Kotlina Kłodzka — a fortress, rocks and four spa towns in one basin.

The Kłodzko Basin is one of Poland's most interesting regions geographically — an oval basin (about 30×40 km) deep in the Central Sudetes, ringed on three sides by mountain ranges: the Table Mountains and the Bystrzyckie Mountains to the west, the Bardzkie and Golden Mountains to the north and east, and the Śnieżnik Massif to the south. The Czech border runs through the basin and around it. It is a geographical curiosity: 30 km from Wrocław as the crow flies, but with a more alpine landscape than the western Sudetes.

The capital of the basin is Kłodzko (about 25,000 people) — once a Bohemian and then a Prussian border town, today a Polish district centre. The town's most recognisable landmark is Kłodzko Fortress on the hill in the centre — a Prussian fortress of the 17th and 18th centuries, today one of the best preserved in Europe. Kłodzko also has a Gothic bridge (of 1390, with figures of saints — in the style of Charles IV's bridge in Prague), townhouses around the market square and tourist tunnels beneath it.

Four spa towns in one region — the Kłodzko Basin has the densest concentration of spa towns in Poland: Kudowa-Zdrój (warm mineral waters), Polanica-Zdrój (carbonated waters), Duszniki-Zdrój (with an International Chopin Festival since 1947) and Lądek-Zdrój (the oldest spa in Poland, with traditions going back to the 13th century). All have taken the waters since the 17th to 19th centuries and today combine classic pump rooms with modern spas.

The Table Mountains National Park (created in 1993, about 63 km²) protects a landscape of sandstone table rocks unique in Europe. The central summit — Szczeliniec Wielki (919 m) — is not a typical mountain but a broad sandstone plateau with a labyrinth of rocks, corridors and caves. The second flagship site is the Errant Rocks — a rock field with narrow corridors, a kilometre from the Czech border. Geologically these are the remains of a Cretaceous sea from 90 million years ago.

Getting there: from Wrocław about 1.5 hours by car (about 85 km, S8 + DK8 + DK33 to Kłodzko), from Warsaw about 5–6 hours (about 430 km, A2 + S8). By PKP IC train from Wrocław about 2 hours to Kłodzko. From Prague about 2 hours by car via the Kudowa–Náchod border crossing. The nearest airports are Wrocław (about 1.5 hours) and Prague (about 2.5 hours).