Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landmarks
Warszawa
When a statue of a king on a tall column went up in 1644 on the square outside the Kraków Gate, the papal nuncio protested: until then, only saints, Christ and the Virgin Mary had been raised so high. Sigismund's Column (Kolumna Zygmunta I…
National parks
Izabelin C
Kampinos National Park (Kampinoski Park Narodowy; say "kam-PEE-noss") protects the Kampinos Forest, a wild landscape of inland sand dunes and marshes that begins right at the edge of Warsaw. From the city limits you can reach the park head…
Landmarks
Kraków
The Cloth Hall in Kraków (Sukiennice, say "soo-kyeh-NEE-tseh") is the long Renaissance market hall standing in the middle of the Main Market Square – one of Europe's largest medieval town squares and the centerpiece of Kraków's UNESCO-list…
Mountains & peaks
Tarnowskie Góry
The Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry (say "tar-NOV-skyeh GOO-rih") is the only underground tourist route in Poland set inside former silver, lead and zinc mines. You descend about 40 m (130 ft) below ground, walk nearly 2 km of old…
Castles
Łańcut
Łańcut Castle (say "WAHN-tsoot") is one of the grandest aristocratic residences in Poland and the jewel of the Podkarpackie region in the country's southeast. For more than three centuries it belonged to two of Poland's most powerful famil…
Zoos
Warszawa
During the war, people hid in the empty cages and the director's villa at Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Żabiński saved several hundred Jews this way, were honoured as Righteous Among the Nations, and their story is told in the film "The Zoo…
Zoos
Kraków
Kraków Zoo is not in a city park but on Pustelnik Hill in the middle of Wolski Forest, about 8 km from the Main Market Square. Its 20 hectares are home to around 1,500 animals from more than 270 species, over a hundred of them classed as e…
Hidden gemLakes
gmina Ełk
Selmęt Wielki is one of the largest lakes in the Ełk Lake District in Masuria, north-eastern Poland: it covers about 1,269 ha and is 11.6 km long and up to 3.5 km wide. The Lega river flows through it, so kayakers cross the lake from north…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Zabrze
Guido Coal Mine in Zabrze (say "ZAH-bzheh") is a historic coal mine in Poland's Silesia region where you ride a real miners' cage 320 meters (about 1,050 feet) underground. The museum calls it the lowest-lying tourist route in Europe. Down…
Hidden gemCaves
Kraków
The Dragon's Den (Polish: Smocza Jama, roughly "SMOH-chah YAH-mah") is a limestone cave inside Wawel Hill in Kraków, the legendary lair of the Wawel Dragon. A short, atmospheric route takes you from the castle grounds down a spiral stairca…
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Kraków
The dragon was originally meant to lie in the Vistula, partly submerged in the current. The idea was dropped when it became clear that rubbish carried by the river would pile up on the sculpture. So Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon w…
Hidden gemFortifications
Kłodzko
Kłodzko Fortress (pronounced roughly "KWOTS-ko") is one of the largest and best-preserved fortresses in Poland, spread over a hill above the old town of Kłodzko in Lower Silesia, close to the Czech border. Over more than 30 hectares you wi…
Hidden gemCastles
Golub-Dobrzyń
In 1977 the courtyard of Golub Castle hosted a knights' tournament — one of the first historical re-enactments in Poland. For 2026 the castle announced its 50th Grand International Knights' Tournament. The fortress itself is more than six…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Łódź
The White Factory in Łódź (Biała Fabryka, BYAH-wah fah-BRI-kah) is a gleaming neoclassical cotton mill built by Ludwik Geyer at 282 Piotrkowska Street, one of the oldest and most important industrial monuments in Poland. Today it houses th…
Hidden gemLakes
Ścibórz
A broad expanse of water on the Nysa Kłodzka River, with the Sudetes on the horizon — Lake Otmuchów is an artificial reservoir built in 1928–1933 between Otmuchów and Paczków. It combines flood protection and power generation with fishing,…
Landscape parks
gmina Łubowo
Lednica Landscape Park protects the countryside around Lake Lednica ("led-NEE-tsa") in western Poland, halfway between Poznań and Gniezno on the Piast Trail. It's where Poland's story begins: on the island of Ostrów Lednicki stood a 10th-c…
Hidden gemMuseums
Katowice
Above ground you see only glass cuboids, the brick buildings of a former mine and a headframe. The actual Silesian Museum is hidden underground: its galleries occupy underground levels beneath the site of the closed "Katowice" coal mine. I…
Hidden gemMuseums
Chorzów
On the highest hill of the Silesian Park, Poland's largest and oldest planetarium has stood since 1955. The Silesian Planetarium has a dome 23 m across, onto which a new projector casts some 100 million stars, and after a PLN 136 million r…
Hidden gemCastles
Gniew
The brick quadrangle above the point where the Wierzyca flows into the Vistula is one of the mightiest castles the Teutonic Knights built on the river's left bank. Gniew Castle was built from 1290 over about 40 years, and in the 17th centu…
Hidden gemAmusement parks
Chorzów
In 1970 the Silesian Amusement Park welcomed 2 million visitors — a record that says a lot about what this funfair meant to Upper Silesia. Opened in 1959 in Silesian Park in Chorzów, it is the oldest amusement park in Poland. Since 2017 it…
Hidden gemZoos
Opole
Opole Zoo has opened three times: before the war, after the war, when the menagerie had to be rebuilt from scratch, and after the great flood of 1997, which nearly sealed its fate. Today more than 1,000 animals of over 200 species live on…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Cisna
In 1994 this little railway hauled its last load of timber, and it looked destined for the scrapyard. Today it carries more than 160,000 passengers a year and ranks among the most popular narrow-gauge lines in Poland. The Bieszczady Forest…
Hidden gemAmusement parks
Zator
133 rides and shows, 20 roller coasters and a coaster that, when it opened, was the tallest and fastest hyper coaster in Europe. Energylandia in Zator, opened on 14 July 2014, is the largest amusement park in Poland and welcomed around 2 m…
Hidden gemLakes
Serwy
More than 40 metres deep, with clear water and a quiet zone where motorboats are banned, Lake Serwy lies on the edge of the Augustów Forest, about 20 km from Augustów. For years it has drawn people looking for swimming, canoeing and woodla…