This summer it’s POLAND-ONLY family camping road trip… number 5 ! We’re looking at 21 days, 8 campsites, 22 driving hours, 22 minutes and 1,743 kilometers on the road, plus side trips, exploring the beauty of south/southeast Polska!
For all you happy campers out there, here’s a review in pictures of our backyard camping at “base camp” Olsztyn on the Trail of the Eagle’s nest. . . . Happy Camping!
First of, from a foreigner’s perspective, this campground has an almost-impronouncable name: Brzozowy Zakątek Agroturystyka Pole Namiotowe.
Here “pole namatiowe” means camping, maybe because of the stick (i.e. pole) that was traditionally used for pitching a tent in the old, old days. Ha, HA!
If you need more info on the campsite, text follows at the end of the pictures. Big Smile!
TIPS for Camping in Olsztyn, Poland
As we travel and camp through Poland, we’ll jot down some of the things that we’d notice that may be of help to you (and us for future campings).
Always be ready. Polish summer weather can be quite unpredictable. You never quite know when the rains would come. And when they do, it can be quite cold. So, make sure you have raincoats, umbreallas and extra clothes for cold weather or nights.
Chill. Learn to appreciate the slowness of the place and the simple pleasures. Don’t do too many things. Just do one thing at a time.
What to do here in Olsztyn?
You don’t need to wait for your summer vacation to visit Olsztyn. You can come here and visit these 3 things in Olsztyn on a weekend!
- Dedicate a day for Olsztyn itself, including the castle, especially when you have little children. Make an adventure out of it. The main destination is the Olsztyn castle which is about 600 meters walk from the camp site.
- There’s a very cool playground at the foot of the castle. It’s outside the castlegrounds so you do not need to pay to play. But the backdrop is beautiful. Let your children play with the castle on the hill in the background. Read more about what to do or see in Olsztyn here.
- Close to the castle and the playground, there’s they some kind of rides section that you would typically see in fairgrounds. It cost 20 zlotys per bumper car ride for three minutes. It’s criminal, I know. And our boys thought so too and walked away.
- About 21 minutes away is, of course, the primary destination in this area–the famed Black Madonna at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa. Let’s clear up a couple of things. Jasna Gora is the monastery/religious grounds. Czestochowa is the town. Check out our post about the Black Madonna of Częstochowa here.
- There’s also a “bazan” or “basen” or swimming pool area (Basen ŻARKI)–a FREE outdoor swimming pool with diverted natural lake water. It’s only about 20-minute drive south. This is a A FAMILY-friendly, KID-approved FUN stop with a playground, a beach volleyball court,surrounding trees, a BAR and restaurant with equally family-friendly prices.
REVIEW of Camping
A little NOTE before the review. In case you’re wondering. . . NO, we have not received (nor expect to receive) any form of compensation or freebies or anything at all for reviewing or mentioning this or any others on our blog. We do this because it may be helpful to you and others. And it’s fun too!
What we like about this campground?
What do we like about camping “Brzozowy Zakątek Agroturystyka Pole Namiotowe”? (Nevermind this cluster of words for a name that we can’t pronounce.)
Nature. Trees. Simplicity. Very pleasant lady-owner. That’s what we like about this campground.
Good location too. Very short walking distance to the Olsztyn castle and a short drive to the pilgrimage site of Black Madonna at Jasny Gora/Czestochowa.
But if there’s only one good thing we can say about this camp, what would it be?
Cheap! See below section on prices to see that this campground is a good, bang for the buck.
It’s BACKYARD CAMPING in all its beautiful simplicity. An enclosed camping area, like in the backyard of a typical house, but not so protected because it’s not gated.
Notes about this Camping
We had to strip down our stuff for this camping because we had another passenger–a cousin of our boys. That meant, in addition to all our usual gear, we had to bring an extra tent, sleeping bag, etc. . . Try to fit it all on the roof box and in the back of the car, and open up an extra seat.
So we minimized the toys and all the other stuff, including food and drinks, and, to the happy househusband’s despair, did NOT bring the guitar. Found a way to put all together with the tents in the table in the back; set up vertically.
Sure enough, rain on the first night of our camping. Thank God, Allah and the Big Happy Buddha for the 20-euro flytarp that we bought four years ago. Once again it saved the day and kept us dry.
Surpirse, surprise! All throughout the afternoon of our arrival, there were groups of walkers/hikers coming into this campsite. There were lots of them.
We found out later that there were over a hundred scouts or some sort of walking club that are walking the trail of the Eagle’s nest from castle to castle; campground to campground.
An advanced party would arrive at campgrounds earlier and set-up the tents before the scouts would arrive.
There were about 116 packed into this backyard campground and they were quite efficient. They would all fall in line for everything.
We thought it was going to be a problem in the morning because of the small capacity of the bathroom.
Instead, at 7 a.m. they would fall in line, do their bathroom business, including the five-minute shower. They moved all 100-plus scouts in a matter of half an hour.
It seemed like they were divided into sections, so that while a group was in line for the bathroom, another group was eating at the open kitchen, and another was exercising as a group.
It was so very well organized.
On Sunday morning you might here some religious singing. There’s a church nearby that must have an outdoor speaker.
What Can be Improved at this campsite?
What not to like here?
The main thing is the PAID showers. OK, it’s only 5 zlotys (a little over €1/$1) for 5 minutes. But I’m a cheapskate and I prefer efficiency or simplicity (by not having to pay to take a shower). Besides, there’s 4 of us… a day. It adds up!
As it is essentially someone’s backyard, there’s also the missing little things:
No water source at the pitch. No obvious division between the pitches/plots.
