Poland Travel Answers

I dont know about Zakopane but there is alot to see in Krakow ;-)

I suggest a day trip to Zakopane, in between, many wooden churches/houses and beautiful landscape.

Krakow is a truly lovely town with absolutely masses to see and explore. Don't cut down your time there....even with 3 nights/2 full days you won't have time to see 'all the sights' as well as the saltmines and Auschwitz.

Zakopane is a sleeping place for tourist and not my cup of tea, but others enjoy it. I prefer the mountains itself.Some tourist walk up and down on shopping and restaurant street (Krupowki- length 1000m), you can buy some regional things (often made in China). There are some restaurants with life traditional local music.Some, like my friend Redanq see some wooden architecture (there are some smaller and more interesting places for it in my opinion). Others pass Zakopane and go hiking in Tatry. There will be still the end of winter in the mountains, but you can hike in valleys (Koscieliska, Chocholowska, Morskie Oko) and enjoy the snowy landscape. You can take a cable car on Kasprowy or funicular on Gubalowka. Zakopane can be on your way to Budapest anyway.

Guys, Thanks a ton for the responses. Leics a special thanks to you for responding to all my queries. The idea of spending the night at Zakopane is really to get a shot at being able to make the trip to Kasprowy. Any idea how long is the trip from Zakopane to Kasprowy & back with a look-see time at the top? I guess if we cant squeeze the time out to make it to Kasprowy, there will be not much interest in Zakopane by itself. Would really appreciate any feedback on the quality of road between Zakopane & Budapest during mid april. Should we be we expecting snow or avalanche? Thanks once again for taking time out to respond to my queries. Cheers

From Zakopane to Kasprowy by lift 5 min by minibus/taxi to lower station then you can wait up to 20 min for the car(riage) or whatever is called in English. Then up to 30 min to the upper station. How long will you stay is up to you. You should buy a return ticket anyway. Have look here (in English). Zakopane is also a good base for hiking. 95% of chances of not snow at roads at all unless. However we had some snow last begining of May(very rare here). Due to the above 0 temperature it vanished almost immediately. It should be still a lot of snow in Tatry (above 1300m). It is not so easy to spot avalanches even in Tatry but 3 skiing tourist died in the avalanche last April. You have to forget about it on the roads. Tatry is not The Himalayas or even The Alps. Mind you that Krakow old centre is within maximum 3-4 km walk including Kazimierz former Jewish district (and still some things outside). It includes Wawel castel, dozen of churches, few sinagogues and old buildings as you are not so into museums. On the top of is the salt mine in Wieliczka just outside from the city limits roughly 15-20 km out from Rynek (the main square).

If you like and I have some spare time I can always dicuss these things personally in Krakow ;-).

Being at your place I'd definitely go to Zakopane for this 3rd day, it's really worth visiting and still I think you can manage to see Krakow during 2 days stay.

Guys thanks a ton. We are back after our 3 weeks trip. We finally did 2 nights at Krakow & 1 night at Zakopane. Wish I had more time in hand to allocate a little more to both. Cheers

Glad you had a successful trip and thank you for coming back to tell us! :-)

Yes it is nice to get some feedback ;-) Tx