Tatra National Park

The Tatra Mountains, located at both sides of Polish and Slovak border are part of the Carpathian Mountains – huge mountain range running from Romania, through Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland. In Poland, which is mainly a lowland country, the Tatras are loved. Every season, tourists from all over Poland and abroad hike the Tatra Mountains trails.
Located 100 km south from Cracow, Tatra National Park is the most visited national park in Poland with unique mountain landscape. It is created of jagged mountain peaks and ridges, steep precipices, deep valleys, glacial cirques, gullies, lakes and swift streams. The highest summit in Poland is Rysy located at the Polish and Slovak border at 2499 metres above sea level.

In Tatra National Park there are more than 270 km of hiking trails of different difficulties: from very easy, suitable for walks, to requiring significant skills and equipped with safety devices such as chains, step irons, ladders. There are also climbing routes. For a few years it's been possible to cross the Polish and Slovak border in the locations where trails from these countries meet.
Flora and fauna in the Tatras is very rich and diverse. Typically mountain plants present in the Tatra Mountains are: Swiss pine, Leontopodium alpinum, Crocus scepusiensis, stemless carline thistle. The remaining of the ice age are relict plants: net-leaved willow and mountain avens. The animal world is also unique. You can meet here chamois and marmots. The Tatras are one of rare places where you can meet brown bear, lynx and very rare golden eagle.
Another reason for which the Tatras are a special place is the harmonious connection between the beauty of nature and the Goral (highland) culture present in the dialect, clothes, music and architecture. Polish settlers form Cracow region settling at the foot of the Tatras mixed with a Vlach pastoral people travelling from the south, creating the Podhale region's Goral culture. For every tourist a visit in the Tatras leaves the taste of local traditional cheeses: bunc, oscypek, bryndza as well as żentyca – delicious and refreshing drink made from sheep milk. Typical Goral music can be heard in the streets and restaurants. The Goral culture popular at the turn of the 19th and 20th century propagated the Goral wood architecture whose great examples can be found in Zakopane and the entire Podhale region.
Practically any village at the foot of the mountains can be a good tourist base for hiking in the Tatras: Zakopane, Witów, Kościelisko, Poronin, Małe Ciche, Murzasichle, Bukowina Tatrzańska, as well as the villages at the Slovak side, e.g. Liptovský Mikuláš. Everywhere one will find very good accommodation, great food, comfortable transport and skiing infrastructure.
When planning a hiking trip you should remember to take the right equipment. Regardless of the season, a raincoat, warm sweater or microfleece sweatshirt, good shoes, and a map are a must. Before going out, we should always check the weather forecast and avalanche warnings, because the avalanches are the biggest threat to the tourists in the Tatras.
Compulsory tourist attractions in the Tatras include: a ride in the cableway to Kasprowy Wierch, walk to Morskie Oko, spring trip among the crocuses of the Kościeliska Valley and enjoying the Tatras panorama from Gubałówka.