Zakopane is known for the towering Tatras, smoked sheep’s cheese, outdoor pursuits and winter sports. Beer, it seems, is not something that would feature on the same list. When it comes to drinking, and alcohol in particular, there are certain tipples that are more likely to be linked to this mountainous region; Highlander tea, for one, is the drink most closely tied to Zakopane’s winters. It is hot black tea stirred with a shot of spirit, guaranteed to warm you after a long day on the pastures. Alongside this, you’ll see plenty of stalls along Krupówki, the town’s busy pedestrianised thoroughfare, serving steaming cups of mulled wine from metal urns. Mulled beer is on offer too, but even still, ales aren’t so much a part of the town’s identity.
Having said this, Polish drinking culture often revolves around beer as much as it does the stereotypical vodkas and spirits, and there is a particular kind of thirst that hits after a busy day on the slopes or hiking mountain trails. Late afternoon, somewhere between your final descent and the first streetlight illuminating in the valley, as the snow-capped peaks begin to glow with the dying light, something cold and honest can be the ideal thing to hit the spot, sipped at a table with a view of the ridge you have just scaled.
Craft beer, of the kind that has taken hold in major Polish cities in all manner of styles and iterations, hasn’t quite reached Zakopane in any meaningful way. This is a tourist town, and the bars around Krupówki and the foot of Gubałówka cater to this. There’s an abundance of sprawling mountain-style restaurants, cocktail bars, and cosy places to grab a glass of wine, but usually, the beer that is served comes from the ubiquitous big producers.
If you arrive expecting Kraków-style multitaps and rotating guest lines, adjust your expectations. Zakopane’s best beer is largely found in brewpubs: restaurants that brew on site and serve the results alongside regional food, often in the timber-and-sheepskin style of the Podhale highlanders. Alongside them sit a few bars that stock beer from Poland’s independent breweries, most notably Trzech Kumpli, whose beers are stocked in town. Even then, they follow the usual blueprint of producing more traditional European styles.
However, the upside is the atmosphere of these places. A pint here tends to come with a carved-wood interior, a mountain panorama or a live highland band, and the best of it pairs naturally with the region’s smoked cheese, dumplings and slow-cooked meats. So sit yourself fireside, order a drink, and take in Zakopane’s snow-capped panorama.
The Best Breweries & Brewpubs in Zakopane
Along Krupówki and at the foot of Gubałówka, a handful of brewpubs pair working breweries with highland dining halls, mountain terraces and menus built around trout, dumplings, and Podhale’s local dishes.
Browar Watra
Where: Hr. Władysława Zamoyskiego 2, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Daily 8am – 12am
Of all the places to drink craft beer in Zakopane, Browar Watra is the most established and the easiest to find. A short walk from the bottom of Krupówki, the town’s famous main street, you’ll spot its name lit in huge, red neon letters on the side of the building.
It doesn’t quite have the same rustic, mountain vibe as some of the other places in this list and feels a lot less polished, but I suppose that adds to its authenticity. Take up a seat in front of the gleaming copper brew kit and sample a few of the beers that are brewed on the premises. The house line is unpasteurised, unfiltered and made without preservatives, which is a rare enough claim to be worth noting. The range runs from classic helles and wheat beers to an IPA-style “Ale!” series, a non-alcoholic lager and, for the curious, a hemp-and-CBD helles. Not all of these will be on tap, but you can pick up a few bottles while you’re there.
There’s also a food menu that leans fully into the highland tradition with regional dishes such as dumplings and slow-cooked beef, served with the jacket potatoes that seem to be ever-present in this town.
Pstrąg Górski Craft Browar
Where: Krupówki 6a, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Daily 8am – 10pm
At the start of Krupówki, a quick-flowing stream runs beside the terrace of Pstrąg Górski, where people sit above it on the balcony, sipping beer come snow or shine. It’s possibly one of the best spots for a pint in town.