No need for dog-bone. Limited number of pitches with electricity.
Three bathrooms, three showers. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem; except when there’s a swell of visitors, like the 116 walker scouts on the days of our visit. Patience worked!
Other than that, what else? The noise from the neighbor’s dog.
PRICE
We paid 320 zlotys for 4 nights (or about €67/$68).
€16.80 euros per night or about 80 zlotys with a one-coin discount for shower that’s worth 5 zlotys (tax included) with 5-zloty discount for our six-year-old.
This was for a family of five (three children–13, 10 and 6 years old) and two tents (3-person and 4-person tents)–different from all our previous campings.
Includes electricity supply in the summer high season (in the first week of July).
No separate price for tents or the car just rolled into one 50s. Love these per person and includes content.
Price Breakdown per night in zlotys:
- — for a 4-person tent
- — car
- 10 for electricity
- 15.00 per adult and child
- 10 for children under 6 years old. Yay!
PITCH/Plot
How’s the pitch? Ground is soft; easy to put the pegs into. Ground is grass-covered with bald areas from overuse.
Our pitch was directly across from the bathroom. Not recommended because of the the motion sensor light that would kick in every time someone passes by even, a cat.
We managed to park our car to cover the tent a bit.
With over 100 scouts last night, there was constant noise traffic going in and out of the bathroom.
SHADE
Our pitch/plot/tent area had plenty of shade from trees. There’s plenty of shade as well on the parts of the campground borders, next to the outer fences. The whole campground is rectangular. Most of the shade are in the outer edges. A couple of others don’t have shade.
Shade is especially helpful when camping in Spain and France in the summer. And in the mountains, you can actually get sunburned. You’re closer to the sun after all! Duh!
You may not want to be in the shade in Poland though. Instead, you may want tohave a little more warmth from the sun.
Privacy hedges
Not much really inbetween pitches; only those that mark the outer sections of the different camping areas. The outer perimeter of the campsite has chain-link (see through) fences and standard perimeter wall, marked by trees and shrubs at some places.
No clear division between pitches. Just pitch tent where you can. We basically took an area that’s big enough for 2 tents (a three-person and a four-person tent), plus 2 tables, 4 chairs, a parking spot, and spaces inbetween. It was not an issue with the owner.
Our tent was also close to the outdoor dining area, next to the WC, with fully open space inbetween. And there were a lot of inconsiderate people drunks last night too.
PLAY areas
Is camping all about playgrounds and swimming pools? For our boys, YES, it is!
SWIMMING POOL
Unfortunately for our boys, NO POOL here.
PLAYGOUNDS
Playgrounds are a must in any family-friendly camping sites. Children could spend the entire day at a playground. And it’s also a great place to meet other children.
Here, there’s only an old, semi-shaded trampoline that passes for some kind of playground and a sand play area, close to the bathroom. There’s a private bench closer to the house to station yourself to watch the kids. There’s nothing else here otherwise.
ACCESSibility
Is it easily accessible? From the main road, there’s a couple of turns to get to the campground, with the last turn having a sign in Polish at the corner. Follow the sign that reads “pole”… that’s camping.
Big space right at the entrance. Just follow the signs, and turn into the wide-open entrance and plenty of maneuverability for parking.
There’s really no reception. You’ve got to call or knock on the door, in case the owner did not see you come in or she wasn’t there.
Access. No gate. It’s open gate area, even at night.
SANITARY FACILITIES
Where to wash your clothes, dishes and yourselves?
Dishwashing and clothes-washing areas
No, clothes washing area. It’s a little tight but you can do it in the small bathroom sink.
No separate laundry room.
Dishwashing area is right next to the bathroom–outdoors next to the fridge. Small sink hard to get a jug water in, to fill it. You’ll need smaller water bottles to do that.
No Covid/coronavirus social-distancing measures in place. Just pure common sense
WC/Bathroom/Shower
Well, there’s only three WC/bathroom toilets. The wonderfully pleasant owner made sure that nothing runs out (that means toilet paper, paper towel, soap and hand sanitizer), even when there were 116 scout-walkers.
And she also made sure that it was relatively clean. Geez! Amazing how she did it, considering she also went to work outside the camp. She cleaned every so often making sure that the floor is wet, but not dirty. And I didn’t see any splatters/stains on the toilet,
There’s one place to put your dry clothes on.
Showers are 5 zlotys each for 5 minutes with hot water. Without a special coin, it won’t turn on. Drains easily; no problem.
Not much air circulation in the WC but the outer door was usually fully open for defunking.
It comes with toilet paper and they did not run out of it. Believe you me, there are plenty of camping sites out there that do NOT provide this most essential product of modern civilized society!
There were hand soap and sanitizing gel.
NO electric hand dryer; only paper towel to dry hands. Oh, No: DEAD TREES!
NO PROBLEM with water drainage.
NO separate FAMILY bathroom which, admittedly, is a novelty for camp sites.
DINE or DRINKS
KITCHEN
There’s a convenient outdoor eating area here that has a roof cover–an essential element to unpredictable Polish summer weather. It’s a big one too with a capacity for 20 people; 30 people, shoulder to shoulder.
There’s one small sink, small camper-accessible fridge/refrigerator with plenty of space and a freezer so you can actually put your ice packs in–very handy amenity that you do not usually get.
Bar/Restaurant
No bar or restaurant here
WI-FI
No FREE Wi-fi.
others
none.
And then that’s it. Other than that, It’s cool. Camping is cool.
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Next Stop: Black Madonna of Częstochowa.
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