Winter in Zakopane. Hiking the Tatras mountains | New Year Adventure in Poland.

Our winter journey began in the quiet, misty streets of Kaunas, Lithuania, where the city was still asleep under a soft grey morning sky. As we drove south, the landscape slowly transformed — Polish villages appeared behind frosted windows, wooden houses covered in snow, thin lines of smoke rising from chimneys like scenes from a Christmas postcard.

And then, just around a mountain bend, we arrived in Zakopane.

The town looked like something from a fairytale: charming wooden chalets with carved balconies, the scent of pine trees and fireplaces in the air, and towering above it all — the majestic Tatra Mountains, glowing under the winter sun.

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❄ Hiking through the Tatra Mountains to a frozen lake

Early in the morning we hit the trail. The mountains welcomed us with complete silence, broken only by the crunch of fresh snow beneath our boots. Heavy snow rested on the spruce branches, and every step revealed new breathtaking views — endless ridges fading into a blue winter haze while sunlight sparkled in millions of tiny ice crystals.

The hike to the mountain lake felt like a journey into another world. And then it appeared — a dark, frozen mirror hidden between snowy slopes, reflecting the sharp peaks of the Tatras. The wind brushed across the icy surface, lifting snow into the air, and for a moment it felt as if time itself had stopped.

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🎆 New Year’s Eve in the heart of Zakopane

By evening we were back in the city center on Krupówki Street, glowing with festive lights. Street musicians played traditional Polish melodies, and the air was filled with the smell of mulled wine, grilled sausages and sweet waffles.

At midnight, Zakopane exploded with color.

Fireworks lit up the sky above the Tatra Mountains — red, gold and blue reflections dancing on snowy rooftops, while the mountains answered with a joyful echo. Strangers hugged, laughed and wished each other Happy New Year in dozens of different languages.

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✨ A true winter fairytale

This trip was more than just a holiday.
It was a meeting with winter in its purest form — crystal mountain air, snow crunching under your feet, a hot cup of tea in a mountain hut after a long hike, and the feeling that the New Year had started exactly the way it should:

among the mountains, under a star-filled sky, in the magical heart of the Tatra Mountains.