Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Thermal baths & water parks
Chochołów
Chochołowskie Termy (roughly "ho-ho-WOV-skyeh TER-mi") in the village of Chochołów is the largest thermal pool complex in Poland's Podhale region, the highland area at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. It offers about 4,500 m² (48,000 sq ft…
Other
Jerzmanowice
Chochołowy Dwór is a hotel and restaurant in Jerzmanowice, on national road 94 between Kraków and Olkusz, about 15 km from Kraków. The building and its interiors are styled on the manor houses of the local gentry. Ojców National Park and t…
Landmarks
Kraków
Rakowicki Cemetery (Cmentarz Rakowicki, roughly "rah-ko-VEETS-kee") in Kraków is the city's oldest municipal cemetery and one of Poland's most important burial grounds. Spread over more than 42 hectares of tree-lined avenues, it holds pain…
Historic sites
Bydlin
In the parish cemetery of Bydlin, at the foot of a hill crowned by castle ruins, stands a seven-metre sandstone cross. Beneath it, in a mass grave, lie 46 Polish Legionnaires killed at the Battle of Krzywopłoty in November 1914 — a clash J…
Historic sites
Brzesko
Behind a stone wall on ulica Czarnowiejska in Brzesko lie more than 500 soldiers from the First World War: Austrians, Germans and Russians buried side by side. Cemetery No. 276 is one of the burial grounds laid out by the Austro-Hungarian…
Lakes
Zakopane
Czarny Staw pod Rysami, the Black Lake below Rysy, lies 188 metres higher than Morskie Oko, in a rocky cirque enclosed by the Kazalnica wall and the ridge running to Rysy. A short but steep climb leads up from the mountain hut. The water l…
Hiking & tourist trails
Kościelisko
The Czerwone Wierchy ("Red Peaks", roughly "cher-VO-neh VYEH-rkhih") are the most popular ridge walk in the Western Tatras, a chain of four summits linked by a red-marked trail with views reaching the High Tatras. The summits are Ciemniak…
Viewpoints
Klucze
Czubatka is a 382 m hill on the western edge of Klucze village and one of the easiest viewpoints over the Błędów Desert – Poland's largest expanse of loose sand, covering about 33 km². You can drive right up, and from the fenced terrace yo…
Viewpoints
Chechło
From Dąbrówka hill in Chechło you look straight out over Poland's largest expanse of shifting sand. The viewpoint, at 355 m above sea level, faces the northern, treeless part of the Błędów Desert – the part you are not allowed to enter, be…
Other
Krynica-Zdrój
The Krynica-Zdrój promenade (KRIH-nee-tsah ZDROOY) is the elegant main walk of one of Poland's most famous mountain spa towns. It combines the pedestrian Leona Nowotarskiego Avenue with the Dietl Boulevards running along the Kryniczanka st…
Landmarks
Czerna
The Devil's Bridge in Czerna is the ruin of a stone bridge built in the 17th century by the hermits of a Carmelite hermitage over the stream in the Eliaszówka Valley. Resembling a Roman aqueduct, the structure is now a forest-covered ruin…
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
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
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
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…
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…
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
Zalipie
In Zalipie flowers bloom all year round – on cottage walls, stoves, wells, fences and even dog kennels. This small village in the Vistula lowlands is famous for its painted houses, and the best place to start is the Felicja Curyłowa Painte…