Traditional Horse Drawn Sleigh Ride – Experience Magical Winter in Poland

Snow crunching underneath the fast-paced running sledges, a sound of neighing horses vibrating in the air. People are laughing with the high speed, hills and trees are disappearing from the view. Hot tea and mulled wine are quickly warming up the cold hands, delicious sausages are sizzling on the fire. Looking for a great activity for winter in Poland? Look no further and check where to find horse drawn sleigh rides (kulig) in Poland!

What is ‘Kulig’?

Kulig – a horse drawn sleigh ride, is an old Polish tradition, dating back to the times of nobelty (szlachta). It involves riding the sleigh, which is pulled by a pair of horses through the snow. In the old days, the whole group of horse-pulled sleighs was going from one court to another, entertained on the way with big meals and typical Polish dances. This winter activity was also treated as a patriotic event organized against the foreign invaders in order to cultivate Polish traditions.

Nowadays, after, or in between the tour, participants attend traditional sausages barbecue on the fire and the old style dance party in the Inn.

Where to go for a horse-drawn sleigh ride to experience real winter in Poland?

Winter in Poland is a true fairytale. People normally associate real winter travel with Norway, but winter in  Poland, especially in the mountains is also very beautiful.

The most popular places for horse sleighing are in the mountains – Tatras, Sudety or Bieszczady. It’s one of the fun Zakopane winter activities, and you can also try winter horse sleighing tour from Krakow.

You can also go more off the beaten path and visit some less popular, but also amazingly beautiful places. One of them is in the middle of smaller mountain range Beskid Niski in Poland, near the Slovakian border.

Since it’s very close to my home, we went there for a sleigh ride this year. I remember doing it many times as a kid, but for my Scottish boyfriend, who was visiting Poland for the first time, it was an entirely new experience.

Beskid Niski

Beskid Niski is a hilly region in the south of Poland. You won’t find there any very high mountains, like in the Tatra Mountains, but old wooden churches hidden in between snowy hills, sleepy villages and beautiful, empty landscape, will steal your heart. It’s still a bit wild and unexplored area,  that can give you a fairytale feel.

Horse Stud in Regietow

There are several places where you can try horse sledging in the area, but we decided to go with Horse Stud “Gladyszow” in Regietow. That place is famous for having the special type of animals – Hucul horses and it’s the biggest this type of stud in Europe. Hucul horses are smaller than Arabian horses, very friendly and patient, and look very cute.

The stud offers different types of sledge rides – you can organize it for a bigger group (booking required well in advance), or you can just rent a single sledge for up to 5 people – that’s what we did. Prices vary around £17-25 for a ride per sledge.

You can rent the sledges per hour. One hour ride is what most people do. That’s enough time to enjoy the journey with stunning scenery and to not to get too cold! Unless you are on an organized event, then it would take longer, since you would have a break in the middle to cook some sausages on the fire.

They also organize rides in the night with fire torches, which makes the experience really special. We need to try next time.

Horse sledge ride

The path for the sleigh ride goes through the forests and hills – you have a wide view of the gorgeous scenery around. None of those places is accessible by car, so it’s just you, horses and snow.

There are some slower bits where you can enjoy the views and also some faster ones, where horses gallop and you need to hold tight to not to fall off the sledges on the turns. It’s so much fun ;)

To keep you warm during the ride you get blankets. You can take some more and also tea in a flask or something a bit stronger, which we, of course, did although it was 10 am (I’m Polish, hey!). After the ride, you can warm yourself up in the Inn with mulled wine and some traditional Polish food.

Have a look at some winter sleigh ride pictures below:

Magura and Poland in winter

To get to Regietow village from the closest big town Gorlice, you need to cross Magura – a hill with a windy road leading to the top. It’s nice to walk from the pass where you can leave your car to the nearby mountain hut and get some alone time with nature.

Orthodox churches

On the way worth to see are also old orthodox churches. They are associated with Lemkos – a small ethnic group living in the Carpathian Mountains and are very interesting and picturesque buildings worth to explore.

Would you like to go on a winter horse sledge ride in Polish winter? Have you ever been to one? Let me know in the comments!

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