Horse trips in Wilde Bieszczady mountains

Spend a week riding through the Wild East of Europe - the beautiful mountain region of the Bieszczady National Park, the Polish south-eastern sector of the enormous Carpathian range. This is the only real trapper's trip in the truly wild scenery.

The Bieszczady Mountains, in the south eastern corner of Poland, form some of wildest territory in Europe. The repercussions of WWII has left much of mountains to be reclaimed by nature, and today they are home to wolf, bear, bison, lynx and eagle. The rounded peaks have forested slopes of natural beech and other broad-leaf, with the highest slopes of the Bieszczady of open grassland, affording wide panoramic views.
The Bieszczady National Park is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, such is the importance of its natural heritage.
The Bieszczady range is interconnected by a network of colour-coded paths, which often run along the ridges and summits of the mountains. Being located in the far south-east, secret corner of Poland, the climate is very continental with bitterly cold winters and hot summers. The region is isolated from the rest of the country, and that makes access that bit more challenging.

Your stay program

1. Day one
Airport pickup, transfer to Bieszcady region. After choosing your horses we are heading to Lopienka - this non-existent village in a wide valley has been left to wolves, bears... and students, who run their summer camp. After visiting the only remaining building - a 17th century orthodox church we will stop for a short lunch break giving the horses a rest. We will continue the ride towards the Lopiennik peak. After rain the downhill part might require a bit of walking by your horse as the path gets dangerously slippery.

2. Day two
Leaving the lodge we will follow the track leading first towards the village Krzywe, then climb to Jaslo and Okraglik mountain just on the Slovak border. A lunch break somewhere on the mountain meadows will give you and your horse force to ride down to the Strzebowiska village, where we will sleep and eat in a nice lodge.

3. Day three
Our trail leads us towards the Poloniny - the sub alpine meadows so typical to the Bieszczady mountains. We will stay in valleys finding our way through Smerek to Wetlina and finally Gorna Wetlinka where we will sleep in bungalows preparing ourselves for stunning views the next day.

4. Day four
We will ride up hill till we reach the Polonina Wetlinska peak with some fantastic views on the region. The road down will lead us to Suche Rzeki and finally to Zatwarnica in the upper San river valley, where we will spend the following night..

5. Day five
The San - a magic large mountain river that will host us in its fenomenal deserted valley for most of this day. Riding downstream on either side of the river through a stunning Hulskie nature reserve we will arrive to a mountain shelter in Jaworzec to spend there the night.

6. Day six
From the shelter along the Wetlinka river we will see some more non-existent villages, ruined churches, old graveyards overtaken by weeds. We will have lunch in the fantastic place where the river makes its way through narrow gorges. Riding down to Polanki we are just few miles away from Jacek's little village where our journey ends. In the lodge we used for first two days we will spend the last night with a barbecue thinking of new horse trails in the wild, next year...

Dates: any date  on request info@excitingpoland.com

Price: 1240 USD / person

Included in the price :
• Accommodation in double rooms,
• Breakfast and supper at the lodge, outdoor lunch,
• English speaking guide,
• Saddled horse,
• All transports including Rzeszow airport pickup.

Not included :
• Your journey to Poland,
• Personal expenses and insurance,
• Single room (if available),
• Krakow airport pick-up (160 USD extra per group)

Additional information

Horses
We use The Malopolski horse - a halfbred Anglo-Arab - they are well mannered and used to the difficult terrain. Here you will find a more detailed description of the breed. To participate in our trips you need basic to intermidiate riding skills , know how to brush and saddle your horse. In hard riding conditions especially after rain the track might get slippery so you will be asked by your guide to walk by your horse. This is for your and horse's safety.

Accommodation
As we will use different lodges you will be asked to pack up in the morning, take only most necessary things on horse and we will transfer your bags to the new accommodation. We will have breakfast and supper at the lodge, sandwiches or sausages cooked on fire will do for lunch. You will taste some local food and specialities, if you like them, you might come on a different trip with us to learn some cooking. 

Guide
A guide will be present with you all the time, he speaks English knows his horses and the mountains perfectly. But in case you were lost we will grant you a map with the route marked on it, all necessary phone numbers and directions. Being a member of the Mountain Rescue Team your guide is an expert in first aid as well as survival skills which hopefully will not be useful.
The guide has the right to change the planned route seen the actual conditions. Anytime he does it there will be a good reason for it and again, it will be for your and horse's safety.

We can deal with groups up to 15, however the ideal size of a group is 4-8.

The Podkarpacie Region
In Rzeszów (160,000 inhabitants) a couple of interesting pieces of the 18th and 19th century architecture stand till today. The parish church dates from the 15th century and the early 17th century Bernardine monastery has sumptuous Baroque interiors. Two synagogues stand east of the town square, one housing an exhibition, the other an archive. The city also has a castle renovated in 19th century opened to visitors. North-east of Rzeszów, the Bernardine monastery in Leżajsk is home to the famous organ dating from 1693, complete with its 5,900 organ-pipes. The 17th century monastery is a work of an Italian master Pellaccini. In Łańcut, to the east of Rzeszów, stands one of the country’s most important magnate residences. The two-storey construction with a courtyard was built in the late 16th century and the magnificent park in the 17th . Its interiors are lavishly furnished and decorated with paintings. Among the buildings in the park are the orangery and a Romantic little castle. The old stable and coach-house buildings are given over to the museum of carriages, containing one of the most exquisite collections of carriages and stagecoaches.

Cracow- an ancient magic city.
Cracow offers a wide spectrum of museums, art galleries full of exhibitions, theatres, historic cellars, clubs, cafes & restaurants with live music, is an exciting destination for the travelers on the world map!
The city’s cultural heritage is mirrored in its intellectual achievements – the Jagiellonian University is the oldest in Poland. The student population of the city numbers almost 100,000 and this large student population fires a lively nightlife scene that burns brightly in the atmospheric cellar bars away from the tourists above. Cracow has sharply contrasting seasons with cold, snowy winters and fresh springs and autumns. Visitors should beware of the locals’ use of the word fresh – an optimistic reference to blatantly cold weather. The labyrinthine cellars of the Old Town are an ideal place to escape the winter chill. However, come summer, the quintessential Cracow experience is relaxing in a pavement café on the main square enjoying one of the long and balmy nights.

Cracow (Krakow) is now well established as a major tourist destination. At the height of summer, Poland’s fourth largest city throngs with tour groups, all manner of tourist tack and countless pavement cafés that seem to occupy every cobble of the main square. Out of season, late at night or even in the first slivers of morning light, it is clear why so many people flock to visit. This magical city, situated in the southeast of the country, between the Jura uplands and the Tatra Mountains, on the banks of the Wisla (Vistula) River, has one of the best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe. Dozens of churches cover almost every architectural period and are surrounded by monasteries and abbeys – walking through the Old Town streets is like drifting back through the musty pages of a historical novel.

Cracow – a tourist horn of plenty
Cracow, Poland's former royal capital, is one of the most attractive spots on the tourist map of Europe. This is a place where legends, history and modernity intertwine. The city, which lies on the banks of the Vistula River, is famous for its priceless historical monuments of culture and art.