Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Lakes
Gniezno
Gniezno Cathedral reflected in the still water of Lake Jelonek is a view that 19th-century artists were already drawing: a lithograph of Gniezno seen from the lakeshore was made after a drawing by Napoleon Orda, and in 1865 Stanisław Łukom…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Kierskie (roughly "KYER-skyeh"), usually just called Kiekrz ("kyeksh") by locals, is the largest body of water in Poznań and one of the biggest lakes in the Wielkopolska region. This long glacial lake on the city's western edge is Poz…
Lakes
Kórnik
Lake Kórnik is a narrow ribbon lake in the heart of Kórnik, part of the glacial Kórnik–Zaniemyśl Channel. It covers nearly 92 ha and is up to 6 m deep, and along its eastern shore runs a promenade of about 3 km leading to the castle, the a…
Lakes
Olsztyn
The small lake in Kusięta, in the Olsztyn municipality near Częstochowa, looks like an ordinary pond among meadows, but it is a geological rarity. It is the largest of a group of ponds that survive in karst sinkholes thanks to a layer of c…
Lakes
Łagów
Łagów sits on an isthmus between two lakes, and the southern one is calmer and shallower. Lake Łagowskie begins right behind the village houses, while its other shores are hidden in the woods of the Łagów Landscape Park. In summer pedal bo…
Lakes
Drezdenko
Lake Łubówko lies in the forests of the Drawa Forest (Puszcza Drawska), in the Drezdenko municipality, about 1.5 km west of the village of Zagórze. It covers just 15.38 ha but is up to 18.2 m deep, and its very clear water gives it a turqu…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Malta in Poznań (Jezioro Maltańskie, yeh-ZHOH-roh mal-TAHN-skyeh; locals just say "Malta") is a man-made lake on the Cybina River and the city's favorite outdoor playground. A roughly 5.6 km loop path circles the water, and around it…
Lakes
Stargard
The surface of Lake Miedwie lies 14 metres above sea level, but at its deepest point the bed drops almost 30 metres below sea level. It is Poland's largest cryptodepression and the lowest point in the country. On the surface it all looks p…
Lakes
Mikołajki
Lake Mikołajskie is a narrow glacial trough lake that links three of the big Masurian lakes: Tałty, Bełdany and Śniardwy. Water from the central and southern parts of the Great Masurian Lakes flows through it, and so do sailors and passeng…
Lakes
Ślesin
South of Ślesin stretches the long, narrow ribbon of Lake Mikorzyn (Jezioro Mikorzyńskie). It is the deepest of the Konin lakes and in summer one of the warmest: water from the nearby power stations keeps the temperature often around 25 °C…
Lakes
Świerklaniec
As late as the 1960s, excavators were at work here, digging sand used to backfill underground coal mine workings. Today Nakło-Chechło Lake (officially Jezioro Chechło-Nakło) is a body of water of about 90 hectares surrounded by pine forest…
Lakes
Giżycko
Niegocin is the lake on which Giżycko stands: from the town beach and concrete pier to the marinas at Wilkasy, more than 26 km² of water stretch out, crossed by the main sailing route of the Great Masurian Lakes. From here boats head north…
Lakes
Nysa
Lake Nysa (Jezioro Nyskie, say "yeh-ZHOR-oh NIS-kyeh") is a large reservoir on the Nysa Kłodzka river, right on the western edge of the town of Nysa in southwest Poland. Covering about 20 km², it has sandy beaches on its northern shore, ma…
Lakes
Niewiesze
Lake Pławniowice was not created by leisure planners – it exists because water kept flooding a sand quarry. The pit, which supplied backfill sand for Silesian coal mines, was flooded in the 1970s, and today it is a favourite spot for peopl…
Lakes
Olsztynek
Lake Pluszne, officially Pluszne Wielkie, is 52 m deep – only slightly less than neighbouring Lake Łańskie (53.8 m) and Lake Wulpińskie (54.6 m). It lies among the Łańskie Forests on the Olsztynek Plain, and the whole lake is a quiet zone,…
Lakes
Siewierz
Beneath the surface of Przeczyce Reservoir lies the flooded valley of the Czarna Przemsza river, along with remains of field fortifications from the 1930s and the Second World War. The reservoir was created in 1963, when a dam blocked the…
Lakes
Przywidz
People from Gdańsk were already coming to Lake Przywidzkie Wielkie for their holidays a century ago. In the days of the Free City of Danzig, the village of Przywidz – then called Mariensee – was promoted as a "Luftkurort", a fresh-air reso…
Lakes
Dźwirzyno
Lake Resko Przymorskie (roughly “RES-ko pshi-MOR-skyeh”) is a large, shallow coastal lake at Dźwirzyno, about 10 km west of Kołobrzeg, separated from the Baltic Sea only by a narrow dune-covered spit. It is one of the best places near Koło…
Lakes
Rożnów
This winding, S-shaped reservoir cuts into the Rożnów Foothills with fjord-like bays and peninsulas. Lake Rożnów exists because the Dunajec river kept flooding valleys all the way down to the Vistula, and the dam at Rożnów was built to sto…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Rusałka (roughly "roo-SOW-kah") is a wooded reservoir on the western edge of central Poznań, about 4 km from the Old Market Square. Locals come here to swim in summer and to walk, run and cycle the lakeshore loop the rest of the year.…
Lakes
Ślesin
Lake Ślesin has a feature most Polish lakes lack: in summer its water is on average 4–6 °C warmer. This is due to the nearby power stations in Konin and Pątnów, for which the lake is part of the cooling circuit. Warm water, a long glacial…
Lakes
Mikołajki
Lake Śniardwy (say "SHNYAR-dvih") is the largest lake in Poland and the centerpiece of the Masurian Lake District, a glacial lake region in the country's northeast. Sailors call it the "Masurian sea": on a windy day you can barely see the…
Lakes
Stęszewko
Lake Stęszewskie near Tuczno and Stęszewko is a long, narrow ribbon lake with high, wooded shores – the largest body of water in the Zielonka Forest Landscape Park. It lies in the municipality of Pobiedziska, about 20 km north-east of Pozn…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Strzeszyńskie, known to locals as Strzeszynek, is a glacial lake on the north-western edge of Poznań, about 10 km from the centre. It is ringed by woodland, has a municipal bathing beach in summer, and can be walked around on forest p…