Zakopane: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Zakopane was a poor village of highlanders, the Górale, until a Warsaw doctor in the 1870s sent his patients to its mountain air. Artists followed, and invented a Polish national style from the village’s wooden houses. Today it is Poland’s winter capital, crowded on weekends. Ninety minutes, flat.
A short history of Zakopane
Until the 19th century Zakopane was a small shepherds' village in the Tatra Mountains. In 1873 the doctor Tytus Chałubiński began bringing patients and walkers here, and the village became a health and holiday resort. Writers and artists from Kraków and Warsaw followed him, and the artist Stanisław Witkiewicz developed the "Zakopane style" of architecture from the wooden houses of the Górale, the local highlanders. The railway reached the town in 1899, and in 1936 the cable car to the summit of Kasprowy Wierch opened. Since then Zakopane has been Poland's winter capital and hosts international skiing and ski-jumping competitions.
The ten best sights in Zakopane
1Tatra MuseumThe highlanders’ life and the mountains’ nature
2Villa KolibaThe first house in the Zakopane style
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3Old Church and cemetery
A wooden church and the artists’ graves
4Villa AtmaThe composer Szymanowski’s highland house
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5Jaszczurówka Chapel
A wooden chapel in the Zakopane style
6Krzeptówki SanctuaryBuilt in thanks for the pope surviving 1981
7GubałówkaThe panorama of the whole Tatra range
8Wielka KrokiewThe ski jump of the World Cup
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9Kuźnice
The old ironworks at the foot of the cable car
10Kasprowy WierchA cable car to the ridge on the Slovak border
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Zakopane →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Zakopane:
Free walking tours in Zakopane
The winter capital
Zakopane was a poor village of highlanders, the Górale, until a Warsaw doctor in the 1870s sent his patients to its mountain air. Artists followed, and invented a Polish national style from the village’s wooden houses. Today it is Poland’s winter capital, crowded on weekends. Ninety minutes, flat.
- Krupówki · The main street runs down from the mountains through the town, lined with wooden inns and stalls of oscypek — smoked sheep’s cheese pressed in carved wooden moulds, protected by the European Union, which only the shepherds of these mountains may make.
- Tatra Museum · The museum was founded in 1888 in honour of Dr Tytus Chałubiński, the Warsaw doctor who made Zakopane a health resort, walking the mountains with his patients and a highland band. Its building is itself in the Zakopane style, and it shows the costumes, houses and music of the Górale.
- Villa Koliba · In 1892 the painter and critic Stanisław Witkiewicz designed this villa, the first in the Zakopane style: the log houses of the highlanders raised to the size of a villa, with steep shingled roofs and carvings of suns and fern. He hoped it would become the national style of a Poland that did not yet exist as a state.
- Old Church and cemetery · The first church of the village, of wood, from the 1840s, and behind it a small cemetery where Zakopane buries the people who loved it: Chałubiński, Witkiewicz, writers and mountaineers, under carved wooden crosses and stones in the highland style.
- Villa Atma · The composer Karol Szymanowski lived in this wooden villa in the 1930s; his ballet Harnasie, finished around then, is inspired by the wild music of the highland fiddlers, whose tunes he collected in the villages.
- Jaszczurówka Chapel · A small wooden chapel in the forest at the edge of town, designed by Witkiewicz and finished in 1907, the finest church of the Zakopane style, inside and out carved like a highland house.
Up to the Tatras
The Tatras are the highest range of the Carpathians, a small wall of granite peaks on the border with Slovakia, almost all of it a national park. From Zakopane a funicular climbs one side of the valley and a cable car the other. A full day; the weather on the ridges changes in minutes.
- Gubałówka · A funicular railway of 1938 climbs the ridge north of the town, and from its top the whole Tatra range stands across the valley like a wall. The ridge is full of stalls and a long summer toboggan run.
- Wielka Krokiew · The great ski jump at the foot of the mountains, built in 1925 and rebuilt many times, hosts World Cup competitions every winter, when tens of thousands of Poles crowd the slope. Ski jumping is almost a national religion here.
- Kuźnice · The name means forges: in the nineteenth century this was an ironworks, and the forests around were cut for its charcoal. Now it is the gateway to the national park and the start of the cable car.
- Kasprowy Wierch · A cable car built in 1936 climbs to a peak of almost two thousand metres on the main ridge, where the Polish-Slovak border runs. One step takes you into Slovakia. In winter it is the highest ski run in Poland.
- Giewont · Seen from the town, the mountain’s outline looks like a knight lying on his back, and the legend says he sleeps there until Poland needs him. On its summit stands a fifteen-metre iron cross raised in 1901.
- Strążyska Valley · An easy walk of about an hour up a forested valley to the Siklawica waterfall, under the north face of Giewont — the gentlest way into the national park, good with children.
