Summer toboggan run on Mount Żar

The summit of Mount Żar (761 m) in the Beskid Mały range has a power-station reservoir, gliders and paragliders taking off, and, for children, the main event: an all-year toboggan run. A ride on it is the highlight of a family trip to the mountain, which since 2004 has been reached by funicular from Międzybrodzie Żywieckie. The summit packs a short train ride, a downhill run and a wide view over the Żywiec Basin into one place.

Up by funicular

The funicular, run by Polish Cable Railways (PKL), is 1,300 m long and takes 5.5 minutes. It was laid on the tracks of an old glider tow, and the idea came from the Żar Mountain Gliding School, which proposed moving the old cars from the modernised Gubałówka funicular in Zakopane. Construction took 130 days, and the first passengers rode on 14 February 2004. The cars are wheelchair accessible. In October 2026 the funicular ran daily from 9:00 to 18:00; check the current timetable on the PKL website.

More at the summit

According to PKL, children can "go wild on the toboggan run", eat ice cream and buy souvenirs. A fast-food kiosk stands by the run, and the upper station building has a pizzeria and restaurant. At the upper station there are telescopes and a labelled panorama: the Żywiec Basin with Lake Żywiec, the peaks of the Żywiec and Silesian Beskids and the Magurka Wilkowicka group. Older visitors can ride down on off-road scooters along the 2.5 km Family Line trail. In winter two ski lifts and pistes operate, in summer downhill bike trails.

Interesting facts

Żar has a distinctive "flattened" top: between 1971 and 1979 the Porąbka-Żar pumped-storage power plant was built inside the mountain, and a kite-shaped reservoir of about 650 by 250 m was created on the summit. Before that, from 1936, a gliding field set up by the Polish air and gas defence league operated on the summit; the power plant forced it to move down the slopes. From the meadow by the run you often see paragliders launching and gliders circling low overhead.

Tripto tip

Leave the car in the paid car park at the lower station. The asphalt road to the top, built in 1979, is normally closed to private traffic, and on foot the black trail along the funicular takes about an hour (2 km, 300 m of ascent). Allow 2–3 hours for the toboggan run, the views and a walk around the reservoir. Check prices, hours and rules for the run (such as the age at which children may ride alone) at the summit ticket desk, as we could not confirm them from an official source. It gets busy in season and at weekends, so mornings are calmest.