The name means “mountain trout,” and the menu keeps the promise, offering the fish in a whole host of different ways, with salmon and sea fish alongside. However, if you’re not a fan of seafood, you’ll also find plenty of heartier meat and vegetarian dishes that are typical of the Podhale region. Inside, the sprawling dining rooms are styled in typical highland fashion, with ornate woodwork and fireplaces that give a quick dinner a sense of occasion.
The craft browar part of the name is as much a slice of the experience as the food. Brewed on-site, house beers include a mild Helles, a reddish Marcowe in the Märzen style, a wheat beer, a honey beer, a dark Dunkel, and seasonal specialities. From what I could tell, the range overlaps closely with that of Browar Watra, and the two appear to be linked, since Watra’s online shop lists Pstrąg Górski as a pick-up point.
It is a good stop if you want a proper meal with something local to drink, as well as a meal that is more fish-focused than the usual grilled meat and cheese. Order the trout, or a plate of grilled oscypek if you would rather stick with the highland classics, and take a table by the water.
Góralski Browar
Where: Krupówki 40, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Daily 10am – 10pm
Surprisingly, I have been to a few Polish breweries in my time that have been inexplicably located in shopping centres, which may be a phenomenon exclusive to this region of Europe specifically (I’m yet to experience it anywhere else), and Góralski Browar is another.
Above the bustle of Krupówki, reached by lift to the top floor of the shopping centre at the corner of Piłsudskiego Street, this brewery and restaurant spreads across more than a thousand square metres and feels a world away from the usual mall café. Like other places on this list and typical of Zakopane, it draws on highland tradition, with handmade timber tables, lamps fashioned from raw tree trunks and a wooden fireplace surround, while the café goes the other way, with a more modern pairing aged wood with white tile, touches of gold and a deep navy.
It’s actually a really nice place to drink and dine, with one of the best views in town. The windows and terrace look out towards the Tatras and Giewont on one side and the long ridge of Gubałówka on the other, and an upper terrace, bright orange and strangely Aperol-branded, offers a spritz-in-hand vantage a floor higher. In the summer, it makes for a perfect sunset spot.
I had some of my favourite local beers here, and they have a range that is wider than most of Zakopane’s other breweries, some flavoured with a touch of highland character such as raspberry and highland honey versions, as well as a limited plum-and-gingerbread ale. The beers also find their way into the kitchen, where a pork goulash made with the house light beer arrives over a potato pancake (placek po zbójnicku), alongside kwaśnica on the rib and a regional pizza topped with oscypek, bryndza and bacon.
It’s probably the most popular brewery in town and certainly not a hidden gem, but it is a very good place to drink and one of the few spots in the centre where you can get a mountain view along with your ale.
Gubałówka Browar/Restauracja Gwarno
Where: Na Gubałówkę 7, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Monday to Thursday 11am – 8.30pm; Friday & Saturday 11am – 9.30pm; Sunday 11am – 9pm
Gwarno is a Polish word for a place buzzing with voices, and I’m certain that this place lives up to its moniker. It stands on the square before the lower station of the Gubałówka funicular, which has carried visitors up the ridge since 1938, and its two storeys and glazed front echo the station’s 1930s architecture in form and style. A garden spreads out in front, and on the far side of the market stalls, Krupówki begins.
Owned by the cable-car company PKL, Gwarno opened in 2023, and while it predominantly operates as a restaurant, its brewing also takes centre stage. Two copper vessels gleam on the ground floor, right in front of the car, and are the visible heart of a brewhouse. Head brewer Małgorzata Wnuk works with water from a mountain stream, selected malts and Polish or American hops, and while just four were poured at launch, they now offer seasonal specials too. They follow the standard pilsner, wheat, and dark ale blueprint, but they are all done well, and Gwarno’s American pale ale, Mnich, took a silver medal at the 2025 Kraft Roku competition.
The kitchen follows the same logic. Trout comes from the mountain stream at Kuźnice and is smoked in the house smokery, arriving on moskole, the Podhale potato flatbreads; kwaśnica, the sour highland soup, comes with smoked ribs; and the pork knuckle, stewed in beer.
