Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Baborów
The weathervane on the turret is cut with the date "1700" – the year building began. The wooden cemetery church of St Joseph in Baborów (listed in some heritage registers as the church of St Joseph and St Barbara) was built in 1700–1702 on…
Churches & monasteries
Binarowa
In Binarowa it is hard to find a patch of wall without paint: the ceilings are covered in Gothic plant ornament, the walls in Baroque picture cycles, and even the confessionals are painted. This log church from around 1500 was added to the…
Churches & monasteries
Modlnica
In 1553 the nobleman Jakub Śladkowski of Zabierzów built a new wooden church in Modlnica, and in return received the annual tithes, the crops from the parish fields and – according to the parish chronicle – the right to use the parish prie…
Other
Brenna
"He who has sheep has all he wants" – that is the name of one of the workshops at the Goat Farmstead (Kozia Zagroda) in Brenna, and it sums the place up well. In the centre of the village, hosts Beata and Rafał have reconstructed a highlan…
Technical monuments
Krośnice
At weekends the steam locomotive Px48-1907, built in 1955 and once used on the Żuławy Narrow-Gauge Railway, puffs through the park in Krośnice. The Krośnice Narrow-Gauge Railway is one of the few working park railways in Poland. Its 750 mm…
Nature
Sudół
Krzemionki (pronounced ksheh-MYON-kee) is a Neolithic flint mine near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski in central-southern Poland, where prehistoric miners dug thousands of shafts to extract a rare striped flint for axes. It is one of the best-pres…
Amusement parks
Ułęż
Instead of merry-go-rounds and plastic slides – wooden structures, pine cones under bare feet and a mud kitchen by a pond. Explorers' Forest (Las Odkrywców) in Ułęż (Ryki County) is a family adventure park laid out in 6 hectares of real wo…
Monuments & mounds
Ełk
On one of the benches in Ełk's Copernicus Park sits someone who, as the Polish saying goes, "stopped the Sun and moved the Earth". The figure of Nicolaus Copernicus waits for you to sit down beside him, while stone spheres – the Sun and th…
Nature
Bydgoszcz
Myślęcinek Forest Park (roughly "mish-len-CHEE-nek") in Bydgoszcz is one of the most rewarding things to do in this northern Polish city if you like green space: some 830 hectares (2,050 acres) of woodland, hills, valleys and ponds just no…
Zoos
Ustroń
The Forest Park of Surprises (Leśny Park Niespodzianek, pronounced roughly "LESH-nih park nyeh-spo-DZYAH-nek") in Ustroń is a small woodland zoo on a mountainside in the Silesian Beskids, famous for its free-flight shows with birds of prey…
Gardens
Janowiec
A few kilometres from Kazimierz Dolny, in the village of Trzcianki near Janowiec, lies Poland's first family theme park. Magiczne Ogrody – the Magic Gardens – opened on 23 May 2014 on 18 hectares of landscaped ground planted with around a…
Amusement parks
Borówiec
In the wooded village of Borówiec near Kórnik, inside a hall at ul. Uroczysko 1, a dozen trains run at the same time across more than 450 m² of H0-scale (1:87) layout. The operator bills it as the largest model railway in Poland, and it is…
Amusement parks
Rzgów
Mandoria – City of Adventures is an amusement park in Rzgów, about 20 km south of Łódź, on national road no. 1. Most of its rides are indoors, themed as a 16th-century Renaissance merchant town, so the park works whatever the weather. Next…
Museums
Nowy Sącz
The Galician Town in Nowy Sącz (Miasteczko Galicyjskie; say NOH-vee SONCH) is an open-air museum that recreates a small market town of Austrian-ruled Galicia around 1900, complete with a cobbled square, a town hall, timber houses and craft…
Museums
Karpacz
Henryk Tomaszewski, founder of the Wrocław Pantomime Theatre, brought toys home from every tour – dolls, teddy bears, figurines. That travelling collection became the Municipal Toy Museum in Karpacz, housed since 2012 in the restored forme…
Zoos
Leszno
The Leszno Mini Zoo is a small, free zoological garden in Millennium Park on 17 Stycznia Street, with a domestic animal enclosure and paddocks tucked among old trees. The history of Leszno's menageries goes back to 1903, and the zoo has oc…
Amusement parks
Kłodzko
On the edge of Kłodzko, opposite the shopping centre on the road to Nowa Ruda, Europe has been rebuilt at a scale of 1:25. Minieuroland is a miniature park that opened in July 2015. More than 40 hand-made models stand among flower beds, wh…
Museums
Toruń
Młyn Wiedzy (say "mwin VYED-zih," meaning "Mill of Knowledge") is Toruń's hands-on science center, set inside the restored red-brick Richter Mills on ul. Łokietka. Instead of glass cases, you get exhibits to spin, push and experiment with,…
Technical monuments
Bydgoszcz
The Rother Mills (Młyny Rothera, roughly "MWIN-ih ROH-teh-rah") in Bydgoszcz are a restored 19th-century industrial mill complex on Mill Island, right in the city center. Today the brick and half-timbered buildings house a science and cult…
Zoos
Dębki
A tropical greenhouse a few steps from the beach, filled with hundreds of exotic butterflies that fly freely and land on visitors' hands, clothes and bags. The seasonal butterfly house at ul. Spacerowa 3a in Dębki opens only in the summer…
Zoos
Władysławowo
In the port of Władysławowo, on ul. Hryniewieckiego, a tropical microclimate reigns in summer, and hundreds of butterflies from all over the world fly freely among exotic plants. There are no display cases or terrariums – the insects settl…
Museums
Poznań
The Archaeological Museum in Poznań is housed in the Renaissance Górka Palace (Pałac Górków, say "PAH-wats GOOR-koof") at Wodna 27, a block south of the Old Market Square. Founded in 1857, it is one of Poland's oldest archaeological museum…
Museums
Poznań
The Armored Warfare Museum in Poznań (Muzeum Broni Pancernej, roughly "MOO-zeh-oom BRO-nee pan-TSER-nay") holds one of Poland's largest collections of tanks and military vehicles, displayed in modern halls in the city's Wola district. A br…
Museums
Gdańsk
The Amber Museum in Gdańsk is the city's showcase for Baltic amber – "Baltic gold" – from drops of resin formed millions of years ago to contemporary jewelry. A branch of the Museum of Gdańsk, it has occupied the Great Mill, a medieval mil…