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Bukowina Tatrzanska Thermal Baths A great family day out but you must go early to avoid a long entry queue. Built on a slope just east of Zakopane, in and facing the Tatra Mountains, this swim centre is a feat of architectural engineering, with the waters supplied from the great volcanic underground sea, under the Tatras. Naturally hot therapeutic mineral water, slides, a lovely selection of pools for small children in their own area, a good café, massage and fitness centre, and about 15 different pools make this a recommended day out. One draw back – lots of wet steps so best to bring children some non-slip poolside footwear. We’ll charge 120zl to take you all there, between 2-6 people in the car, and fetch you at the end of your day. All day pass: 85zl adults, 58zl children. Price may go up in the summer. http://www.termabukowina.pl/en/home.html . |
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Uzdrowisko Rabka Spa and Wellness Natural Health Centre Rabka Zdroj is a health resort town with its own natural mineral waters sourced from wells drilled deep under the ground. The Natural Health Centre at Rabka offers a wide range of natural health treatments, and now has a SPA and Wellness centre where guests can relax and be pampered in all sorts of weird and wonder ways, inhaling the iodine laced atmosphere of the salt caves, taking a cryo sauna (-30 degrees) or a mud bath as well as the treatments usually offered at a health resort. Their website will give details of all the treatments on offer and the cost. We do not charge to take you and collect you from Rabka, but the bus station is across the road from the Natural Health centre so you can go it alone if you want. |
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Meander Park Swim Centre at Orawice Just over the border, in Slovakia, on the slopes of the Tatra Mountains, a Polish group opened Meander Park Thermal Baths just over 4 years ago. The centre is still being enlarged, although the works going on don’t disturb bathers at all: this is a marvelous swim centre with 6 or more pools of naturally hot thermal mineral waters from the underground sea under the Tatras. Indoor and outdoor, massage jets, water massage beds and seats, sunbathing, wave pool, children’s pools and a huge flume slide, a day at Meander Park will be a family favourite. You can also book a full or part body massage with the fitness instructors at the centre. Our driver will take you there – a 45 minute trip from Raba Wyzna, with a stop in Chocholow wooden village if you wish - and either wait while you enjoy a 3 hour session, or leave you for the whole day, returning to collect you all at the end of the day. The centre opens at 09.00am and closes at 21.00pm. There is a poolside café, a restaurant, a bar, a snack bar. Orawice is on the edge of the National Park: before or after your swim session, you can take a peaceful car free walk up into the trees and enjoy the silence. Or take the chair lift up into the hills and enjoy the view of the mountains around you. The restaurant is outside the pool area: you can enjoy and evening meal there if you wish. We charge 250zl between 2-6 people for the 2 way trip. An all day ticket to the Centre costs 17€ adults, 12€ 7-14, f.o.c. 6 and under. In the winter, the ski slopes beside the swim centre have chair lifts and great slopes, for a variety of levels of experience. For big groups of 7 or more, spending the whole day here, we leave the Zafira in the car park and leave you the keys so you have a place to store ski/swim gear when not in use. Swim: http://www.meanderpark.com/PL/page.php Ski: http://www.meanderski.com/PL/page.php |
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Spytkowice Swimming Pool and Fitness Spa About 15 minutes drive away, at the base of the local ski slope, is the Beskid Hotel which has a public access indoor swimming pool, fitness centre and beauty treatment and massage facilities. Check out the website for details: http://www.narty.spytkowice.pl/index_html.php?p=page&t=zabiegiSPA and we’ll book you in for a treatment session and drop you and collect you later, free of charge. |
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The WySPA Mszanka fitness centre at Mszana Dolna has a wonderfully equipped gym facility and a peaceful, child free swimming pool. No offence to children, but sometimes it’s nice just to float and enjoy relaxing sounds and lighting, without a flume or fountain in sight. Full treatment details are available on WySPA Mszaka's website, link given below. We can book you in, take you there and collect you at the end of your session: driver charges 30zl each way between 2 – 6 people. Or we'll find out the times of the buses and trains for you, so you can go it alone if you like. On a Tuesday, you can visit the market at Mszana Dolna in the morning then spend the afternoon at WySPA Mszanka. http://www.mszanka.tit.pl/index.php?name=Home&lev=1&path=/Home&lang=pl |
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In Nowy Targ, a new cosmetic salon has opened run by Dorotea, a fully qualified beautician. You can get full details from their website. We can book you in, take you there and collect you, or you can easily bus it to Nowy Targ. You can visit the market at Nowy Targ in the morning for a new outfit, get your face done in the afternoon, and go to the restaurant and music bar in Nowy Targ Main Square for the evening. Have a beautiful day out. http://www.labelle.com.pl/ |
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For 100zl per tooth, you can enjoy high quality private dental care here in Podhale. At Pan Zbigniew’s surgery in Koscielisko, the view from the treatment chair is of the summit of Giewont in the Tatras, and that is not a photograph: it’s the view out of the window! I hate needles, and my dentist can do a root canal without anaesthetic if you wish, although of course they offer all the usual ways to avoid pain. Our driver will take you, wait and return 100zl. Dentists are also available in Raba Wyzna at the surgery which is open until 23.00. No transport charge but you may have to wait here as they take emergencies as well as bookings. Just let us know what you require and we will book the necessary appointments. Allow an hour a tooth. |