Morskie Oko and the highland villages
East of Zakopane is the largest lake of the Tatras, under the highest Polish peak, reached only on foot or by horse cart. Around it are villages of log houses, hot springs, and a river where highlanders steer rafts through a gorge. A full day and a car.
- Morskie Oko · The Eye of the Sea, at about fourteen hundred metres, under the cliffs of Rysy, the highest peak in Poland. Its ownership was disputed for decades between Galicia and Hungary, until an international court in Graz awarded it to the Polish side in 1902. From the car park it is about nine kilometres on a paved road, on foot or by horse cart.
- Rusinowa Polana · A high meadow where shepherds still graze sheep in summer and make cheese in a wooden hut, with one of the best views of the high Tatras. An easy walk from the road.
- Białka Tatrzańska · A highland village that became a ski resort with thermal pools, fed by hot water drawn from deep under the mountains.
- Dunajec rafting · Highland raftsmen in black hats and embroidered waistcoats steer wooden rafts of five narrow boats lashed together through the gorge of the Dunajec, which winds between limestone cliffs on the Polish-Slovak border. The trip takes about two to three hours.
- Niedzica Castle · A castle on a rock over the reservoir of the Dunajec. The legend says a nobleman of the family married an Inca princess in the eighteenth century and hid the will of the last Incas here; in 1946 a knotted string message, a quipu, was said to be found under the threshold.
- Chochołów · A village of log houses along one street, scrubbed pale every year by their owners. In 1846 its peasants rose against the Austrians for Polish freedom; the uprising failed within days, but the village is proud of it.
Getting to Zakopane and getting around
- Zakopane Station · Trains and buses from Kraków, about two and a half hours
- Gubałówka funicular · The funicular up to the ridge facing the Tatras
- Palenica Białczańska · Where cars stop for the walk to Morskie Oko
Cheap eats in Zakopane
Highland food is food for cold mountains: oscypek, smoked sheep’s cheese in spindle shapes, grilled on the street and served with cranberry jam; kwaśnica, a sour sauerkraut soup with pork ribs; moskole, flat potato breads with garlic butter; and żentyca, the whey left from cheese-making, drunk by shepherds. A grilled oscypek costs a couple of euro.
- Krupówki · Grilled oscypek with cranberry
- Rusinowa Polana · Fresh cheese from the shepherds’ hut
- Gubałówka · Kwaśnica in a mountain inn with a view
- Chochołów · Village cooking in a log house
- Kuźnice · Hot tea and szarlotka before the walk
Museums in Zakopane
Zakopane’s museums are villas: the house where a national style was born, a composer’s home, and the museum of the highlanders and their mountains.
- Villa Koliba · The Museum of the Zakopane Style
- Tatra Museum · Highland life and nature
- Villa Atma · Szymanowski’s house and concerts
- Niedzica Castle · The castle of the Inca legend
Nature and day trips near Zakopane
The Tatra national park is small, steep and crowded in summer, with granite peaks, glacial lakes, valleys of spruce and the occasional bear. Paths are well marked; stay on them, and start early.
- Morskie Oko · The great lake under Rysy
- Kasprowy Wierch · The ridge on the border
- Kościeliska Valley · Caves and cliffs in a flat valley
- Strążyska Valley · An easy walk to a waterfall
- Dunajec rafting · The Pieniny gorge by raft
Things to do in Zakopane with kids
With children: a funicular and a toboggan, a cable car to the clouds, a raft through a gorge and warm pools.
- Gubałówka · The funicular and the toboggan
- Chochołów Thermal Baths · Warm pools facing the peaks
- Dunajec rafting · A raft trip with highland boatmen
- Kasprowy Wierch · Step into Slovakia
- Strążyska Valley · An easy family walk
Holy places in Zakopane
The highlanders are deeply Catholic, and their churches are wooden: the first church of the village, a carved chapel in the forest, and a sanctuary tied to the Polish pope.
- Jaszczurówka Chapel · The carved chapel in the forest
- Old Church and cemetery · The wooden church and artists’ graves
- Krzeptówki Sanctuary · The highlanders’ thanks for the pope
Nightlife in Zakopane
Zakopane’s nights are in the inns of Krupówki, where highland bands play fiddle music in the evenings, and in the après-ski bars in winter.
- Krupówki · Highland bands in the inns
- Gubałówka · Sunset over the Tatras
- Białka Tatrzańska · Thermal pools at night
Frequently asked questions about Zakopane
What is there to see in Zakopane?
The top sights in Zakopane are Tatra Museum, Villa Koliba and Old Church and cemetery. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Zakopane?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Zakopane without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Zakopane?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Zakopane, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The winter capital.
How do you get to Zakopane and get around?
The main ways are Zakopane Station, Gubałówka funicular and Palenica Białczańska. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Zakopane, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Zakopane that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Zakopane for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.