The Park embraces the youngest and the only in Poland mountains of alpine type, characterised by a diversified relief with height differences up to 1,700 m. The highest peak of the Polish Tatra and the Park is Rysy (2,499 m a.s.l.).

The Park area contains many streams and about 30 lakes called "stawy" (ponds). They are an important feature of the High Tatra landscape. The largest ponds are Morskie Oko (34.9 ha of area, and 50.8 in depth) and Wielki Staw Polski (34.4 ha of area and 79.3 in depth).

In 1993 the Tatra National Park and the Tatransky Narodni Park on the Slovak side were recognised by UNESCO as an International MaB Reserve of global importance.