Bieszczady and Subcarpathia: high meadows and Lake Solina
The Bieszczady rank among the least populated corners of Poland: treeless ridge meadows, the country's highest dam and a loop road full of views. The trip ties the mountain core of the Bieszczady together with its Subcarpathian neighbours — the largest open-air museum in Poland at Sanok, the magnate residence at Łańcut and the ring of forts known as Twierdza Przemyśl. Eight days make for a brisk but manageable pace: two days getting there, four days in the region and two days back. Roads in the mountains are narrow and the car parks at the ridge trailheads are cramped, so a more compact vehicle has a noticeable advantage here.
The longest transfer of the whole trip runs along motorways via Brno, Ostrava and Katowice. Bear in mind that the tolled concession section of the A4 between Katowice and Kraków is charged even for a vehicle under 3.5 t, and at both gates. You spend the night on the edge of Kraków, so that you set off rested the next morning.
In the morning you move on through Rzeszów to Sanok. The open-air museum there is the largest in Poland — thirty-eight hectares hold more than a hundred and fifty buildings, including an entire Galician town with its market square. The castle houses the Muzeum Historyczne, which owns the largest collection of works by Zdzisław Beksiński in the world along with an extensive collection of icons. In the evening you drop down into the valley towards Solina.
At 81.8 metres the dam at Solina is the highest in Poland and you can walk across it — the surface of the lake on one side, the San valley far below on the other. Lake Solina has an irregular shoreline of peninsulas and bays, and the easiest access to the water is at Polańczyk, where the excursion boats moor. The day can be taken at an easy pace: a swim, a cruise on the lake and an evening beside the vehicle.
The loop road, which nobody here calls anything other than the Wielka pętla bieszczadzka, links Lesko, Baligród, Cisna, Wetlina and Ustrzyki Górne. It crosses the Wyżna and Wyżniańska passes, the climbs are long and the bends are tight — with a longer vehicle there is no hurrying here, and the descents are best taken on engine braking. At Majdan near Cisna the Bieszczadzka Kolejka Leśna runs in season, a narrow-gauge railway that once carried timber down from the mountains and today carries visitors.
A polonina is a treeless ridge meadow above the upper limit of the forest, and Wetlińska is the best known of them — at the top stands a mountain shelter called Chatka Puchatka. The climb from Przełęcz Wyżna and back takes roughly four hours, and along the ridge you can carry on to the summits of Osadzki Wierch and Roh. In high season the car park at the pass fills up early in the morning, and the bays are sized more for cars.
From Ustrzyki Górne a side road leads to Wołosate, the starting point for the walk up Tarnica — at 1,346 metres the highest summit of the Polish Bieszczady. On the way back along road 896, the wooden church of St Michael the Archangel from 1791 stands at Smolnik nad Sanem, one of the few surviving examples of Boyko sacral architecture; it has been on the UNESCO list since 2013. In the afternoon you head north to Przemyśl.
Przemyśl is encircled by a ring of Austro-Hungarian forts, which during the First World War was the third largest in Europe after Antwerp and Verdun and which the Russians besieged for almost half a year. In the afternoon you reach Łańcut, home to one of the best preserved magnate residences in Poland — a castle with a library of twenty-two thousand volumes, an orangery and a coach house full of carriages, set in an extensive park. In the evening you move back west towards Kraków, so that the final day is not needlessly long.
The last day is a straight run back along the motorway axis Kraków — Katowice — Ostrava — Prague. On the tolled concession section of the A4 you pay a second time at both gates, so keep some change in zloty or euros to hand. You will be back in Prague comfortably by the afternoon.
Up to 3.5 t (the category most motorhomes on sale fall into): in the Czech Republic you need a motorway vignette, Poland has no vignette and state motorways are free of charge at this weight. What remains tolled are three concession sections, and one of them lies directly on the route — the A4 between Katowice and Kraków (Stalexport), with gates at Mysłowice and Balice. Under the tariff in force from April 2026, a two-axle vehicle pays 18 zł at each gate, a vehicle with twin rear wheels or a trailer 32 zł. You can pay in cash (zł, € and $), by card, by fuel card or through the app. Over 3.5 t: in the Czech Republic electronic tolling with an on-board unit, in Poland the e-TOLL system — a mobile app or an on-board device and payment per kilometre driven on the state network of motorways, expressways and selected national roads. The concession A4 Katowice–Kraków does not come under e-TOLL and is paid separately at the gates. The main attraction of the trip has a charge of its own: admission to the Bieszczady National Park costs 11 zł, reduced 5.50 zł, and is valid for one day on all marked trails. Parking is paid separately — under the park tariff a motorhome pays 37 zł a day at the main trailhead car parks and 30 zł at Tarnawa, and if you want to spend the night in it on a park car park you add a further 200 zł per night. Anyone who does not buy a ticket is charged ten times the rate.
Camp Jawor (Camping nr 248), Solina — pitches for motorhomes with electric hook-ups a short way from the dam, open roughly from April to November · Cypel – pole biwakowe, Polańczyk — a site right on the shore of Lake Solina with showers and an electric hook-up, accepting caravans and motorhomes alike · Camping PTTK nr 150, Ustrzyki Górne — electric hook-ups and a sanitary building right in the heart of the national park, an ideal base for the climbs · Kemping Górna Wetlinka, Wetlina — a campsite right by the park's year-round car park, where the trail up Połonina Wetlińska starts; motorhomes accepted as well · Camper Park Łańcut, Łańcut — a motorhome site within walking distance of the castle park, well suited to the penultimate night · Camping Smok, Kraków (ul. Kamedulska) — a fenced and guarded campsite with electric hook-ups, practical for the transit night both out and back
Free camping outside designated places is prohibited in the Bieszczady National Park — tents are allowed only at Bereżki, Tarnawa Niżna and Górna Wetlinka. With a motorhome, though, you have one option more: the park rules let you sleep in the vehicle on the park's own car parks provided you add the night rate to the parking fee (the amounts are in the tolls and charges section). These are not campsites, however — you will find no hook-ups or service points there. The network of campsites is markedly thinner here than in Croatia or Italy; in practice you count on the areas around Solina and Polańczyk, Ustrzyki and Cisna, and should expect nothing elsewhere. In July and August it pays to book ahead, outside the main season there is usually space, but some of the sites close as early as November.
The most reliable service point on the route is at Camp Jawor by the Solina dam — it has a chemical toilet disposal point as well as a drinking water supply and operates throughout the season. On the way back Camper Park Łańcut will do the job, where you can empty grey water and refill the tank. The Subcarpathian Voivodeship has also built a network of motorhome service points (MOK) at Horyniec-Zdrój, Basznia Dolna, Jędrzejówka near Narol and Lubaczów — these, however, lie north-east of Przemyśl, off the main route.
Adria Twin
The Adria Twin has the dimensions of an ordinary van, so it gets through the tight bends of the Wielka pętla bieszczadzka and between the Wyżna and Wyżniańska passes, and it fits into the cramped car parks at the trailheads up to the ridge meadows, where longer vehicles run into trouble. At the same time it handles the motorway stages from Prague via Katowice to Subcarpathia without difficulty, and those make up four of the eight days.
Get road trip ideas by email
Leave us your email and we will send motorhome inspiration and stock updates.