The tripto catalogue lists 103 lakes and reservoirs – from glacial tarns in the Tatras to Masurian lakes and dammed reservoirs in the mountains.
Morskie Oko (1,395 m) is the largest lake in the Polish Tatras, reached by an 8-kilometre trail from Palenica Białczańska. Lake Mamry in Masuria is a complex of six connected lakes covering more than 100 km², with 33 islands and boat trips from Węgorzewo. Lake Solina in the Bieszczady formed behind an 81.8-metre dam, the highest in Poland, with drowned villages on its bottom. Lake Łebsko in Słowiński National Park, separated from the sea by dunes, is the largest coastal lake in Poland. Boats on Lake Czorsztyn sail between the castles of Niedzica and Czorsztyn, and Lake Serwy in the Augustów Forest is up to 42 metres deep, with clear water for kayakers.
Most lakes and reservoirs in the catalogue are in the Silesian region (more than 25, including the Żywiec, Międzybrodzie and Goczałkowice reservoirs), Greater Poland (over a dozen) and Warmia-Masuria, Podlachia and Lesser Poland (a handful each).
In practice: plan anything from two hours to a full day by the water. Access to the shore is usually free; car parks, cruises and equipment hire cost extra. National parks are the exception: Morskie Oko requires a Tatra National Park ticket (11 zł), and Słowiński National Park trails cost 10 zł from May to September. The swimming season runs from late June to August – only swim at designated bathing areas.
Lakes
Zakopane
Morskie Oko ("MOR-skyeh OH-koh," meaning "Eye of the Sea") is the largest lake on the Polish side of the Tatra Mountains and the most visited spot in Tatra National Park. Sitting at 1,395 m (4,577 ft) beneath sheer granite walls, close to…
Lakes
gmina Węgorzewo
Mamry is the second-largest lake in Poland: the whole complex of six connected lakes covers about 100 km² and holds 33 islands. They were once separate lakes linked by streams – only in the 16th and 17th centuries did the water rise by sev…
Lakes
Solina
Whole villages lie beneath the surface of Lake Solina — the historic village of Solina, Teleśnica Sanna, Horodek, Sokole, Chrewt and much of Wołkowyja disappeared under water when the reservoir began to fill in 1968. Today it is Poland's l…
Lakes
Łeba
Lake Łebsko ("WEP-sko") is the largest lake in Pomerania and the third largest in Poland, a shallow, wind-whipped expanse of water just behind the famous moving dunes of Słowiński National Park, between the resort of Łeba and the village o…
Hidden gemLakes
Czorsztyn
On one shore stand the ruins of Czorsztyn Castle, on the other Dunajec Castle in Niedzica, and between them lies water that as recently as the 1990s was a valley of villages and fields. Lake Czorsztyn is a reservoir on the Dunajec River, s…
Hidden gemLakes
Serwy
More than 40 metres deep, with clear water and a quiet zone where motorboats are banned, Lake Serwy lies on the edge of the Augustów Forest, about 20 km from Augustów. For years it has drawn people looking for swimming, canoeing and woodla…
Lakes
Zakopane
Morskie Oko ("MOR-skyeh OH-koh," meaning "Eye of the Sea") is the largest lake on the Polish side of the Tatra Mountains and the most visited spot in Tatra National Park. Sitting at 1,395 m (4,577 ft) beneath sheer granite walls, close to…
Lakes
gmina Węgorzewo
Mamry is the second-largest lake in Poland: the whole complex of six connected lakes covers about 100 km² and holds 33 islands. They were once separate lakes linked by streams – only in the 16th and 17th centuries did the water rise by sev…
Lakes
Łeba
Lake Łebsko ("WEP-sko") is the largest lake in Pomerania and the third largest in Poland, a shallow, wind-whipped expanse of water just behind the famous moving dunes of Słowiński National Park, between the resort of Łeba and the village o…
Lakes
Solina
Whole villages lie beneath the surface of Lake Solina — the historic village of Solina, Teleśnica Sanna, Horodek, Sokole, Chrewt and much of Wołkowyja disappeared under water when the reservoir began to fill in 1968. Today it is Poland's l…
Lakes
Żywiec
Beneath the surface of Lake Żywiec lie the remains of Zarzecze, Tresna, Zadziele and Stary Żywiec — villages that disappeared when the Soła river was dammed in the 1960s. The reservoir covers about 10 km², is 6.6 km long and up to 26.8 m d…
Hidden gemLakes
gmina Ełk
Selmęt Wielki is one of the largest lakes in the Ełk Lake District in Masuria, north-eastern Poland: it covers about 1,269 ha and is 11.6 km long and up to 3.5 km wide. The Lega river flows through it, so kayakers cross the lake from north…
Hidden gemLakes
Ścibórz
A broad expanse of water on the Nysa Kłodzka River, with the Sudetes on the horizon — Lake Otmuchów is an artificial reservoir built in 1928–1933 between Otmuchów and Paczków. It combines flood protection and power generation with fishing,…
Hidden gemLakes
Czorsztyn
