A Day Trip to the Mountains in Zakopane

Zakopane is a resort town in southern Poland, at the base of the Tatras Mountains. As I wrote in my post on Krakow, a lot of people choose to go on a day trip from there to Zakopane. I booked my tour with a small company- there are a few to choose from right near the entrance from the Barbican. The tour cost me 289 zlotys (around 100AUD).

The tour bus picked me up from the bus stop two minutes from my hostel and took me to the shuttle bus I was to take the rest of the way to Zakopane with my group.

Our guide took us to see the traditional Polish houses and a waterfall, before we went into the town for lunch. Go to Karczma Po Zboju for a delicious, traditional Polish meal! We then went up the funicular to see the view of the beautiful Tatras Mountains. We were lucky and had perfect weather with blue skies the whole day.

Originally when making my European plans I had included an overnight stay in Zakopane so I could do some proper hiking, but I took it out so that I could go to Budapest instead. In hindsight, I probably could have fit them both in by taking a day away from Warsaw and Krakow, but you don’t know until you are there and I had already booked my hostels. My brother went into the mountains for a few days and his pictures were beautiful, so if you have time I definitely recommend it!

I was glad I went on the day trip, as it was good to get away from all the cities I had been visiting, but it was a very expensive option. I would recommend travelling to Zakopane yourself and staying a night or two there if you are thinking of visiting the Tatras Mountains and time permits instead.