Sopot Pier

The Sopot pier, or molo, runs 511 metres into the Bay of Gdansk and is the longest wooden pier in Europe. It reaches out from the middle of the town beach, with the resort behind you and open Baltic water ahead. A walk to the end and back is the standard Sopot outing, and people do it at every hour and in every season.

This is the thing you come to Sopot to do. The deck is wide, flat and easy, so it suits everyone from small children to people who cannot manage steps. At the head of the pier you are surrounded by sea on three sides, with the beach and the wooded hills on one horizon and, on a clear day, the low line of the Hel Peninsula across the bay. There is a small marina at the end for yachts and the seasonal cruise boats.

A pier was first built here in 1827, when Sopot was starting out as a bathing resort under Danzig, and it grew in stages as the town's fortunes rose. It reached its present length in the late 1920s, the same period that produced the Grand Hotel on the beach beside it. The structure has been rebuilt and repaired many times since, but the long straight walk over the water has stayed the same idea for almost two centuries.

The walk to the end and back is about a kilometre and takes twenty to thirty minutes at an easy pace, more if you stop for the views or a drink. Add time for the Spa Square at the landward end, where the pier meets the town.

Early morning is the calmest, with the light behind you and few people about. Sunset is the other good window, when the sky colours over the water. Midday in July and August is the busiest, and the pier can be shoulder to shoulder. Out of season it is quieter, colder and often more dramatic, with wind and spray off the Baltic.

From Sopot's SKM train station it is about a ten-minute walk downhill along ulica Bohaterow Monte Cassino, the main pedestrian street, straight to the Spa Square and the pier gate. The whole seafront is car-free. For trains, buses and getting around the coast, see the Sopot guide.

The pier is one of the more accessible sights on the coast. The deck is level wooden planking with no steps, reachable straight from the Spa Square, so wheelchairs and prams manage the full length. There is little shelter and no seating for long stretches, so plan for wind and sun.

Everything central is within a few minutes on foot:

• The Spa Square at the foot of the pier, with its fountain and grand buildings.
• The beach either side, wide and sandy, running for kilometres along the bay.
• The Grand Hotel, the interwar landmark right next to the pier gate.

It runs 511 metres into the Bay of Gdansk, which makes it the longest wooden pier in Europe. The full walk out and back is around a kilometre.

There is usually a small charge in the high summer season and free access at quieter times of year. Check the official channels for the current rules, as they vary by season.

No, you swim from the beach on either side, not the pier itself. In summer the town beach has guarded bathing areas close by.