On one shore stand the ruins of Czorsztyn Castle, on the other Dunajec Castle in Niedzica, and between them lies water that as recently as the 1990s was a valley of villages and fields. Lake Czorsztyn is a reservoir on the Dunajec River, s…
Hidden gemLakes
Chełmża
The lake gave the town its name: in 1251 the settlement on its shore was called Culmsee in German, meaning "Chełmno Lake". Lake Chełmża, the largest in Toruń County, reaches as a narrow channel right into the centre of Chełmża, with a Goth…
Hidden gemLakes
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
Beneath the surface of Goczałkowice Reservoir lies the centre of the former village of Zarzecze, church and all, along with the historic border between Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia. Filled in 1956, this reservoir on the Vistula covers…
Hidden gemLakes
Serwy
More than 40 metres deep, with clear water and a quiet zone where motorboats are banned, Lake Serwy lies on the edge of the Augustów Forest, about 20 km from Augustów. For years it has drawn people looking for swimming, canoeing and woodla…
Hidden gemLakes
Międzybrodzie Bialskie
Lake Międzybrodzie fills the gorge of the River Soła through the Little Beskids and looks rather like a mountain fjord: narrow, about 5 km long and squeezed between wooded slopes. It was created in 1937 behind the Porąbka Dam, co-designed…
Hidden gemLakes
Augustów
Linguists trace the lake's name to the Yotvingian word methis, meaning "to throw", and a document from 1396 records it as Meten. Necko is a glacial ribbon lake that makes Augustów both a town and a resort: the town shore has beaches, prome…
Hidden gemLakes
Zakopane
A mausoleum for the Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki was once planned for the small, dwarf-pine-covered island in this lake — the 1909 idea was dropped after protests by nature conservationists. Czarny Staw Gąsienicowy ("Black Pond"), lying…
Hidden gemLakes
Kamień Pomorski
From the waterfront in Kamień Pomorski you look out over flat water, reed beds and a green island – and in the shallows off that island lies a granite giant carried here from Sweden by an ice sheet. Kamień Lagoon (Zalew Kamieński) is a wid…
Hidden gemLakes
gmina Warta
In summer the water level at Jeziorsko can drop by as much as 5.5 metres, exposing wide muddy shallows in the southern part of the reservoir. For people that is a drawback; for birds it is a feeding ground. More than 250 species have been…
Lakes
Zagórze Śląskie
Beneath the waters of Lake Bystrzyckie lies the former village of Śląska Dolina (Schlesiertal), first recorded in 1548, and when the reservoir was drained in 2016 for repairs to the dam, its remains reappeared on the bottom. The lake is he…
Lakes
Wisła
In Wisła Czarne the Biała and Czarna Wisełka, the two streams that form the Vistula, meet, and it is right here that an earth dam holds back their waters. Lake Czerniańskie, also called the Czerniański Reservoir, is a mountain drinking-wat…
Lakes
Rzeczyce
Dzierżno Duże is not a natural lake but a flooded sand pit: in 1964 the waters of the Kłodnica river were let into two quarry pits up to 20 m deep. The result is one of the largest reservoirs in Upper Silesia, about 5.8 km long and coverin…
Lakes
Kościelisko
Unlike most Tatra lakes, Smreczyński Staw does not sit in a rocky cirque but in the forest, at 1,226 m above sea level, between the moraines of two former glaciers. Kamienista, Błyszcz and Bystrá rise above the spruces, and a short black-m…
Lakes
Kraków
Zakrzówek in Kraków is a flooded former limestone quarry with turquoise water framed by white cliffs – one of the most unusual places to relax in any Polish city. It lies in the Dębniki district, a few kilometres from the Main Square, and…
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…
Lakes
Mosina
Glinianki are flooded former clay pits on the slopes of Osowa Góra in Mosina, in the Pożegowo district. Where clay was hauled to the brickworks for decades, there is now a quiet, green bathing spot with a sandy beach right on the edge of W…
Lakes
Biskupin
Without this lake there would be no Biskupin. The water first allowed a fortified settlement to be built on a marshy island, then for centuries covered its wooden remains, and in 1933 – when the level dropped – it revealed timber posts tha…
The Tatra National Park ticket costs 11 zł (reduced 5.50 zł). Add parking at Palenica Białczańska – 36–75 zł if booked online – or the e-bus from Palenica for 69 zł.
In the Silesian region (more than 25, mostly dammed reservoirs) and Greater Poland (over a dozen). The best-known large lakes, however, are in Masuria and the Bieszczady.
Lakes with bathing areas and gentle shores, such as Lake Necko in Augustów with its town beach and pier, Lake Serwy, Lake Otmuchów or Selmęt Wielki near Ełk.
Updated: · Opening hours and prices can change — check the attraction page before you go.