Take shelter in the Tatras
… and forget about Zakopane;)
Although the offer of hotels, guesthouses, villas and hostels is really impressive in Zakopane, there are certainly some people who are looking for something else while going to this area. They do not care about visiting the city, they do not want to be close to cultural or sports events, also shops and restaurants are not a great attraction for them. The call of the Tatras attract them here. The most beautiful and highest Polish mountains, which are fortunately easily accessible, full of easy and difficult routes. Those who find the mountains to be among the biggest attractions of Podhale, may consider the option of accommodation – a few or even one night – in the Tatra National Park. In one of the mountain shelters. We will try to bring here the realities of such an idea and tell how it can be realized.
Evaluate your condition
When considering the option of accommodation in a shelter, we must take into account one quite important issue. You must reach each of them with your own strength. Some are easier to access, others are harder, but practically only up to one, we get a chance to get a transport, specifically a horse-drawn highlander carriage – this is the Polana Chocholowska located at the end of the Chochołowska Valley. All others must be walked, shorter or longer. On almost flat terrain, or even uphill. In the summer it is not easy for everyone, and in the winter it gets even more difficult. It may happen that, for example, we planned to travel by horse-drawn carriage from Palenica Bialczanska to Polana Wlosienica, from where it is only about a kilometer to the shelter, but by being late we will not find a single vehicle going uphill and we have to walk about 9 km. Not too steep, but still uphill. We will not reach the shelter in Piec Stawow Valley by car, we have to go on foot, the last section is really steep. This involves the need to limit your luggage to one backpack and better not to weigh 25 kg, even 10 will be a heavy load. The problem is not important if we spend most of the nights in Zakopane, and we want to spend one chosen night somewhere on the route of longer journeys. As far as we can survive with the minimum amount of cosmetics, without a hair dryer, favorite pajamas, books to read in bed – we can basically sleep with what is usually taken on a mountain trip, plus a brush and toothpaste. We will certainly be able to store all our luggage in the place of our accommodation in Zakopane. We can put it in a car in a guarded parking lot, or ask the hotel to store things at the reception, if, for example, we will return to it again on subsequent nights. The situation is completely different if the mountain shelter is our only place to stay. Then you have to consider every single thing you put in your backpack. In passing we will recall here that this is the only type of luggage that will work in the mountains. It is not a suitcase on wheels, a sports, shoulder or hand, bag. If by reading this paragraph we are sighing “I cannot do it” – let us resign from sleeping in a shelter. We can always visit them during the trip, it is certainly an attraction worth some effort, while we plan to spend the night in a place where we can easily get by car or collective transport.
Do not expect luxuries
Sleeping in shelters is basically an option for those who walk in the mountains, plan long expeditions and regret every single hour to get from Zakopane to one of the places where they start the trails, for example to Palenica Bialczanska or to Kuznice. And from there to the points where the sharp uphill approach begins – that is, for example Hala Gasienicowa. Also for those who like to not hurry, still at sunset to contemplate the ridge views, instead of running to leave the national park before dusk – throughout the summer season, it is forbidden to be on the trails after dark. Those who walk in the mountains generally know the hard conditions that prevail in shelters, but if someone did not know, we remind you that there is no iron, hair dryers, sometimes no hot water, bathrooms are common, often you need to pay for bedclothes, usually you just have to have your sleeping bag, and in the summer it’s cool because mountain nights are really cold. The luxury is a double room, most of the rooms are multi-person with bunk beds. Night silence is strictly adhered to, the staff simply puts out the light in the common room by 22 and we can only move with the flashlight as much as possible silently. We do not want yet to wake up those who are planning a morning reveille tomorrow at 4 am. Confidence is also necessary, and on the other hand, common sense – there are hardly any thefts among the mountain fraternity, everyone is charging phones overnight, sometimes people leave their belongings on the bed for the whole day. Whoever is afraid, may pack up every morning and hand over all the luggage to the storage room, but it is worth checking the opening hours beforehand so that you do not have to waste time in the morning waiting for it to stay open. On the other hand, hostels also go through changes, there are facilitations – for example a washing machine with a dryer suited to sportswear in Murowaniec, or beautifully renovated, modern toilets in Morskie Oko. There are also monitors that display weather forecasts and current conditions.
