Travel free, or by public transport

Aerial assault course at Gubalowka ridge The aerial assault course is found up on Gubalowka ridge, about 15 minutes walk west of the funicular railway station. You can travel to Zakopane either by bus (6zl each way) or train (10zl return) or our driver can take you either one way (50zl between 2-6 people), or collect you later as well (100zl return trip between 2-6 people). The funicular railway station is situated at the north end of the market ‘pod Gubalowka’ which is about a 20 minute walk from the train and bus stations through Zakopane’s main tourist district, including a walk down Krupowki pedestrian street. Our driver will drop you off and collect you from the car park at the entrance to the market, about 5 minutes walk from the funicular railway. It costs 14zl for the return journey, but you can buy a single ticket and walk down. Out of the station, climb the steps to the track along the top, and turn left. After the children’s climbing wall, you will find the assault course strung through the trees. You will have a safety talk, and instructions on how to use the safety harness, then you swing off through the tree tops. It costs about 20zl which, if you complete the course in 15 minutes (no way!) is refunded to you.
	Nowy Targ market On Thursday and Saturday mornings, the market at Nowy Targ opens around 05.00am, starting to close around 13.00. The Thursday market has a livestock section with farmers offering pigs, sheep, horses, cows, goats and so on for sale. Get there by 08.00am to really enjoy this part of the market. Saturday market can claim to be the biggest street market in Europe, especially in summer. It can take up to 5 hours just to walk all around it. You can buy just about anything here, from hand made wrought iron products to ball gowns, potatoes to trees, hammocks to skis: really, just about anything. During the market, there are various food stalls selling open-air grilled meats and sausages. Or there are several very Polish cafes offering traditional local fare in traditional local surroundings. Try Rumcajs. Otherwise, you can take a short walk up into the Main Square of Nowy Targ, where, on Thursdays, the town museum is open in the middle of the square, and any day of the week, you can visit the Church of the Most Blessed Heart of Jesus which, behind the altar, has an amazing white stone sculpture of the Last Supper. There are all sorts of restaurants: posh Polish, American Retro, Italian pizza, Polish traditional and cafes and bars. Also, don’t miss the best ice cream ever, available from the kiosk next to the bakery in the main square, west side. Take a wander round the streets running immediately behind the square too. And for New Year, the restaurants in the Square put on all-night parties, including a huge display in the Square. No charge to take you and drop you off at the market with a map to the bus station for a bus ride home, or 60zl if you want a wait and return driver.

At Raba 500 playing with the local children Our younger guests love spending the day at home, and there's no need to pay to travel anywhere. Just being here around Raba 500 is a holiday for children. There are about 15 children, aged 2 to 16 living around the hamlet of Bogdalowka, where Raba 500 is situated on the north side of Raba Wyzna. The children play outside spring through autumn, and run from garden to garden with a freedom that is refreshing to see. Most homes have pets or farm animals: the children will see chickens, geese, turkeys, (many of which roam free in the lane) sheep, goats, rabbits, cows, horses, dogs, cats, hamsters, fish and, in the forest above Raba Wyzna, wild deer. Sharing is the rule, and if your child needs a bike, one will be found. Your children are sure to be invited into neighbouring children’s homes and are welcome to reciprocate as all the local children know that our door is always open to them. They may want to join the children helping their parents in the fields beside each house, raking hay, and then riding down to the farm on top of the horse drawn cart full of hay. In our garden, we have a climbing frame and slide, paddling pool, play house, swing and sand-pit and loads of out-door toys. In the evening, the children can host their own BBQ, inviting their local new friends round to cook sausages over a small fire. Our daughter will accompany them to the shops to buy supplies. Summer holiday evenings, June 21^st to 1^st September, usually find all the local children playing some sort of mass game until darkness sends them inside to bed around 21.00. During school time, however, children are usually in bed around 19.00 as they start school at 07.45. In the winter, sledging groups gather and all our guest’s children are welcome to join in. We have 4 ‘apple’ sledges and 1 bigger frame sledge for their use.

	Spytkowice Swimming Pool 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. You can check out the website link shown below for full details of treatments offered: 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.
