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My hostes in front of the church
CHEESE STALL
A stop to rest (and enjoy the view)
ZakopaneSkiing In Zakopane
Ski Trip To Poland
I flew out to Poland on Saturday 01/03/2008 with a friend for a do it yourself Ski Holiday.
We had booked flights with Ryan Air the week before for the price of £118. Ryan Air do flights to Krakow for as little as £10 at times.
Roughly 2 hours after leaving Stansted, we landed in Krakow.
Once through the arrivals gate head for the free bus which will take to to the train platform. Once on the Train to Krakow Glowny,
If my memory serves me correct the fare will cost you around 6 zlotys. It takes around 20 - 30 minutes.
When at Krakow Downy head down the stairs and out to the bus station which is about a 5 minute walk away.
There are a few buses that run to Zakopane and from what I can tell, they are all more or less priced the same and take around the same time to get there depending on traffic.
We paid 15 Zlotys there and 18 zlotys back and both journeys took around 2 hours.
When we arrived in Zakopane bus station we already had a room booked at Willa Pod Piorem for 2 nights which is situated around 3 kms from Zakopane centre, but only a few minutes away from the slopes at Nosal, which is why we booked it.
We took a taxi and paid 30 zlotys, which is apparently far too much, but I did not find one taxi driver who did not over charge us which is why we later moved onto using buses.
The conditions looked bleak in terms of snow, with most of the snow which had been there melting away, but we need not have worried as it started to snow the minute we left the bus station in Zakopane.
Our room at Willa Pod Piorem was clean and comfortable and the staff and owners were friendly.
The bar is reasonably priced and the food was pretty good too.
We paid 60 zlotys per night each for bed and breakfast.
Once again I found the breakfast more than adequate for the price.
For me the measure of any hotel is how good the shower works and in Willa Pod Piorem they were excellent.
We woke the next day to a decent fall of over night snow which continued to fall throughout the day.
The slopes at Nosal consist on one small green run and one pretty daunting Red (i'm still a beginner/intermediate skier) and in all honesty would be good to spend half a day skiing.
It was great to help find the old ski legs and served it's purpose.
Ski Hire was 20 zlotys for half a day and the lift pass was another 20 Zlotys.
My friend who is an intermediate skier managed the red run, and since we'd been at the slopes since 9.00am we called it a day at around 1.00pm.
We got our first taste of Zakopane centre Krupowki Street. The street is full of a different attire of shops, Bars, Restaurants and stalls, mainly geared towards tourists. this does nothing to detract from the overall charm of Zakopane though.
In fact it adds to it.
Just off of Krupowki Street about midway you will also find a 24 hour Supermarkert.
There are plenty of ATM's scattered around Zakopane, although I actually found I got a better exchange rate for cold cash at the Exchange (Kandor) across the road from the train station.
We ate mostly at the restaurants on Krupowki Street and paid anywhere between £13-£25 for two diners including drinks for filling tasty meals.
The best place we ate was the self service Pstrag (fish) Restaurant at the bottom of the hill on the left.
There is also a market at the bottom near Gubalowka which is an excellent place to buy gifts for those at home and keepsakes for yourself.
The smoked cheese is highly recommended.
The bars on Krupowki Street charge around 5-6 Zlotys for a pint of beer (0.5l) and 4-6 Zlotys for a shot of local Vodka.
The only gripe I have with the bars on Krupowki Street is the fact that whenever I ordered a Vodka I would be served the most expensive Vodka in the bar which was imported. Make sure you ask for Polish Vodka or the bill can be a lot more than you would imagine!!
We bumped into a few folk who had been to Zakopane a few times and they gave us some pretty good information which we decided to act on.
One of the tips was to go for a Ski lesson in Oravice, Slovakia which is about 30 kms away from Zakopane, where after a day skiing you can enjoy the new Aqua Park.
The taxi we took there (no buses run there from Zakopane Monday-Friday) charged us 150 Zlotys for a fare which should have cost no more than 100 Zlotys.
Once there we enjoyed a days skiing on the Orivice Slope, which is a red/blue run and then went to the AquaPark to enjoy the natural Spa treatment.
We stayed overnight in Chata Orivice, which was very basic, but cheap and clean.
We then made our way back to Zakopane via Slovakian Taxi which worked out to be around half the price we had paid for the Polish taxi to there.
Feeling refreshed and relaxed from the Spa's in Slovakia and taking the bus from Zakopane (4.20 Zlotys) with bags in tow, we headed for the slopes of Bialka Tatrzansk.
After a 40 minute bus journey we arrived and walked up to the Bania Pensjonat, right at the bottom of the slopes.
The Bania is not really a pension at all and more like a good standard of hotel and this was reflected in the price.
We paid 360 Zlotys for a room for 1 night as we felt we deserved a little luxury after a night in Slovakia.
There are other pensions nearer to the bus stop which I would imagine are much cheaper.
The skiing was brilliant for intermediates with plenty of Chair lifts to ferry you to the top of the slopes.
Ski hire would cost between 20-30 Zlotys and the lift pass cost us around 40 Zlotys (60 zlotys for a full day).
Remember to return your lift pass at the end of the day as they will refund you 10 Zlotys for it's return.
After a great days Skiing we decided to have a look around Bialka only to find that if it is after 8pm then do not bother as nothing much is open.
Resigned to eating in the Hotel I ordered a Spaghetti Bolognese which was probably the most expensive and worse meal I had all holiday.
The next morning we took to the Slopes of Bialka Tatrzansk once again, where a fresh snow fall improved the icy conditions of the slopes.
Having to be out of the Hotel by 2pm we finished up and headed back to Zakopane by bus.
We now had it sussed, We took a pension close to the bus station above a shoe menders for 30 Zlotys each per night.
The room was very very clean, the owner very friendly and spoke English and we were just around the corner from the bus station and a 10 minute walk from the town centre.
For the last two days we would wake at around 8.00am and head to Bialka Tatrzansk by bus for our days skiing and then back by early afternoon (3pm).
We also spent a morning at the top of Gubalowka which is easily reached by the cable car/tram. This place looks great for skiing, but for some unknown reason you could only use the runs at the top of the slopes
and not ski all the way down, even though the piste maps show to the contrary.
The views up there are spectacular and it is well worth the journey up and sitting up there for a bite to eat to take in the Panorama.
We did not try any of the other ski slopes such as Kasprowy Wierch, Harenda, Male Ciche, Szymoszkowa, but heard some pretty good reports and will be visiting them on our next visit to Poland.
I would highly recommend the Polish Ski experience as long as you don't mind doing things off of your own back, rather than having everything laid on a plate for you.
The Polish in general are friendly people who will make an effort with you if you make an effort with them.
There are the odd few that will exploit you as a tourist like there are in every country in the world.
Great Holiday and experience for both us and you can do this type of skiing on a very slim budget indeed...as long as you avoid the Taxi's. ;) My Favourite memory is of the Panoramic views from Gubalowka.
