Hel Peninsula

On this longest Polish peninsula you will find some of the cleanest beaches in the country. The landscape conditions are unique – in the resorts scattered on a thin sandy promontory, you can choose between beaches on the Bay of Puck and the open Baltic Sea. Moving from one beach to another is a matter of one walk. In between, a small town awaits us with rooms for rent, restaurants and souvenir stalls. The Hel Peninsula offers the charm of the Polish sea at its best.

About an hour and a half by car along the provincial road No. 216 or a little more time by train (this way we can admire the landscape in peace) and we can discover what the most beautiful Polish beaches look like, away from the atmosphere of a big city. Entering the Peninsula, we pass Wladysawowo first. It is the largest of the local towns. Then Chalupy – a village famous in Poland for… the legendary nudist beach. The narrowest place of the Hel Spit is in Kuznica, located behind Chalupy, whose Kashubian name Kusfeld means “place of a kiss”.

This romantic situation, of course, concerns the meeting of the sea with the bay. One of the most famous seaside resorts is Jastarnia and Jurata. There is an airport in Jastarnia where tourist planes and parachute jumps take place, also in tandem. Jurata, the last point before Hel, has one of the most beautiful wild beaches with a wide strip of sand, surrounded by greenery and picturesque relief. It’s just as nice on the bay side. The culmination of the peninsula tour is, of course, Hel.

Due to the high exposure to the wind, it is a Mecca for kite and windsurfers. The wind in Hel makes the sandy beach located on the side of the open sea (Large Beach) constantly changing its image. On the other hand, the Little Beach by the bay is connected to the town’s infrastructure. Hel is also a great place for family rest – there is a seal aquarium and a lighthouse.

Ustka and Łeba

The area between two well-known Polish bathing beaches, Ustka and Łeba, is something for lovers of open spaces. Beautiful, wide beaches and flat terrain are just a foretaste of what awaits us there. There are three coastal lakes in the area, Sarbsko, Lebsko (the largest of them) and Gardno. Due to that Leba, as on the Hel Peninsula, we can enjoy two beaches – this time by the open sea and by the lake – in one town. In Ustka, the largest of the cities, we have a beach with the Slupia River flowing into the sea.

Slupsk, Ustka, Leba and the surrounding area for children

There will also be landscape attractions in Rowy, which is famous for the atmosphere of an intimate summer resort. It is located between the sea and Lake Gardno, through which the Lupawa River flows, to finally flow into the sea. From there, it is close to the Slowinski National Park, where we can admire natural moving dunes reaching up to 42 meters in height. The landscape of the park is so unusual that the Slowinian dunes played the desert in the Polish film “In Desert and Wilderness”, which takes place in the Sahara. This is the largest attraction of this type in Europe, and it is worth devoting a whole day to it. In addition to Ustka, Rowy and Leba, it is worth visiting Orzechowo, a small village with a quiet, picturesque beach with a cliff coast.

Krynica Morska and the Vistula Spit

On the eastern end of the coast there is another landscape gem. The Vistula Spit is located between the Gulf of Gdansk and the Vistula Lagoon – a part of the bay cut off from the rest by the split belt. This sandy promontory is shared by Poland and Russia. Coming from Gdansk, we pass Stegna first. It is worth stopping there for fresh or smoked fish. The largest town, and at the same time the most attractive resort on our side, is Krynica Morska. We have a wide beach there, located among coniferous forests, and on the other side – a promenade over the Lagoon. Krynica also has its own lighthouse and a picturesque Franciscan church located in a forest.

A few kilometres towards the border with Russia there is the Camel Hump. It is the highest, 49.5 m above sea level. a permanent dune on which there is a tree-topped lookout surrounded by. Admiring both reservoirs, we listen to birds singing. The flora and fauna of this area is under protection – it is part of the “Vistula Spit” Landscape Park, which includes as many as three nature reserves. The last beach is the one in Piaski, right next to the border. There, we will undoubtedly feel like at the end of the world, and at the same time … we have a nudist beach again.