Potato planting and harvesting at Raba 500 If you come to stay with us either at the end of April/beginning of May, or at the end of August/beginning of September, depending on the weather, we will be either planting or harvesting potatoes in our garden and in the fields. It’s hard work but fun, and all our friends and neighbours join in. The horse ploughs the furrows and we jab the seed potatoes into the soil quickly before she comes round again. Halfway, we all stop for a beer or two, and then get back down to it. Harvesting includes all ages, with the children having fun collecting the smallest potatoes for seeding next year. Again, the horse does the heavy work, dragging a spidery contraption which throws the potatoes out of the soil, some 6 foot into the air. A real Podhalan experience and it all takes place in our back yard. Oh, and our potatoes are talked about on the Internet, they are SO good.
	Chabowka Skansen Steam Train Museum Just 5 minutes drive from Raba 500, a wonderful collection of steam trains, many of which still run. You can book a day return trip to Zakopane on one of these beautiful old trains which regularly run down the valley where we live. It’s lovely seeing them go by. We’ll take you there free of charge, or you can combine it with a trip to Wieliczka Salt Mines if you like. 2zl children, 4zl adults and 10zl for a photography pass. Well worth it. http://www.parowozy.pl/
Eating out locally Siwy Dym and Rusnakowka are both traditional style Podhale/Goral wooden architecture restaurants, both about 15 minutes drive from Raba 500: Siwy Dym at Zabornia above Rabka Zdroj, and Rusnakowka just outside Spytkowice. We’ll drive you to the restaurant free of charge, and give you the telephone number of our taxi driver, Pan Stojowski. The waitress will telephone him when you are ready to leave. Both have menus with English translation. Siwy Dym has live music every night from 20.00. A 3 course evening meal with a few drinks will cost about 60zl per person. http://www.siwydym.pl/restauracja1.htm or http://www.karczmarusnakowka.com/
	Rabacowka Raba Wyzna has one bar, Rabacowka. The landlord, Pan Jan, is a bit of a historian and his bar is full of Partisan Memoria: the Gorals fought hard, guerilla style, against the Germans and the Russians. It’s rarely busy in the bar as the people of Raba Wyzna tend to party at home, but weekends find a variety of locals in the bar and they will be delighted to entertain you. If you want a meal at Rabacowka, let me know the day before and Marta, Jan’s wife, will do the honours. The back bar is a games room with pool, darts and an air hockey table. It’s 10 minutes walk to Rabacowka from Raba 500: if you can’t walk home, Jan the landlord will happily drive you.
Gubalowka Ridge by funicular railway from Zakopane You can travel to Zakopane either by bus (6zl each way) or train (10zl return) or our driver can take you either one way (50zl between 2-6 people), or collect you later as well (100zl return trip between 2-6 people). The funicular railway station is situated at the north end of the market ‘pod Gubalowka’ which is about a 20 minute walk from the train and bus stations through Zakopane’s main tourist district, including a walk down Krupowki pedestrian street. Our driver will drop you off and collect you from the car park at the entrance to the market, about 5 minutes walk from the funicular railway. It costs 14zl for the return journey, but you can buy a single ticket and walk down. On the ridge, you can take a horse drawn cart, or sleigh in the winter, along the ridge and walk back. There are climbing walls ideal for even younger children, an aerial assault course, open-air grill bar, various stalls offering local handicrafts and the dry toboggan run which is excellent fun: you can reach speeds of up to 40kph! And, for older and adult children, check out the Aerial Assault Course page!
	Rabka Zdroj horse drawn cart trip around town 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.
Hairdresser 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. She is too shy to have her photo appear on this website, but she asks me to say that she does normal hair cuts as well as the way I like her to cut mine.
	Rabka Zdroj open air swimming pool At Rabka Zdroj, the next town 10 minutes drive away, is the open-air swimming pool, open between June and September. There is the big pool and a baby pool with little slide, lots of grassy area around for sun bathing, changing rooms and toilets and a sand base volley ball court that doubles up as a beach for sandcastles. Snacks, drinks and ice cream are available and sometimes, they offer grilled snacks, but we usually take our own picnic. All day entrance fee is 14zl for adults, 7zl under 14’s for an all day pass. We don’t charge to take you and fetch you, or you can come and go by bus. We supply big towels and have a variety of inflatable pool toys.
