Magical places in Poland: Siedlisko Sobibór

I love that moment when we find a charming place or a restaurant with delicious food and I can’t wait to share it with you. This is how I feel after the last weekend… It was bucolic, relaxing, away from the world, full of smiles, happiness and just being together, the three of us…

We had been planning to go on some Polish trip that weekend for a long time, but we didn’t know where… At first it was supposed to be Tuchola Pinewoods, but every room in every guesthouse there was booked. We were considering Warmia or Mazury, but all we wanted was to get some rest in a charming place localized far from the world. Eventually we booked out stay last minute – on Friday! Looking for magical places in Poland, we found Siedlisko Sobibór by the Bug River. It’s about 250 kilometers away from Warsaw, but the place looks amazing, the neighbourhood is very intresting – there’s a lot of nature, a lot of places for walking and bicycle trips and a chance for canoeing! We looked through some pictures and we decided: we need to go!!!

You will find Siedlisko Sobibór in a tiny village Sobibór in Lublin Voivodeship, about 10 kilometers away from Włodawa. If you’ve been studying history closely, this name may not bring you any good connotations… There is Sobibór Station a few kilometers further. Between 1942 and 1943, one of Hitler’s exterminations camps was placed by that station. About 200 thousand Jews were murdered there. Sobibór itself is tiny, quiet and peaceful. A few houses, “delicatessen” where you can buy something for a BBQ, stork nests and beautiful walking trials leading to the Bug River.

Siedlisko itself is just a few wooden houses… It’s stylish and rural. Don’t expect any luxuries. Do expect some serious climate and cakes and ale. At first, we check out one of the all year long houses – shared kitchen on the ground floor, stylish rooms with a very nice bathroom upstairs. Then we look at the SMALL STABLE. It’s a small wooden house in which there are two studios – lacy and with polka dots. The lacy one you enjoy because of the original window that you can see in the pictures above. But it’s booked. We check out the one covered in polka dots. Once you enter it, there’s no way you can go back to the house… Although there’s less space in here, even though the three of us need to share one bed and although it’s a little cold (there’s no heating in the small stable, rooms are rented from spring to fall), Maks doesn’t even want to leave. He falls in love with a small house, in polka dot cups and a bedroom located upstairs…

Here you will also find a stable in which meals are served and where it’s very nice to just spend your time – we would usually eat dinner at 6 PM and leave no earlier than 9 PM 🙂 There’s a place for a campfire, you can throw a BBQ outside of your house, and when you go behind the household, you will be able to walk through meadows and fields. I love such careless places for weekends. Delicious breakfast, a newspaper, walks, preparing BBQ for lunch, slow eating, walk, bicycle, forests and a long dinner with no rush, conversation by the tea and wine and homemade cake…:) If you don’t want to eat in Siedliska, there are small kitchens in the houses, but I’ll warn you: there aren’t many restaurants anywhere near. This is my biggest pain: we couldn’t taste local cuisine in Siedlisko or in the neighbourhood… Maybe it’s easier in the summer? If you find something nearby, let us know 🙂

Is Siedlisko a child-friendly place? This is not a place for families with children. There is no playroom, no playground, slides and typical children’s attractions, but there is grass, meadow, sandpit, huge swing, three cats and climatic houses, so our 5 year old was in paradise 🙂 I think he would’ve had even more fun if we had brought our friends with a kid his age. Running through the grass, following and feeding cats made him want to stay there forever anyway 🙂 And he loved spending every evening in the hammock in the dining room 😉

You can find more information about Siedlisko Sobór on their website – HERE. Prices vary depending on your room and the season. We paid 735 zlotys for the three of us in the polka dot room – 2 nights, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and dinners in one.

WHAT TO DO IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD?

Alright, the place is amazing, but what can you do in the neighbourhood??? There’s a great deal of options – outside of those more obvious ones, such as walking and cycling. There’s almost no road traffic in the nearby villages, so you can cycle both on forest and asphalt roads. We chose a more attractive option – canoening down the Bug River! I will write more about it in a separate post, especially from the point of view of someone with a child, but right now I can tell you it was awesome!!!

It was also nice to go to some surrounding nature reserves. One of the most interesting ones is Żółwiowe Błota (Żółwie Błota), where you can see turtles laying eggs from the end of April till the end of May. They say it’s best to do that in the evenings, after 7 o’clock, but watch out – sometimes you need to wait even a few hours 🙂 The reserve was founded in 1988, it’s made of 3 lakes and its goal is to protect the most attended breeding site for European pond turtles. They say you can see beavers and otters in the reserve as well.

On the way from Sobibór to Sobibór Station, you can see a picturesque, swampy Magazyn reserve, that you just can’t get enough of.

You should also go to Sobibór Station and see en exhibition and territory of Sobibór extermination camp. The station building hasn’t changed since the 40’s… You won’t find wonderments here. You will have a lump in your throat, but if you’re so close already, it’s worth it!