Summer in Zakopane: The Tatra Mountains from the Polish side
Written by Amanda Kendle
The High Tatra mountains on the border of Slovakia and Poland are probably more famous for their winter activities with great skiing in several spots, but I passed through in late summer and there’s a lot to recommend then as well.
Bus and train connections made my stopover point Zakopane, a town on the southern border of Poland. It’s crowded during winter, I hear, but was also fairly packed in summer – but there are so many bed-and-breakfast type places to stay that it isn’t long before some old Polish woman grabs you and invites you home.
It’s a relaxing spot, and the high altitude makes it a good escape during the hottest parts of the year. I spent my two days in Zakopane doing a lot of walking and breathing in that mountain fresh air. A highlight was taking the funicular railway up Mount Gubałówka and once at the top, I hiked past farms and across plains, with magnificent views to the snow-capped Tatras.
If you’re a skiier, you’ll probably tend to stick to winter visits to Zakopane, but I really do recommend its summer face as well. A side note: Zakopane is in the running to host the World Ski Championships in 2013 so it might get more famous – try to get in first.
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Zakopane must be one of the greatest Polish tourist traps of all time! It’s overpriced, pretentious and crowded year round, and those “babcias” that hunt for foreign visitors can be so bloody annoying, not to mention they rip people off, too. But I think this phenomenon is on its way out anyway.
If you choose to accept a room offer from a “babcia” at the station, make sure she shows you the exact location of the house on a city map first. Otherwise you may end up staying in the middle of nowhere.
The area is really lovely, though. And if you liked Zakopane, next time you should visit Zywiec (yep, same name as the beer). Even more beautiful and minus the crowds.
One more thing!
Here’s an English-language page with info on all things Zakopane:
http://www.zakopane-life.com/
And a bit of trivia for you – in Polish “Zakopane” means something like “snowed in” or “covered with (snow)”. Cool, huh?
Anna, that’s funny that you say it’s a tourist trap because in summer I didn’t find it that way at all! Our accommodation was central, cheaper than any other place we’d stayed in Poland, and my strongest memories are of hiking around in wide open space without a tourist in sight! So I guess you can even turn tourist traps into your own special place …
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