The guides at Insight Cities are professors, doctoral students, historians, journalists, art critics, and published authors. Sharing our cities with people from all over the world is an extension of the curiosity and commitment that led us to academic research, teaching, and journalism. As brainy guides, we look for the crucial detail, the vital, quirky fact that illuminates local cultures for you while also revealing global contexts. We care passionately about good storytelling and good hosting and we take pride in having helped thousands of travelers of all backgrounds to get the most from their time in our great cities.
Mateusz makes his living through storytelling, whether on city streets, along mountain trails, on stage, or in the training room. He has been immersed in the tourism industry since the start of his career, following the completion of his Master’s degree in Tourism from a local university. His academic background is complemented by extensive study in history, art history, archaeology, and the cultural heritage of Kraków, all of which inform his engaging and insightful approach to guiding.
A certified tour guide, Mateusz has also been recognized as a trainer by the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations and Interpret Europe, delivering programs both nationally and internationally. His work as a trainer focuses in particular on the development of soft skills, with an emphasis on communication, storytelling, and meaningful heritage interpretation.
Born in Krakow in 1980, Agnieszka developed a deep passion for the city from an early age, growing up surrounded by its rich cultural heritage, historic monuments, and layered history. A formative experience for her was discovering the then-neglected district of Kazimierz, where, in the shadow of Saint Mary’s Church and Wawel Castle, she encountered abandoned synagogues and empty Jewish homes-powerful reminders of a once-thriving community.
After earning her Master’s degree in French Language and Literature from Jagiellonian University, she became a licensed Krakow tour guide, dedicating her career to sharing both the city’s past and its remarkable transformation. Today, she highlights how Krakow has flourished in recent years, with Kazimierz reborn as a vibrant cultural hub where synagogues are active once more, the Jewish Culture Festival draws international visitors, and institutions like the JCC foster dialogue about Jewish history, present life, and future possibilities.
Jolanta studied English and public relations at Jagiellonian University but became passionate about studying the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews from every era up until the Holocaust. She has dedicated decades of research and travel to the history of Jewish communities and to the study of antisemitism, becoming a VIP tour guide for individuals and groups touring her native Krakow, her country and continent, in addition to offering ancestry research services to people around the world with Polish Jewish heritage. Jolanta is also a licensed guide for all major Kraków museums, including Polish history and art history.
From March 2022 until April 2025, she served as the Director of the Ukrainian Refugee Center at JCC Kraków, where she was responsible for coordinating assistance, support programs, and daily operations for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. This role combined crisis management, community leadership, and humanitarian work, and profoundly deepened Jolanta’s engagement with contemporary history, displacement, and memory.