Backpacking/Camping in Poland

Here in United States we do not have the historic cities or impressive monuments found throughout Europe. As such, the majority of vacations tend to be to see the landscapes. The mountains, canyons, lakes and forests in the States are tough to rival anywhere. Moving to Poland, I will undoubtedly miss the chances I have for week-long excursions into the national parks. I was wondering if there are any areas of Poland available for multiple day hikes where it is permissible to camp as long as you practice minimal impact? I would prefer not to have to rucksack hop between guest houses/hostels and rather camp out away from the towns.

If anyone knows much about the options in Poland or has information regarding backpacking (not of the traditional sense of backpacking in Europe) in Eastern Europe please let me know.

I drove from UK to Russia by Landrover , camping in the forests along the way , never had a problem with anybody in the process....I now live in Poland on my own farm , you are welcome to camp on my land if you are passing this way...no charge , just bring a few sausages to throw on the barbie and a few beers...you will love it in Poland , and as long as you don,t set fire to the forest you won,t have any problem...

Although I appreciate the offer and may indeed take you up on it some day, I was looking for information on the more scenic areas like Mazury or the Tatras and whether it is possible to hike into them legally, with a permit, or if there are designated national park areas where you are able to hike unrestricted.

As far as i am aware you can wander wherever you want as long as you don,t do any damage....I camped up in the Mazury lakes during my trip to Russia , didn,t have any permit...Its very pretty there...

Wild camping without the express permission of the landowner is definitely not recommended. In many areas, such as forests and national parks, it is illegal to camp overnight but most of the time you will not have a problem pitching a tent.

This link will give you general information.

xxxx://xxx.poland.gov.pl/With,Backpack,and,Oar,405.html

Here you will find maps and pictures of trails by Location or activity like Mountain biking, Kayaking, Hiking etc.

xxxx://xxx.everytrail.com/browse.php?country=Poland&activity_id=5&orde r=recent_popularity&page=1

Here you will find campsites by region.

xxxx://xxx.interhike.com/poland/camping.html
xxxx://xxx.campingo.com/poland-camping.htm
xxxx://xxx.alanrogers.com/camping-in-poland-map.php
xxxx://xxx.campingidee.nl/english/campsites_in/poland/
xxxx://xxx.campingcompass.com/camping/poland

There are places to camp and mountain lodges here

https://polishforums.com/archives/2005-2009/travel/walks-beskids-mountains-27420/
And https://polishforums.com/travel/recommendations-krakow-myslenice-27618/2/ gives general info

no bushwhacking through the NPs like Tatras. You'd have to stay at the chaletts there. also, it's a huge difference between USA and PL as related to the wilderness. it's way more crowded in PL then it is in most places around usa.

also look inot PTTK site.. there is one in english.

You appear to be the only member on this forum besides myself who owns and lives on a farm in Poland. Excellent! May I ask, how many hectares of land / forest do you own? Where is your farm located? I've got about 4 hectares of arable land and 7 hectares of forest in the Małopolskie region, north of Nowy Sącz.

BB630, you are also invited to camp in my forest here as well. You will find it to be very secluded and private, with plenty of trails to walk around.

Not so , i have an English friend from this very forum who has a farm down in Zagan , and i am sure there is a few more....I think i have about three hectares , not sure exactly , but its big enough for me.. My farm is on the 173 route between Drawsko pomorskie and Polczyn zdroj near a town called Ostrowice....

Very nice area, near some lakes! I have large Lake Rożnowskie nearby, and Solina isn't that far either. Poland has a lot to offer for those who admire nature and the outdoors.

I hope so...i intend to make a business from making bike tours of Poland...once i get the money for the bikes....?

Do you work the land or let it out to farmers?
You could hardly leave it?
It sounds wonderful for you both, I am too much of a city boy ;) honey comes from Tescos :)


That really sounds good to me :)

Neither...its just there to walk on , camp on....and grow a few weeds on...the only animals i have are cats and dogs...I know nothing about farming...When i get together a bunch of Harleys , and all the riding gear i hope to lead tours of all the pretty bits of Poland...At the moment its just a dream , not got the money to get it off the ground yet...but i am working on it...

