Zakopane is Poland's mountain capital at the foot of the Tatra Mountains: Krupówki street, wooden architecture in the Zakopane style, the funicular to Gubałówka and the cable car to Kasprowy Wierch. Beyond the centre await the trails of the Kościeliska Valley and the trip to Morskie Oko lake.
Ski resorts
Zakopane
Skiing on Kasprowy Wierch (kahs-PROH-vee VYEHR-h) above Zakopane is the only true high-mountain skiing in Poland. Runs in the Gąsienicowy and Goryczkowy cirques start at 1,987 m and lie entirely inside Tatra National Park, with no snowmaki…
Ski resorts
Zakopane
Zakopane is Poland's oldest and most alpine ski base: only here does a cable car carry skiers to almost 2,000 m above sea level, with descents through the glacial cirques of Tatra National Park. Besides Kasprowy Wierch there are slopes in…
Gardens
Zakopane
Rówień Krupowa is a large, flat meadow in the very centre of Zakopane, right next to the lower end of Krupówki street. From its lawns you can see Giewont and Gubałówka, and through the year it hosts the town's biggest outdoor events, from…
Churches & monasteries
Zakopane
The Our Lady of Fatima Sanctuary at Krzeptówki (kshep-TOOF-kee) in Zakopane is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Tatra region and a church closely tied to Pope John Paul II. Local highlanders built it as a thank-offering af…
Churches & monasteries
Zakopane
Drive into Zakopane from the Olcza side and you will see a church whose roof is made up of five segments of unequal height. From the side they look like hands joined in prayer, and at the same time like steep highland roofs and Tatra peaks…
Waterfalls
Zakopane
Siklawa (roughly "shee-KWAH-vah") is Poland's highest waterfall, dropping about 65 to 70 m from the edge of the Great Pond into the Roztoka Valley in the High Tatras. It is one of the most spectacular things to see on a day hike from Zakop…
Waterfalls
Zakopane
Siklawica Waterfall (shee-klah-VEE-tsah) at the head of the Strążyska Valley is the easiest Tatra waterfall to reach from Zakopane. The Strążyski stream drops over two almost vertical rock steps below the cliffs of Giewont, the mountain th…
Amusement parks
Zakopane
Every winter a snow maze is built from scratch at the foot of the Wielka Krokiew ski jump in Zakopane – the organisers stress that it is the only structure of its kind in Poland and call it the largest snow maze in the world. Producing the…
Ski resorts
Zakopane
Polana Szymoszkowa (poh-LAH-nah shih-mosh-KOH-vah) is a ski area on the south slope of Gubałówka hill in Zakopane, Poland's best-known mountain town, and it is famous for its views: from the slopes you look straight at the High Tatras and…
Churches & monasteries
Zakopane
The Old Church in Zakopane (Stary Kościół, pronounced roughly "STAH-ri KOSH-choow"), officially the Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa, is the oldest parish church in Poland's best-known mountain resort. This small wooden church on Kościeli…
Mountains & peaks
Zakopane
Suche Czuby – properly Suche Czuby Kondrackie – are three granite crags on the main ridge of the Western Tatras, between Goryczkowa Czuba and Suchy Wierch Kondracki. The Polish–Slovak border runs along them, and the red trail from Kasprowy…
Landmarks
Zakopane
The Zakopane Style Trail is a town route linking 41 historic buildings in Zakopane, built in the style that Stanisław Witkiewicz created around 1900 as a model for a Polish national architecture. It was opened in July 2014 on the initiativ…
Zoos
Zakopane
Below the Wielka Krokiew ski jump, at ul. Piłsudskiego 38, you can see an Alpine marmot up close without setting foot on a trail. The Tatra Educational Park is a 1.5-hectare enclosure home to 14 species of animals, from red deer and fallow…
Thermal baths & water parks
Zakopane
Termy Zakopiańskie (roughly "TER-mi zah-ko-PYAN-skyeh"), formerly known as Aqua Park Zakopane, is the thermal water park inside Zakopane itself, Poland's best-known mountain resort. It sits on Jagiellońska Street at the foot of Antałówka h…
Other
Zakopane
Wielka Krokiew (VYEL-kah KRO-kyef, "Great Krokiew") in Zakopane is Poland's largest and most famous ski jump, and one of the top things to do in Zakopane even if you have never watched ski jumping. In January it hosts a World Cup weekend w…
Museums
Zakopane
Karol Szymanowski called it his "beloved highlander's cottage". The composer lived in the wooden Villa Atma on Kasprusie Street, a few minutes' walk from Krupówki, from 1930 to 1935, and finished his ballet Harnasie here. Today it houses t…
Landmarks
Zakopane
On the night of 22–23 August 1939, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz painted his last portrait in this house, and the next day he left Zakopane, never to return. Witkiewiczówka on Antałówka street is a wooden villa in the Zakopane style from 190…
Amusement parks
Zakopane
In winter World Cup ski jumpers fly off this hill; outside the competition season, tourists ride down the plastic matting of Wielka Krokiew – without the jump, on special inflatable tubes. The operator says it is the only place of its kind…