Zakopane, "Poland's winter capital" is situated at the foot of the Tatras, near the Slovak border. Although it may seem insignificant on a map, this is truly the most beautiful and awe - inspiring landscape in Poland. Steep peaks towering 6.000 - 8.000 feet into the clouds, gushing waterfalls, snow - covered summits, slopes and plateaus most of the year, post - glacial valleys and pure cirque lakes, and wild animals populations that include brown bears, lynxes and soaring golden eagles and many more. All this makes up the amazing Tatra Mountains.

The appealing small mountain town of Zakopane has been a frequented resort since the end of the 19th century, when a physician from Warsaw, Tytus Chalbinski declared that the healthy Tatra air could cure tuberculosis and other common ailments. Today it is one of Poland's most visited tourist spots, with some two million visitors a year, in a town of just 30.000 inhabitants. As a result, Zakopane has become fairly cosmopolitan. Nevertheless, the old town and its original charm has not quite vanished, and you will still find plenty of traditional mountain chalets with their gables and steeply sloping roofs. It is probably tourism that keeps folk traditions and costumes alive there, but it means that you can still enjoy splendid sleigh rides and bonfire evenings where highlanders in white woolen trousers perform their dramatic Highland Robbers' Folk Dance.

 Not far away from the Tatras there lie the picturesque Pieniny, a small range of Limestone Mountains, split by the magnificent Dunajec River gorge. A really breath - taking experience is rafting down the river within the territory of the Pieniny National Park. The two - hours ride on special rafts steered by local boatsman in traditional attire, tackling sharp turns between limestone cliffs towering several hundred feet up is a unique adventure, one of the kind. Nearby on one side of the river there is a Gothic - Renaissance castle of Niedzica, and on the other 14th century castle of Czorsztyn. After the rafting you cannot miss the salubrious beautiful spa of Szczawnica with its healthy spring mineral water.