Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Istebna
At Kubalonka Pass (761 m) the road from Wisła to Istebna crosses the Main Beskid Trail, and right next to it stands a wooden church that came to the mountains from the lowlands near Gliwice. The pass separates the Stożek–Czantoria range fr…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Roztoka Ryterska
Radziejowa (rah-jeh-YOH-vah) is the highest peak of the Beskid Sądecki range in southern Poland, at 1,266 m (many maps say 1,262 m), and one of the summits of the Crown of Polish Mountains, a popular peak-bagging list. The forested dome ri…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Wisła
Soszów Wielki (885 m, Velký Sošov in Czech) is a border peak in the Stożek–Czantoria ridge where you can stand with one foot in Poland and the other in the Czech Republic. The Main Beskid Trail runs over the summit, and the clearing at the…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Tarnowskie Góry
The Black Trout Adit in Tarnowskie Góry (Sztolnia Czarnego Pstrąga, roughly SHTOL-nya CHAR-neh-go PSTRON-ga) is a 600-meter stretch of a 19th-century drainage tunnel that visitors explore by boat, deep underground. It formed part of the sy…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Grzmiąca
Waligóra (German: Heidelberg, 936 m) is the highest peak of the Stone Mountains (Góry Kamienne) and of their Dry Mountains (Góry Suche) section, and one of the summits on the Crown of Polish Mountains list. It rises so steeply above the Th…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Sucha Beskidzka
Sucha Beskidzka Castle is nicknamed "Little Wawel" because its arcaded courtyard resembles the royal castle in Kraków. Over four centuries this Renaissance residence at the foot of Mount Jasień passed through several noble families, and in…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Wisła
In the Beskids the word "czupel" means a mountain with a distinct, pointed top, although this Czupel above Wisła is broad and massive rather than sharp. It rises to 882 m above sea level and about 400 metres above the valleys of Nowa Osada…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
gmina Kroczyce
According to local legend, witches from the surrounding villages gathered on this hill before flying off on their broomsticks to the witches' sabbath on Łysa Góra – hence the name Góra Zborów, roughly "Gathering Hill". Today it draws climb…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Jastrzębik
The gondola from the Czarny Potok valley reaches the top of Jaworzyna Krynicka in about seven minutes, and on a clear day the viewing platform on the roof of the top station looks out to the Tatras, the Bieszczady and Polonyna Rivna in Ukr…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
gmina Stronie Śląskie
Rudawiec (1,106 m) is not the highest peak in the Bialskie Mountains, yet it made it onto the Crown of Polish Mountains, the popular list of the highest summits of each Polish range. The higher tops — Postawna, Brusek and the Czech Travna…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Brenna
The name has nothing to do with the shape of the mountain. On its western summit the boundaries of three communities meet – Wisła, Ustroń and Brenna – and the shepherds and settlers of old marked them with mounds of piled stones ("kopce").…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Rościszów
In May 1904 the rotten stairs of the first tower on Wielka Sowa gave way under two tourists from Wrocław – both fell to the floor below and escaped unhurt, and the wooden structure was pulled down that autumn. Two years later a solid 25-me…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
gmina Kartuzy
From the terrace on Złota Góra ("Golden Hill") you can see two Kashubian lakes at once – Wielkie Brodno and Ostrzyckie – and on a clear day also the Szymbark Hills with Wieżyca, the highest point in Pomerania. Every year around the turn of…
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
People climb Błatnia (917 m) for the meadow and the view: from the grassy mound on the summit you can see almost the entire Silesian Beskids, from Klimczok and Skrzyczne to Barania Góra, and on clear days even the peaks of the Malá Fatra i…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Stronie Śląskie
Czarna Góra (pronounced roughly "CHAR-nah GOO-rah", meaning "Black Mountain") is a 1,205 m (3,953 ft) forested peak in the Śnieżnik Massif, part of the Sudetes on Poland's border with Czechia. Its slopes hold one of Lower Silesia's best-kn…
Mountains & peaks
Łodygowice
Until the 1970s hikers climbed Czupel without knowing they were standing on the roof of the Little Beskids (Beskid Mały) – at the time, Łamana Skała was thought to be the highest peak of the range. Only accurate surveys gave Czupel first p…
Mountains & peaks
Międzybrodzie Bialskie
Hrobacza Łąka (roughly "hro-BAH-chah WON-kah"; officially spelled Chrobacza Łąka) is an 828 m (2,717 ft) summit in the Little Beskids (Beskid Mały) of southern Poland. It is one of the easiest rewarding hikes near Bielsko-Biała. A 35-meter…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Bystrzyca Kłodzka
Karol Wojtyła first came to Igliczna in 1955, walking from Kudowa with a group of students from Kraków, and 28 years later, as pope, he crowned the small statue from its shrine in Wrocław. Igliczna (845 m) is a conical peak of the Śnieżnik…
Mountains & peaks
Poręba
Jagodna is the highest mountain in the Bystrzyckie Mountains and one of the peaks of the Crown of Polish Mountains, a popular list of the highest summits of each Polish range. The climb is gentle, and the reward is a 23-metre lookout tower…
Mountains & peaks
Zakopane
Kasprowy Wierch (roughly "KAS-pro-vy VEERH", 1,987 m / 6,519 ft) is the most accessible high peak in the Polish Tatra Mountains and one of the most visited summits in Poland. It rises on the Polish–Slovak border above the mountain resort o…
Mountains & peaks
Bogdanówka
A few decades ago the flat, grassy top of Koskowa Góra (866 m) was still ploughed. All that is left of the fields are overgrown heaps of stones, and from the summit you can see almost the whole horizon: from Babia Góra and the Gorce range…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
Set into an altar on the slopes of Kotarz are stones from Jerusalem, the Sahara and Australia, and even fragments of meteorites. Kotarz (974 m) is a wooded peak above Szczyrk and Brenna in the Silesian Beskids, the highest point of the rid…
Mountains & peaks
Bielsko-Biała
In the mid-20th century Europe's longest natural toboggan run – 2,200 metres with 30 bends – wound down the slopes of this mountain. Kozia Góra (683 m), which locals in Bielsko-Biała simply call Stefanka, is a wooded peak within the city l…
Mountains & peaks
Lubomierz
The summit of Kudłoń itself is wooded and has no view, yet it is one of the most rewarding goals in the Gorce Mountains. The slopes of this 1,274 m peak (Gorce National Park gives 1,276 m) hold the range's best-known rock outcrops, led by…