Upstairs, panoramic windows frame Giewont and the Tatras, and in summer the garden fills with deckchairs and a craft food truck. Even when I was there in mid-October, the small trailer was still dishing out beers into the chilly evening. It’s worth stopping by before or after the three-and-a-half-minute funicular ride to the ridge, or time your visit with a brewery tour.
The Best Craft beer bars and taprooms in Zakopane
Beyond the brewpubs, Zakopane doesn’t really have any dedicated craft beer bars. However, these four are your best bet for getting something local and make a nice change from some of the busier, touristy restaurants.
Burger i piwo Zakopane
Where: Stanisława Witkiewicza 10, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Sunday to Friday 1pm – 9pm; Saturday 1pm – 10pm
The combination of burgers and beer is the ideal thing to refuel after a day hiking the trails around Zakopane or to set you up for the evening ahead, and this neighbourhood bar offers both in abundance. The menu obviously focuses on the two items listed in this bar’s name, and it’s worth noting that the drink list mostly consisted of beers from a couple of big-name Czech breweries – Litovel and Primator – but the selection of styles is wide enough that there’s something for everyone.
Bąkowo Zohylina Wyźnio
Where: Józefa Piłsudskiego 28A, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Daily 1pm – 10pm
This isn’t a bar, but instead is a typical Highlander restaurant where the walls are lined with taxidermied animals and the seats are covered with fluffy sheepskins. It’s the place to come if you want to get a sense of Podhale culture, even if it is amped up a little for visitors. Bąkowo Zohylina Wyźnio, on Piłsudskiego Street, serves rustic highland cooking in one of the town’s most atmospheric interiors, and it’s the kind of place where local dishes and local beer belong together.
But if it isn’t a bar, then why did I include it on this list? Well, they have their own house beer, Zohylina Regionalne. I couldn’t determine if this is brewed on-site or outsourced to another brewery, but either way, it makes a nice change from the usual Żywiec, and tastes a lot better too.
Bar Na Końcu Świata
Where: Stanisława Witkiewicza 10, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Monday to Thursday 3pm – 1am; Friday 3pm – 2am; Saturday 6pm – 2am; Sunday 2pm – 1am
Few bars live up to their names as comfortably as Na Końcu Świata, “at the end of the world”, which you’ll find away from Zakopane’s main street. It has a more local, cosy feel than some of the huge, tourist-focussed bars and restaurants and a better beer selection than any of them. Expect old-school music, board games and shelves of comics and books to fill the hours between rounds. Cocktails and well-kept beer are on offer, as well as fridges packed with bottles and cans from some of Poland’s best-loved craft breweries, including a good offering from one of my favourites, Pinta.
Bar Pijalnia Alkoholi Regionalnych
Where: Krupówki 24, 34-500 Zakopane, Poland
When: Sunday to Wednesday 12pm – 9pm; Thursday to Saturday 12pm – 10pm
On Krupówki, where illuminated souvenir stalls sell all manner of weird and wonderful local tipples and spirits, Pijalnia Alkoholi Regionalnych is the place to sit indoors and sample them in a cosy atmosphere, taking its name from the Polish pijalnia, a drinking house built aroundthat simple pleasure. Here, that pleasure is strictly regional drinks, served with gourmet snacks, and it makes a fitting introduction to the smaller producers behind them. Beer isn’t the focus, but this is the place to sample a few things that you’re unlikely to find elsewhere.
Beer experiences in Zakopane
If you want to engage with the local beer scene in a more meaningful way than a standard pint at a bar, Zakopane has quite a lot of options on offer: a tour of a working brewery, a guided walk through the Old Town’s taps, and a soak in a wooden tub of beer. None replaces a well-poured pint in a brewpub, but each gives you a more in-depth look at what Zakopane has to offer in terms of beer.
A guided beer tasting tour
If you would rather have a local lead the way, giving you a little more local knowledge, guided beer tasting tours of Zakopane are the way to go. Tours take in the best breweries and brewpubs, across a time period of anywhere between 2 and 4 hours, giving you a chance to sample the best of what Zakopane has to offer. Depending on which tour you choose, you will get a mix of mainstream Polish, regional and craft beers, with snacks along the way. Craft pours are small (around 125ml), which keeps the evening relatively civilised.
