Kampinos Forest

Kampinos is unusual in Europe for sitting straight against a capital city: from the western districts of Warsaw you can walk into a national park of nearly four hundred square kilometres. Its landscape comes from an old Vistula channel, alternating belts of inland sand dunes covered in pine with wet, low lying marsh and alder carr between them. Several hundred kilometres of marked trails and cycle routes cross it, most of them flat and sandy. Elk live here in reasonable numbers, along with beavers and a lot of birds, and the size of the park means it is possible to walk for hours without meeting anyone.

What you actually see

• The inland dunes - long sandy ridges under pine, the driest and most walkable ground in the park.
• The marsh belts - wet alder and sedge zones crossed on boardwalks and causeways between the dunes.
• Elk and beavers - resident populations, most likely to be seen early or late near the wet edges.
• The trail network - hundreds of kilometres of marked walking and cycling routes leaving from the gates.

When to go

April and May before the leaves close in, when the marshes are still wet and birds are active, or September and October for dry ground and colour. Summer weekends bring heavy day trip traffic from Warsaw to the nearest gates. Early morning is best for wildlife. Winter walking is easy on frozen ground and the park is almost empty.

Honest expectations

It is flat, and long stretches of pine on sand look much the same for kilometres, so it rewards patience rather than sightseeing. Walking in loose sand is more tiring than the distance suggests. Ticks and mosquitoes are a genuine issue from spring onwards, some marsh sections flood in wet years, and elk sightings are far from guaranteed.

Nearby

Warsaw is on the doorstep, and Zelazowa Wola with its park lies just beyond the western edge of the forest.