Being in Poland, and not visiting Zakopane, is like being in Prague, and never going to a bar. A lot of people who travel to Poland, only visit Krakow and Warsaw. Believe me, there is definitely more to see in this small country.

This time, I want to focus on Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains. We share those mountains with Slovakia, and if you go mountaineering you might want to consider going to Slovakia as well. The Polish side has a better infrastructure, and is more accessible, where Slovakia has a more rough terrain. No matter where you start your hike, it will be beautiful, and you will enjoy those mountains a lot.

Zakopane is a small town in the bottom of the mountains. It’s a perfect destination if you want to explore the mountains. The town itself, is very charming with a lot of restaurants, where you can enjoy and laugh at jokes from the locals. We call them “Góral” (translated as mountaineer). They live in Zakopane and the nearby cities, they are very sarcastic, and have their own highlander slang. So don’t get offended, and just laugh with them!

There are a lot of trails in the mountains. You can take the easy one in the valley, or a more challenging one to the top peaks. There is also a cable car that can take you up to the peak called Kasprowy Wierch. The Tatra Mountains are very crowded. I am not surprised that they are popular, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who can’t judge their skills, and sometimes go too far without proper clothes and boots.

What I do recommend is to start very early, sleep in one of the huts, so you are already ahead of the crowd, or take one of the first cable cards to Kasprowy Wierch. The later is exactly what we did to beat the crowd.

You can buy tickets for the cable car in advance, on the website. It’s highly recommended to do so. There is a special line for ticket holders, and you don’t have to wait. Walk-ins are possible, but due to limited number of people that can fit cable cars, the line is super long! I’ve heard that you might stand there even for 3-4 hours, crazy!

There are a lot of beautiful hikes in Tatra Mountains. We recommend the following trails:

Today we decided to hike the Koscielec. It’s one of the most difficult peaks in those mountains. Please be mind of your skills and weather. Don’t overestimate this peak. We took a cable car to the Kasprowy Wierch. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the peak from where we started the hike. It cost around $15 per person. Not too bad!

It was the middle of the summer, so it was really hot. Even in the mountains at 1987 meters (6519 ft) in the morning, it was 20C (70F). It was crowded, but only a few people went further. Most of them got to the top by the cable car, took pictures, walked around and got back. The further you go, the less crowded it becomes.

From the Kasprowy Wierch in 20 minutes, you can get to another peak called Beskid. All the time you walk on the ridge so the views are amazing and you can admire the beauty of the High Peaks of Tatra Mountains. You also walk close to the border with Slovakia. As mentioned, Tatra Mountains lie in Poland and Slovakia, but 75% of their terrain belong to Slovakia.

From the Beskid peak, we took a trail to the valley (Dolina Gasienicowa). The lower you get, the warmer it gets. It was around 9 am, and the temperature reached 30C (86F). We took our layers off, because the temperature was rising as well as the steepness of the terrain. From the valley we took a trail to the Karb pass. Now the fun part was about to begin. It was steep, hot, and sunny, but it was amazing!

Around 11 am we reached the Karb pass. From this point, you can go right and hike Koscielec Peak or you can turn left and go down to Czarny Staw Gasienicowy (Black Pond). The weather was still good, so we decided to hike Koscielec. It’s one of the most dangerous peaks in the Tatra Mountains. It’s as challenging as Orla Perc. It’s a pure rock without any handles, or lines to protect or help you.

The higher you hike, the better view you have (of course)! It was gorgeous, wasn’t it?

The trail is a round trip, so sometimes, you have to pass people. Especially, in narrow rock chimneys. It becomes crowded, and we had to wait a little bit as some parts. We were glad that we started earlier and were ahead of the crowd. It can get really slow when more people hikes.

Around noon we reached the Koscielec Peak (2155 m / 7070 ft). We were exposed, but the weather was prefect, and we could admire views when replenishing. Just when we were about to leave, the clouds appeared on the Slovakia side. It’s just a matter of time when they would be above us. Unfortunately, the weather in the mountains changes drastically. Especially, during the summer months. you have to be careful and avoid being exposed after 1 pm. The thunderstorms are very common in the mountains and in Tatra when most of the time you are exposed it can kill you. There are a lot of deadly accidents. So whenever, you see clouds, you should consider heading down.

It started to rain when we were approaching the Czarny Staw Gasienicowy. From there, in 30 minutes, you can get to Murowaniec. Murowaniec is the name of the mountain hut. It’s a shelter where you can sleep, buy some food, tea or beer.

The most popular food, that we used to have when we used to hike are crapes. It’s a homemade crape with cheese or fruits. Delicious and definitely worth the hike! There is a difference between European huts and the ones in the US. In European huts you can buy a lot of things, there is a variety of food, drinks, and even souvenirs. People spend hours in those shelters, and in the sunny weather even sit outside.

It was a rainy day so obviously, everybody was inside, but we still managed to get the table. Nothing is better than the delicious meal, hot tea or cold beer (whatever you prefer!) and friends. We enjoyed our break a lot. The memories were coming back and we could sit there for hours. However, we still had about 2-hour hike back so we put our rain jackets on and head back.

The trail back to Kalatowki is relatively easy. Luckily it wasn’t raining anymore and we could enjoy the view and the trail. The first part is a little bit up, but not really steep. You have to reach the pass. It was a little bit crowded because all the trails merge here. However, the trail is relatively wide and easy so it wasn’t a big deal.

From the pass, you have two trails going to Zakopane. We recommend the trail through Jaworzynka Valley. It’s also safer in bad weather. It’s so peaceful to walk through the valley, admire surrounding mountains and enjoy the nature. From time to time you pass old huts. Some of them used to be a shepherds’ shelter and some of them are still in use.

It took us less than two hours to hike back to Kalatowki (Zakopane). We back to square one. This is exactly the place where we took the cable car in the morning. Because the parking is limited here, we had to take taxi to get here and back to hotel. Taxi is not that expensive. It costs around 10 PLN ($2.5) per person and it saves you about 30 minute walk.

We burned a lot of calories today so without guilt we could enjoy a traditional polish dinner. We went to “Bacowka”. It’s on Krupowki Street and we had a blast. Check out dumplings with Bryndza (pierogi z bryndza). You can get pierogi in many places even beyond Poland but this was in fact first time I had them with Bryndza. I loved it!

So is Zakopane now on your bucket list? I hope it is. Amazing food, amazing hikes, great people - what else do you need! Enjoy and take a hike!