Piwne Spa
If you’re heading to Zakopane, you’ll be more than aware of its abundance of thermal baths; however, only one lets you soak in beer. Piwne Spa, also trading as Beernarium, occupies the cellars of Willa Ślimak, and its low-lit private rooms are a peaceful escape from the crowds on the street above. It is more novelty than a serious beer tasting session, but it’s a relaxing way to end the day after hours of hiking, and a good excuse to sink a few pints while making the most of a serene spa experience.
Usually, the sessions begin with an infrared sauna that opens the pores and warms the body while a wooden tub is filled with hot water and a bathing-beer concentrate, a malt-and-hops preparation. Easing into the tub, with craft beers from Polish and foreign breweries on tap close at hand, you can soak away your worries. Apparently the solution of hops and malts is incredibly good for the skin. Towels, flip-flops and disposable swimwear are provided, and sessions are private, for one or two people or a small group rather than shared with strangers.
Beyond the classic beer bath, the menu includes wine baths, a milk bath with rose petals and a range of massages, which can be combined into day-spa packages. The Beer Day Spa runs for about an hour and a half and pairs a bath with a short massage, while the Special Day Spa takes around two hours and adds the sauna and a longer massage. Baths start at about 280 zł, and the day-spa packages start at roughly 380 zł and 540 zł for one or two people.
Take A Brewery Tour at Gwarno
I’ve mentioned Gwarno earlier in this article, and it is one of the few places in town that you can take a tour to really learn about the brewing process in depth. At this restaurant and brewery beside the funicular’s lower station, you can follow it from grain to glass. A guided tour takes you down to the brewery’s lower level, where almost the whole process happens, from the mill where the malt is crushed to the brewhouse, the fermentation tanks and the cellar where the beer matures.
The tour ends with a tasting of beer drawn straight from the tank and a commemorative zinc coin pressed as a souvenir.
Tours are run from Friday to Sunday, between 4pm and 8pm, for adults only, and need to be booked in advance through the restaurant. Allow time to eat afterwards, as the restaurant is worth it. The food focuses on Podhale dishes such as moskole (potato flatbreads) with smoked trout, kwaśnica with ribs, and pork knuckle braised in the brewery’s own beer.
The tours at Gwarno last 30 minutes and cost 35Zl per person. During these tours, you will learn about everything from the mashing process to producing the final product. These tours take place in small groups, with a maximum of 12 people, so be sure to book in advance.
Where to buy craft beer to take home
For bottles to add to your checked luggage, there are plenty of alkohole stores on the main drag selling local craft beers alongside bottles of traditional spirits and liquors. Head to Regionalne Alkohole on Józefa Piłsudskiego 2c, which stocks Trzech Kumpli beers, or ask at Bubuja Bistro, which also sells bottles. If you are travelling light, a couple of cans or bottles from Polish independent breweries make a better souvenir than another oscypek keyring or Zakopane fridge magnet.
Zakopane Beer Map
Whether you are planning a Zakopane pub crawl or just want to locate one of the breweries or bars mentioned above, this map includes all the best bars, pubs, and microbreweries covered in this guide.
Using this map: This map shows the town’s breweries (red icons) and pubs or bars (yellow icons). The list can be seen and filtered by toggling the icon on the top left-hand side of the map, and each location can be explored further by clicking it. Expand the map by clicking the icon on the top right-hand side.
Getting to and around Zakopane
Zakopane is just a short hop from the Slovak border and sits about 105 kilometres south of Kraków. It’s more than likely that if you’re heading to the Tatra Mountains, you’re coming via Kraków.
By Bus
Buses and minibuses leave Kraków’s main bus station, beside Kraków Główny railway station, and run directly to Zakopane in roughly two to two and a half hours. MajerBus and FlixBus are the main operators, with departures every half hour or so during busy times of year.
