Poland's Official Travel Website

Euroregions

Although a world without frontiers may not be possible, the idea of Euroregions shows that it is possible to break down borders to create little motherlands, united by a common culture and often a common past. Tolerant, neighbourly and attractive to tourists.

The name Euroregion is given to areas situated on the borders of neighbouring countries. The first such entities were formed at the start of the 1950s on the borders of Norway, Sweden and Finland, the Netherlands and Germany and Germany and France. They led to the creation in 1958 of the first formal Euroregional structure - Euroregio – on the border of Germany and the Netherlands.

Polish border towns and districts belong to 18 Euroregions situated along the country’s land borders and around the Baltic Sea. Within these regions, cross-border tourist routes are created, such as the Rytne-Karlow route in the Polish and Czech Table Mountains (Glacensis Euroregion) and a trail around the lower Odra/Oder basin (Pomerania Euroregion). In the border areas, there are also international thematic trails, such as the Trail of Good Soldier Szwejk and the Oil Trail in the Carpathian Euroregion and the Amber Trail in the Beskid Euroregion.

Euroregions are areas where the term “good neighbour” is not just an empty phrase. Neighbours cooperate to maintain local customs, traditional crafts and ways of life. Travelling the trail created by the Polish-Czech Academy of Disappearing Crafts (Slask Cieszynski Euroregion), you can visit the workshops of over 30 craftspeople, including bell-makers, crystal grinders, leatherworkers and lace-makers.

Most tourist border crossings are open for those travelling on foot and by bicycle, and more and more crossings for skiers are springing up (Jarnoltowek/Biskupia Kopa, Stog Izerski, Zieleniec), as well as those catering for environmentally-powered wheelchairs (Duszniki, Jaworzynka, Nowa Morawa).

It is worth remembering that when you use a tourist border crossing, you are allowed to carry with you only personal items and food needed for the duration of your journey.