Tucked away in the Slovak High Tatras, the White Lakes Valley (Dolina Białych Stawów) is a glacial wonderland scattered with a dozen small mountain tarns across several terraced levels. If you love dramatic scenery without the crowds of the most popular valleys, this is your place.

The valley covers 1.8 km² and forms an unusually multi-tiered glacial cirque rising toward the ridge connecting Jagnięcy Szczyt with Kozia Turnia. The largest lake, Wielki Biały Staw (1613 m), is broad but surprisingly shallow — barely a metre deep — with a surface of about 1 hectare. Higher up you will find the Small White Lakes (1650–1700 m), the Cress Tarns, and the highest point of all, the Yellow Tarn at 1950 m. In summer the reflections of rocky ridges in still water are simply stunning; in autumn the valley glows with gold and amber.

How to get there

• From the Green Lake hut (Chata pri Zelenom plese) — red trail (Tatra Magistrale), approx. 35 min, easy
• From Matlary via Cress Meadow — blue trail, approx. 3 h 30 min up, moderate
• From Tatranská Kotlina via Kežmarok Valley — green trail, approx. 3 h 10 min, moderate

Practical information

• The valley lies within the Tatra National Park (Slovak side) — stay on marked trails at all times
• Benches and a trail junction are located at Wielki Biały Staw — no active mountain hut; the former Kežmarok Hut burned down in 1974 and was never rebuilt

A curious historical footnote: in 1897 a dwarf pine oil distillery was set up on the lakeshore and within just a few years it had stripped vast swathes of mountain pine from the valley — one of the Tatras' earliest recorded environmental disasters.