Do you hear it? Over the ringing of the trams, the cacophony of the crowds of tourists, the ringing of the innumerable bells? Do you hear the sound of fresh air, a brisk walk, an improvised lunch and a well-deserved beer at the end? The call of the hike?

It’s time to hit the trails, but how?

The Czech Republic has long been something of a world champion in and for hiking. The Czech Hiking Club (Klub českých turistů), disproportionately large for the relatively small population of the country, has built the most dense network of marked trails in the world. Already in 1938, Czechoslovakia had the longest network on the planet and all the factors come together to make hiking in Czechia not only a great pastime, but extremely accessible, especially for students.

Already intrigued? Read on for a full guide on how to plan and execute a great hike, not just in the Czech lands, but even around and into the surrounding countries, all with their own landscapes to discover.

STEP ONE: Finding the location.

For starters, you need to find a place or region to travel to. A good start is to stick to what’s most known; while lacking in such extreme landscapes as their Austrian and Slovak neighbors, the Czechs can proudly boast of many castles, winding rivers, low mountains, deep forests, and sleepy villages. The advantage is that depending on how early you’re willing to get up, many locations are accessible from Prague within a day trip’s distance and with your ISIC, long trips across the country can be had for the price of a decent meal in the center. Leave Prague early, return late in the evening and you can go even as far as the Beskid mountains from which you can see the beginning of the Slovak Tatras, or have a long hike through Bohemian Switzerland, or even some of the peaks of the Sudeten mountains.

Ultimately, your destination will decide the length of the journey and decide whether or not a day trip becomes a weekender. You can find these locations on the numerous Czech tourism pages, Wikitravel, on Instagram, or even just by scrolling around on Google Maps or Mapy.cz (our Holy Bible of Czech hiking, which we will soon come back to).

For the sake of example, let’s imagine I want to go to Radhošť, a relatively low mountain in the Beskids with a history of pagan worship, Christian missionaries, and skiing, adorned with an old wooden church on its peak.

STEP 2: Finding the location, or how I learned to stop worrying and love Mapy.cz

First lesson: Mapy.cz is not just the Czech Google Maps wannabe. No, it is something truly magical, and one of your best companions throughout your hikes in not only Czechia, but throughout Central Europe. To illustrate, here’s Radhošť on Mapy.cz .

So far, so good. A few photos, some description, often in English and always available in Czech and some important information. The magic happens when you use the “Change map” function to switch the map into Outdoors mode…

Voilà. The lines that appeared are the marked hiking trails, which are not only marked on the map, but on also on signs, markers, rocks, trees… spotting them on the trail is part of the fun! These trails can practically take you from anywhere to anywhere in the country, only very rarely ending in a dead end.

Before we start planning the trail, it’s useful to know what the colors mean. They can correspond to difficulty, but not always.

• Red trails are always found in mountains, tending to be the most difficult, leading from summit to summit and often with considerable changes in altitude.
• Blue trails are considered significant, connecting longer distances and often going past known landmarks, monuments, and the like.
• Green trails are shorter local trails, providing on their own a decent hike, but over a much shorter distance than their red and blue counterparts.
• Finally, yellow trails serve to interconnect different trails, giving you a chance to go from one longer trail to another, or even take a shortcut.

When trails meet, you’ll often find signs indicating the different distances to places such as public transport spots, settlements, hospitality, landmarks, and other helpful information such as current altitude. Returning to our view of Radhošť, we can clearly see a red trail leading from Rožnov pod Radhoštěm to the summit itself, as well as a blue trail leading along the peaks of the range to Frenštát pod Radhoštěm. Both towns have both bus stations and train stations, as many do in the Czech Republic, this means we can easily get to them.

STEP 3: Transport, now mostly oligarch-free!

To check transport, you’ll want to download or use the website for IDOS, which I am very proud to remark is no longer owned by Andrej Babiš and can now be used guilt-free! When searching for your ticket, be sure to mark yourself as “Junior 18-25 years, ISIC card” to have a 50% discount on the already affordable ticket.

Compare the times and schedules going from Prague to your potential starting destinations, based on what is close to your final goal. For the case of Radhošť, I’ve decided on Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, with its idyllic old village and attractive small town atmosphere.

I tend to prefer trains and with as little connections as possible, so this ticket from ČD at 5:15 suits me perfectly. If you do end up having a delay and all your connections are with the same company, a great tip is that you can speak to the ticket controller and ask them to have the connecting train wait on your own at the station, most if not all times they’ll delay the next train so that you and other fellow travelers can make the connection. You can buy the ticket directly through IDOS or through ČD’s own site. Some companies, especially smaller countryside bus routes, cannot sell tickets through IDOS, so be sure to carry some cash on you for the fare!

For the way back, note that ticket prices tend not to fluctuate too much in Czechia depending on when you reserve. While you can save a fair bit by reserving early in advance, you can buy your ticket for the way back once you’ve reached the right station, so that you can account for any delays on the trail! Be sure to check the times in IDOS before though, nothing is worse than ending a day of hiking by missing the last train out of whatever village you found yourself in.

