Travel Guide // Zakopane, Poland

We finally got to vacation in the Motherland!!!

We always love going back to Poland because all of our family is there! The reason why I got the chance to go to Poland was because this year Poland hosted World Youth Day. Just like the title says it is a couple days where youth from all over the world come together to worship God and meet the Pope. However, I will have more on that in the next post. We got a group of your from our parish to go and we stayed in Poland for about two weeks. Our Mom is from the mountain region in Poland so that is why we spent our first week in Zakopane. Zakopane is a city located in the Tatra Mountains. It's great for skiing in the winter but in the summer it's a perfect place to do some hiking.

Most of our time the first week was spent hiking and touring the city. The first day we walked to the main square that is located on the street "Krupowki." Here you can eat the authentic Polish grilled/ smoked goat cheese and get some good shopping in. The exchange rate now from US dollars to Polish zlote is very good so everything there is relatively cheap. The next few days we spent touring the Tatra National Park. It is so beautiful and definitely worth the hike. One of the biggest attractions in the Tatra National Park is Lake Morskie Oko. It takes about 3-4 hrs to walk to it but you can take a wagon that takes you up the mountain. We chose to walk and on the way we got plenty of beautiful pictures that made the walk worth while. Zakopane is filled with plenty of scenic trails and I wish we could have done them all. 

The whole week we stayed at a place that is similar to a B&B, however lunch and dinner are also included, which is great. This place was located in Pardaowka, however Zakopane is filled with them and they all have fairly good prices. 

Zakopane is hands down one of my favorite cities of Poland and visiting it with some of my closest friends was the best experience ever. It is a city unlike any other and you for sure won't regret going!

~Dominika