A unique atmosphere
What makes an overnight stay in the mountains very attractive, there are no living conditions, let us admit they are modest. It’s about something else. A sense of belonging to a mountain community, a group of people who share one thing – love for the mountains. It is here that you can meet soul mates and during meals at common tables discuss the routes, plans, weather, adventures from the past. Here they start the long-term friendships, or short acquaintances, for one common trip. Here you can also observe something that will be difficult to see in the city – a wonderful starry sky. Although in Zakopane, with a favorable aura, we can sometimes see the Milky Way with the naked eye, in the mountains the impression will be 1000 times stronger. Here, we can also get up in the morning to watch the sunrise. Here, finally, we will try a great cuisine and sometimes its memory makes us come back to our hostel once more. If we stay in a shelter, we may have the opportunity to have a quick word with its employees – they usually have great stories to tell about how they found themselves here, but also about the various adventures associated with the shelter.
Finding accommodation is not easy
We need to communicate one important thing to those who feel encouraged to stay in a shelter. Finding a place in the high season is very difficult. Actually impossible when you want to go straight out of the road without a reservation. And these are made a few months earlier. For terms such as Christmas, Easter or New Year’s Eve – one year in advance. There are just a few places in the shelters, they are not huge objects comparable with hotels on the Slovak side of the mountains, which guarantees their extraordinary atmosphere. Of course, the service tries to make available simply places on the floor, but restrictive fire regulations do not allow stretching them indefinitely. If we want to have a normal bunk, in a luxury version with bedclothes – we have to risk and book accommodation much earlier – without any guarantee as to the weather. It may happen that the whole stay we will spend in a rain flooded shelter reading books from the library and drinking tea with cherry brandy – also pleasantly, but if we feel disposed to explore the mountains, we can be disappointed.
Like from another era
What distinguishes mountain hostels from other hotels is quite an old-fashioned reservation system. Excluding one mountain hotel, on Kalatowki, there are no hostels on popular booking sites. For the others it is best to write an e-mail, or call, contact details can be found on every website of the object in the “contact” tab. Read carefully current communications, often all accommodations are sold out at some time, because there are trainings, conventions, etc. However, do not give up if for two days no one answers your phone or does not answer. The reason is, for example, a very strong wind that damages links. In most hostels you can not pay by card, if you make a prepayment for the booking, it is a transfer, but the rest we have to pay extra in cash. And even if we find out that there is a terminal – let’s have cash with us, failures can happen at any moment, and it is far away to the cash maschine. On the other hand, in hostels guests who come back are valuated, so we can count on information that, for example, a place in a room with fewer beds has been vacated. Or staff can wait for our arrival, if we warn that we have a delay and we will not be able to arrive at reception work. If the idea of accommodation at the shelter came to us spontaneously, already during the trip, remember to call as soon as possible – we can not be offended that after the opening hours of the reception no one will open the door. There are, however, some rules from which there are no exceptions, like the opening hours of the buffet, or the lack of accommodation on the floor in one of the shelters (Murowaniec). It is also forbidden to get too far away at night, often around the building electric protectors are set up to defend against bears. They are usually interested in the contents of garbage containers, not people, but they are wild animals.
It’s time to eat something
With a short stay, it’s a pity not to try what the shelter cuisine offers. In the Morskie Oko, for example, there are the best potato pancakes in the world, made from scratch on the spot, in the valley Dolina Pieciu Stawow pancakes with spinach and apple pie, in Murowaniec a cake with blueberries. The choice is abundant, the portions are also large. However, if we want to sit here for 10 days, let’s find out if there is a tourist kitchen, what equipment does it have – maybe it’s more worth taking some basic products such as buckwheat, pasta, preserves. Prices in shelters are directly proportional to the amount of effort put in transporting goods up. Some shelters are considering banning alcohol on their premises, the topic comes back from time to time and always causes strong controversy. Because while walking along the trail with beer in hand is definitely blameworthy after the whole day of wandering, before falling into a deep, well-deserved sleep – downright salutary. Some people also need a warm-up in the form of so-called highlander tea “with electricity”, and if, for example, on the Morskie Oko, we can easily buy a small bottle of cherry brandy, in Piec Stawow or Murowaniec the only officially available alcohol is beer.
