Two Podhale villages, one real attraction
Poronin and Murzasichle sit a few kilometres apart, just north of Zakopane, on the flatter, gentler ground of the Podhale before it rises into the Tatras proper. Neither village is a destination in the way that Zakopane or the villages closer to the mountains are. There is no old market square to wander, no listed wooden church open to visitors, no thermal complex, no cable car.
What draws people here is a single, specific thing: the treetop walk built in the forest above Murzasichle, sometimes marketed under the name Sky Walk. This page treats Poronin and Murzasichle as what they are — a worthwhile half-day stop built around one attraction, not a full day of things to do, and not a place to build an entire itinerary around.
That is a deliberate choice. Podhale villages get folded into a lot of loosely written travel content that pads them out with markets, festivals or historic sites that do not actually exist there, or that belong to a different village entirely. Poronin has a genuine claim to Polish history — it was a stop associated with Vladimir Lenin’s pre-revolutionary years in the region, and a small museum on this exists locally — but this guide sticks to what a typical visitor can verify and plan around: the treetop walk, the drive or minibus ride to reach it, and its place in a wider Podhale day.
If a future visit turns up a market, a workshop or a seasonal event worth documenting, it belongs on this page later, with a source. Until then, the honest answer to “what is there to do in Poronin and Murzasichle” is: one attraction, well delivered, best combined with something else.
The treetop walk at Murzasichle
The treetop walk is a raised wooden and steel walkway threading through the forest canopy above Murzasichle, climbing gradually to a viewing tower that looks out over the tree line toward the Tatra ridge to the south. It is built for an easy, all-ages visit: a gently sloped path rather than a hike, suitable for pushchairs on most of the route, with viewing platforms, information panels along the way, and usually a slide or two built into the descent for children. Visits typically run 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on how long you linger at the tower and whether children want repeat runs on the slide.
a small-group entry ticket to the Poronin treetop walk with hotel pickup covers the whole outing without needing a car or a minibus timetable, which is the simplest way to do this if you are staying in central Zakopane. For travellers who would rather sort their own transport and just want the walkway ticket and a transfer slot, a Sky Walk Poronin treetop walk tour with transfer does the same trip on a fixed schedule. Both are built around the same site; the difference is pickup flexibility and group size, not the attraction itself.
It is worth being precise about which treetop walk this is. Poland and Slovakia each have one in this region, and confusing them is one of the more common planning mistakes for this corner of the Tatras. The Murzasichle walk described here is on the Polish side, in the Podhale, a short minibus ride from Zakopane.
The other is the Bachledka treetop walk at Ždiar in Slovakia, which is longer, sits higher (around 1,234 m of walkway up to 24 m above the ground, with a 32 m tower and a 60 m spiral slide), and requires crossing the open Schengen border — no passport check, but a different currency and a longer drive. They are not the same site and not interchangeable on an itinerary; see the comparison guide if you are deciding between the two, and the dedicated Murzasichle guide for the walkway’s own layout and timing.
| Murzasichle (Poronin) | Bachledka (Ždiar, Slovakia) | |
|---|---|---|
| Country | Poland | Slovakia |
| Distance from Zakopane | About 20-25 min by minibus | 30-60 km, across the border |
| Currency needed | Złoty (PLN) | Euro |
| Typical visit | 45 min to 1.5 hours | Half a day, often combined with Ždiar village |
| Suited to | A short stop between other Podhale villages | A dedicated Slovak-side outing |
For visitors who want to combine the treetop walk with a wider look at the area, both a snowmobile, quad or buggy ride paired with the treetop skywalk and the longer Tatra Mountains Zakopane day trip that includes the skywalk from Kraków fold the walkway into a bigger outing rather than a standalone visit. That second option is the practical route for anyone based in Kraków rather than Zakopane, since it removes the need to arrange Podhale transport separately.
Getting there without a car
Like the rest of the Podhale, Poronin and Murzasichle are covered by the same network of private minibuses that link Zakopane to every village and trailhead in the area. These leave frequently from the bus station area and Kościuszki street in central Zakopane and run north along the road toward Poronin, with stops close to Murzasichle as well. A one-way ride takes roughly 20 to 25 minutes depending on where exactly you are dropped, and fares are paid in cash to the driver in the usual Podhale style — flag it down, tell the driver where you are heading, pay a few złoty.
There is no need to rent a car for this trip, and doing so adds a parking problem the minibus avoids entirely; see the minibus guide to the valleys and Kuźnice for how the same network works across the wider Podhale, and the general driving and parking guide if you are weighing a rental car for the whole trip.
If you would rather not manage the minibus timing at all, the tours listed above already include the transfer, which is the simpler choice on a first visit or if you are travelling with children and do not want to work out a Polish-language schedule on the day.
What this duo is not
Poronin and Murzasichle are not a day-trip destination in their own right. There is no reason to block out a full day for these two villages the way you might for Morskie Oko or the Kościeliska valley. The treetop walk itself takes well under two hours including the drive each way, which leaves a gap in the day that is better filled by combining the stop with somewhere else nearby rather than padding the visit with invented attractions.
This guide deliberately does not list a market, a museum trail or a festival calendar for Poronin and Murzasichle beyond what is verified above — Podhale villages further along the road, like Nowy Targ with its Thursday and Saturday market, do have that kind of standalone draw, but claiming the same for Poronin and Murzasichle would be inventing content the villages have not earned.
It is also not on the way to the high Tatras. Poronin and Murzasichle sit north of Zakopane, on the flatter Podhale side, while the park entrances at Kuźnice, Palenica Białczańska and Kiry are all south of town, in the opposite direction. Do not plan to combine the treetop walk with a Tatra hike on the same morning — they pull you in different directions from Zakopane’s centre.
