuries.7 It begins with evidence of the earliest Jewish settlement in medieval Poland.13 It then passes through the Jewish Town gallery, where the painted roof structure of the wooden synagogue from Gwozdziec has been reconstructed, and then a pre-war Jewish street.14,8 The galleries on the Warsaw Ghetto and the post-war years come at the end, when visitors are tired.8
Pace yourself for that ending. Take a break before the war galleries, use the café, and come back with fresh attention. The ticket allows re-entry on the same day, which makes a pause easy. A short walk around the green square outside, past the monuments, is a good way to reset before the final galleries.
A day with POLIN
From the monument to the last gallery
Morning
The Ghetto on foot
A private 3-hour walk past the Ghetto Heroes monument.
Midday
Lunch nearby
The museum ticket allows re-entry the same day.
Early afternoon
Security, then galleries
An electronic scan comes before the core exhibition.
Afternoon
Across the centuries
Before closing
Back outside
The Memorial Route stones lead towards the Umschlagplatz.9
The building and what stands outside it
POLIN stands on ground that tells its story before you enter. The Polish tourism organisation asks visitors to imagine that the place where they stand was a Jewish district before the war and a ghetto during the occupation.12 The museum is at ul. Anielewicza 6, in the heart of the former Ghetto.11,15 The green square around it, where apartment blocks now stand on all sides, was dense with homes and workshops before the war.
Look at the building itself. Its main hall cuts through it from the underground to the roof, a symbol of the break the Holocaust made in the history of Polish Jews.16 The glass facades carry the Hebrew word Polin, read both as Poland and as here you will rest.17 The name carries an old legend of Jews arriving in Poland and finding a place to stay, and the architecture asks you to hold that hope and the later catastrophe together.
In front of the museum stands the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, where the German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt in 1970 in a gesture of apology.18 Nearby is a monument to Jan Karski, who served as emissary of the Polish underground state and carried an eyewitness report of the extermination of the Jews to the Allied leaders.19,20 Spend a few minutes at both before you go inside.
Video
A virtual journey through the POLIN core exhibition
Muzeum POLIN on YouTube · Video data is requested only when you tap play.
Imagine that the place where you now stand was once a Jewish district before the war and later became a ghetto during the occupation.
Before the museum
Check, bring and know
Check3
Bring3
- Your voucher, on your phone
- Only a small bag for the security scan
- An adult with every child aged 12 or younger
Know3
- The ticket listing marks it wheelchair accessible
- The war galleries come at the end8
- Re-entry is allowed the same day
Combining POLIN with a Ghetto walk
The museum and a walk complete each other. A walk shows you the streets, the wall fragments and the Umschlagplatz; POLIN fills those places with the lives that were lived there. The private Ghetto walk this site books lasts 3 hours, from €74, and its route takes in the Ghetto Heroes monument just outside the museum.
Walk in the morning, then see the museum after lunch, on any day except Tuesday. On a Thursday the museum costs nothing, which leaves the walk as the day's only expense.1 Some tours build the two into one: a 2-hour walk of daily life in the Ghetto usually ends at the museum, from €67. That format suits travelers who want a guide outdoors and their own pace indoors.
With a guide inside, the private POLIN option runs 2 to 4 hours and costs from €124. It skips the ticket line, but not the entrance and the security check. The calculator above prices these options for your party. For a family, a ticket plus the private walk gives a good balance of guidance and freedom.
Practical tips for the visit
Book a dated ticket outside the free day if you travel in the busy months, and keep your voucher on your phone or printed. A dated plan stops the museum being pushed to the end of a crowded trip. On the free Thursday, come early in the day and give yourself the whole afternoon; quiet and time matter most in the war galleries.
The ticket listing marks the museum as wheelchair accessible. Children aged 12 or younger must stay with an adult, and the later galleries need preparation for younger visitors; our page on preparing for the Ghetto walk has advice that applies here too. Decide in advance which rooms you will walk through more quickly with a child.
Eat before you start, or plan the café break midway. After the visit, walk the few minutes to the Memorial Route stones, which run from the Ghetto Heroes monument towards the Umschlagplatz.9 Ending the day there, outdoors and in silence, often says more than another exhibit. Stop at the stones that name people from the ghetto, and read a few of the names before you leave.
FAQ
Fast answers to common questions.
Is the Jewish museum in Warsaw free?
How much is a POLIN ticket?
From €11.
The ticket is valid for a whole day, with re-entry on the same day.
When is POLIN closed?
On Tuesdays.
Both the ticket listing and a tour provider list Tuesday as closed.
How long do I need at POLIN?
2 to 3 hours.
The listing estimates 2 hours for the core exhibition; the tourism office allows 3 hours.2
Do children pay at POLIN?
Not if aged 7 or under.
Children aged 7 or younger enter free; those aged 12 or younger must stay with an adult.
Is POLIN included in the Warsaw Pass?
Yes, with the audioguide.
The tourism office lists POLIN among the free admissions of the Warsaw Pass, audioguide included.10
When does entry to POLIN stop?
2 hours before closing.
The ticket listing says admission closes 2 hours before the museum closes.
Sources
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Visit Warsaw's museums for free ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Two days in Warsaw ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Visit Warsaw's museums for free ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Visit Warsaw's museums for free ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Good to know ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Good to know ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Warsaw Judaica ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · About Warsaw Pass ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Polish Tourism Organisation (poland.travel) · Warsaw: city break ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · Warsaw Judaica ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩
- Warsaw Tourism Office (City of Warsaw) · POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ↩