A Week in Poland, and a Few More Open Tabs

Careful: this post might open several tabs in your browser.

This year, I spent quite a while thinking about catching a flight and spending my holiday in another country. But I ended up choosing places in Poland I hadn’t visited yet.

I’d been missing hiking, so I chose Góry Stołowe. From there, the itinerary grew: towns, a fortress, underground tours and even a detour to Adršpach, in Czechia.

First, the car

The trip started with choosing a car rental company. I tried calling several and couldn’t reach anyone. With Odkryj Auto, it was different: whenever I called, someone answered and helped with my questions.

That mattered a lot in my decision. It was my first experience renting a car for a trip like this, and being able to contact someone if anything happened along the way was important to me. The price was fair too, compared with the other options I researched.

They were already waiting for me at the agreed date and time. Picking up the car was straightforward, the car was in great condition and everything went well.

With the car ready, I set off towards Srebrna Góra.

Some decisions behind the itinerary

Finding company for a trip isn’t always easy. Friends might be unavailable, a partner might not enjoy hiking, or nobody can travel on the same dates.

Sometimes, the choice ends up being between going on your own and putting the trip off.

And for a woman considering hiking without company, a few questions can come up: what will the trail be like? Will there be other people around? If I need help, who will I be able to contact?

The rock labyrinths and rock cities were places I really wanted to visit, but they also made me a little apprehensive. So I scheduled those visits closer to the weekend, hoping there would be more people around.

I visited on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, around the first weekend after the school holidays ended. Everything went smoothly, I encountered few people and had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the places.

These are beautiful, lovely places to explore, whether you’re visiting Poland or already live here, Polish or foreign. Perhaps one of them hasn’t made it onto your itinerary yet.

My stops

Over the course of a week, the route took me to these places:

• Srebrna Góra: sunset, a night walk with other guests and a visit to the fortress.
• Nowa Ruda: a visit to the coal mine.
• Kłodzko: a walk around town and a tour of the underground passage. Because apparently visiting only the surface wasn’t enough. :)
• Złoty Stok: a visit to the gold mine and the Medieval Mining Settlement, where historical mining tools and techniques are demonstrated.
• Błędne Skały: a hike.
• Kudowa-Zdrój: a walk around town.
• Adršpach: a walk among the rock formations, across the border in Czechia.
• Szczeliniec Wielki: a hike and my first night in a PTTK mountain shelter.

That last stop brought another discovery: I enjoyed staying in the shelter so much that I’m already planning my next weekends away.

Apparently, I came back with a few more tabs open.

One trip, several tabs

This post is an overview of the route. I’ll share more about each stop in separate posts and add the links here as they’re published.

That way, you can open just the places that catch your interest, or all of them, if you also find it hard to choose.

I won’t judge how many tabs you already have open :)

Have you visited any of these places? Share your experience in the comments, I’d love to hear how your trip went.

And if you haven’t been yet, which stop would you open first?