Best time to visit Zakopane
Poland · Europe
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Zakopane
Tap a month for its page
- JanJZakopane in January: avoid
- FebFZakopane in February: avoid
- MarMZakopane in March: ok
- AprAZakopane in April: ok
- MayMZakopane in May: good
- JunJZakopane in June: sweet spot
- JulJZakopane in July: ok, busy
- AugAZakopane in August: good, busy
- SepSZakopane in September: ok
- OctOZakopane in October: ok
- NovNZakopane in November: ok
- DecDZakopane in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.
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Flights from
Flights
Your city is a guess from your time zone. Choose your city
Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Things to do in Zakopane
- Tatra Mountains Mountain range on the Polish–Slovak border
- Rysy Border peak in the main ridge of the High Tatras
- Kasprowy Wierch Peak in the Western Tatras between Slovakia and Poland
- Gubałówka Mountain
- Giewont Mountain range in the Western Tatras, Poland
- Świnica Peak in High Tatras between Slovakia and Poland
Tours and tickets in Zakopane
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 1° | 11d | 77% | 4.3h | avoid | bitter cold: 1C daily max |
| Feb | 3° | 11d | 75% | 5.3h | avoid | bitter cold: 3C daily max |
| Mar | 7° | 10d | 70% | 7.7h | ok | 7C max, 10 rainy days |
| Apr | 11° | 12d | 70% | 8.9h | ok | 11C max, 12 rainy days |
| May | 15° | 15d | 73% | 10.1h | good | 15C max, 15 rainy days |
| Jun | 20° | 13d | 74% | 11.9h | sweet spot | 20C max, 13 rainy days |
| Jul | 21° | 15d | 74% | 12.0h | okbusy | busier than usual |
| Aug | 22° | 11d | 74% | 11.0h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Sep | 17° | 11d | 77% | 8.7h | ok | 17C max, 11 rainy days |
| Oct | 12° | 9d | 76% | 7.0h | ok | 12C max, 9 rainy days |
| Nov | 6° | 9d | 80% | 5.3h | ok | 6C max, 9 rainy days |
| Dec | 2° | 11d | 80% | 3.5h | avoid | bitter cold: 2C daily max |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Krupówki, the centre: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Zakopane's June days now average 20.1°C, 3.3°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 7 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | -1.0° | 0.1° | 4.3° | 8.9° | 14.9° | 16.9° | 18.9° | 18.9° | 15.7° | 11.6° | 4.1° | 0.5° |
| 2017–26 | 0.5° | 2.9° | 6.9° | 10.7° | 14.9° | 20.1° | 20.7° | 21.6° | 16.9° | 12.4° | 6.3° | 2.2° |
| Change | +1.6° | +2.8° | +2.6° | +1.8° | -0.0° | +3.3° | +1.8° | +2.7° | +1.1° | +0.8° | +2.2° | +1.7° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
Fly into Balice (KRK), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Balice.
The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.
How far Zakopane is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Vienna
- from Warsaw
- from Prague
- from Berlin
- from Munich
- from Bucharest
- from Venice
- from Frankfurt
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Zakopane, flying or not.
Before you go
Type C and E plugs at 220 / 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Złoty. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Poland: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Cards work almost everywhere in big cities; some small shops and post offices still want cash. Locals often pay with BLIK, a code from a Polish banking app.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Around 10% in restaurants if you were pleased; no custom of tipping taxi drivers. Saying 'thank you' as you hand over cash means keep the change.
Getting around Zakopane
- Apps — Rides: Bolt, FreeNow, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Messenger.
PKS buses according to schedule. Mini bus — There are a lot of privately owned vans (called mini bus). More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Zakopane, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — 112 (any emergency) · police 997 · ambulance 999 · fire 998.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (26)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/poland/getting-help
- digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/112
- go2warsaw.pl/en/getting-around-warsaw
- go2warsaw.pl/en/mobile-apps
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Warsaw
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Poland
- uber.com/global/en/cities/warsaw
- bolt.eu/en/cities/warsaw
- free-now.com/pl-en
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blik
- linkmobility.com/blog/the-most-popular-messaging-apps-across-the-globe
- ooma.com/blog/the-most-popular-messaging-apps-by-country
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- ztp.krakow.pl/en/kmk-public-transport/kmk-ticket-guide
- ztp.krakow.pl/en/kmk-public-transport/buy-a-kmk-ticket
- mpk.krakow.pl/bilety-do-kasowania
- krakowairport.pl/en/train-en
- krakowairport.pl/en/passenger/transport-en/directions/from-to-krakow-airport/public-buses-en
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B3w
- ztm.gda.pl/ztm/jak-podrozowac-po-gdansku-informacje-dla-turystow,a,11704
- systemfala.pl/help/trojmiasto-na-fali/kto-i-w-jaki-sposob-moze-korzystac-z-falomatow-i-czytnikow-w-gdansku
- ztm.gda.pl/bilety/bilety-jednorazowe,a,3019
- airport.gdansk.pl/en/before-travel/getting-to-the-airport/bus
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Zakopane in pictures
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Jakub T. Jankiewicz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Piotrekwas, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, via Wikimedia Commons
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Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Zakopane is like
Zakopane is a large, year-round mountain resort in Małopolskie Province in southern Poland. It's set in the Polish Tatra National Park which is part of the Tatra mountains, the natural frontier between Poland and Slovakia. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Tatra Mountains. Morskie Oko lake The Gubałówka Hill Funicular. Kasprowy Wierch Cableway. Cemetery of the Distinguished at Pęksowy Brzyzek, ul. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Teatr im. St. I. Witkiewicza, ul. Chramcówki 15. Ski Kasprowy Wierch Gubałówka Nosal Białka Tatrzańska Bukowina Tatrzańska Butorowy Wierch Polana Szymoszkowa Hike Climb. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Trains run every couple of hours or so from Kraków, taking 2-3.5 hr. Five of these come direct from Warsaw (4.5-7 hours), with Sleeper trains every night. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Due to its popularity, scams in Zakopane are more common than in other places. The local highlanders have a reputation in Poland of being notoriously greedy scammers. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Zakopane, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Zakopane
Also in Poland
- Gdańsk best May, Jun, Aug
- Kraków best May, Jun, Aug
- Lublin best May, Jun, Aug
- Poznań best May, Jun, Aug
- Toruń best May, Jun, Aug
- Warsaw best Apr, May, Jun
- Wrocław best May, Jun, Jul
Nearby
Kind of place
Zakopane is in Poland, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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