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Many people are now coming to Poland for plastic and cosmetic surgery treatments as the quality of the treatments here is very high, the doctors highly qualified and the cost less than in the UK. We can supply you with a list of qualified surgeons and the clinics they operate from. You will need to decide who, what and where, but we are happy to help where necessary. Then after the treatment, come and stay with us in private while bits and pieces settle into place. You’ll go back to the UK a new person. Here is a list of members of the Polish Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery: http://ptchprie.republika.pl/oddz.html . Their members operate through various clinics across Poland. If you go into www.onet.pl, then type in and search the following, you'll get a list of Krakow clinics, and any worth their salt will have an English language option. operacja plastyczna w krakowie (cosmetic surgery in Krakow) |
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Rabka Zdroj horse drawn cart trip to the Health Park We’ll drop you in Rabka Zdroj free of charge, where your children will love flagging down a passing horse drawn cart as if it is a bus, or we can pre-arrange a pick-up point for you. You’ll have to negotiate the price with the driver but don’t pay less than 100zl per hour. He’ll take you all around Rabka Zdroj, a health resort town with its own mineral waters. Ask to be taken to the health park with it’s unique Distillation Towers: these brushwood towers have evaporating mineral waters dripping down them non-stop, thus creating a false ‘seaside’ microclimate around the towers. Breathe deeply and gain the benefit. Get dropped off at the Church Museum, then wander back through Rabkoland funfair to the bus-stop for a 10 minute trip back to Raba Wyzna. |
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An ideal end to a day at home at Raba 500, summer evenings often find us wandering up the lane to the fields on the way to the forest, where neighbours tranquilly mow, rake, turn or harvest the hay. This is the real Podhale, with wooden home-made rakes, grass either scythed by hand, or by horse drawn mower, and the horse drawn cart to take the dried hay down to the farm. You will be welcome to join in at the lower fields: it’s best to take a couple of beers with you as the beer fumes keep the hay flies away as you sweat your way round the haystacks. Children can roll in the hay in the lower fields but will not be invited to the upper fields as vipers can often make an appearance there in the untended strips of land. Carts drawn either by antiquated (but efficient) tractors or horses are filled and the children love to pile on top and ride down to the farm, geese, dogs and chickens running alongside in the lane. Some days, we spend all day in the fields and a picnic lunch is enjoyed sitting in the shade of the haystacks. A real day out with no travel involved, and a great way to get a tan and lose weight! |
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It’s rare in the summer to have rain during the day at Raba 500, but if we do, there are plenty of day trips that keep you out of the wet, or why not spend a day at Raba 500? And during the winter, there may be some people who fancy a day at home relaxing from an excess of ski muscle use. If so, there is plenty for adults and children alike to entertain themselves with at Raba 500. The library has over 1000 books with lots of variety for all ages, although we have no Barbara Cartland. A mini pool table for children, X Box, Play Station (although we haven’t got many games so if you are aficionados, best to bring your own game with you). TV: we have cable TV so there is usually a channel to suit. We can also lend you a lap-top if you fancy a film in bed in your own room, and we have 100’s of DVD’s for you to choose from. We also have a wide variety of jigsaw puzzles and some board games and 100's of music CD's from Slipknot through Siouxsie to Sinatra. For adults or family groups, there’s the sauna, 50zl for all of you for up to 6 hours use. We also have toys in abundance, although they tend to the girly side. Lots of dressing up clothes, big and small so we can put on a pantomime if you like. In the dining room there is a fridge for guests use, so if you want to buy any food supplies for yourselves, feel free to use the fridge to store them. Otherwise, we offer a lunch snack of soup and bread for 20zl per person. |
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Relax in the jacuzzi at Zakopane Aqua Park You can travel to Zakopane either by train at 09.58, return 17.33, cost 10zl return, or our driver can take you, 50zl each way between 2-6 people. The Aqua Park is about 5 minutes walk up the hill from the station. Indoor and outdoor, slides, flumes, waves all sorts, the Aqua Park is a great day out even if it’s raining. The flumes (slide tubes) are amazing! For age 7 and up only, although a tall 6 year old can lie. Don't try them if you get vertigo! Not for the faint hearted. We supply you with extra towels. http://www.aquapark.zakopane.pl/ Adult all day ticket is 50zl, 4-13 30zl, 0-3 free entry although the area for small non swimmers is small and you'd be better taking toddlers to Bukowina Tatrzanska or Szaflary thermal baths. The train back to Raba Wyzna leaves Zakopane at 17.33. |
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Pani Kryszka, my hairdresser, will be delighted to meet you. She charges about 20zl for a wash, condition and cut and I can highly recommend her. The salon is about 10 minutes walk from home, in Raba Wyzna. |
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