Rabka Zdroj Pizzeria If you are visiting Rabka Zdroj for the day, you will almost certainly visit the health park at some time. If you do, and you fancy some lunch, there is a very good Pizzeria to the east side of the park. Pizzas cost between 5zl and 40zl depending on the size. We recommend it! At weekends, they have a DJ and you might want to make an evening of it. We will make sure you have the telephone number of our recommended taxi driver, Pan Stojowski, so the Polish/English speaking waitress can call him for you, and he will bring you home. It’s about 45zl from Rabka to Raba 500. Or during the day, you can walk 5 minutes down to the bus station for a 4zl ride home.
	Haymaking 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.
Rabka Zdroj Monday local livestock market No charge for transport to Rabka Zdroj, or the buses run every 30 minutes or so. We provide you with maps of many of the attractions in the town, although you may well find more for yourselves. The Monday market is nowhere as big as Nowy Targ, but it’s a good start to the day, and children will enjoy seeing the animals on sale, especially the chicks in the spring. There’s a lot more to see in Rabka Zdroj whilst you are there: look out for the Church Museum, the open-air swimming pool, ice-skating in winter, Rabkoland funfair and the Steam Train Museum in Chabowka on the way home.
	Indoor play at Raba 500 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.
Ice skating In the winter, at Rabka Zdroj, an out-door ice skating rink and cafe are open from 09.00 to 19.30 in the evening. Skates are available to hire and with an hour and a half session, will cost under 20zl per person. We take you free of charge, or you can catch a bus, with the bus station just across the road from the rink.
	Rabkoland funfair At Rabka Zdroj, the next town 10 minutes drive away is the fun fair Rabkoland, open between May and September. 1zl entry fee, and then 35zl for a 10 ride card, this is probably the most inexpensive funfair in Europe! Great rides, nothing like Disneyland – more like a country funfair in Britain 50 years ago. You’ll find candy floss, dodgem cars, and a great activity area for small children. There are a couple of bars, a café and a restaurant but the food is pretty basic. It’s probably best to eat elsewhere. Also, here you will find the Museum of the Smile: the world centre of the Smile Award for Very Courageous Children. Free transport to and from Rabkoland, and the bus stop is nearby if you want to go it alone.
In the garden at Raba 500 The garden at Raba 500 covers some 2000m sq, all safely fenced and gated so even small children can run out and play anytime. We have a splash pool, play house, climbing frame and slide, sand-pit and swing and a wide variety of out door games and toys, bike, skate board, roller blades and so on. You can host your own BBQ if you wish – the ladies at the local butchers will be delighted to help you choose your sausages. Sun shines most days throughout the summer: sun bathe or sit in the shade of the apple tree, sit in the pool with a cold beer, or under the sunshade at the bar with an iced drink: you don’t need to go anywhere for the day when you stay at Raba 500.
	Ski Chabowka No charge for transport to our favourite beginner slope, 5 minutes from home. Two great slopes, one for absolute beginners on a rope pull lift, and the second for skiers ‘first day’ reminder session, a button lift up to a shallow start, then steep finish. Lovely little wooden café selling snacks and drinks, instructors speaking English, snow cannons at night, and the cost: 7zl for 10 ascents on the rope lift, 14zl on the button lift. You can’t get better value anywhere. Open from 09.00am to 21.00, (if there are enough people skiing), floodlit after 15.30, if you get a morning flight we can get you skiing on your first day. Some of the keener skiers might want to go for an hour or so after dinner: no problem. http://www.chabowka.com/
Sleigh rides Children love the horse drawn sleighs that run along the Gubalowka Ridge during most of the winter. In Zakopane, on the south side near the Skoki, ski jump runs, and up to Kuznice in the National Park, you will also get a lovely sleigh ride through most of the winter months. In Rabka Zdroj, when the roads are snowed up, sleighs are out and about, and we have our own horse-drawn sleigh driver, Marek, who will come and take a group of up to 4 of you around the snowed over roads of Raba Wyzna when ever you like, evening or day-time, and he picks you up in the centre of Raba Wyzna so you can walk down and meet him then go to the pub, Rabacowka, afterwards. Reckon to pay at least 100zl per hour. These sleigh drivers have a limited amount of time they can work their sleighs during the year as the roads are kept so clear for cars!
