Krakow Zakopane Tour Itinerary

The Krakow to Zakopane tour runs about 11 hours: pickup in Kraków between about 07:30 and 09:00, an hour and a half south to the wooden village of Chochołów for a walk and a cheese and vodka tasting, about two hours in Zakopane with the Gubałówka funicular, then three hours in the pools of Chochołowskie Termy before the hour-and-a-half drive back. This is the order of Thousand Miles Cracow Adventure Company’s Krakow–Zakopane: Cable Car, Chocholow Baths, Cheese & Vodka and, with small differences, of ExploreCracow.com’s day.

The calendar above is that day (11,406 reviews, checked November 2026); with the funicular and baths tickets it was €90.41 a person from a meeting point for 24 November 2026 (read November 2026).

Hour by hour

From each listing’s itinerary, November 2026. The driver confirms the exact pickup time the evening before, by message; pickups from inside the Old Town’s traffic-restricted zones move to the nearest point a vehicle can reach.

Chochołów

Chochołów, west of Zakopane, is protected as a whole: the village has been on Poland’s register of monuments as an urban and architectural reserve since 1965, with many of its numbered log houses registered one by one, and the parish church of St Jacek dates from 1853 to 1866. The tours stop for a 20-minute walk along the main road and a 30-minute tasting. The village’s museum of the 1846 Chochołów Uprising, run by the Tatra Museum, was closed for conservation work in November 2026.

The cheese on the board is the point of the stop. Oscypek, the spindle-shaped smoked cheese of the Tatras, has been a protected designation of origin in the EU since 2008, and its specification says it is made only from May to September. From October to April you taste smoked highland cheese: oscypek made in the summer, or similar smoked cheeses that may not carry the name.

Zakopane and Gubałówka

Free time starts on Krupówki, the town’s main street of shops and restaurants, and the guide takes the group up Gubałówka by funicular: 1,301 metres of track, three and a half minutes to the top station at 1,123 metres and the view across the town to the Tatra peaks. Lunch is not included; this is when to eat. Zakopane’s cable cars has the funicular’s fares and hours if you are on a tickets-not-included option.

Chochołowskie Termy

The afternoon ends in the pools at Chochołów 400, about 18 km by road from Krupówki: three hours in the indoor and outdoor thermal pools, the therapeutic zone and the slides, with the saunas a 40-złoty supplement. Bring swimwear, a towel and flip-flops. Chocholow thermal baths has the venue’s prices and hours.

In winter

From November the day runs in snow. The stops are all in villages and town, not on mountain trails, but Krupówki and the top of Gubałówka are cold; dress for snow, and the steaming outdoor pools are the reward at the end. The Kasprowy Wierch cable car and the Morskie Oko walk are not part of this day; Morskie Oko from Kraków explains why.

If you have another day

Kraków’s other half-day classic, the salt mine at Wieliczka, south-east of the city, is set out by wieliczkasaltminetour.com, including why every visit is a guided group and what the mine’s own ticket costs.