Combining Poronin and Murzasichle with the rest of the Podhale
The honest way to use this stop is as one leg of a wider Podhale loop, not the whole day. The villages that sit within a similar radius of Zakopane each bring something the others do not: Szaflary has its thermal baths and the Gorący Potok complex, Chochołów has the best-preserved wooden village in the Podhale, Kościelisko sits at the entrance to its namesake valley, and Białka Tatrzańska and Bukowina Tatrzańska each have their own thermal complexes and ski areas.
A half-day at the treetop walk pairs naturally with a thermal-baths afternoon, and the itinerary planning guides below already build that kind of combination in rather than leaving you to guess at minibus connections.
| Combine with | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Szaflary thermal baths | Similar direction from Zakopane, easy same-day pairing |
| Chochołów wooden village | A short, walkable Podhale village to fill the rest of the day |
| Nowy Targ market (Thursday/Saturday mornings) | A genuine standalone attraction nearby, best on market days |
| Białka Tatrzańska or Bukowina Tatrzańska | Thermal baths and skiing further along the same road |
If you are staying in Zakopane for two or three days and want the treetop walk folded into a broader plan rather than a special trip of its own, the Zakopane weekend itinerary and the three-day classic Tatras itinerary both leave room for a Podhale-village half-day of this kind.
For a first-time visitor still deciding how many days to spend in the area at all, the how-many-days guide is the right starting point before adding a secondary stop like this one to the plan. The things-to-do page for Poronin and Murzasichle collects the bookable options for this specific stop if you want to compare them side by side.
Families weighing the treetop walk against Zakopane’s other easy option — the funicular up to Gubałówka — will find the two are not really competing: a combined day covering the skywalk, Gubałówka and a shepherd’s hut with thermal baths bundles them into one outing rather than forcing a choice. Gubałówka is a short funicular ride from the centre of Zakopane with a panoramic viewpoint; the Murzasichle treetop walk is a forest walkway a short drive north. They suit the same kind of easy, low-effort day, and doing both on one trip is a reasonable use of a single afternoon.
Practical planning
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Distance from Zakopane centre | Roughly 10-15 km, about 20-25 minutes by minibus |
| Transport | Private minibus from Zakopane’s bus station area; no car needed |
| Currency | Złoty (PLN); cards accepted at the treetop walk ticket office, cash needed for minibus fares |
| Typical visit length | 1-2 hours for the treetop walk itself |
| Suggested pairing | One nearby Podhale village or a thermal-baths afternoon |
| Season | Best April to October; confirm opening before a winter visit |
Bring the same basics you would for any Podhale outing: comfortable shoes for the walkway’s sloped sections, a light layer even in summer since the forest canopy is cooler than the open valleys, and cash in złoty for the minibus. The treetop walk itself is not weather-dependent in the way a mountain hike is, so a cloudy day in the Podhale does not rule out the visit the way it might rule out a trip up to Kasprowy Wierch or a chained ascent of Giewont.
Questions about visiting Poronin and Murzasichle
Is the Murzasichle treetop walk the same as the one in Slovakia?
No. The treetop walk covered on this page is in Murzasichle, near Poronin, on the Polish side of the border, about 20-25 minutes from Zakopane by minibus. The other well-known treetop walk in the region is Bachledka, at Ždiar in Slovakia, which is a separate, larger installation 30-60 km away across an open Schengen border. They are frequently confused in trip planning but are not the same site.
Do I need a car to visit Poronin and Murzasichle?
No. The same network of private minibuses that serves every Podhale village and Tatra trailhead from Zakopane also covers Poronin and Murzasichle, with a ride of roughly 20-25 minutes. Several of the bookable tours on this page also include transfer from your Zakopane accommodation, which removes the need to work out the minibus schedule yourself.
How long should I plan for the treetop walk?
Most visitors spend 45 minutes to 1.5 hours actually on the walkway and at the viewing tower, plus the return transport. Including the drive each way, a visit fits comfortably into two to three hours, which is why this guide treats it as a half-day stop rather than a full day out.
Is there anything else to see in Poronin and Murzasichle besides the treetop walk?
Based on what is verified for these two villages, the treetop walk is the one attraction built for visitors. Both villages are otherwise ordinary Podhale settlements without a landmark market, museum or historic site documented for typical travellers. That is why this guide recommends combining the stop with a neighbouring village rather than building a full day around Poronin and Murzasichle alone.
What should I combine with a visit to the treetop walk?
The most natural pairings are a nearby thermal-baths stop, such as those at Szaflary, Białka Tatrzańska or Bukowina Tatrzańska, or a short wooden-village walk in Chochołów. If your visit lands on a Thursday or Saturday, the market at Nowy Targ is also a reasonable addition further along the same road.
Is the treetop walk suitable for young children?
Yes, the walkway is built as a gentle, sloped path with viewing platforms and usually a slide near the descent, and most of the route suits a pushchair. It is one of the easier family outings in the Podhale precisely because it does not require the fitness or route-finding of a Tatra trail.
Does the treetop walk operate in winter?
Treatment of this varies by season and is worth confirming directly before a winter visit, since opening hours and conditions on an outdoor forest walkway are more affected by snow and ice than an indoor attraction would be. April to October is the safest window to plan around.
Can I visit Poronin and Murzasichle as a day trip from Kraków?
It is possible but inefficient on its own, since the round trip from Kraków is long for a single half-day attraction. The more sensible version is a combined day that already includes the treetop walk alongside a wider Zakopane or Tatra stop, such as a Tatra Mountains day trip from Kraków that includes the skywalk, rather than a dedicated trip to these two villages alone.
