Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Lakes
Nysa
Lake Nysa (Jezioro Nyskie, say "yeh-ZHOR-oh NIS-kyeh") is a large reservoir on the Nysa Kłodzka river, right on the western edge of the town of Nysa in southwest Poland. Covering about 20 km², it has sandy beaches on its northern shore, ma…
Lakes
Niewiesze
Lake Pławniowice was not created by leisure planners – it exists because water kept flooding a sand quarry. The pit, which supplied backfill sand for Silesian coal mines, was flooded in the 1970s, and today it is a favourite spot for peopl…
Lakes
Olsztynek
Lake Pluszne, officially Pluszne Wielkie, is 52 m deep – only slightly less than neighbouring Lake Łańskie (53.8 m) and Lake Wulpińskie (54.6 m). It lies among the Łańskie Forests on the Olsztynek Plain, and the whole lake is a quiet zone,…
Lakes
Siewierz
Beneath the surface of Przeczyce Reservoir lies the flooded valley of the Czarna Przemsza river, along with remains of field fortifications from the 1930s and the Second World War. The reservoir was created in 1963, when a dam blocked the…
Lakes
Przywidz
People from Gdańsk were already coming to Lake Przywidzkie Wielkie for their holidays a century ago. In the days of the Free City of Danzig, the village of Przywidz – then called Mariensee – was promoted as a "Luftkurort", a fresh-air reso…
Lakes
Dźwirzyno
Lake Resko Przymorskie (roughly “RES-ko pshi-MOR-skyeh”) is a large, shallow coastal lake at Dźwirzyno, about 10 km west of Kołobrzeg, separated from the Baltic Sea only by a narrow dune-covered spit. It is one of the best places near Koło…
Lakes
Rożnów
This winding, S-shaped reservoir cuts into the Rożnów Foothills with fjord-like bays and peninsulas. Lake Rożnów exists because the Dunajec river kept flooding valleys all the way down to the Vistula, and the dam at Rożnów was built to sto…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Rusałka (roughly "roo-SOW-kah") is a wooded reservoir on the western edge of central Poznań, about 4 km from the Old Market Square. Locals come here to swim in summer and to walk, run and cycle the lakeshore loop the rest of the year.…
Lakes
Ślesin
Lake Ślesin has a feature most Polish lakes lack: in summer its water is on average 4–6 °C warmer. This is due to the nearby power stations in Konin and Pątnów, for which the lake is part of the cooling circuit. Warm water, a long glacial…
Lakes
Mikołajki
Lake Śniardwy (say "SHNYAR-dvih") is the largest lake in Poland and the centerpiece of the Masurian Lake District, a glacial lake region in the country's northeast. Sailors call it the "Masurian sea": on a windy day you can barely see the…
Lakes
Stęszewko
Lake Stęszewskie near Tuczno and Stęszewko is a long, narrow ribbon lake with high, wooded shores – the largest body of water in the Zielonka Forest Landscape Park. It lies in the municipality of Pobiedziska, about 20 km north-east of Pozn…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Strzeszyńskie, known to locals as Strzeszynek, is a glacial lake on the north-western edge of Poznań, about 10 km from the centre. It is ringed by woodland, has a municipal bathing beach in summer, and can be walked around on forest p…
Lakes
Szczecin
Emerald Lake (Jezioro Szmaragdowe, roughly "YEZH-oh-roh shmah-RAHG-doh-veh") is a flooded former chalk quarry hidden in the beech woods of the Bukowa Forest, on the eastern edge of Szczecin. It is famous for its green, emerald-tinted water…
Lakes
Turawa
Lake Turawa (Jezioro Turawskie, roughly "too-RAHV-skyeh") is the largest body of water in Poland's Opole region: a reservoir of about 21 km² (8 sq miles) on the Mała Panew River, ringed by pine forest, sandy beaches and holiday resorts. Ly…
Lakes
Międzyzdroje
Turquoise Lake (Jezioro Turkusowe) on Wolin Island is a small, strikingly colored lake in a flooded chalk quarry at Wapnica (say "vap-NEE-tsah"), inside Wolin National Park in Poland's far northwest. On a sunny day its water glows an inten…
Lakes
Olsztyn
Lake Ukiel (pronounced "OO-kyel"), known locally as Krzywe ("the crooked lake"), is the largest lake inside the city of Olsztyn and its favorite summer playground. Covering more than 400 hectares (about 1,000 acres) and reaching 43 meters…
Lakes
Wigry
Lake Wigry (say "VEE-grih") is the largest lake in the Suwałki region of northeastern Poland and the heart of Wigry National Park, near the Lithuanian border. Long, winding and dotted with bays, peninsulas and islands, it is crowned by the…
Lakes
Gniezno
Lake Winiary, known to locals simply as "Łazienki" (the Baths), is the largest body of water in Gniezno. It lies north-east of the city centre, between the Tysiąclecia and Winiary housing estates, and in summer serves as the town beach. A…
Lakes
Zielonka
Lake Zielonka lies right in the middle of Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park, in a large forest clearing around the village of the same name. A nature trail called "Plant Communities around Lake Zielonka" loops round the water, and in a singl…
Lakes
Leśna
Lake Złotnickie is a narrow reservoir, roughly eight kilometres long, on the Kwisa river, held back by a stone dam built a century ago. It lies in the Izera Foothills between Gryfów Śląski and Leśna, right next to a former mining town that…
Hiking & tourist trails
Częstochowa
The Kraków-Częstochowa Jura is a limestone upland between Kraków and Częstochowa where a bike lets you see several castles, rock towers and gorges in a single day. It is also Poland's largest karst area – there are about 900 caves between…
Hiking & tourist trails
Podzamcze
Red markers showing a bicycle on a white background lead across the whole Kraków-Częstochowa Jura – from Kraków to Częstochowa, along a chain of medieval strongholds known as the Eagles' Nests. The Eagles' Nests Cycle Trail is almost 190 k…
Amusement parks
Bałtów
Before concrete tyrannosaurs arrived in Bałtów, there was a legend about the devil. A mark in the rock above the Kamienna valley, known as the Devil's Footprint (Czarcia Stopka), was said to have been left by the devil leaping across the r…
Museums
Ozimek
JuraPark Krasiejów near Opole is a dinosaur park built around a genuine palaeontological site. Excavations here have yielded thousands of remains of Late Triassic amphibians and reptiles, some 230 million years old, including Silesaurus op…