Zakopane, Tatra Mountains w/ Gubalowka Funicular tour from Krakow

I was walking through the old town in Krakow when I found a tourist office. I had already booked tours to Auschwitz and the Salt Mines on line, but also wanted to visit Zakopane so I booked a tour which included Chocołòw, a cheese tasting and a funicular trip to Gubalowka. I was told that I would be collected near my hotel but this was not the case - although my hotel was just south of the river in Krakow, near Kantor where cars and vans are allowed, they made the collection point Starowislna 65, which was a 25 minute walk from my hotel. Not that great as I have osteoarthritis. Anyway I was collected on time in a small white van with about 6 other people in the van, all British as the tour was in English. Our driver / guide was a really nice bloke called Andrew who was a very careful driver. I was collected on time, in fact about 5 minutes early and was the only one waiting for my particular tour. We set off to Zakopane, stopping to take photos in a very quaint town with wooden houses called Cocholow, and also stopping for a cheese tasting. This was by a small wooden hut at the side of the road and Andrew put the cheese pieces on smoking fire in the hut. Apparently this is a traditional Polish sheep’s cheese. I really liked it, it tasted a bit like halloumi but saltier. We continued on into Zakopane where we were given tickets to the funicular up to Gubalowka. There were several ski lifts on the side of the mountain but not enough snow to ski, although it is obviously a popular ski resort. The views from the top of the funicular were spectacular, I did not stop for a coffee in the cafe up the top as it looked too busy. Once back at the bottom of the funicular I wondered through the wooden stalls selling tourist souvenirs and into the main street which was pedestrianised. There were some of the usual high street shops you would find in any European city, including Tiger, Tiger and TK Maxx alongside some more traditional shops. It was a very pretty town and we had a couple of hours to explore it as well as find some lunch. I stopped in a cafe and had some excellent goulash soup which was more of a stew, very filling, for under £6 before heading back to the van and back to Krakow. We went a different route for the first half of the journey back which made it more interesting, it was about a 2 hour drive in each direction. All in all I would recommend this trip to anyone wanting to visit Zakopane although it is easy to do this trip yourself on a train, but you would not visit Cocholow or the cheese hut!

friendly driver, small group, nice to be outside the big city

It was worth doing it's very long day but stunning scenery 😁

This trip was amazing in its self but was spoilt by the driver from start to finish. Driver gave the impression he did not want to be there,car allegedly broke down then miraculously was fixed but nothing was done to fix it?? Arrived at our first place of visit no information given whilst other trips around us were getting told about the subject off their guide we got told to read the boards, other trips got to sample cherry vodka and the local cheese we got the cheese but he didn't have any vodka left? As i say the trip was amazing and the places were better than we expected but on our return journey the driver was driving fast excessively fast i.e 160kph with 4 passengers on board and snow outside i asked the driver to be a bit more cautious and was told it was fine the roads are ok i then informed him we weren't comfortable with his speeds and he asked.us what speed we wanted him to do in a sarcastic tone, not a nice situation to be in. Overall a great trip but hopefully your driver will be way better.

ZAKOPANE Tatra Mountains Thermal Baths was amazing. Booked with SeeKrakow driver and vehicle were amazing. A little bit of history of the area was given on route. The pools and saunas were lovely. Couples, families and children all catered for. Food was very reasonably prices. Big thank you to Pawel for help with changing our pick up location due to construction work outside our hotel. Great trip.

Amazing day trip. Could not fault our guide, Alex. Zakopane is simply stunning. The funicular to the top was breathtaking. So much to see and do. We visited the thermal baths, not quite what we expected and very busy but still great. Would recommend this day trip to anyone. It’s a long day, 11 hours in total but so worth it. Make sure you have a wonder around Zakopane itself after you descend from the mountain.

Museum was impressive headphones used were easy to hear and understand, weather perfect, mountains beautiful. especially when you took the funicular ride too the top. We had booked an English speaking guide but our driver spoke no English at all so we missed out on some vital information regarding the area which was disappointing.He was very pleasant though.

My favourite day in Poland. We had a great trip up to Zakopane and the views at the top of the Funicular were incredible. The high street was lovely but the shops and stalls are all the same, that said, it was a great experience.

We were collected from Krakow in a nice minibus, and only one other couple joined the 4 of us on the trip, so a nice small party. We had a lovely day, and saw some fantastic scenery in the mountains, the location for the main stop in Zakopane/Gubalowka Ski Resort was beautiful, one not to be left out of your tour. The driver was a nice guy, and drove well, but spoke very little English. Sadly we speak even less Polish, so it was difficult to know what was happening next, and what was happening at each stop. Examples were a stop for cheese tasting, and a museum stop, where it was a case of follow me, rather than any explanation. The lack of a common language also meant we were not given any sort of information as we went through the regions. We felt that the driver had been put in an awkward situation, and he definitely did his best to ensure we had a good day. We would do this trip again, but would need to find one with an English speaking guide.

Beautiful place very pretty and picturesque. The driver wasn’t very good scared us a few times as he was using his mobile phone a lot whilst driving didn’t get out of his seat to help us get out. The trip should have been 08.30-18.30 but we was back at 16.15 only spent 3 hours at Zakopane so spent more time travelling then time there. Very disappointing