100km (60 miles) S of Kraków Zakopane is a surprisingly likable, sprawling mountain village that serves as the hub of the Polish side of the High Tatras. With its array of accommodations, including some very beautiful hotels, restaurants, and attractions, it's a sensible base for any exploration of the region. Zakopane plays a role in Poland's literary and cultural history that may be unprecedented as far as mountain resorts go. Certainly there is no equivalent on the Slovak side of the Tatras, where the resorts are simply resorts, and the mountains, though lovely places to hike or ski, are still only mountains. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a swath of Poland's intellectual elite decamped here in a bid no less ambitious than to reinvent, or at least reinterpret, Polish culture. The country's best writers, poets, artists, musicians, and architects gathered here and found something uniquely Polish in the unspoiled nature and solid mountain cottages of simple people. The two world wars and the decades of Communism that followed put an end to the Zakopane art colony, but a special, funky feeling remains. Certainly the wooden houses here are some of the most beautiful you'll see anywhere, and in and among the trees and the gardens -- and away from the crowds -- you'll find a stimulating, uniquely Polish resort that feels very much of a different age. At the height of the summer or winter season -- when the main street, Krupówki, is filled to bursting wi
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