Zakopane can wait. It’s worth getting off the train earlier for this city

Passing the first green hills of Małopolska is a soothing sight for someone living in Warsaw. It becomes even more beautiful when the wagons move along the vast Lake Mucharskie – there are few places in Poland where the railway line runs so close to the reservoir. These landscapes are a sign that the destination is less than an hour away. Even though it’s a Gdynia-Zakopane train, this time you have to get off a little earlier. In Nowy Targ, which is starting to become a more attractive destination for tourists in Podhale.

From the center of industry to the cycling capital of Małopolska

Nowy Targ is the main industrial center of Podhale and for many years it was associated with it, not with tourism. In the years 1955-1992, a shoe giant, the Nowy Targ Leather Industry Plant “Podhale”, operated here, known for the production of the iconic winter Relaks. Today, there are other companies continuing shoemaking traditions, such as Wojas and Vanuba.

The tourist potential of Nowy Targ was marginalized, which began to change only after the opening of the first important bicycle routes: sections of VeloDunajec and the Historical, Cultural and Natural Trail around the Tatra Mountains. It was 2014 when cyclists could finally reach Rogoźnik via a convenient path. The ceremonial opening of the main section of the Velo Czorsztyn bicycle route and the part of the Trail around the Tatra Mountains connecting Nowy Targ with Lake Czorsztyńskie (via Dębno) took place five years later, making Nowy Targ worthy of the title of the cycling capital of Małopolska. Another important moment for the awakening of local tourism was the pandemic period. Suddenly it turned out that Poles loved trips to the Gorce Mountains, and Nowy Targ became the best accommodation base for trips to these mountains.

Transport accessibility is probably the greatest advantage of this place. Nowy Targ is approximately 35 kilometers from the Pieniny Mountains. Not much further is Babia Góra in the Żywiecki Beskids, and a little closer to the Tatra Mountains, where the Podhale Regional Railway also runs. The train journey to Zakopane takes 25 minutes, which is often less than the time it takes to travel by car from Kościelisko to Krupówki.

Nowy Targ museums and the traces of Lenin

We pass the Podhale Museum, a colorful fountain and a disco aptly named Adhd. The Nowy Targ market square, considering a city inhabited by thirty thousand people, is really huge, which still reminds us of its commercial past. Once upon a time, merchants from all over Podhale came here to take part in the annual fair. Today, the market takes place in Nowa Targowica, at the confluence of the Biały and Czarny Dunajec streams.

There are eight streets leading to the main square with the town hall – two in each corner. Walking north-west on Szkolna Street, we will finally reach one of the most unique addresses in Nowy Targ. At 1 Krzywa Street, in the basement of the City Hall, there is a former air raid shelter. To tourists, this place is known as the Chamber of Cold War and Socialism. It is not just an exhibition of things from the times of the Polish People’s Republic, although of course we will find many old everyday objects here (for example, there is a bottle of mineral water “Przemysławka”, which, despite several decades, still has a characteristic smell).

The building has preserved elements of its furnishings, such as curtain rods, curtains and floors. There is also a trace of Lenin, who in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, was detained by the Austrian authorities on charges of espionage and spent twelve days in prison in Nowy Targ. The commemorative plaque is located here, under the office, but the detention center itself was located in a building on what is now Harcerska Street, then Szeroka Street. Parallel to Jan III Sobieski, where today we can find the Printing Museum with a 19th-century Helbig & Müller machine from Vienna, one of three such machines in the world.

Spend a day on a peat bog in Bor na Czerwonem

Nowy Targ is home to one of the oldest nature reserves in Poland. From March to May, cotton plant blooms here, turning the peat bog into a carpet of white fluffy flowers resembling cotton wool. The forester in Bór na Czerwonem, Krzysztof Przybyła, calls this phenomenon the Nowy Targ version of Polana Chochołowska. Now, in July, there is no trace of the tufts. However, you can see miniature sundews hunting. Their leaves contain natural, sticky mucus that attracts and then immobilizes insects.

The forest on Czerwone protects the raised bog along with the surrounding swamp forests. The designated area is approximately 114.66 ha and is part of the larger complex of Orava-Nowy Targ Peatbogs. Before the reserve was created here, in the 19th century, the peat bog was a common utility for the inhabitants of Podhale – they obtained peat from it for fuel and grazed cattle on it. However, the first people appeared who began to notice the uniqueness of this area. The most important roles were played by: Władysław Szafer – one of the forerunners of Polish nature protection, and Edward Lubicz-Niezabitowski, associated with Nowy Targ. The formal history of the reserve in this place began in 1925, but it was not actually protected for many years. There was no developed legal system at that time, and the inhabitants, accustomed to goods obtained from forests and peat bogs, did not intend to give them up.

Krzysztof Przybyła also says a lot about these contemporary challenges of nature conservation. For example, regarding the cutting down of trees, which cannot be too many, because they act like a pump and cause the area to dry out. – Just a few years ago, about 80 percent The dome of the peat bog was covered with pine and mountain pine. If nothing was done about it, after a dozen or so years this place would simply be a forest – he explains. Two years ago, in order to stabilize the moisture of the peat bog, some of the trees growing on its dome were removed. These actions aroused great social emotions, because the sight of people with chainsaws in the reserve looked like devastation. – It was necessary to explain that the goal was not to cut down the forest, but to save a specific type of ecosystem that would disappear without human intervention – he adds.

People come to Nowy Targ for the views

From Szalony Wierch and Łomnica, through Gerlach and Rysy, to Kasprowy Wierch, Giewont and Trzy Kopy – by moving your eyes slowly from left to right, you will take in the entire panorama of the Bielskie, High and Western Tatras. This is the reward after a short and not very demanding route to Łapsowa Polana, from which you can continue hiking to Turbacz. There are many places to observe the mountains in Nowy Targ: you can go to the Nowy Targ civil airport (the highest in Poland) and even be surprised by the peaks crossing the sky at some random intersection.

The trip took place on July 4-6, 2026 at the invitation of the City Hall in Nowy Targ. The organizer did not interfere with the content of the publication.