If you are flying into Kraków, there’s no direct bus from the airport to Zakopane. You will have to travel via Kraków, which increases your journey time.
By Train
Direct trains run from Kraków Główny to Zakopane, but they are less frequent than the bus, and reported journey times vary widely, from about two hours to three and a half hours, depending on the service and any changes required. That makes the train the slowest and least predictable of the three options on this route, which is unusual in Poland, where trains are normally one of the better ways to travel.
By Car
The route follows the S7 expressway out of the city, then the DK47, known locally as the Zakopianka, which winds south through the foothills and climbs towards the Tatras. It’s a really beautiful route to travel, and I often found myself gawping out of the window, with the peaks appearing all at once. However, during peak seasons, this is also a notorious bottleneck. Weekends, public holidays, the ski season (December to March) and the summer hiking season (June to September) are all plagued with heavy traffic, and the final stretch from Nowy Targ can take an hour on a busy weekend morning. It is worth leaving early to beat the queues, or travelling midweek if your plans allow it.
Car hire companies are plentiful at John Paul II Kraków Balice International Airport, and the pick-up is simple – the rental desks are on the concourse just above the departure area, and cars are collected from the multi-storey car park, just a few minutes’ walk away. I tend to use Discover Cars for my car rental when travelling, as they allow you to book in advance and compare multiple providers for the best deal. In winter, check that a hire car has winter tyres.
One firm note: Poland’s drink-driving limit is very low (0.02%), so make sure to leave the car at home if you plan on sampling beer at any of the places listed above. Leave it at your accommodation.
Parking in Zakopane
Parking in the town centre can be a bit of a sticking point. Central Zakopane doesn’t really have any free roadside parking and the metred parking spots are fairly limited. There are quite a few car parks dotted around, but they can fill quickly by mid-morning in high season, and a long term stay – for a weekend or more – could end up costing you a fair bit. If you’re driving, a guesthouse or hotel with its own car park is worthwhile.
Where to stay for a beer-friendly trip
Zakopane’s craft beer scene tends to cluster around two places: along Krupówki and the streets surrounding it, as well as at the foot of Gubałówka, the hill above town, where Gwarno brews on-site beside the funicular’s lower station. If you stay in a central spot, almost everywhere listed in this guide is just a short stumble from your bed.
Hotel Gromada
Hotel Gromada is ideal for a first-time visit. It stands at the lower end of town, roughly half a kilometre from the centre and close to where Krupówki begins, so the main street, the funicular and the town’s brewpubs are all within walking distance. There is a restaurant on site, along with parking, and it gives all the signs of a dependable mountain hotel.
For a beer trip, the location is the main appeal. Walk up Krupówki to Góralski Browar for a first pint with the Tatras as a backdrop, move on to Pstrąg Górski for trout and a beer brewed in the same building, and finish at Gwarno beside the funicular, then stroll back to your room without having to worry about a taxi.
Pokoje pod Gubałówką – Centrum
A few steps from the funicular, this small guesthouse offers unfussy comfort and a practical place to stay. It stands just 300 metres from Krupówki and 200 metres from the funicular’s lower station, which puts Gwarno virtually on the doorstep. Rooms sleep two to five, each with its own bathroom; there is free parking. The geothermal baths and ski slopes of Szymoszkowa are about ten minutes away on foot, which make an intriguing reward for tired legs after a day hiking.
It is also the thriftiest way to sleep close to town, as per-person rates start from around 95 zł a night outside peak periods, although they climb sharply over Christmas and New Year, with minimum stays of three or four nights in some seasons.
Pokoje Zamoyskiego - WATRA
Dedicated beer lovers should room with Watra. Pokoje Zamoyskiego on Zamoyskiego Street, part of Browar Watra and home to an on-site brewery working to a 200-year-old recipe. The pleasure here is having the on-site taproom and restaurant, where the timbered highland dining hall serves regional dishes alongside live music and fresh beer from the tank.
Whichever you choose, book early for winter and the high summer hiking season, when Zakopane’s better rooms go first.