STEP 4: Planning the trails.

Here’s the fun part. Get back to Mapy.cz once you’ve found your starting station and find it. Then, look for directions to your final hiking destination. Finally, add a stop and add in your final station. Hit enter and it should look something like this.

Now the magic has happened. Thanks to Mapy.cz’s huge database of trails (updated weekly!), it will give you already a decent trail from start to finish. You could very well finish the planning here and wrap things up, but for the perfect hike, there’s some things we can add. First, zoom in and follow the trail the whole way. Not only can you see a lot more detail, but you can see the names of trails and any landmarks will be given an icon. Let’s say we’d want to stop at a refreshments shop along the trail as we’re headed up the mountain. We found one, so we can add it as a stop in the corresponding place on the itinerary. You can do this either by entering the name, or by simply clicking on the map. This is helpful not only for adding stops, but also for if you want to fine tune the trail. Rather take a slightly slower scenic route over a blue trail as opposed to the proposed yellow trail? Add stops along the way and Mapy.cz will switch to that trail as it’s faster. Sometimes, it will just add the detour and set you back on the original trail, as it’s done for the refreshments stand here.

I’ve decided I also want to take a further hike to another summit with an old village and resort, so I can add that too.

It’s important to note that Mapy.cz is always very pessimistic with times! Often, when using it for navigation (which we’ll get to shortly), I found the expected arrival time actually going down as I hiked. Let’s just say it accounts for breaks, so take it at your own pace and understand the estimated time as a maximum if you’re making good pace. Speaking of a good pace, this seems like a decent trail (you can make as complex or as simple trails as you want with Mapy.cz, so spend some time looking around the area and get creative!), so hit Save, name the map and get ready to go!

STEP 5: The hike!

You’ve got your tickets, you’ve got your plan, the hike is coming up, so now’s the time for some real tips. For this, download the Mapy.cz app to your phone and open it up. First step is to hit the three bars on the bottom left and tap “Offline maps”.

You’re seeing that right, Mapy.cz allows you to download free offline maps of… just about every country in the world. If you’re lacking storage, you can even download just regions, so research the regions you’ll be hiking through and download either the whole country or just the regions in question. Trust me, this will be useful later.

One train or bus ride later, you’re ready and raring to touch some grass and hit some trail. What you do next is going to sound quite strange in the 21^st century, but open your saved map of your trip, start the navigation and… turn on Airplane Mode. While navigating with data on, like most apps, Mapy.cz will happily eat up your battery, but in Airplane Mode, battery consumption will drop considerably and you’ll still be able to navigate thanks to good old fashioned GPS and your saved maps. You’ll be using only a few percentage points in an hour and if you really need to, you can always intermittently turn your data back on.

Take a deep breath, put your phone in your pocket, and hunt down the trail markers. In a city, you’ll usually find them on sign posts and electric poles. Start following the color Mapy.cz tells you to and you’re on your way. When there’s a fork in the road, the marker will turn into an arrow telling you which way to go. Keep on the lookout for any signs at waypoints and crossroads if you need to change colors, but after a while, you’ll get the hang of it! Congrats, you’re now a bonafide hiker in the truest Czech tradition (just please don’t walk around in socks and sandals through the Tatras…).

Once you get to the end city or village, just load up IDOS and buy the tickets home, usually the price will increase by up to 25 Kč unless you get quite unlucky, but the flexibility is worth it.

The last tips.

• Bit off more than you can chew in one day or you want to make more than a day trip? Don’t waste your time with glamping on Airbnb or shady hostels, instead use Booking and look for the cheapest housing in a given area; which are often pensions where you’ll be treated to the true Czech countryside experience and often delicious meals made by families who are often more than happy to share tips about the area with a curious tourist.
• Many famous summits will feature a pub or inn on top. These are the best beers you will ever drink after a long hike, but drink responsibly so you don’t have to make an unplanned and pricey stay…
• Hikes are obviously made so much better with friends. Do all the planning on your end and propose a ready-made hike and people will be more than happy to jump on for the ride!
• The typical hiking tips apply, dress for the weather you expect and pack for the weather you don’t, bring lots of water and don’t be afraid to dip into the village potraviny for some rohlíky, Horalky, or whatever other pick me up you might need.
• When on the trails and in the countryside, you’re not in Prague anymore and people actually respect other human beings, so feel free to greet people. A simple “dobrý den” will often do, but you can often get casual with an “ahoj”. On international trails, such as those along borders, don’t be surprised to hear “čauko” or “cześć” in reply.
• If your hiking gear isn’t the latest Alpine Pro or Decathlon collection, expect to get some strange looks from fellow hikers. Czechs take hiking very seriously and will dress accordingly, don’t take their looks as mean, rather they’re just impressed, especially in harsher weather!
• Mapy.cz includes maps from around the world for a reason! Czechia’s neighbors have their own very dense hiking networks, often with the same Czech trail markings made by the Czech Hiking Club, so this guide can apply to other countries too.

Happy hiking!