Only half of the foreign tourists in Poland come for tourist purposes. The rest come for business reasons, purchases or to visit parents. Each year, more than twenty million Germans spend their holidays in Poland, which represents approximately half of the total number of foreign tourists. Other nationalities which are rather strongly represented are the Czechs, Ukrainians and Bielorussians.

The visit of the cities and their monuments constitutes the principal tourist attraction of Poland. The monuments classified by the UNESCO are the historical center of Cracow, the salt mines of Wieliczka, the concentration camp of Auschwitz, the historical center of Warsaw, the old town of Zamosc, the medieval city of Torun, the Malbork castle, the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska park, the churches of peace in Jawor and Swidnica and the wooden churches in the south of the Small Poland.

Among the other cities and appreciated monuments of the tourists stand out the harbour and cosmopolitan city of Gdansk, which was completely rebuilt, Wroclaw, the Polish Venice, Czestochowa, spiritual capital of the country famous for its icon of the Black Virgin, and the "red castles", the residences and the palaces.

Part of the country is favourable to eco-tourism. Poland counts more than one thousand agro-tourist centers arranged for rest, nature and gastronomy. Nature offers pleasing and varied landscapes like the Lakes of Mazuria, the dunes, great beaches and lagoons of the Baltic, the rock summits of the Tatras, the mountainous chain of Bieszczady, the forests with the gilded autumn colors with bears, wolves and bisons. Among the twenty national park covering approximately 3000 km², the most appreciated are that of Bialowieza where live the last bisons in Europe, of Biebrza, greater extent of marshes and peats in Europe and of Ojcow, particularly picturesque.

Poland has seaside resorts on the Baltic littoral (Jastarnia, Jurata, Krynica, Sopot), winter sports resorts in the south of the country (e.g. Zakopane) and thermal spas in the Tabulaires mounts (Duszniki-Zdro and Kudowa-Zdroj) and in Pieniny (Szczawnica and Kroscienko).

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