Kampinos National Park with a dog - the ban and its exceptions

For anyone living in Warsaw, Kampinos is the default answer to "where do we go for a proper walk". Sandy tracks, pine forest, marshes and inland dunes, half an hour from the city centre. If you have a dog, the answer is much shorter and less pleasant: you cannot take it onto the trails of Kampinos National Park.

What the park actually says

Dogs are banned across the park. This is not about the leash, the muzzle or the size of your dog, it is about the status of the land, which is under strict and active protection. The park lists a handful of exceptions:

• the landscape protection zone along the blue trail from Brochow to Famulki Brochowskie, up to the point where the trail turns into the forest,
• car parks,
• selected rest areas: Granica, Lipkow, Jakubow, Roztoka, Zaborow Lesny and Dabrowa Lesna,
• assistance dogs, which are exempt from the ban.

Public roads also cross the park. They are managed by regional and local authorities rather than by the park, so they fall outside the ban. They are roads, though, not walking routes, and treating them as a substitute for a trail is a poor idea, especially after dark.

Why the rules are strict here

Kampinos is the second largest national park in Poland, home to elk, beavers, lynx and ground-nesting birds. Even the calmest dog leaves the scent of a predator along the entire route, and a startled deer can stay away from its young for hours. The ban is the rule, not an act of spite towards dog owners.

The park is also working on a protection plan, and a draft from late 2024 included a provision allowing dogs on designated trails. That document is not law yet, so the current ban stands in full. Check the park website before you travel, because this is one of the few places where the rules could genuinely change mid-season.

What happens if you go anyway

Park rangers can issue fines, and checks at the busiest entrances (Truskaw, Izabelin, Palmiry, Granica) are common at weekends. Protection plans get updated based on data about how visitors actually behave - the more dogs stay leashed and under control, the better the odds that future plans open up more trails to dogs, not fewer.

Where to go instead near Warsaw in autumn

Autumn is the best season for long walks here. No heat, no crowds, and after rain the forest smells strong enough that a dog will keep its nose down for the entire route.

• The forests around Kampinos but outside the park boundary. Much of the woodland near Leszno, Kampinos and Rokitno is managed by the State Forests, where a leashed dog is fine.
• A warning about Las Kabacki. It gets recommended as the obvious alternative, but the Las Kabacki nature reserve has its own ban on bringing dogs in, covered in our piece on Las Kabacki with a dog.
• Las Chojnowski and the forests south of Warsaw. Managed by the State Forests, where a leashed dog is fine.
• Las Mlocinski. Close in, quieter, good for a shorter trip after work.
• The Zegrzynski Reservoir area. Water plus forest, enough for a full day.
• City classics when you do not feel like driving anywhere, listed in our guide to Warsaw with a dog.

The rule people forget once they are in the woods

Outside the national park, not everything is permitted either. Polish forest law bans letting dogs off leash in any forest, and breaking that rule carries a fine or a formal reprimand under the petty offences code. The exceptions cover hunting dogs during a hunt and working search and rescue or service dogs. In autumn there is one more reason to keep your dog close: it is peak season for driven hunts, which we cover in our piece on hunting season and dog walks.

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A closed trail is not the end of the story, it is a reason to learn your area better than the average tourist. Check the DOGOUT map for places near you that genuinely welcome dogs, and add the ones you know so the next crew does not have to guess.