	Krakow centre 1. You can travel to Krakow either by bus: 07.30 am or 11.20am: 14zl each way, 90 minute trip to Central Bus Station just north of the Main Square, the last return bus leaving Krakow at 20.00 (but you must check this yourselves when you arrive there) 2. OR by train, a 3 hour trip (!) leaving Raba Wyzna at 10.40, arriving at 13.30 and the return train leaving Krakow at 14.40, arriving Raba Wyzna 15.30 3. OR our driver can take you (2-6 people) one way to Krakow for 100zl 4. OR our driver can take you and bring you back, waiting in Krakow for you. You can leave him at Carrefour and take the tram into the centre and back (4zl) and find him in the car park where you left him (350zl between 2-6 people, up to 12 hours door to door) 5. OR he can drive you into the centre and wait in the parking beside the Main Square so you can return to the car with shopping bags and so on. 400zl between 2-6 people, up to 12 hours door to door. 6. OR if you have an evening flight back to the UK, our driver can return you to Balice airport free of extra charge, and you can leave your bags in the left luggage lockers outside, suitcase size 8zl/24hr ( http://www.krakowairport.pl/en/20/46/22/Baggage-lockers ). The shuttle train to Krakow Central Station costs 8zl and you can buy your ticket on board. http://www.krakowairport.pl/en/3/176/35/en 7. OR you may decide to spend either your first night or your last night at a hotel in Krakow. There is so much evening entertainment available, that it’s well worth while. If so, we are happy to collect or return you to the airport but only taxis can enter the centre of the city so we advise you to travel with luggage by taxi between Krakow centre and the airport. Once in Krakow centre, there is so much to see! We highly recommend taking a horse drawn carriage trip around the centre for an hour: you will be taken through the streets surrounding the Main Square (Stary Rynek), past the Castle (Wawel) and through the Jewish Quarter (Kazimierz). There are shopping centres next to the Main Station and south of Kazimierz, and the Main Square hosts market stalls and the Corn Market in the middle. Cafes and restaurants ring the Main Square with outdoor seating, bars and discotheques all round, and all sorts of evening entertainments take place in the Square throughout the year. Churches and museums abound. http://www.krakow.pl/en/

Picnic on Raba Gora We have phrase books and dictionaries you can use to write a shopping list of supplies required for a picnic up the hill in a forest glade on Raba Gora, above our house. You can walk into the village and make your purchases, then take the Jan Pawel II marked path (and our map) and wander up the hill past the village cross, into the forest and along to the picnic area. A good walk, but not too far for children, although we can drive you up the hill as far as the forest edge if some of you are not keen on up hill walking. Lovely views, take the camera, but do stay out of areas of untended long grass and weeds: there may be snakes. You can carry on along the Jan Pawel II marked path as far as Rdzawka village across the Zakopianka, then walk back via the wooden church and art gallery on main road above Rokiciny Podhalanska, the path bringing you down through the village with a short walk along the 958 back home. Or ring us on your mobile from either the church above Rdzawka, or the church at Rockiciny and we’ll collect you - no charge.
	Morawczyna to Ludzmierz This is a lovely walk, following a marked trail south from the chaplet on the lane outside Morawczyna. We’ll lend you well marked maps before we drop you off (no charge for taking you to the start of this walk) so you won’t get lost. Running gently downhill between fields, you are facing the Tatra Mountains all the way down to the plain so you’ll have beautiful scenery all the way. Local people will probably be working in the fields, so remember to greet them: “Szczęść Boże!” to which they will reply “Daj Boże!” Passing through the village of Krauszow, you join the country lane which takes you on into Ludzmierz. Visit the Sanktuarium at Ludzmierz church and the beautiful church gardens with the statue of Jan Pawel II. We can collect you here, or, alternatively, you can walk on another 10 minutes down to the main road, turn left towards Nowy Targ, and about 10 minutes along the road, as you come into the forested area either side of the main road, you will see a signpost right, to Goralskie Strawa. This is a beautiful restaurant with traditional Goral indoor bars, and an outdoor terrace bar, but it is in the middle of an old industrial estate so the approach to it is very odd, but worth finding, especially for apple cake and coffee after a walk. Again, we can collect you here, or you can return to the main road, and walk 10 minutes towards Nowy Targ and catch a train back to Raba Wyzna and home. The trains leave Nowy Targ for Raba Wyzna at 14.54 and 17.56, and take about 25 minutes to get to Raba Wyzna, with 3 stops in between. Single adult ticket 5zl.
