Carpathian Mountains

You mightn't deduce it from the sleepy string of buildings scattered along the main road, but Ustrzyki Górne ('Upper Ustrzyki') is the Bieszczady’s premier hiking base. Since the Great Bieszczady Loop Road opened in 1962, the mountains have become more accessible, but this is still remote country and Ustrzyki Górne is a good example: it has a few mostly basic places to stay and eat, a little bit of life around the bus station and car park as you enter the village, and not much else. The village springs to life in summer then sinks into a deep sleep for most of the rest of the year, stirring only a little in winter when the cross-country skiers arrive.

Though you probably wouldn’t guess it while strolling about its beautifully preserved Old Town, Tarnów (tar-noof) is an important regional industrial centre and transport hub. Of far more interest to travellers are its 16th-century streets, lined with tenements and radiating out from a handsome market square dominated by an impressive Gothic red-brick town hall dating to the 15th century. Add fine churches, a few museums, good food and the traces of a vibrant pre-WWII Jewish population, and you have a thoroughly appealing stopover.

The village of Zalipie, 30km northwest of Tarnów, has been known as a centre for folk painting for more than a century, ever since its inhabitants started to decorate the inside and outside of their houses with wildly colourful floral designs. Today more than 20 such houses can be seen in Zalipie, with another dozen or so in the neighbouring villages of Kuzie, Niwka and Kłyż.

Sanok is an excellent base for hiking and the starting point (or at least en route) for several long-distance thematic hikes. The best known of these is the Icon Trail (Szlak Ikon), which takes you past tiny villages holding old Orthodox or Uniat churches. The most popular stretch is a 70km-long loop that begins and ends in Sanok and wends along the San River valley north of the city. The net walking time is about 15 hours.

Another fascinating long-distance trail that passes through Sanok is sure to appeal to literature fans. The Švejk Trail, usually marked on maps in yellow, passes through town as it traces the comical journey across several countries of the 'Good Soldier Švejk' in Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek's WWI novel of the same name.

Both trails, as well as several others, are designated on hiking maps of the Bieszczady available for purchase at the tourist information centre or the PTTK office. The tourist information centre also hands out a free photocopied, simplified trail map – not detailed enough to hike with, but showing the main villages and churches.

Sanok is also a good base for cycling – both mountain biking in the hills and less strenuous, though still rewarding rides along the San River. The better hiking maps usually also designate cycling trails, and the helpful staff at the tourist information centre can help plan out a ride. To get started buy a copy of the Atlas Szlaków Rowerowych Podkarpackie from the tourist office (50zł), which has all of the paths marked out.

Bicycles can be hired from Camp Biała Góra for 10/40zł per hour/day.

Nestled in the foothills of the Tatras, Zakopane is Poland’s best-known mountain resort, famed for hiking in summer and skiing in winter, though at the height of the summer and winter seasons it can get positively overrun.

In addition to outdoor pursuits, Zakopane is known for its beautiful wooden villas, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of these now house museums, while others have been converted into hotels or pensions. The father of this craze for ornate timber houses was the architect Stanisław Witkiewicz (1851–1915), and his early 20th-century creations helped to establish Zakopane as a haven for painters, poets, writers and composers. Two of the town’s most famous former residents include Witkiewicz’s son, the writer and painter Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (better known as 'Witkacy'), and the composer Karol Szymanowski.

Reposing in attractive countryside amid the wooded hills of the Beskid Sądecki, Krynica (kri-nee-tsah), often known as Krynica-Zdrój (Krynica Spa), is Poland’s largest spa and mountain health resort. Founded in the late 16th century, it's also one of its most venerable.

It's relaxed throughout much of the year, with visitors coming to take the restorative waters of around a dozen local mineral springs and to relax in the mountain air. In midsummer, though, you can banish any notion about quiet convalescence amid the pines. It morphs into a full-on holiday town, chock-a-block with families, long queues for ice cream and impromptu rock concerts on the promenade.

It wasn’t always this way. In the early 20th century, Krynica was a fashionable hangout for the artistic and intellectual elite and continued to be so right up until WWII. Splendid villas and pensions from this period still blend into the wooded landscape.

The chief administrative and industrial centre of southeastern Poland, Rzeszów is a surprisingly elegant, medium-sized city boasting some fine museums and historic sights, and dining and drinking scenes enlivened by a large student population. Altogether it’s a highly recommended sojourn if you’re looking for some more urbanised fun to balance out your treks in the mountains. It’s also a transport hub, meaning you’re likely to pass through in any event.

Rzeszów started life in the 13th century as a remote Ruthenian settlement. Granted town rights by Kazimierz III Wielki (Casimir III) in the mid-14th century, it grew rapidly in the 16th century when Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza, the local ruler, commissioned a church and a fortified castle. It later fell into the hands of the powerful Lubomirski clan, but this couldn’t save the town from subsequent decline.