What's on in Zakopane, Poland through the year

Peak crowds — Ski jumping World Cup, Polish winter school holidays

• Festival

  Ski jumping World Cup

  12–28 Jan · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  The Wielka Krokiew fills with tens of thousands of Poles for a January weekend, flares and all. It has been the town's biggest event since 1980 and the dates are set late. Source ↗

• Holiday

  Polish winter school holidays

  15 Jan – 28 Feb · usuallyCrowded

  The regions take their two weeks in rotation from mid-January to the end of February, so six weeks of school holidays land here back to back. It is the busiest stretch of the winter. Source ↗

Still on: Halny wind (1 Oct – 30 Apr (usually)), Winter smog (15 Nov – 15 Mar (usually)), Ski season (15 Dec – 31 Mar (usually)), Christmas and New Year crush (22 Dec – 4 Jan (usually))

Peak crowds — Polish winter school holidays, Ferie zimowe (winter) holidays in Poland

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Polish winter school holidays (15 Jan – 28 Feb (usually)), Halny wind (1 Oct – 30 Apr (usually)), Winter smog (15 Nov – 15 Mar (usually)), Ski season (15 Dec – 31 Mar (usually))

Busy — Easter break in Poland, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Halny wind (1 Oct – 30 Apr (usually)), Winter smog (15 Nov – 15 Mar (usually)), Ski season (15 Dec – 31 Mar (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Halny wind (1 Oct – 30 Apr (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in May.

Busy — Summer holidays in Poland, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Tatra trail season

  15 Jun – 15 Oct · usually

  The high routes and the chained sections of the Orla Perc clear from about the middle of June to mid-October. Morskie Oko is walkable most of the year and queued for all of it.

Busy — Summer holidays in Poland, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in July.

Still on: Tatra trail season (15 Jun – 15 Oct (usually))

Busy — Summer holidays in Poland, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Tatra trail season (15 Jun – 15 Oct (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in September.

Still on: Tatra trail season (15 Jun – 15 Oct (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Season

  Halny wind

  1 Oct – 30 Apr · usuallyWind seasonRisk

  The Tatra foehn comes over the ridge warm and violent, takes roofs and whole stands of spruce with it, and closes the cable car. Locals blame it for their headaches and are probably right.

Still on: Tatra trail season (15 Jun – 15 Oct (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Hazard

  Winter smog

  15 Nov – 15 Mar · usually

  A resort at the foot of a national park with some of the worst winter air in Poland: coal stoves in the valley and no wind to move it. The Tatra ridges above it are clear. Source ↗

Still on: Halny wind (1 Oct – 30 Apr (usually))

Peak crowds — Christmas and New Year crush, Christmas break in Poland

• Season

  Ski season

  15 Dec – 31 Mar · usually

  Kasprowy Wierch is the serious end and it is a cable car with a queue, not a lift system; Nosal and the local hills are the rest. Snow is reliable at the top, patchy in the town.

• Holiday

  Christmas and New Year crush

  22 Dec – 4 Jan · usuallyChristmas & New YearCrowdedBook early

  Half of Poland comes to the mountains for the holidays and Krupowka is a slow-moving crowd from morning to midnight. Beds triple in price and the road from Krakow can take five hours. Source ↗

Still on: Halny wind (1 Oct – 30 Apr (usually)), Winter smog (15 Nov – 15 Mar (usually))