Przy Olczyskiej

You can't drive right up to the house. From the street, there's a steep approach and some very basic steps, which are awkward if you're carrying heavy bags. The main draw is the location on the eastern edge of Zakopane, right by the Tatra National Park at the entrance to Olczyska Valley, near the well-known church on Jaszczurówka Hill. The owners say this house is about 100 years old. Its age shows in the low ceilings, old windows, and worn furnishings. It has the feel of a grandmother's house, part family museum and part old-fashioned summer dacha. Even at a fairly low price for a larger group, the condition and furniture are hard to accept. The rooms are small and crowded with tired furniture, appliances, and folk decorations, many of which belong in the trash rather than a tourist rental. There is some good news: the owners keep the place, bedding, and towels reasonably clean. But the interiors feel damp as soon as you walk in, likely because the house isn't heated enough when it's unoccupied. Kitchen supplies are sparse, random, and in poor condition, and the bathroom is cramped. The small boiler only heats enough water for about a quarter of a small bathtub, so more than one person can't shower with it. The tub has just a fabric curtain instead of a shower enclosure, which makes showering even less appealing. The electrics also limit what you can use at once. Heating the boiler while running the kitchen's instant water heater blows a fuse. There are electric radiators in just one of the two bedrooms, one of the two rooms, and the bathroom, so in winter it's unrealistic to heat the whole house that way. A coal-fired tiled stove and a fireplace are the backup.