Two hours south of Krakow the road ends at the Tatra mountains and a wooden town called Zakopane. It is where Poland goes to ski in winter and hike in summer, and it is the easiest mountain day with children in central Europe.
The funicular up Gubalowka is the first thing. A short ride up to a ridge with a view of the whole Tatra range, a row of stalls selling smoked cheese, and a summer toboggan run that the kids will do three times. It costs a few zloty and it is a full morning.
The cable car up Kasprowy Wierch is the bigger one, to a peak on the Slovak border with hiking trails off the top for older kids and a cafe for everyone else. Book the ticket online for a morning slot, it sells out in summer.
The lake and the town
Morskie Oko is the lake in a bowl of peaks that every Polish family has walked to. A shuttle bus to the trailhead, then a paved path up through the forest, nine kilometers, with horse carts for anyone who gives up. Two hours up with kids, ninety minutes down. The lake at the top is the color of the photos and colder than it looks.
Krupowki street is the town, a pedestrian street of wooden houses, restaurants, and stalls selling oscypek, the smoked sheep cheese, grilled with cranberry jam. The kids will eat it. The Tatra Museum shows the wooden architecture and the highlander costumes.
A night in a wooden guesthouse with a fire is the way to do it. Or drive down and back in a long day from Krakow. Either way, Zakopane is the thing that turns a city break into a Poland trip.
Planning Poland with kids? Start with the full Poland family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.
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