Walking in Beskid Niski

The Beskid Niski section of the Główny Szlak Beskidzki is low, forested and almost empty — the part experienced Polish walkers quietly rate above the crowded Tatra sections.

You pass tserkvas with shingled domes standing alone in fields, because the Lemko villages around them were emptied in 1947 and never came back. Several are UNESCO-listed. You can walk half a day without meeting anyone, which in a country of 38 million takes some doing.

Sparse accommodation, long gaps between shops, and a landscape whose emptiness has a history behind it worth reading before you go.

Plan around the villages that still have lodging, or use the State Forests' designated districts — wild camping is otherwise prohibited. Late May or September for the best of it.