West Pomeranian Voivodeship — Cliffs, sandbars and lake districts a short drive from the beach.

At roughly 22,892 km² West Pomerania is one of Poland's largest voivodeships and one of its most thinly populated. Its northern edge is 185 km of shoreline along the Pomeranian Bay — sand for almost its whole length, broken by dune ridges and stretches of cliff. The region borders Germany to the west, and its spine is the Oder, which widens before the sea into the Szczecin Lagoon, the largest body of water in the voivodeship.

The capital is Szczecin, a port city on both banks of the Oder, laid out in the 19th century with wide avenues and star-shaped squares modelled on Paris. Its best-known feature is the Chrobry Embankment, a long terrace above the river flanked by the museum and the maritime authority building. Above it stands the Ducal Castle, the Renaissance seat of the Griffin dynasty, now a cultural centre with courtyards and a viewing tower. To the south the city runs straight into the Bukowa Forest, whose trails start almost at tram stops.

The river mouth is a maze of islands. The largest, Wolin, is also the largest island in Poland; its northern part is protected by Wolin National Park, created in 1960. This is the most dramatic stretch of Polish cliff coast — the highest active cliffs reach 93 metres and the sea takes several dozen centimetres off the shoreline each year. The Gosań and Kawcza Góra viewpoints look straight out over the open Baltic, and a display enclosure of European bison sits close to the centre of Międzyzdroje. Neighbouring Świnoujście spreads across the islands of Usedom and Wolin, holds spa status, and has a wide pale beach that continues all the way to the German border.

Further east the resorts follow one another along the coast: Dziwnów, Pobierowo, Rewal, Mrzeżyno, Ustronie Morskie, Mielno, Darłowo. Two places stand apart. At Trzęsacz a fragment of a medieval church wall stands on the very edge of the cliff — the rest slid into the sea as the shoreline retreated, making it Poland's most literal monument to coastal erosion. Kołobrzeg combines a working port, a seaside resort and a town with a long history; alongside the promenade and pier it runs a spa based on brine and therapeutic mud.

Inland there is plenty more. Kamień Pomorski keeps its Gothic cathedral with a celebrated organ and an old town on the lagoon, Stargard one of the best-preserved rings of town walls in the country together with a monumental collegiate church, and Darłowo a ducal castle near the mouth of the Wieprza. Beyond them lie the lake districts: the Drawsko Lake District with the deep, many-armed Lake Drawsko, plus Lakes Ińsko and Woświn and the large Dąbie near Szczecin. The south-eastern corner holds part of Drawa National Park, established in 1990 to protect the valleys of the Drawa and Płociczna — among the best-loved canoe routes in Poland.