Zakopane
travel guides

Zakopane is Poland's highest town, spread between roughly 750 and 1,000 metres in a valley between the Tatra Mountains and the Gubałówka ridge, in the Podhale region of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Around 27,000 people live there and several million visitors pass through each year. It is the centre of Góral highlander culture, which shows in the timber architecture, the smoked sheep's-milk oscypek sold along Krupówki street, and the folk music played in the taverns.

The nickname of winter capital is earned. The cable car from Kuźnice climbs 936 metres to Kasprowy Wierch at 1,987 metres, where two treeless bowls hold the most serious lift-served skiing in the country. Nosal, Gubałówka and Butorowy Wierch handle gentler terrain closer to town. Because Kasprowy Wierch lies inside Tatra National Park there is no artificial snowmaking on those slopes, and daily cable car capacity is capped.

Kraków is roughly 100 kilometres north, about two hours by road, and Kraków-Balice Airport (KRK) is the usual gateway. Frequent coaches and trains run to Zakopane station on ul. Chramcówki. Summer is as busy as winter here, with hikers heading for Morskie Oko and the Giewont ridge, and the Krupówki area becomes genuinely crowded during Polish school holidays and the New Year period.