Dunajec River Rafting

The oldest picture of a trip down the Dunajec dates from 1589 – a wall painting in the old church at Krościenko. Today raftsmen in highland costume take visitors on wooden rafts through the Pieniny Gorge of the Dunajec: about 8 km of meanders between limestone walls up to around 300 m high. Trips start from the landing stages at Sromowce Wyżne-Kąty or Sromowce Niżne and end in Szczawnica or Krościenko.

A gorge that is still a puzzle

The gorge walls are made of white Pieniny limestone, laid down in deeper parts of the sea at the turn of the Jurassic and Cretaceous and in the Early Cretaceous, about 145–120 million years ago. How the gorge formed has still not been fully explained. It is most often described as an antecedent-structural gorge: the Pieniny rose so slowly that the meandering river had time to cut down into the rock, exploiting faults and differences in its resistance. It is thought to have formed between the Miocene and the Pliocene.

From timber floating to tourist attraction

Depictions of rafting from the 17th century can be seen at the Red Monastery on the Slovak side. In the first half of the 19th century the river carried timber: trunks from the Tatras and Gorce were lashed into rafts at Harklowa and floated all the way to Gdańsk for shipbuilding. Spa chronicles say the first tourist trip took place in 1831, organised by Józef Szalay, owner of Szczawnica – guests floated down to highland music, and in the 19th century mortars were sometimes fired where the echo rang back from the cliffs.

The raftsmen once used dugouts hollowed from poplar trunks, several lashed together into a raft. Today's rafts are made of plank-built boats joined into steadier sets. On the Polish side trips are run by the Polish Association of Pieniny Raftsmen, founded in 1934.

Routes and times

• To Szczawnica: about 18 km, roughly 2 h 15 min.
• To Krościenko: about 23 km, roughly 2 h 45 min.

The season runs from 1 April to 31 October; rafts go out every day except Easter Sunday and Corpus Christi. Tickets are sold on the spot at both landing stages, with no booking needed. A raft leaves once 11 passengers have gathered; a smaller group can go by paying the base price.

Prices (2026 season, route to Szczawnica)

• standard ticket: PLN 111 (PLN 103 + PLN 8 Pieniny National Park water-trail card) from April to June and in September and October (except long weekends); PLN 117 in July, August, on long weekends and on 10–11 October,
• reduced for children under 10: PLN 78, or PLN 82 in high season (no more than five reduced-fare children per raft),
• packages with the rafting trip and the Palenica chairlift: from PLN 133 (standard, low season),
• souvenir photo ordered from the raftsman: PLN 20.

Tripto tip

Even with an online ticket you need to go to the ticket office, where you will be assigned to a specific raft. The car park at the Sromowce Wyżne starting point is at N49.406628 E20.366556. The trip runs through Pieniny National Park – hence the water-trail card added to the ticket price. Afterwards you can return on foot or by bike along the Pieniny Road, which follows the river almost entirely on the Slovak side.