Beautiful mountain village (Szczawnica (Poland))

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Szczawnica (Poland)
Date:	01/11/08 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great walking possibilities, beautiful area, cheap rooms, great bike hire

Disadvantages: Grumpy minibus drivers, tourist info staff and dies down very early

Szczawnica is a village located in the Nowy Targ region of Southern Poland. It's one of the countries top destinations in the "Pieniny" mountain range.

Transportation
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There are several bus connections a day from big cities like Krakow, Warsaw and Wroclaw and regular hourly or half-hourly buses from nearby Nowy Sacz where there are trains to the rest of the country. Continue walking up the hill to get to the main centre of the village from the bus station. For getting around locally, there are minibuses parked at the top of the hill. Minibus drivers are notoriously grumpy and no one quite knows why, so don't be too narked if they seem to treat you more as a problem than a customer.

Sightseeing
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The village itself is of little interest, though it is a nice place to pass time due to the fresh air, it's mostly a place to stay and to explore the picturesque countryside nearby. The nearby area straddles the Slovak border and perhaps the most interesting things about this place, revolves around the Dunajec River, here it is possible to kayak and be rafted on something similar to a large punt from the Slovakian side down the river to Szczawnica.

For the lazy, there are minibus connections, others can walk along the picturesque river to the Slovakian village of Cerveny Klastor where the imposing mountain "Trzy Korony" looks down like 3 medieval kings at you, if you don't choose to travel down the river then you are best off renting a bike in the town and then travelling these paths by bicycle. The route is quite flat and even the unfit, shouldn't have too many problems.

Another beautiful nature reserve lies about 4km east and is called "Wawoz", this is in the direction of Jaworki. Here you can climb up a mountain which goes a long a beautiful little stream and onwards through. Despite it being quite steep, it's all stepped so it doesn't take a particularly huge amount of skill to climb up it. When you get to the top, you will come to a crossroads. If you turn right, you will eventually reach the cable car back down and if you turn left you will come to a nice wooden pub with beautiful views across the mountain range, this is particularly nice in summer when you can enjoy their beer garden complete with swinging benches! Afterwards, you can walk down the steep but more leisurely path and onto the main road, which is the way I assume the delivery vans use!

The whole area is stunning and definitely worth a vist.

Accomodation
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Tourist Information was not overly helpful when it came to accomodation during our visit and you are best off approaching any house with "Wolne Pokoje" or "Noclegi" on and asking for a place to stay. 25zl (5.50) per person for a room should more than suffice unless it is a national holiday.

Food
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Restaurants are fairly limited to local cuisine, reasonable food is served up at the restaurant in the little dip in the centre by the stalls selling sheep's cheese and the kebab bar. Whatever you do, avoid Pizzeria EMI by far the worst pizza I've ever eaten. Supermarkets.

Opening Hours
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This is a small provincial village used by young families and older couples, it's not Ibiza so most things close early at around 9pm. Perhaps the exception is the pub on the right, heading down towards Kroscienko.

Summary: Well worth a visit