Do the weeds not grow like a forest?


Oh I thought you meant bicycles, ah ha.

well , there will be cycles too , and canoes , and we will take em horse riding , 4 x 4 driving , and all the other daft stuff you can do in the countryside...Yes the weeds grow quite well , but i can get em chopped by tractor in the summer...

If you think about it you could do it, You could be like a tour operator/guide and have deals with the horse riding/canoeing/4x4/ places.

I met a professional trekking tour guide for the Tatra there a few weeks ago.
Is this something you actually want to do? or is it more like me learning the piano? (which I don't)

I already have the contacts...and yes its something i want to do , but at the moment just trying to survive is the name of the game..... as the old saying goes.... when you are up to your ass in crocodiles its easy to forget the purpose of the exercise was to drain the swamp...! i guess i am up to my ass in crocs....

To move back to the topic.
Camping outside the specific signed places is in Poland illegal...
But...
If nobody catches you you can do it.
I camped few times especially during cayacking trips at the sandy river shores.... It is a good place becouse those are not national forests nor private arable land so nobody will case you for doing it...

Of course very often you can camp on somebody's land if you just ask. In more turistic places you will be supposed to pay something.

In national forests sometimes you will find free campsites similar to those from scandinavia but they are very rare...
There is no problem with just wandering around. You will not find in Poland signs: "Tresspassers will be shot";-). You just have to watch out if you are not destroying crops becouse somebody could get angry...

To Wildlover:
I also have a litte plot of land just nearby you - in Siecino willage (near the lake)...
In my opinion the Drawske Lakeland is one of the most beautifull and wild areas of Poland... But nobody knows it... People prefer Mazury where lakes are much dirtier, where you meet thousands of noisy tourists which throw rubbish around forests, and where German tourists made prices inccredibly high...

But to be honest - I like it how it is becouse I know how little you need to destroy a lake, or spoil a nice forest... So for me the less people in Drawskie the better...

But I understand that you want to live from it and want people to come there...

Lukasz

I can promise you that i too care about keeping everything as beautifull as it is now....I live here , and i have no wish to have any activities that harm the envoirenment in any way.....I am sorry to say that the only rubbish i have seen dumped in my area was dumped by Polish people , probably from the towns...

Thanks for all of the responses. It is quite different here in the states. Even in the heavily traveled areas such as Hawaii and the Grand Canyon you can backpack and practice low-impact camping where you are allowed to pitch your tent anywhere. Fires are to be contained to previous sites or not allowed in the majority of areas. Any true backpackers thus bring their own white gas stoves (I have one) for cooking. I've got all of the gear, nano-filter hand pump for purification, white-gas stove, tent, trowel, camping pots, etc. Many national parks here such as the Tetons, Wind River Range, Rocky Mountains, Adirondacks, Sierras, etc. you do not need a permit for at all. We try to get out a week a year and usually we see one or two people during the whole week besides our group. If any of you go to the states to see the scenery I highly recommend trying to get away from the touristic areas and do some of this. It's also done on the cheap, we spend about 100 dollars (300 PLN) for a week's worth of food/gas/travel.

picasaweb.google.com/BretBeermann/WindRiverRange?authkey=_Niumsq9O5Q#

Here is a URL link to some images from such a trip. You will notice there are worn trails but they are few and people keep to them fairly well. A number of people bring llamas or horses into the parks where it is legal. We usually like to use our feet, the animals destroy the trails. I have a Polish roommate and a number of Polish friends so generally I ask them such questions. Jedrzej understood that you can hike at will through the NPs but that pitching a tent was illegal. It is sad that it has to be so, but I would imagine people would destroy much of the wilderness because of the higher volume of traffic. I would hope you could at least get a permit for such things but I am not an optomist about it. I will discuss the case in Austria with my friend when I visit Wien in January. Hopefully there is somewhere close where it is possible if not directly in Poland.

