Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Nature
Siedlec
The Devil's Bridges (Diabelskie Mosty) are three limestone rocks 15–18 m high, split by deep fissures, in the forest of the Parkowe nature reserve near Złoty Potok. They were named in the 19th century by the poet Zygmunt Krasiński, and nea…
Amusement parks
Szklarska Poręba
Dinopark in Szklarska Poręba (pronounced roughly "SHKLAR-skah po-REM-bah") is a forest theme park in Poland's Karkonosze (Giant) Mountains, where a woodland trail leads past life-size dinosaur models set among spruce trees and boulders. Al…
Other
Ruda Sułowska
The Carp Days in the Barycz Valley (Dni Karpia w Dolinie Baryczy, say: DNEE KAR-pya) are an autumn food and nature festival in western Poland, built around one of Europe's largest complexes of fish ponds. Rather than a single event, it is…
Nature
Aleksandrowice
The Aleksandrowice Valley is a roughly 3-km Jurassic valley in Aleksandrowice (Zabierzów municipality), just beyond Kraków's western boundary. It lies on the Tenczyn Ridge within Tenczyn Landscape Park. For a short walk you get a pond with…
Nature
Jerzmanowice
Będkowska Valley is 7–8 km long and one of the longest valleys of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. The Będkówka stream runs along its floor beneath limestone crags, and in the middle rises Sokolica – the highest rock of the Jura, with a face…
Nature
Zakopane
The Biały Valley (Dolina Białego, DOH-lee-nah bya-WEH-go) is a short, wild valley right above Zakopane, a few minutes' walk from the Wielka Krokiew ski jump. Its lower section is a narrow limestone gorge where the trail crosses a rushing s…
Nature
Wisła
Around 25 waterfalls and rock steps, the tallest of them 5 metres high – these are the Rodło Cascades, the highest waterfalls in the Silesian Beskids, tucked away in the valley of the Biała Wisełka stream in Wisła Czarne. The stream is one…
Nature
Chrosna
Twenty years ago the rocks of this valley had almost vanished under bushes and trees. After the 1950s the Brzoskwinka Valley became overgrown and stopped attracting visitors, until the people of Chrosna cleared the limestone crags and mark…
Nature
Bytom
For more than a century, the land along the Bytomka river was wrecked by a steelworks and mines; today it is crossed by walking and cycling paths. The Bytomka Valley, on the border of Bytom's Łagiewniki and Szombierki districts, is not wil…
Nature
Trzyciąż
The Dłubnia is a small river that for centuries turned the wheels of mills, forges, fulling mills and paper mills, and today runs through one of the quietest corners of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. Its valley, from the springs in Jangrot…
Nature
Czerna
Eliaszówka Valley (say el-yah-SHOOF-kah) is a wooded limestone valley between the villages of Czerna and Paczółtowice, about 30 km (19 miles) west of Kraków. It combines nature and history: beech forest, a heart-shaped spring beneath a sma…
Nature
Wierzchowie
The Kluczwoda Valley (pronounced roughly "klooch-VO-dah"), also called the Wierzchówka Valley, is one of the eight "Kraków Valleys" – a winding wooded gorge lined with white limestone crags, the scant ruins of a medieval castle and the lon…
Nature
Zabierzów
The Kobylańska Valley is a gorge some 4 km long, lined with limestone crags, that begins at the edge of the village of Kobylany, about 20 km north-west of Kraków. In its lower part there are few trees, so the rocks are everywhere you look…
Nature
Jelenia Góra
At the foot of the Karkonosze (Giant Mountains), in an area of about 100 km², more than thirty former residences survive – from medieval strongholds to 19th-century palaces of the Prussian aristocracy and royal family. The Valley of Palace…
Nature
Ojców
The Sąspowska Valley (say "sonce-POV-skah") is the second-largest valley in Ojców National Park (say "OY-tsoof"), Poland's smallest national park, about 25 km (15 miles) north of Kraków. Almost undeveloped, with meadows on the valley floor…
Historic sites
Bydgoszcz
The Valley of Death (Dolina Śmierci) in the Fordon district of Bydgoszcz is a wooded ravine where, in the autumn of 1939, German units shot an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 Poles and Jews from the city and its surroundings. Today it is one of t…
Nature
Zakopane
The Strążyska Valley (Dolina Strążyska, stron-ZHIS-kah) is the classic easy hike from Zakopane and one of the best things to do in Zakopane if you want to step into Tatra National Park without serious mountain gear or experience. A wide fo…
Nature
Jerzmanowice
Less than 30 km from Kraków, the Szklarka stream cuts a ravine through the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, overlooked by limestone crags topped with a cross, the remains of an old nickel mine and half-wild beech woods. Dolina Szklarki is one of…
Nature
Poznań
The Szklarka Valley is a wooded corner of eastern Poznań right next to the New Zoo, where a stream flows towards the Cybina River and Lake Malta. The valley's best-known feature was the timber treetop walk – but since 31 December 2025 the…
Nature
Katowice
The Valley of Three Ponds (Dolina Trzech Stawów, say "DOH-lee-na TSHEH-kh STAH-voof") is Katowice's biggest green escape close to downtown: a park of lakes, woodland, bike paths and skating trails just south of the city center. Locals come…
Nature
Smoleń
Despite its name – roughly "the watery valley" – no stream runs along the floor of the Wodąca Valley. This dry karst valley, about 3 km long, between Smoleń near Pilica and Domaniewice near Wolbrom, packs in almost everything the Kraków-Cz…
Landscape parks
Jerzmanowice
The Kraków Valleys Landscape Park (Dolinki Krakowskie, roughly "doh-LEEN-kee krah-KOV-skyeh") is a patchwork of limestone valleys, gorges and rock towers that begins right at Kraków's northwestern city limits. Established in 1981, it stret…
Museums
Szklarska Poręba
The Carl and Gerhart Hauptmann House in Szklarska Poręba (SHKLAR-ska po-REM-ba) is a museum in the former home of two German writers, the Hauptmann brothers. Around 1900 it was the heart of an artists' colony in what was then Schreiberhau.…
Landmarks
Węgrów
The wavy, two-storey gable crowned with a star can be seen from the far end of St Mary's Market Square. The Gdańsk House, a Baroque inn from the mid-18th century, recalls the days when Węgrów lived off the grain trade and competed with nei…