Zakopane Travel Guide

Beautiful little town surrounded by Tatra mountains, great place for summer hikes and skiing in winter. Very Friendly people and great food (pierogi, mushroom soups, bigos ...), I would especially recommend making a trip to Krakow from here, lovely place and what is the most important - VERY CHEEP (dinner for two $12, beer $1, good hotel/apartment (depending on season) max$40  AWESOME PLACE!!!

Kasprowy Wierch is said to be the most famous mountain top of Poland, and is almost 2000 meters high. You can reach the top by foot, or with a lift.

We chose to go with the lift and wanted to walk back down, but the queue was so long we didn't have time for it, so we bought a return ticket straight away.

The cable ride up takes about 15 to 20 minutes and offers beautiful sights. It is rather expensive though, and the waiting for tickets took us 3 full hours. So better go there early. If you don't plan on walking down or staying at the top that long, you can best by a return ticket straight away. People with such tickets get priority in going down, while people who buy a ticket down on top of the mountain have to wait for free places in the lift.

The lifts itself are very stable closed cabins on cables.
The view from on top of the mountain is magnificent. Absolutely brilliant. There are walking routes on the top, and paths that go back down. All marks indicate how long the walk would approximately take. If you have a return ticket however, you don't have hours of time. You must go back down after, if I remember correct, 1h30 or 2h00. So long walks out there can't be made.

However, just a stroll around this amazing scenery is worth the trip. A nice drink in the warm restaurant is a perfect ender of a visit to Kasprowy Wierch.

Zakopane is known as 'the winter capital of Poland' but personally I think it's one of the best places to go, all year round. One of the must-go places is Krupowki Street. It's a central point of the town, one of the busiest and most famous shopping streets in Poland. It is where the Góral culture is most visible, with all the traditionally-dressed ladies selling Góral souvenirs. Besides shopping, Krupowki offer lots of karczmas and gospodas which are tipically Polish pubs and restaurants where you can enjoy local meal accompanied by traditional music. Later, all you have to do is: grab an Oscypek [a Góral cheese snack] at the marketplace, take a cable car up Gubałówka Hill and admire the beautiful Tatra View. Zakopane is also the best place for skiing [Kasprowy, Nosal, Gubałówka].