See the section for the
Czech Republic of the Trento Bike Pages.
Cycling in the Czech Republic
Contributed by Filip Kadlec (kadlecf@fzu.cz) on Fri, 17 Mar 95 16:46:05
+0100
General
Despite an upsurge in biking in the last years, the number of bikers is
fairly moderate, as is the car traffic (compared to, say, Germany, France,
USA; not speaking of big main roads). Bicycle paths are rare. Due to the
relative weakness of the economy, the prices are not high for the
people from the West. There are nice places to see and, in general, the
people are friendly.
Where to go
I definitely don't recommend you biking in Prague. There is a pretty
heavy traffic and virtually no bicycle paths so there is not much to
enjoy. If you want to start or finish there, your best choice is to
escape from the city center to the suburbs by underground (taking the
bike with you is allowed if you buy a ticket for it, I don't recommend
it too much in the morning and afternoon rush hours). Here your chances to
find a reasonable accomodation are higher, too, if you want to stay for some
time.
The most of the rest of the country is suitable for biking and
nice. In general, I don't recommend to choose main roads (like
everywhere), but there are plenty of smaller ones, in general in a good
(not excellent) condition. The border with Germany is pretty hilly; south
Bohemia is flat (full of ponds, forests and nice), as is the plane just
north of Prague; the rest of the country is more or less varied.
What to see
Apart from Prague, there are a number of nice small towns with
historical centers, e.g. Cesky Krumlov, Telc (both on the UNESCO world
heritage list, another item from this list is the Pilgrimage Church of St.
John of Nepomuk at Zelena Hora in south Bohemia), Kutna Hora (an old town,
in the Middle Ages of about the same importance as Prague, with a nice
gothic cathedral and some other nice monuments), Slavonice, Litomerice,
Tabor, Olomouc etc. There are pretty many nice castles open for the public,
too, for ex. Pernstejn in South Moravia (a well-conserved Middle Ages
fortress), Karlstejn near Prague (Middle Ages, too, but very familiar at
many tourists, so you cannot avoid crowds there), in South Bohemia a water
castle Cervena Lhota and the castle in the town Jindrichuv Hradec and
many, many more. The landscape is nice, too- forests, ponds, small
villages etc. South Moravia is renown for its vineyards and wine
cellars.
Maps
For road biking, there is a good collection of road maps (1 volume,
paperback, scale 1: 200 000) covering the whole republic. Earlier, there
was a set of about 12 separate maps in the same scale covering the whole
area, which were more handy, but you are no more likely to get them. For
mountain or off-road biking, there is a series of 1: 100 000 tourist
maps or very good 1: 50000 maps based on military sources. Both these
contain touristic information on interesting things on the back (in
Czech; for some areas they exist in German or English version, too, but
those are more difficult to find) and sign indexes in more languages.
Language
Czech is the most widespread, of course. English is spoken more in
bigger cities and more among young people. German is widespread, too,
more spoken by elder ones. In all castles, it should be possible to
get some information in English and German.
Trains
The train is a good access possibility if you want to take the bike with
you as well as if you want to travel within the country. On all bigger
lines, the bike transport is possible in about 50% of trains (well, this
is just a thumbrule). In my opinion, it's better for you that you travel
along with it, for sake of the way your bike might be treated otherwise.
When to travel
In general, the weather is nice from about May to September; however,
exceptions sometimes do happen (irregular periods of rain). The max.
temperatures reach from about 15-20 degrees (May, September) to 20-25 in
July, August. Deviations are always possible. The nights are sometimes
cold (down to several degrees above zero) even in summer.
The top tourist season is in July, less in August. Nevertheless, the
main stream of tourist heads to Prague, so elsewhere you'll feel good
off more or less any time.
Accomodation
If you decide to stay on camping sites, you won't have much troubles
with finding them, especially in July- August. Another good choice is
private accomodation (maybe about 400 CZK per night and person, but I don't
have much experience with it) or smaller hotels.
Others
Bicycle stealing doesn't happen very often, so your bike should be
safe with a normal lock if you leave it for some time. If you want to
feel more secure, it is never a bad idea to ask somebody to watch it, if you
have this possibility.
Bicycle shops and service places are frequent in towns (say, from 10
000 inhabitants up), so if you have a problem you should never be too
far from an assistence.
Credit cards are not widespread but if you have a Eurocard you should be
able to get money in every bigger city. Visa cards are even less used, not
speaking about the others. Exchange offices are frequent. The banks are open
mostly Monday-Friday.
Shops, post offices etc. are open generally from Monday to Friday and
Saturday morning. Some food shops are open on Sunday, too. Some national
holidays (most of everything closed): May 1. and 8., July 5. and 6. The
castles and museums are open regardless of holidays, but mostly closed on
Mondays.
For more information about the country, try the Czech homepage.
