Poland
Where to Stay in Zakopane
Zakopane is a mountain resort town in southern Poland, built into a valley at the northern foot of the Tatra Mountains, right on the border with Slovakia. At 800-1,100 meters above sea level it's the highest-situated town in Poland, and part of the Tatras within its own administrative limits climbs to the summit of Świnica at 2,301 meters. Known as "the winter capital of Poland," Zakopane has drawn visitors since the late 19th century, when it grew from a small highland settlement into a fashionable health resort for Kraków and Warsaw's artists, writers, and mountaineers. That era left it a distinctive wooden building tradition, the Zakopane Style, developed by the architect and writer Stanisław Witkiewicz out of local Podhale highlander carpentry.
The town centers on Krupówki, a pedestrianized street lined with wooden shopfronts, restaurants, and stalls selling oscypek smoked cheese and highland wool, running gently uphill toward the surrounding hills. From town, cable cars and a funicular reach up into the mountains in different directions: a cable car to Kasprowy Wierch on the main Tatra ridge, a chairlift and hiking trails toward the Wielka Krokiew ski jump complex, and the older Gubałówka funicular to a ridge with panoramic views back over the town and the peaks beyond it. Locals still speak of Zakopane as the capital of Podhale, the highland region around it, and Goral folk culture — distinctive dress, music, and dialect — remains visibly part of everyday life here, not just a tourist display.