It is possible in Sweden where you have "Law of Free Land Use" which allows anybody to put a tend anwhere further than 200 m from the nearest settelment (but not inside most of Naional Parks ,excluding giant NPs of far north - Sarek etc., where you can camp only on specyfied places).

What is more in Swedish forests along the hiking tracks you will find fully prepared (with chopped timber, place for fire and cooking etc) free huts where you can overnight...

To Wildlover;
I am not saying that your guest pariculary will trow rubbish or etc. (I know that shamefully Polish people are competig with Mediterrenian nations in game called "What and in what amount can you throw away in the forest.")

I am just saying that people in general are spoiling places...
I don't konow if you swimmed in Krzemno lake south of Czaplinek. It was one of the clearest lakes in Poland wth water transparency to 8 meters in the summer! (You could feel like diving at a coral reef...)

It was untill somebody sold nearby field for summer cottages...Of course peple estabished there some small huts but thus there was no sewage system people biuld their "free standing toilets" which throught groundwaters were leaking to the lake...

Which led to algie bloom... Which killed most of the unique biota of this lake...

Lukasz

This is true , but its possible to have tourists enjoy a place without destrying it , it just needs a bit of care...Tourism is the big future for Poland i believe , but it has to be done carefully so that the envoirenment is not damaged....

Have you heard about the lakes in the Polczyn zdroj area destroyed by some British company allowing sewage from a pig farm get into lakes.....? It seems Polish local government is not doing anything because they get money from this company... I suspect this company came to Poland because they think they can break the rules without penalty here...!

Kill 'em

Tut, tut........

I wonder if they could do a programme like "I'm a Celebrity Get me out of Here' ? Except it would be in the Polish forests "

Wonder who the Polish celebrities could be ?

Hey Wildrover, that would be a money spinner for you and you could buy all the baked beans you wanted too < I don't eat Baked beans but if I did , my preference would be for Heinz ones too ! >

:)

Not bothered too much about getting rich , but having unlimited supplies of baked beans would be good....mmm now i want some....I NEED BEANS.....!

I have ample supply of Heinz baked beans in the super market, I know, I know, it was shockin for me too but there you go, I evern buy a few cans more than I need sometimes, so they don't get rid of them.

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There was something about bikes and farms that made me think of you today, I can't remember what. I will have to get back to you on that

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I remembered what i forgot last night about you osiol and posted in your threads accordingly.

I once had a girlfriend who was the colour of a Heinz bean....i think that was the attraction....She dumped me after an unfortunate inccident with some toast while i was drunk....!

I didn't heardd about this particular situation but those pig farms that aroused in collapsed PGRs are more and more talked about...
Recently according to a disease that is killing salmon and trout coming for spawning into Pomeranian rivers (mainly Rega, Parseta nad Slupia) - every day people see more and more dead fish with destroyed skin (and now is the time of spawning)...

The disease is caused by some bacteria that are thought to got into the water from those pig farms, but for today there is nothing sure known about it...

But there is very litte we can do about those farms - in places with such powerty and unemployment as Pomerania everyone who is giving workplaces will have support from the local goverment (which probably is also being corrupted) and from the locals...

Lukasz

Maybe not right now , but under European law it perhaps can be stopped....It makes me very angry that British companies are coming to Poland , buying up farms at low prices , then making bigger profits by avoiding proper disposal of waste....

I hope that the farmers selling these farms and the local people will realise that there are some things more important than money , this is their homeland that they are destroying for the sake of a handfull of cash...

In the UK , these companies would face heavy fines , and possibly jail for what they are doing in Poland , if i can expose this to people in the UK i will , and i intend to kick up a stink in Poland too...

I didn,t come to the pretty part of Poland just to have some greedy UK company follow me here to dump rubbish and spoil the envoirenment...