 Poster: A snowHead
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The Idea
I thought of going for a long weekend skiing this year at the end of Febuary or early March with the idea of flying out late Wednesday afternoon or evening and returning late Sunday evening and so getting in 4 days of skiing. Instead of the usual ideas of flying to Geneva and staying somewhere like Crolles or Milan and driving up to Gressoney I thought I would try somewhere completely different – perhaps the Tatras. I knew nothing of this region so had to start doing some research.
The plan
After a fair bit of searching on the web I discovered that RyanAir flew from Birmingham at 16:35 and returns 20:30 on the Sunday. I also found a small ski resort in Poland called Zakopane which was about 100km south of Krakow. So the plan developed into flying from Birmingham on the 28th, getting a taxi from the airport to a hotel in Zakopane skiing there for 3 days, return on the Saturday after skiing to Krakow for a day’s site seeing before returning Sunday evening. Using booking.com my wife found reasonable looking hotels in both towns, sorted out a transfer from the airport to the hotel and back to Krakow. So all was set
The travel
Well everything went well. Birmingham airport was very quiet and we walked straight through security hence onto the plane. Ryanair’s policy of charging for cabin baggage made a big difference in find your seat and putting your coat in the overhead locker a much more pleasant experience. Getting through Krakow airport was very fast and efficient, much more so than at UK airports. We were met at the airport by the hotel owner who drove us down to Zakopane. This price of this transfer was 100 euros (lots of prices are quoted in euros and converted to zloty at a rate of 4 zloty to the euro.) The journey was quoted as taking between 2 to 3 hours depending on traffic. We did it in just over 1:30.
The owner’s son drove us back to Krakow on Saturday night for another 100 euros.
The hotel
We stayed in the Foluszowy Potok hotel in Zakopane (http://www.foluszowypotok.pl/). It had been completely gutted and refurbished only 3 months before we arrived and it was gorgeous. The staff were also very friendly and helpful. I highly recommend it. The food at breakfast and in the evening was very good. An evening meal of two good courses and 4 50cl of beer came in at about £23 in total for 2 of us. The Benefis in Krakow was also excellent. Both hotels allowed us to leave our bags there on departure day while we enjoyed ourselves.
The town
Zakopane was a surprisingly large sprawling town. There were lots really beautiful houses, hotels and other buildings. We never really found out if it had a centre.
The skiing
Scattered around the town are a number of small independent ski slopes (http://www.discoverzakopane.com/skiing.html) We skied 2 of them. There are some hotels near some of the slopes but in general you need to get a bus or a taxi to the slopes. We never saw any busses go past our hotel so caught a taxi. OK it may have been less than 8 euros each way but it still needed paying. The hotel would book us a taxi in the morning and we would either phone up or get one from the taxi rank when we returned. On the first day we went to Harenda. To anyone used to alpine skiing this was a strange little hill. It is about 8-900m long and I would say of red grade and doesn’t feel like it is in the mountains at all. There is a normal suburb at the bottom and a road with houses on at the top. It would be as if someone put a ski slope on the Lickey hills. The piste itself was bashed smooth and firm. In fact perfect for practicing basic technique, which is what we did. The piste map shows another piste leading off towards the trees we set off to find it and basically had a pleasurable half hour walking up and meandering down accompanied by a small dog which came along for company. We did see a deer strolling thought the trees.
The next 2 days we went up Kasprowy Wierch. This is in the national park so you are not allowed to drive upto the base station but must either walk, catch a small shuttle bus, get a horse drawn sleigh or walk. We got a taxi. Kasprowy Wierch is a favourite destination to visit for walkers, skiers and anyone else who just wants to go up and admire the view. The views from the top are exceedingly good. To get up this hill involves a long cable car ride. The queue to buy a ticket can be over 2 hours, but you can bypass this by either buying your ticket online or buying from the express ticket machine. Nevertheless it took us over an hour to get up the mountain. At the top is a café which with the tourists makes it feel just like the café on Snowdon. Outside the place bustles with tourists, walkers strapping on crampons and skiers trying to get the slope. We paid £109 for two 2 day ski passes (with discounts for being old), which when you add on the 10 euros a day taxi fare makes a lift pass cost about £27 per day. Not cheap but imagine it as getting the train up Snowdon so you can ski at the top.
