COMMUNE BYSTRA-SIDZINA

Two villages which make up the Commune of Bystra and Sidzina, are situated to the south of Cracow and to the south-west of Jordanów. They lie at the foot of Babia Góra, the highest mountain in the Beskidy Range, in the valley cut by streams, and among meadows full of flowers and green forests of predominantly beech and spruce-trees. Other trees in the area are oaks, lime-trees, hornbeams and firs. In summer, glades and meadows abound in colourful flowers, and woods offer a wealth of wild strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. In autumn, they invite visitors to try a variety of mushrooms. The local forests are home to fallow-deer and roe-deer, but also wild boar and wolf, as well as singing birds, woodpeckers and owls.
Bystra and Sidzina are close to the Babia Góra National Park, which is in the world network of biosphere reservations under the auspices of the UNESCO. The mountain pass between Sidzina and the nearby village of Zubrzyca Górna in Orawa is the main European watershed, which separates the basins of the Baltic and the Black Sea.
The specific microclimate of the area, peace and quiet, and still rather few tourists, all this contributes to good spirits and quick regeneration of the body and mind of visitors.
From the villages one can go for walks into the wild areas of the nearby hills, or hike with a rucksack along marked footpaths, which is a great treat. The less physically fit may walk along footpaths in meadows and forests. Most tourist footpaths can be used for ski trekking in winter. For the fans of mountain bikes there are treks of the total length of over 35 kilometers.

The tourist who would like to see the area may take lodgings at agro-tourist farms, in the tourist shelter at Krupowa Meadow (Hala Krupowa), in the lodging house run by the nuns of the Order of the Sacred Heart in Bystra, or in the Recreation House for Children.
Some local products and services are much recommended, such as artistic embroidery, woodpeckers and swallows carved in wood, and as food is concerned, round leavened and cheese spiced pastry, smoked cheese, and honey-flavoured vodka.

In the open-air museum in Sidzina Visitors may see examples of folk timber buildings and collections of objects which were used in the past in households and on farms in the area.
Particularly attractive in both villages are almost sixty old wooden roadside crosses, statues and shrines. There are also several huge, almost five hundred years old oak-trees.

Bystra and Sidzina can be reached from Cracow via Jordanów (54 km and ca 15 km from the crossing of roads E77 and 28 in Skomielna Biała), from Katowice via Wadowice, Sucha Beskidzka and Osielec (ca 39 km, road 28) and from Jabłonka (ca 10 km from the crossing on road 957 in Zubrzyca Górna).