The unique landscapes

Diversified Polish landscapes feature high mountains, plateaux and lowlands. They lie parallel to each other.

Although the distribution of landscapes is simple, every Poland's corner or macro-region has a character of its own. The diversity of our landscape is enhanced by the existence of four seasons. Our climate is temperate, without major weather anomalies, and the mean annual temperature fluctuations range from 6 to 9 degrees Centigrade.

In the mountains winters are long and the snow melts late. The moment it does melt, the gentle slopes of the high mountain pastures get covered with crocuses in bloom.

Spring floodwaters in the wet lowlands of the Narew valley offer a very spectacular sight.

Orchards, mostly varieties of apple-trees, are in bloom in mid-May. The largest expanses of orchards are found in south-western Mazovia (near Grójec and Rawa Mazowiecka) and in the Małopolska region (around Sandomierz).

Wild poppies, which decorate wastelands and the sides of country roads, start blooming in June.

Milfoil flowers, especially captivating in the Podlasie region, add much to the beauty of meadows in July.

Polish golden autumn, with many sunny days and all those splendid colours, is considered to be one of the nicest seasons in Poland.

Seacoast lowlands are often overgrown with heather and dwarf trees. The heather is in full bloom in the last decade of August.

In autumn, the weather in northern Poland can become a bit capricious, but after heavy and short showers, the rainbow often spans both ends of the horizon. Deciduous trees, usually maples, line up kilometres of roads in the Mazovia and Pomerania regions. They have become an integral part of the local landscape, looking most beautiful in the autumn time when the leaves turn golden and red.

The Pepper Mountains, a geological curiosity, are located on the high escarpment of the Vistula bank near Sandomierz. Their original erosive forms are embellished with shrubs and trees, which, especially in autumn, make the denuded rocky shapes look quite interesting.