Bialowieza in a weekend – the practical guide

19/09/2024

Bialowieza is an especially interesting destination for a weekend trip. So we decided that one of our holiday plans would be a trip to the Bialowieza Forest. On Friday after work, we set off for the Podlasie region.

We stopped at a forest car park, about 20 km north of Hajnówka. We set up a rooftop tent and went to sleep, accompanied by music from a disco at a nearby fire station. The next morning we drove to the starting station of the Hajnówka-Topilo narrow-gauge railway to buy tickets (before they ran out). The first train departure was at nine o’clock, which was too early for us. So we decided to have breakfast in a nice and non-stop car park, as we had found out the day before, in the forestry district.

Forest Railways Hajnówka – Topiło

The road to Topiło took us an hour. Once there, we had the same amount of time to explore, and then the train took the same route back to Hajnówka. The tracks lead through the strict reserve of the Bialowieza Forest. We have prepared some tips to look out for before you arrive.

Getting good seats is worth being at least half an hour before departure.
There are open and closed carriages – riding in an open carriage gives you closer contact with nature, but involves inhaling locomotive fumes. We rode in the open carriage once and the closed carriage once.
This is a place where a lot of families with children come. We followed the ‘the further away the better’ method, so we traveled in a carriage without the constant noise.
Topiło is a small village without a shop, but you will find a bar with the suggestive name ‘Last Penny’, where a grilled sausage costs as much as thirty zloty – far too much. There are also shelters, toilets, lamps, a gym, a playground and monitoring – ideal conditions for an overnight stay in the forest.

Unfortunately, when we returned from the train, it turned out that we had forgotten to switch off the lights in the car, which discharged the battery. We were helped by a taxi driver from Hajnówka, who charged us fifty zloty for connecting the cables. Now we always remember to check the lights!

After this experience, we visited some interesting places such as:

Orthodox Church in Łosinka,
Dunin Oak (European tree of the year 2021),
St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker Church in Narewka,
Siemianówka Lagoon and
Orthodox Church in Siemanówka.

Before reaching the well-remembered car park in Topiło, we stopped at a shop selling local products, where we bought sausage, cheese and Lithuanian kvass. In the evening, we pitched our tent and had dinner.

Our biggest problem was the mosquitoes, of which there were so many that the air was literally buzzing. We were not the only tourists in the car park. A family traveling with a bed in their car stayed next to us, and in the morning we were joined by people in a vintage camper van.

European bison Show Reserve

After breakfast, we went to the European bison Show Reserve, where we could see not only bison, but also wild boar, wolves, elk, roe deer and lynx. It is worth knowing that there is free parking at the entrance, although many people left their cars a few hundred metres away in the bushes.

The reserve is different from traditional zoos – the animals here have a huge space at their disposal. Part of the area is empty as grass grows back there. Also noteworthy is a multimedia exhibition that shows the history of the bison, including their near extinction in the Bialowieza area. The exhibition is hidden behind cash registers and is easy to miss, which is a shame. It is especially worth appreciating the efforts of naturalists leading to the restoration of the species’ population.

Tsar’s Bialowieza – feel like Tsar Alexander II

The next point of our trip was Bialowieza, and more specifically The ‘Tsar’s Restaurant. There we ordered Lithuanian cold beet soup and interesting drinks such as hop water, birch juice, quince lemonade or kvass. The restaurant is located in a former station building from the time of Alexander II, which was awarded the best renovation in 2012. When ordering a larger meal, it’s worth asking about dishes off the menu. They are sometimes interesting.

Bialowieza has some other interesting attractions, but this is a topic for a separate trip. There are many educational paths in the Białowieża Forest. We took the ‘Royal Oaks’ path, where you can admire oak trees named after Polish kings who visited Białowieża. The path is payable (you can pay by card) and the biggest attraction, especially in summer, are the raspberries growing along the path.

The final point on our trip was the Place of Power, where sensitive people are said to sense positive mood-enhancing vibrations. The walk back and forth took us longer than Google Maps indicated, i.e. 10 minutes, and on the way we couldn’t resist picking the raspberries that grow there.