Elżbieta Penderecka
General Director of the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival

 

Poland – beautiful, fascinating and inviting

I would like to cordially invite you to Poland because things are happening here that are fascinating and highly interesting. Things that are worth watching. And that best to be seen not from afar.

I would like to recommend places associated with culture. With great art, with music. I travel a lot, and also throughout Poland. Nowadays I have been coming to Warsaw more frequently than before, for various reasons. It is here that the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, held for the tenth time in 2006, has been taking place for the past three years. I profoundly believe that precisely due to such events Warsaw has shown that it is one of Europe’s cultural capitals. The Festival does not just promote the works of its patron but earns Poland, and Polish culture, world-wide acclaim.

Warsaw is changing tremendously these days. It is worth coming here precisely to see from that perspective – from the centre, from the country’s capital – how this city was reconstructed, built anew after its total destruction during World War II. The must on that occasion is going to the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera which is now at a world level.

Another city I am inviting foreign tourists to is Krakow. It does not need any recommendation. It is a place of such fine architecture, tradition including cultural tradition. At the same time it is a city thriving with life, and what makes me very happy, thriving with life thanks to young people – pupils, students. Krakow is probably one of the very few cities in the world where one can spend the whole night in the Old Town Market Place with nearly 600 cafes and restaurants situated around the Market, one of the largest in the world, offering their services.

I also recommend Poland’s wonderful castles. Such as the one in Łańcut. Also worth visiting is Leżajsk with its historic Observantine Monastery complex and the world famous church organ. I also suggest going to our Baltic Sea. With its wide beaches, still in good condition... And to Gdańsk, the centre of the Baltic seacoast. Whilst on holiday there take the opportunity to see the city’s many palaces and castles, which have all been rebuilt, reconstructed and already frequently adjusted to serve tourist purposes.

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Teresa Rosati
Polish fashion designer

 

My most beloved place

My most beloved place to stay in the country is Kazimierz on the Vistula River. This is a Renaissance town with highly interesting architecture and a special and wonderful atmosphere. I have been faithful to Kazimierz for many long years. I admire the town, its charming market place and am very fond of spending my free time there. Nowadays, as more and more tourists flock to the town, I discover the ravines and villages around Kazimierz, places with a typical Polish landscape – hills, forests and of course, the Vistula River...

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Magdalena Piasecka-Ludwin
Jerzy Ludwin
Owner of Zamek Kliczków

Such places can still be found

Bieszczady its a place to which I have been coming back to with my husband for many years. We are enchanted with the wide expanses of mountain pastures and wildlife there. All one sees from the top of the pastures is pure nature; no signs of civilization, no electric wires are in sight. While walking along the routes on a hot summer day, the only smell emanating from the meadows is that of an intensive flavour of herbs and honey. Nature is close at hand. One sees black storks and white-tailed eagles flying overhead, egrets landing in mountain streams and beavers building dams.

The historic religious and ethnic multicultural diversity of that region is reflected in its architectural relics and museum collections. These serve as valuable information about the specific and frequently turbulent history of Bieszczady.

The pre-war character of buildings still dominates in small towns, reflecting the unique climate created by the coexistence of different cultures. Traditional villages with wooden buildings and open-air museums with their collections of old houses, farmsteads and tokens of the past take you back into the reality of years gone by. The many small wooden Orthodox, Uniate and Roman-Catholic churches are other pertinent reminders of the past.

Living there in a one-hundred year old cottage, with a bread oven and the place to sleep behind the stove in the kitchen, we touch for a while a different world, where time flows differently and where life goes on in the rhythm of four seasons, sowing and harvest time.

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dr Irena Eris
Owner of Cosmetic Laboratories Dr. Irena Eris SA

 

The meaning of Wellness–Spa treatments

In Poland, the Spa philosophy is still young, but it develops dynamically. Overworked, stressed out people realised that enjoying Spa treatments and visiting Spa centres simply means investing in health and beauty. Nowadays, when we live in a constant rush, it is hard to find a spare moment “just for us”. And good and healthy presence is today a considerable asset, especially for those who are professionally active. Recently, our lives have accelerated; people work much harder, maximising the exploitation of their vital strengths and health. That is why it is necessary to find, once in a while, at least a few days to take care of ourselves and regenerate our vigour.

Spa centres create ideal conditions to do so. We can isolate from the city hustle and bustle, everyday
rush and constant phone calls... We can take care of our looks, slow down a bit, calm down, relax and
de-stress. And well-being translates to our looks.

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Zbigniew Lew-Starowicz
Ph.D., Professor, sexuologist

 

Love, marriage, travels

A trip to a romantic place can be a source of renewal of a couple’s emotional and sexual bonds in their relationship. I recommend such trips especially to people with active and busy careers, workaholics, couples who have no time to enjoy time with each other, couples going through a relationship crisis and those having problems with communication in their relationship.

The choice of a romantic place to go to depends on a couple’s preferences. Some will choose to stay at a secluded manor house or a palace, others will visit a lost village, a quiet resort at the seaside or in the mountains, while yet others will enjoy a stay in a town in Tuscany or Provence, or a small private hotel in the tropics. It happens, and quite frequently, that in my job as a therapist I advise couples to take a romantic trip. The best gift for me is a postcard or a photograph from grateful patients. On their return home, many couples stress the joy of having renewed their emotional bond, of being sexually attracted to each other and of having re-prioritised their life goals.

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Alex Kloszewski
Chairman of the Warsaw Destination Alliance
Director of the Colliers International Hotel and Hospitality Division

New trends in hotel industry

The Spa & Wellness industry is a flourishing sector all over the world, America, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and most parts of Asia. We see this trend being an important component of the leisure travel business in Poland. We can strongly suggest and recommend the “Wellness-Spa-Harmony” to the industry as well as the persons looking for superior alternatives in accommodations.