Short article on Zakopane

My wife and I decided to go for a week to Zakopane in spring. We chose to rent a car in Warsaw and do the whole trip by car. I think it is better to go through Katowice because you will be driving always on a 2 lane road each way. From Katowice you can take the A-4 freeway to Krakow and then you merge onto "Zakopianka" that takes you to Zakopane. "Zakopianka" is in the middle of construction - so you will encounter some delays and part of it has 2 lanes going each way and part of it has just 1 lane going each way. The whole trip from Warsaw takes a long time - about 6 hours if you obey speed limits and drive carefully. I have been told that some people take only 4 hours to reach Zakopane from Warsaw - but in my opinion - this happens if you drive recklessly. After a tiring trip we checked in to a great hotel right in downtown Zakopane - the Sabala hotel - http://www.polhotels.com/Zakopane/Sabala. They gave us a quiet double room and right from the hotel we were in the middle of Krupowki - which is the most famous street in Zakopane with all the quaint boutique shops and nice villas of the highlanders. My take on Zakopane is this: - A great town in terms of highlander architecture, beautiful buildings, churches. - Location is superb in terms of being near the tallest mountains in Poland. The views of the mountains are superb and will delight anybody even if the person has seen the Alps or Rocky mountains in America. - The vegetation is very green in the Zakopane area. But the mountains over there are very dramatic and you have lots of different kinds of rock formations as well as caves. But the Zakopane city and maybe the area as well gets lots of tourists. So certain popular trails like "Morskie Oko" trail has quite a few tourists. Most of European mountains are like that - but compared to mountains in Canada or America - the trails are more crowded. The trails that directly start from the city like the "Gubalowka" trail will tend to be crowded although most of them provide you will spectacular views. The trails that should not be missed when you go to Zakopane are: 1) Morskie Oko trail This trail is very easy. Even if you are not the most fit person - you can take the horse ride over to the Morskie Oko lake. The surroundings of the lake are amazing - the colors, cliffs, mountains, vegetation all make this a very special place in Europe. 2) Dolina Chocholowska - or the Chocholowska Valley This is a fairly even trail - you almost do not ascend at all. You are going along steep cliffs and mountains, jagged rocks and beautiful caves. One of the better trails that I have seen in my life. 3)Gubalowka Some people like the Gubalowka trail because it starts right in Zakopane. I think some people who do mind the crowds will like it because the views are very nice and you get to see the whole panorama of the Tatras. In my opinion the best time to go to Zakopane is in the spring and fall. In the summer it might be hot in the 80's. In the spring the temperatures are moderate and this allows for great hiking. Zakopane itself has lots of great restaurants offering local highlander dishes. Even the Sabala hotel we stayed at also offered this type of restaurant. I would definitely not leave Zakopane without the "Oscypek" - a regional cheese made from original highlander recipees.