Most kids want to see a city from the top, and Wrocław has plenty of ways up: a lift that shoots up a skyscraper, a Gothic cathedral tower over the Oder, an old observatory above the Old Town. On a free day, the mountains to the south add forest trails, chairlifts and rock mazes with lookouts at the top. Here's what we checked, from Sky Tower to the Table Mountains.
The observation deck takes up the 49th floor of Sky Tower, the city's tallest building, about 200 meters above the street. A multimedia lift with interactive screens makes the trip up in 45 seconds.
The 600 m² deck looks out over the old town, the Oder and the wider Lower Silesia region. There is coffee up top, and kids can trace the river and spot landmarks from the windows.
Ostrów Tumski is the cathedral quarter beside the Oder, with some of the city's oldest buildings, including the Romanesque Church of St. Giles from the early 1200s.
Its centerpiece is the Gothic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, with 21 chapels and a silver altar from 1591. An elevator and stairs climb a tower to a viewing terrace over the rooftops and river.
The museum fills the baroque main building of the University of Wrocław. The Aula Leopoldina is a gilded ceremonial hall under illusion-painted ceiling frescoes, and the Oratorium Marianum is a second painted hall.
The Imperial Staircase climbs to the Mathematical Tower, an 18th-century observatory with a 15-meter meridian line set into its floor and a viewing terrace about 42 meters up over the Old Town.
Ślęża is a 718 m forested peak rising alone above the plain south-west of Wrocław, protected as a nature reserve. From Tąpadła Pass, the yellow trail is the shortest and easiest way up, 3.1 km to the top.
The summit has a stone church with a viewing balcony, a 12 m lookout tower, an ancient granite bear sculpture and the Dom Turysty hut. On clear days the views reach the Owl Mountains.
The Zbyszek chairlift is a 2,278-meter ride on four-seat chairs from Karpacz to the top of Kopa, taking about eight minutes, with views over the Karkonosze and the Jelenia Góra valley.
From the top station, a paved black trail climbs to Śnieżka (1,603 m), the range's highest peak, in a little over an hour, passing the old Dom Śląski mountain hut about halfway.
Two rock labyrinths on the sandstone plateau of the Table Mountains (Góry Stołowe), the flat-topped range by the Czech border. Szczeliniec Wielki climbs about 680 stone steps from Karłów to viewing terraces, the 919 m summit and Piekiełko, the deepest crevice open to visitors.
Błędne Skały is an hour-long boardwalk route through a maze of towering rocks, with passages that narrow to a squeeze in places.
Most kids want to see a city from the top, and Wrocław has plenty of ways up: a lift that shoots up a skyscraper, a Gothic cathedral tower over the Oder, an old observatory above the Old Town. On a free day, the mountains to the south add forest trails, chairlifts and rock mazes with lookouts at the top. Here's what we checked, from Sky Tower to the Table Mountains.
The observation deck takes up the 49th floor of Sky Tower, the city's tallest building, about 200 meters above the street. A multimedia lift with interactive screens makes the trip up in 45 seconds.
The 600 m² deck looks out over the old town, the Oder and the wider Lower Silesia region. There is coffee up top, and kids can trace the river and spot landmarks from the windows.
Ostrów Tumski is the cathedral quarter beside the Oder, with some of the city's oldest buildings, including the Romanesque Church of St. Giles from the early 1200s.
Its centerpiece is the Gothic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, with 21 chapels and a silver altar from 1591. An elevator and stairs climb a tower to a viewing terrace over the rooftops and river.
The museum fills the baroque main building of the University of Wrocław. The Aula Leopoldina is a gilded ceremonial hall under illusion-painted ceiling frescoes, and the Oratorium Marianum is a second painted hall.
The Imperial Staircase climbs to the Mathematical Tower, an 18th-century observatory with a 15-meter meridian line set into its floor and a viewing terrace about 42 meters up over the Old Town.
Ślęża is a 718 m forested peak rising alone above the plain south-west of Wrocław, protected as a nature reserve. From Tąpadła Pass, the yellow trail is the shortest and easiest way up, 3.1 km to the top.
The summit has a stone church with a viewing balcony, a 12 m lookout tower, an ancient granite bear sculpture and the Dom Turysty hut. On clear days the views reach the Owl Mountains.
The Zbyszek chairlift is a 2,278-meter ride on four-seat chairs from Karpacz to the top of Kopa, taking about eight minutes, with views over the Karkonosze and the Jelenia Góra valley.
From the top station, a paved black trail climbs to Śnieżka (1,603 m), the range's highest peak, in a little over an hour, passing the old Dom Śląski mountain hut about halfway.
Two rock labyrinths on the sandstone plateau of the Table Mountains (Góry Stołowe), the flat-topped range by the Czech border. Szczeliniec Wielki climbs about 680 stone steps from Karłów to viewing terraces, the 919 m summit and Piekiełko, the deepest crevice open to visitors.
Błędne Skały is an hour-long boardwalk route through a maze of towering rocks, with passages that narrow to a squeeze in places.