At the top there are two runs: run 1 and (you’ve guessed it) run 2. You get to it run 1 straight out of the cable car top station and it is a 1400m long red slope with a slow 4 man chair serving it. The first day we went there there was a lot of freezing fog at the top so we basically felt our way down the slope a couple times. By walking along the track at the top a 100 or so metres you come across Run 2 on the right. It is longer, about 2km long and much much wider and generally much more enjoyable. In fact I really enjoyed this piste. When we got to the bottom of the slow 2 man lift up, we called into the hut at the bottom to warm up (did I mention that it was very cold -29 at night warming up to -11 during the day) and had a bowl of bean soup. It was lovely. At this point I noticed a couple skiers skiing on a track below the lift. We followed them and after a nice gentle ski along the forest track came out at the cable car base station. This was so nice we did it again to return at the end of the day.
I’m not sure if there is a piste grading system in place in Poland but I would grade both pistes as red.
The next day was clear and bright so we saw the views and they were worth the visit alone – stunning. There were trails of hikers walking along the footpaths in crampons and skiers with skins trudging up. Dozens of them. The pistes were firm and bashed very smooth. In fact the only imperfections we saw in the surface were ruts where a public GS course had been set up on Run1. Even though there were lots of people about there were few skiers and the pistes were almost deserted. This is a place where you could really practice your skills. Almost all skiers were good and we saw no out of control skiers. We did see one snowboarder in Harenda who made us smile. She went straight down the slope on her heal edge without the slightest inclination to turn or even “falling leaf”.
Ski hire
We rented premium or VIP skis at both slopes on a daily basis. They were 160-165 long and pretty close to a dry slope slalom ski. There wasn’t a mark on the bases and they had sharp edges. They were perfect for the smooth firm pistes. I cannot recall the price but think it was around 20 euros a day a pair.
Food
All the food we ate was very good nice soups good main course and costing very little. Not a chip in sight anywhere.
Apres Ski
It was really too cold to go out much at night. We did however make it to the Aqua Park one evening. With the indoor and outdoor pools, some of the longest water slides I have ever been on and some warm pools to sit in this was an enjoyable trip. We didn’t pay the extra for the sauna because I couldn’t work out how to and we were fined 3 zloty each. I think because we exceed the one hour we had paid for. I think you are charged from the moment you pay to the moment you actually leave the changing room. We dawdled getting changed. So he is a tip. Once out of the pool change quickly and get out. You can leave drying your hair and even some dressing until you get to the foyer.
Language
Neither my wife nor I speak a word of Polish. We even have difficulty pronouncing the words. Most people in the service industries speak sufficient English to serve you. We got by with no problems.
Krakow
Krakow was good but there was no skiing. I must go back another day. In fact I will
Costs
You will have noticed that I have barely mentioned prices. This is because this was not conceived as a bargain basement trip rather as something completely different. Lots of things such as meals were inexpensive but then the costs did mount up, taxis being the main one. A hire car would have saved a lot of money. Overall I would say all in the whole trip cost about £500 each for a 3 day ski holiday plus a 1 day city break.
Conclusions
Would I do it again? Yes and we are already thinking of it. I may spend the whole time on Kasprowy Wierch and may rent some lift heel skis and skins to explore away from the lifts or take my crampons with me and go for a walk
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice trip report! Super interesting 
I have happy memories of skiing Zakopane in 1999 with some Polish friends of the family. Love Poland, love the food and the hospitality.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Good TR, got any photos?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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V interesting. Thanks
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Very interesting, thank you for taking the time to post your trip report.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Bob, Yes, of course I have some photos, but I cannot work out how to post them.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Looks really good, I reckon I could have a good couple of days there messing around on the ridges
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@Bob, Whereas in France all possible lines down from the ridges would be skied out in hours it looked as if only a few people had been down the at all. It probably has something to do with kasprowy-wierch being in a national park and as such off piste skiing is not allowed.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks for an enjoyable report. Would like to ski there one day 
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FAQ