Drop in for a moment
Maybe, however, we do not plan accommodation in a shelter and we will only pass it on the route of the trip? We must therefore reserve time to join the place. Sometimes getting to it will be the goal of our journey and we will certainly not regret it. The most popular is the one on the Morskie Oko Lake. Mainly due to the beautiful pond at the foot of shelter and the panorama of mountains stretching around it, as well as the possibility of reaching by an asphalt road. However, who does not like crowds, should avoid going there in the high season or on the weekends. The hostel is a great cuisine, cozy stone and wooden interiors, a buzz of voices usually not covered by music, warmth. You can buy souvenirs, postcards, maps, get stamps if you collect them. Warm up and rest, and sometimes dry after a downpour, before the next trip. It is also unusual impression to have a meal on the benches in front of the shelter surrounded by mountains, in sunny weather – it is easy to completely lose the sense of time and forget about the whole world that has been downstairs. One morning in front of the shelter in Piec Stawow, about 200 people watched the boy kneeling in front of the girl, singing “What a wonderful world” by Armstrong. We are not surprised at all.
Anna Markiewicz
Below is a list of shelters in the Tatras and addresses of their websites – some of them are only in Polish, but we easily find an email address and telephone number, usually in the “Contact” tab. Even if the employees do not speak English fluently or in another language, they will do their best to help us and make sure that we do not forget our stay in the heart of the Tatra Mountains. It is also worth to look at photo galleries, they will tell us even more about the atmosphere of these unique objects.
The PTTK shelter on the Morskie Oko
Address: Schronisko Morskie Oko w Tatrach; post office box 20; 34-500 Zakopane
Tel: +48 18 20 77 609, +48 602 260 757 – available from 9 am to 9 pm
https://schroniskomorskieoko.pl – website also in English
Accommodation offer and booking conditions in the “Offer” tab.
It is worth noting that this hostel is divided into two buildings – old and new. In the pictures on the website is shown only a new hostel, the old is a really basic standard and serves only as a night shelter, there is no restaurant, but a large tourist kitchen. Many tourists cannot imagine sleeping anywhere else.
The PTTK hostel in the Valley of Five Polish Ponds (Dolina Pieciu Stawow)
Address: Dolina Pieciu Stawow, 34-530 Bukowina Tatrzanska,
Correspondence: 34-500 Zakopane, PO Box 196
Tel: +48 781 055 555
e-mail: schronisko@piecstawow.pl, e-mail address for reservation: rezerwacje@piecstawow.pl
http://www.piecstawow.pl – website also in English
Shelter PTTK Murowaniec at Hala Gąsienicowa
Correspondence address: Tadeusza Kościuszki 9a, 34-500 Zakopane
Tel / fax: +48 18 201 26 33
e-mail: murowaniec@e-tatry.pl
http://www.murowaniec.e-tatry.pl – website only in Polish
Hostel named by Wincenty Pol in Roztoka (the Roztoka Valley)
Postal address: 34-500 Zakopane, post office box 200
Tel: + 48 609 001 760, + 48 600 443 733
e-mail: biuro@schroniskoroztoka.pl
https://www.schroniskoroztoka.pl – website only in Polish
The PTTK shelter at Hala Ornak (Koscieliska Valley)
Address: Dolina Kościeliska 34, 34-500 Zakopane 7, PO Box 11
Tel: +48 18 207 05 20, +48 695-530-813
e-mail: kontakt@schronisko-ornak.pl
http://www.schronisko-ornak.pl – website only in Polish
The PTTK hostel at Polana Chochołowska
Address: 34-500 Zakopane, PO Box 195
Tel: +48 18 20 705 10, +48 660 144 510 available from 8 am to 8 pm
e-mail: chocholowska.schronisko@gmail.com
http://www.chocholowska.com – website also in English, French and Russian
Shelter PTTK Hala Kondratowa
Mailing address: 34 – 500 Zakopane, PO Box 297
tel. + 48 18 20 19 114
http://www.halakondratowa.pl – website only in Polish
Reservations can also be made via the form on the website: www.schroniska.pttk.pl/kondratowa/pl
It is worth reading carefully the “offer” tab, because the smallest hostel in the Tatras has its own rules, different than those in the other ones.
Hotel Górski PTTK Kalatówki (1-star hotel)
Postal address: 34-500 ZAKOPANE, PO Box 194
Tel. +48 18 206-36-44, +48 608 326 030
e-mail: recepcja@kalatowki.pl & hotel@kalatowki.pl
http://www.kalatowki.pl – website also in English
A hotel more than a shelter, however has a cafeteria and a restaurant where you can relax while wandering. There is no accommodation on the floor. For many, the perfect combination of comfortable hotel conditions with the possibility to wake up in the morning in the heart of the national park.