u Bogdalu BBQ and farm fun My best friend and neighbour, Krystyna Bogdal, lives with her family across the road from us. Their small farm is a regular venue for fun and games! You and your children can learn to milk a cow and then have the milk you milked with cereals for breakfast next morning. The family will put on a BBQ for you, and you can wander around, meet the horses and the bull, the dogs and wild cats and dance in the grass to local Goralskie music. In summer, a paddling pool is ready for children and adults alike. A very ‘real’ experience, and adults should not expect to come home sober. No transport charge of course, even if we have to drive you home (!). A very full afternoon or evening, with snacks, BBQ, drinks etc. costing 50zl each. Another ‘to go where no other tourist group has been before’ experience.
	Church Museum at Rabka Zdroj In this 400 year old wooden church is a Goral folk museum, with a wall in a cupboard full of people’s teeth, and dedicated to St Apollonia, the patron saint of toothache. If your child loses a baby tooth whilst staying with us, we will take you to the church - no transport charge to Rabka - and s/he can stick the tooth in the wall with all the others. The nave of the church was painted with water colours some 200 years ago by the priest and his helper. Really worth seeing! Marbling at it’s best. In the spring, the ‘palms’ made by local children for Palm Sunday are on display, some of them 6-7 metres tall.
Spytkowice Wooden Church, Skalniak Garden Centre and Jandrew carpentry workshop About 10 minutes drive away, no charge for taking you there, is Spytkowice, the village over the ridge to the west. Here you can visit a beautiful old wooden church, and our local garden centre which many guests like to wander around. Seeds are much cheaper here than in the UK and take very little room in your luggage so take a few Polish varieties back with you. Just along the road towards Skawa, is JAndrew, the carpentry workshop where, in the warehouse, they have a small showroom. You can buy all sorts of wooden toys, implements, souvenirs and decorations here, much cheaper than on the market stalls in Zakopane.

	Chocholow to Zakopane centre walk You can either get the bus to Chocholow from Raba Wyzna centre – about 8zl each - we supply you with maps so you’ll know where you are - or our driver can take you, 2-6 people, for 50zl. Our driver, or the bus, will drive south from Raba Wyzna over the ridge and across the plain where in summer you will see storks and their babies in the nests perched on roof tops and telephone posts. Ask Staszek to stop for photos anytime. Chocholow, a 400 year old wooden village, is the start of your walk: can set off across the field track towards the eastern end Gubalowka Ridge. Before you trek off, there is a general store in Chocholow if you want to stock up on water and so on. The stone church is also worth a visit, and on the main street across from the church car park where our driver will leave you, is Chocholow Museum, a wooden house that has been maintained in the style in which it was first lived in, where central heating is a little wooden panel in the kitchen ceiling to let smoke out if the room gets too hot, and contraception is a bed for the husband in the barn. The track takes you south between fields in which, in summer, there will no doubt be local people raking hay. Your greeting is “Szczęść Boże!” to which they will reply “Daj Boże!” The track becomes a lane through the forest and up to a stunning view across Zakopane in the valley, to the Tatra Mountains. Walking east along the ridge will bring you to a lovely wooden restaurant at the top of the Szymoszkowa chair lift, on which you can take a ride down into the valley, where the horse drawn carts wait to take visitors into Zakopane centre for shopping and market. The train home to Raba Wyzna leaves Zakopane at 17.33 from the Main Station, or you can pre-arrange with our driver to collect you from the market pick-up point: 50zl between 2-6 people, home to Raba 500.

Zakopane pod Skoki childrens play area On the south side of Zakopane, through the centre and up, under the ski jumping centre at the base of the Tatras, is a marvellous play area for children. About 10 huge inflatable bouncy castles, slides and ball parks (10zl per child all day), a shallow pool with floating inflated balls that you get climb into and then try and run – bit like a hamster ball on water - 5zl for 15 minutes. There are bars and cafes and it’s a great place to site and watch the children play. 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.
	Ride the flumes 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.
Sledging around Raba Wyzna We have a good size frame and wood sledge and about 6 apple sledges so the children can go off down the lane, sledging with the local children. For adults, when there’s a lot of snow on the back roads, we can tie you to the back of the Land Rover and tow you up to the top of the ridge towards Harkabuz, then let you sledge back down the road. Hilarious.