When snow sticks, the city's hills fill with sleds by mid-morning. These are the slopes we'd head for, with gentle runs for first-timers and steeper ones for bolder kids. When the snow in town melts too fast, the mountains are a day trip away, with chairlifts, beginner ski carpets and forest summits. Here's what we checked, from Tołpa Park's gentle slope to the Zieleniec ski runs.
Mała Sobótka is a man-made hill, built at the end of the 19th century from soil left over from a railway embankment. Locals also call it Górka Skarbowców, after the street beside it.
After a snowfall its slopes fill with sleds, and skiers and snowboarders turn up too. The rest of the year it is a spot for walks and play, joined by a strip of green to Park Grabiszyński.
A small artificial hill in the northwest corner of Tołpa Park, a landscape park in Ołbin with open lawns and a pond with an islet. The city rates the slope as very gentle, so it suits first sled runs for small kids.
Outside snow days, the park has playgrounds and a dog run.
Górka Kilimandżaro is a snow-day sledding hill just behind the Morskie Oko swimming area, off ulica Chopina. It has several slopes, from very steep to gentle, none of them long, so a toddler on a sled and a bolder older kid can each find a run.
The hill sits away from busy roads, which makes it one of the safer sledding spots around 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.
Zieleniec is the largest ski area in the Kłodzko Valley, sitting at about 950 meters in the Orlickie Mountains. One SKI-PASS covers 31 lifts, including 7 chairlifts and several conveyor carpets for first-timers, and the runs link up so you can ski from one end of Zieleniec to the other without taking skis off.
About 16 km of runs are floodlit for evening skiing.
When snow sticks, the city's hills fill with sleds by mid-morning. These are the slopes we'd head for, with gentle runs for first-timers and steeper ones for bolder kids. When the snow in town melts too fast, the mountains are a day trip away, with chairlifts, beginner ski carpets and forest summits. Here's what we checked, from Tołpa Park's gentle slope to the Zieleniec ski runs.
Mała Sobótka is a man-made hill, built at the end of the 19th century from soil left over from a railway embankment. Locals also call it Górka Skarbowców, after the street beside it.
After a snowfall its slopes fill with sleds, and skiers and snowboarders turn up too. The rest of the year it is a spot for walks and play, joined by a strip of green to Park Grabiszyński.
A small artificial hill in the northwest corner of Tołpa Park, a landscape park in Ołbin with open lawns and a pond with an islet. The city rates the slope as very gentle, so it suits first sled runs for small kids.
Outside snow days, the park has playgrounds and a dog run.
Górka Kilimandżaro is a snow-day sledding hill just behind the Morskie Oko swimming area, off ulica Chopina. It has several slopes, from very steep to gentle, none of them long, so a toddler on a sled and a bolder older kid can each find a run.
The hill sits away from busy roads, which makes it one of the safer sledding spots around 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.
Zieleniec is the largest ski area in the Kłodzko Valley, sitting at about 950 meters in the Orlickie Mountains. One SKI-PASS covers 31 lifts, including 7 chairlifts and several conveyor carpets for first-timers, and the runs link up so you can ski from one end of Zieleniec to the other without taking skis off.
About 16 km of runs are floodlit for evening skiing.
