Sunday 8 March 2020

Visiting the Crooked Forest, Poland

I saw a photo of the Crooked Forest when I was about 12, and tucked it away in the back of my mind in a box labelled "cool places I'll probably never visit". But it's only in Poland, and I go there quite often anyway - and I realised it's not that hard to get there from Szczecin where I was already planning to go. So, I was able to visit somewhere I'd been hoping to see for half of my lifetime - the Crooked Forest. I couldn't find much information about how to get there, so I hope this posts is helpful if you are planning on visiting the Crooked Forest!



What is the Crooked Forest?


The Crooked Forest is a bit of a phenomenon. It's a grove of weirdly shaped pine trees just outside of the Nowe Czarnowo village. This is near Gryfino in Western Pomerania, Poland. Nobody knows why the trees are crooked, but there are plenty of theories. Was it a storm, or aliens, or human technique? It doesn't really matter, though - all that matters is that this is truly like stepping into a fairytale.  Keep reading to find out more about visiting the Crooked Forest...



Getting to the Crooked Forest


I was staying in Szczecin, so this post explains how to go about visiting the Crooked Forest from the city. You will want to head to Szczecin Main Railway Station, and buy a return ticket to Dolna Odra. There a few different routes that go via Dolna Odra, but none of them are any earlier than 1.10pm - this is worth noting!


The return journey costs just under 20 PLN per person. Be warned, if you are buying tickets for multiple people they sometimes just give you one ticket that states the number of people travelling - just so you know, to avoid any confusion. From Szczecin to Dolna Odra, the journey takes around 25 minutes.

When you get off the train at Dolna Odra, you'll be on the platform with one track either side. What you need to do is, once the train has left the station, cross the track that you arrived on. I know this sounds dangerous and terrible but we did it and it was fine, I promise. Trains aren't very frequent, so you'll have plenty of time to do this but it does only take a minute.


From here, head down the wide cut-through until you reach the road - this has bus stops on it. Ahead of you, to the right, you should be able to see a giant water pipe (pictured below) with a colourful block of flats to the left of it. This pipe serves as the entrance to the forest, so walk towards it. From Dolna Odra to the entrance of the Crooked Forest, the walk should take less than 10 minutes. Google Maps will have you going in a completely different direction, so be warned.


With your back to the train tracks, the forest will be straight ahead to the right. Google Maps was trying to get us to go left and all the way round, which would have taken about an hour - so ignore it!




Once you walk under the water pipe and into the forest, the crooked section is well signposted. It is absolutely beautiful, and SO worth visiting. If like us you have booked trains that are a couple of hours apart, walk through the rest of the forest and down towards the little river bank - it's so chilled out, and perfect for a relaxed walk.

👉🏼 Hotels in Szczecin 👈🏼

If you are planning on visiting the Crooked Forest in Poland, I hope this post has been helpful. If you're still a bit confused about how to get there, drop me an email (katygilroyblog@hotmail.co.uk) and I'll do my best to try and explain it in even more detail. 


9 comments:

  1. This looks amazing! I'd love to take a trip to Szczecin x

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  2. Oh wow! I have never heard of the Crooked Forest before, it looks amazing. I love being outside and in the woods etc (I'm not a creep haha). I would really like to see this in person one day.

    Amy x
    The July Rose

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  3. Was it the Germans? I'm reading too many books on WW2 atm! xx

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  4. wow I've only ever seen this place on TV - it looks really cool!
    Rosie
    loverosiee.co.uk

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  5. Oh wow it just looks incredible! I would love to go - maybe one day!

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  6. The crooked forest looks SO cool! I'd never heard of it before I saw your photos, but it is now high on my 'to visit' list. It looks amazing, you're right - straight out of a fairytale! x

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  7. I had never heard of the crooked forest. It looks so cool! I'd love to see it someday :)

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