Destination: Poland

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION

Itinerary: Unesco World Heritage Sites

TWO WEEKS / POMERANIA TO SILESIA

Poland has no fewer than 12 sites on the Unesco World Heritage List, most of which are places of cultural interest. Visiting all of them in one trip would take around two weeks.



Start in the north, at the magnificent castle of Malbork, which lies conveniently on the busy Warsaw–Gdansk railway line, then head south to the medieval town of Torun, both legacies of the Teutonic Knights. Next stop is Warsaw, where the capital’s painstakingly reconstructed Old Town was given World Heritage status in 1980.

If you have time (at least two or three days), make a side trip to Bialowieza National Park before heading southeast to the beautiful Renaissance jewel of Zamosc. From here, make your way to Kraków by way of the wooden churches of the Carpathian foothills, including Binarowa, Debno Podhalanskie, Haczów and Sekowa.

The country’s greatest concentration of World Heritage Sites is around Kraków, including Kraków’s own historic centre. There are three other sites within an easy day trip of the city: the 17th-century pilgrimage site of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, the weird and wonderful Wieliczka Salt Mine and the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz.

Heading west from Kraków towards the Sudeten Mountains, you’ll find the unique, 17th-century, timber-and-clay Church of Peace at Swidnica. Finally, it’s west again to the German border at Leknica, where the lovely 19th-century landscape Park Muzakowski sits on the banks of the Nysa River.

Travelling to Poland?
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