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.

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 stretches.

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.

The walking is gentle rather than dramatic, but the emptiness has a history behind it worth reading. Expect sparse accommodation and long gaps between shops along the red-waymarked trail.

Walk it in late May or September for the best of the weather and the quiet, over about five days on the red-waymarked GSB. Plan carefully around the villages that still have lodging, or use the State Forests' designated camping districts — wild camping is otherwise prohibited.

Carry food for the long gaps between shops. It is beginner-to-intermediate walking with no technical difficulty, just self-sufficiency and route planning. Read up on the 1947 depopulation and the Lemko tserkvas before you go; it changes how the empty landscape reads.

Base your approach around Gorlice or the trailheads along the section, and travel light.