Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
In 1913, 211 sheep and 12 cows grazed at the Kotarz shepherd's hut above Brenna – at the time one of the largest in the Silesian Beskids. What the shepherds left behind is Hala Jaworowa, also known as Polana Kotarska: a broad mountain mead…
Mountains & peaks
Korbielów
Hala Miziowa is a wide, gently sloping meadow on the northern side of Pilsko, at about 1,230–1,310 m. A large PTTK mountain hut stands on it, and from the front you look out over the ridges of the Żywiec Beskids and the outline of Babia Gó…
Mountains & peaks
Międzybrodzie Bialskie
Most visitors end their outing at Żar, beside the reservoir of the pumped-storage power station. Yet about an hour's return walk further on lies Kiczera, also called Kiczora – a peak whose meadows offer even more than Żar itself: the reser…
Mountains & peaks
Kłodzko
For decades Kłodzka Góra (757 m) was thought to be the highest peak of the Bardzkie Mountains, which earned it a place in the Crown of Polish Mountains, a popular list of the highest summit in each range, even though newer surveys showed t…
Mountains & peaks
Brzegi
Twenty-eight summits, from Łysica in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (614 m) to Rysy in the Tatras (2,499 m), adding up to more than 30,000 metres of ascent on your own legs. The Crown of Polish Mountains (Korona Gór Polski) is not a single t…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Stronie Śląskie
Kowadło (989 m above sea level) is a border summit in the southern part of the Golden Mountains (Góry Złote), rising above the village of Bielice in the Stronie Śląskie municipality. It lies within the Śnieżnik Landscape Park and represent…
Mountains & peaks
Tylmanowa
The summit of Koziarz is wooded, and the trail even bypasses it – yet it is one of the best viewpoints in the Beskid Sądecki. Since 2015 an over 20-metre wooden tower with an enclosed staircase has stood on the top (943 m), so even people…
Mountains & peaks
Wiśniowa
Lubomir (904 m, precisely 903.6 m) is the highest peak of the Lubomir and Łysina range and one of the Crown of Polish Mountains. The forested summit offers no panorama, but it has something rare in the Beskids: an astronomical observatory.…
Mountains & peaks
Rabka-Zdrój
Maciejowa (837 m) is one of the first summits on the red Main Beskid Trail as you walk from the spa town of Rabka-Zdrój into the Gorce Mountains, just after Tatarów. From the open meadow on the ridge you can see Babia Góra, the Polica rang…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
Malinowska Skała (1,152 m) is the hub of the Silesian Beskids: ridges run from its summit towards Skrzyczne, Barania Góra and the Salmopolska Pass. The boundaries of Wisła, Szczyrk and Lipowa meet at the top, which is also the old border b…
Mountains & peaks
Wola Kosnowa
For years Modyń (1,029 m) was a summit with little to see: dense forest blocked the panorama, and the old wooden triangulation tower, locally called a patryja, rotted away and was blown down in the 1980s. That changed in 2021, when a woode…
Mountains & peaks
Chyszówki
Mogielica (roughly "mo-gee-EH-lee-tsa"), at 1,170 m, is the highest peak of the Beskid Wyspowy, the "Island Beskids" of southern Poland, so named because its mountains rise like separate islands from the valleys. It lies in Limanowa County…
Mountains & peaks
Karłów
On its western and southern sides Narożnik drops away in sheer sandstone walls, and from the rock slabs on top you can see Szczeliniec Wielki, the Duszniki basin and the Bystrzyckie and Orlickie Mountains all at once. It is one of the quic…
Mountains & peaks
Szczawnica
Palenica (say "pah-leh-NEE-tsah") is a 722-meter (2,369 ft) hill in the Little Pieniny range right above Szczawnica, a historic spa town in southern Poland. A four-seat chairlift whisks you from the town center to the top in under five min…
Mountains & peaks
Korbielów
Pilsko is the mountain that rises right above Korbielów. Its broad dome stands about 1,000 metres above the valleys and 200–300 metres above neighbouring peaks. The main summit (1,557 m) is the second highest in the Żywiec Beskids after Ba…
Mountains & peaks
Ustrzyki Górne
Połonina Caryńska (roughly "po-WO-nee-na tsa-RIN-ska") is a grassy mountain ridge in Poland's Bieszczady Mountains, rising between the villages of Ustrzyki Górne and Brzegi Górne. Its highest point, Kruhly Wierch, reaches 1,297 m (4,255 ft…
Mountains & peaks
Wetlina
Połonina Wetlińska (roughly "po-WO-nee-na vet-LEEN-ska") is one of the signature ridges of the Bieszczady Mountains in Poland's far southeastern corner. This roughly 8 km massif is topped by open, grassy highland meadows called połoniny, w…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
Karkoszczonka is the lowest and easiest crossing of the main ridge of the Silesian Beskids between Szczyrk and Brenna – a broad saddle at roughly 723–729 m (sources give both figures) that locals have used for centuries. For a long time it…
Mountains & peaks
Rycerka Górna
Przegibek Pass (992 m) lies in the Wielka Racza range, only about 480 m from the Slovak border, and its main draw is the PTTK mountain hut – voted the best mountain hut in Poland by the hiking magazine "n.p.m." in 2009. From Rycerka Górna…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
At 934 m the regional road 942 crosses the ridge of the Silesian Beskids and winds down in hairpins to Szczyrk on one side and Wisła on the other. Salmopol Pass is the highest road pass in the Silesian Beskids and the second highest in the…
Mountains & peaks
Słopnice
At 757.5 m, the road from Słopnice to Zalesie crosses a treeless saddle between Cichoń (929 m) and Zapowiednica (763 m). Słopnice Pass is open over a long stretch and has no buildings, which makes it one of the most accessible viewpoints i…
Mountains & peaks
Sobótka
Tąpadła Pass (384 m above sea level) is a saddle in the Ślęża Massif that separates Ślęża from Radunia. For many hikes it is the starting point: there is a car park, the road from Świdnica to Sobótka crosses the pass, and several trails br…
Mountains & peaks
Żabnica
Rysianka (roughly "rih-SHAN-kah") is a 1,322 m (4,337 ft) peak in the Żywiec Beskids, a range of the Western Carpathians in southern Poland near the Slovak border. Hikers come for the wide meadow just below the summit and its PTTK mountain…
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
On the ridge of Grabowa, archaeologists have found traces of Middle Palaeolithic early humans, probably of the Mousterian culture. Today, right next to the summit of this mountain (907 m), stands Chata Grabowa — a lodge in highland style,…