Sopot Pier

The Sopot pier is 511.5 metres long, which makes it the longest wooden pier in Europe, and it has been extended repeatedly since the first short jetty was built in 1827 by Jean Georges Haffner, a French doctor from the Napoleonic army who founded the spa here. It reached its present length in 1928. The seaward end has a marina and berths for excursion boats to Gdansk, Gdynia and Hel, and walking out to it puts you half a kilometre into the Bay of Gdansk with the coast on both sides. At the landward end is the Plac Zdrojowy, the spa square, and behind it the pedestrian Monte Cassino street - Monciak - running up to the station, with the Krzywy Domek, a deliberately warped building of 2004 that is the other thing people photograph in Sopot. The Forest Opera in the hills behind holds summer concerts in a natural amphitheatre.

What you actually see

• 511 metres of wooden deck - the longest pier in Europe, at its 1928 length.
• The bay from halfway out - coast on both sides, with a marina at the end.
• The spa square - where the pier lands, at the foot of Monciak.
• The Krzywy Domek - the warped building of 2004 up the street.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The pier is ticketed in the summer season. It is very crowded in July and August and exposed in wind. Excursion boats are weather-dependent. Sopot is the priciest of the three cities.

Nearby

Gdansk is south and Gdynia north on the same train line.