Zakopane: the back story

About Zakopane: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Zakopane lies at the foot of the Polish Tatras, the highest range of the Carpathians. For skiers it means two things: Kasprowy Wierch, high above the town in the Tatra National Park, and the gentler slopes of Nosal, Polana Szymoszkowa and Gubałówka right in town.

A cable car built in 227 days

On 24 July 1935 a company was founded to build a cable car from Zakopane to Kasprowy Wierch, and work began on 1 August. It took just 227 days. On 15 March 1936 the first car reached the summit, and Poland had its first mountain cable car; the company behind it, Polskie Koleje Linowe (PKL), still runs it today. Two years later, on 20 December 1938, the funicular up Gubałówka, on the other side of town, opened after only 168 days of building.

Lifts in the cirques

Kasprowy’s skiing lies in two great glacial bowls, the Gąsienicowy and Goryczkowy cirques. The first lift in the Gąsienicowy cirque, in 1938, was a pair of 16-person sledges on a single cable, 300 metres long, on slopes of up to 70 degrees. Single chairs replaced it in 1962, and in December 1968 a two-seat chairlift opened in the Goryczkowy cirque. In December 2000, a four-seat chairlift went up at Hala Gąsienicowa, built in 202 days, and the modernised cable car opened on 15 December 2007.

Poland’s first mountain cable car still carries skiers to the border ridge.

High and wild

Today the cable car climbs 4,261 metres in about 20 minutes, with a change at Myślenickie Turnie, to 1,987 metres. From the top, the Gąsienicowa and Goryczkowa runs, of 1,200 and 2,100 metres, and a 3,500-metre ski trail down from Hala Goryczkowa are pure mountain skiing, with no snowmaking or floodlights, inside the Tatra National Park. Here, too, is Poziom 1959, the highest restaurant in Poland.

The town’s own hills

For first turns, families and evening skiing, Zakopane has its own hills: Nosal, home of the STRAMA school, Polana Szymoszkowa beside Gubałówka, and Harenda. Many of them, Kasprowy included, sit within the Tatry Super Ski network of 19 ski areas in Poland and Slovakia.

Every budget

This is one of the best-value ski towns in Europe. A day on Nosal costs 145 to 180 złoty in 2026/27, and the pensions of the town come with highland cooking. At the other end, Nosalowy Park and Aries are five-star hotels with spas, and Giewont, in neighbouring Kościelisko, holds a MICHELIN star.

Our advice: book the Kasprowy cable car online, go early, and keep the town hills for a relaxed afternoon or an evening session.

Zakopane in brief

From Polskie Koleje Linowe (pkl.pl), nosal.pl and the MICHELIN Guide (October 2026).

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Zakopane: the back story before you go.