Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Coast
Gdynia
Few Polish cities have a beach just minutes from their main street. In Gdynia you simply walk down from Kościuszko Square and you are on the sand, looking at the port, the South Pier and the Sea Towers skyscrapers. Śródmieście (City Centre…
Lakes
Augustów
Augustów's town beach lies on the southern shore of Lake Necko, in the Zarzecze area, close to where the Netta flows out of the lake – the river that continues as the Augustów Canal. A sandy shore, a wooden pier with lamp posts and the gua…
Lakes
Czernichów
The lake beside Czernichów's beach was designed by the man who became Poland's first president. Gabriel Narutowicz, a hydraulic engineer, drew up the design for the dam on the Soła river together with Tadeusz Baecker, creating Lake Międzyb…
Coast
Dźwirzyno
Dźwirzyno Beach (jvee-ZHI-no) is a wide, sandy stretch of Baltic shoreline about 10 km (6 miles) west of Kołobrzeg in northwest Poland, backed by dunes and pine forest. The village sits on a narrow strip of land between the sea and Lake Re…
Coast
Gdynia
In 1934, soldiers of an army bridge-building battalion from Modlin extended the wooden pier at Orłowo to 430 metres in just two months so that excursion steamers could moor by the beach — at the time Orłowo was competing with neighbouring…
Lakes
Gołuchów
The sandy beach at ul. Leśna 1 is the lifeguarded bathing area of the Gołuchów Tourism and Sports Centre (GOTiS) on the reservoir formed by the Trzemna river. The water has an excellent record: in four consecutive official classifications…
Coast
Kołobrzeg
Kołobrzeg Beach (roughly "ko-WOB-zheg") is a broad strip of fine, pale sand that runs for several kilometers east from the harbor and lighthouse, past the pier and the leafy spa parks, toward the suburb of Podczele. It is the main reason c…
Coast
Łeba
The beach at Łeba ("WEH-bah") is a broad ribbon of pale, fine sand on both sides of the harbor of this small resort on Poland's central Baltic coast, often counted among Poland's finest. To the west it turns into the wild shore of Słowińsk…
Coast
Międzyzdroje
Międzyzdroje Beach (say "myen-dzih-ZDROH-yeh") is a broad stretch of pale sand on Wolin Island in northwestern Poland on the Baltic coast, and one of Poland's most popular beaches. What sets it apart is the setting: forested cliffs of Woli…
Coast
Mrzeżyno
Mrzeżyno Beach (say "mzheh-ZHIH-no") is a wide strip of fine sand on both sides of the Rega River mouth, about 18 km (11 miles) west of Kołobrzeg on Poland's Baltic coast. Instead of hotels lining the shore, a belt of pine forest grows on…
Coast
Rowy
The beach at Rowy has two personalities: west of the mouth of the Łupawa river the cliff coast begins, while to the east stretch the shifting dunes of Słowiński National Park. This small holiday village in Ustka municipality, between Ustka…
Coast
Puck
Thousands of years ago, people living on the headland at Rzucewo hunted seals and worked amber – an entire Neolithic culture, the Rzucewo culture, is named after this village. Today a narrow sandy beach runs below a wooded bluff on the Bay…
Coast
Sopot
Sopot Beach is the wide, sandy shoreline that runs the full length of Sopot, the spa town between Gdańsk and Gdynia on Poland's Baltic coast. With the famous wooden pier, the historic Grand Hotel and timber bathhouses as a backdrop, it is…
Coast
Świnoujście
The beach in Świnoujście (roughly "shvee-no-OOYSH-cheh") is one of the best reasons to visit Poland's westernmost seaside town. This broad strip of pale sand on the island of Usedom (Uznam in Polish) runs from the harbor breakwater to the…
Coast
Władysławowo
Władysławowo is Poland's northernmost town, and its central beach stretches for about 3 km with more than 20 m of pale sand. The town sits at the base of the Hel Peninsula, between the open Baltic and the Bay of Puck, so in a few minutes y…
Cities & towns
Kraków
Podgórze (say "pod-GOO-zheh") and its Market Square are the heart of a former independent town on the south bank of the Vistula, now one of Kraków's most rewarding districts to explore on foot. Here you'll find a triangular square crowned…
Lakes
Dąbrowa Górnicza
Pogoria III in Dąbrowa Górnicza (say "DOM-brova goor-NEE-cha") is the most popular lake for summer fun in Poland's Upper Silesian metropolitan area: a man-made lake of about 205 hectares (500 acres) with a city beach, lifeguarded swimming…
Lakes
Dąbrowa Górnicza
The Kuźnica Warężyńska Reservoir, known locally simply as Pogoria IV, is the youngest and largest lake in the Dąbrowa Lake District: 560 ha of water in a former sand pit, up to 23 m deep. It lies within Dąbrowa Górnicza and the municipalit…
Lakes
Żory
The dozen or so forest ponds between Żory, Szczejkowice and Palowice were created not by nature but by industry. In the 19th century bog iron ore was dug here in open pits for the Waleska ironworks, and water filled the hollows left behind…
Nature
Gołuchów
In the woods next to the Gołuchów arboretum live European bison, Polish konik horses, fallow deer and wild boar – on more than 20 ha of fenced land, part of which is a meadow used as bison pasture. The Animal Display Enclosure has been her…
Historic sites
Imiołki
For most of the year the Lednica Fields are quiet meadows above Lake Lednica, with a white steel fish on the hill. Once a year, on the first Saturday of June, up to 100,000 young people gather here for the Lednica 2000 Youth Meeting – one…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw (Pomnik Bohaterów Getta) is one of Europe's most important Holocaust memorials: a massive stone block more than 10 meters tall, with reliefs by sculptor Nathan Rapoport, honoring the Warsaw Ghett…
Monuments & mounds
Gniezno
The Monument to Bolesław the Brave stands on Lech Hill, on the square in front of Gniezno Cathedral and opposite the Primate's Palace. The bronze figure of Poland's first crowned ruler, wearing a crown and resting on a sword, is 4.75 m tal…
Monuments & mounds
Szczebrzeszyn
"W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" ("In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reeds") – this line from a poem by Jan Brzechwa is known to every Polish child and every foreigner who has tried to master Polish pronunciation; it is…