Things to Do in Sopot

Sopot is the middle of the Tricity, the strip that runs from the historic port of Gdańsk through this spa town to the modern port of Gdynia. It made its name as a resort in the nineteenth century and still works that way: a pier, a long sandy beach, one busy pedestrian street and wooded hills behind. Half a day covers the essentials, a full day is comfortable in summer, and the local train makes it easy to base yourself elsewhere and dip in.

The molo reaches more than 500 metres into the Bay of Gdańsk, which makes it the longest wooden pier in Europe. Walking to the end and back is the town's defining half hour, with the grand spa hotel and the tree-lined seafront laid out behind you. There is a charge to walk it in high season.

At its foot, Skwer Kuracyjny is the landscaped plaza where the pedestrian street, the beach and the pier all meet, framed by fountains and the resort's grander buildings. The lighthouse beside the pier entrance is a 30 metre tower with a spiral staircase up to a platform with views along the whole coast.

Ulica Bohaterów Monte Cassino, known to everyone as Monciak, is the pedestrian spine that climbs from the pier past cafes and townhouses. In summer it fills with buskers and crowds from late morning onwards.

Halfway along stands the Krzywy Domek, the Crooked House, a building whose facade appears to melt and bend, designed after the illustrations of Jan Marcin Szancer. It is among the most photographed structures on the Polish coast and takes about ninety seconds to see, which is the correct amount of time. The line of waffle and fish kiosks along the promenade is the cheap, correct way to eat here in season.

Sopot Beach is a wide Blue Flag stretch of sand running several kilometres either side of the pier, and it is the centre of the town's life in summer. The Southern Baths keep the older spa tradition going, with a heated open-air seawater pool overlooking the beach inside a building that still reads as a wooden bathhouse.

For a wet day, the Aquapark on Zamkowa Góra runs year round with indoor and outdoor pools, slides and saunas, and a 71 metre ride called the Wild River.

Opera Leśna is an open-air amphitheatre set among the wooded hills above town, seating several thousand under a modern canopy. It has been a concert landmark since 1909 and hosts the Sopot International Song Festival.

In the centre, the State Art Gallery on Plac Zdrojowy is one of the leading contemporary art institutions in Poland, with changing exhibitions across three floors. The Sopot Museum occupies a seaside villa from 1903 and traces the town's story as a Baltic resort through restored interiors, and Sierakowski Manor is a free cultural centre known for its Thursday chamber-music concerts.

Behind the town the ground rises into the Tricity Landscape Park, wooded hills laced with walking and biking trails above the sea. On one of the moraine hills sits the Grodzisko, an early medieval fortified settlement rebuilt as an open-air museum with wooden huts and the oldest finds from the area. It is a short climb from the centre and gets you out of the summer crush quickly.

Inland, the Hipodrom is one of the oldest and most prestigious equestrian venues in Poland and hosts international show jumping each summer.

The SKM commuter train links Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia every few minutes and takes well under half an hour end to end, so you can stay in one and see all three. Most people base themselves in Gdańsk for the historic centre and come to Sopot for a beach afternoon or an evening on Monciak. Staying in Sopot itself makes sense if the beach is the point of the trip. See our Sopot guide for where to stay and eat.