Krkonoše and its foothills — from Sněžka to Kuks
Five days in the Krkonoše mountains and the Podkrkonoší foothills: a cable car up Sněžka, a hike to the source of the Elbe, then down to baroque Kuks. It is a trip that always has a plan B — when the ridges cloud over or the wind picks up, you drop into the foothills and the day is saved by baroque architecture, a chateau park and the Úpa valley. You set up base at a campsite below the mountains and head out light: you go up by cable car or on foot anyway. The season from June to September is the safest bet and there is no closed pass anywhere on the route.
The drive from Prague takes up the morning, so the first afternoon already belongs to the mountains. In Špindlerův Mlýn you can walk the promenade along the Elbe and climb up to the dam of the Labská reservoir, which closes off the valley below the ridges. Pack a warm layer for the evening — mountain valleys cool down quickly after dark, even in summer.
The road from Horní Mísečky up to Zlaté návrší is closed to private vehicles, and that applies to guests of the mountain huts as well. You head up on foot, by bike, or take the shuttle service to the Vrbatova bouda hut. From there a ridge trail leads past the Labská bouda hut to the source of the Elbe with its memorial wall of coats of arms. Count on a full-day hike and on weather that changes within minutes up on the plateau.
The highest Czech mountain is reached from Pec pod Sněžkou by cable car in two sections via the intermediate station at Růžová hora, where tickets are checked but nobody changes cabins. The cabins run daily from eight in the morning, and from the beginning of May to the end of September until seven in the evening, but the cable car only runs in winds up to 60 km/h and the upper section is the first to stop — which is why you head for Sněžka in the morning rather than in the afternoon. In July and August it is usually quietest between eight and ten, or after three in the afternoon. The chapel of St Lawrence stands on the summit and the Czech-Polish border runs right across the top.
From the mountains you descend into the Elbe valley and the landscape turns baroque within minutes. Hospital Kuks was built for Count František Antonín Špork, and on the terrace in front of the facade stand Braun's allegories of the twelve Virtues and twelve Vices. Besides the basic tour you can visit the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum in the baroque apothecary and the Špork family tomb in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Trinity; in July and August it is open daily, while for the rest of the season, June included, Monday is the closing day. A walk through the herb garden below the hospital rounds off the day.
The last day belongs to Babiččino údolí near Ratibořice. The chateau opens the salons of the summer residence, a little further down the valley stand Staré bělidlo and Rudr's mill from the world of Božena Němcová's novel The Grandmother, and a path along the Úpa river runs between them. In the afternoon you set off back to Prague; if it rains or the children have had enough of the mountains, you can turn off on the way to the zoo in Dvůr Králové nad Labem.
For vehicles up to 3.5 t, which covers most motorhomes, an electronic motorway vignette is enough for the motorway part of the route. For 2026 the one-day vignette costs CZK 230, the ten-day one CZK 300, the thirty-day one CZK 480 and the annual one CZK 2,570; vehicles running on natural gas and plug-in hybrids have a lower rate and electric vehicles are exempt from the charge. Above 3.5 t the vignette is not used at all — the MYTO CZ electronic toll applies instead, meaning an on-board unit in the vehicle and a rate based on the emission class, the number of axles and the type of road. There is no toll mountain road or tunnel on the route; the only extra item you have to budget for is the cable car ticket up Sněžka.
Autokemp Slunečná, Čistá v Krkonoších (Černý Důl) — 80 pitches for caravans, 16 A electric hook-ups, permanently staffed reception, at the foot of Černá hora · Holiday Park Vrchlabí – Liščí farma, Dolní Branná near Vrchlabí — a caravan site with grassed pitches and an electric hook-up, electricity is paid separately · Autokemp Na Vyhlídce, Miletín — 7 bays for caravans with an electric hook-up; in July and August the reception is open daily, in May, June and September by arrangement
Free camping and overnight stays outside campsites are banned in the Krkonoše National Park, so the night is planned into a campsite, not onto a car park below the hill. In Pec pod Sněžkou the first hour at the P3 car park by the cable car is free, and a whole day then comes to CZK 300. At Horní Mísečky the vehicle is left at the park-and-ride car park below the closed road, and at Kuks at the park-and-ride car park at the entrance to the village from road I/37, where a car pays CZK 60 a day and a motorhome or caravan CZK 150. The paid car parks in Špindlerův Mlýn itself are full and expensive in summer and a longer vehicle manoeuvres badly in the centre — it pays to leave it at the campsite and head up by bus or by bike.
You can top up drinking water at Autokemp Slunečná in Čistá v Krkonoších, where the caravan pitches have a 16 A hook-up and the reception is permanently staffed. A disposal point for grey water and chemical toilets is at Camp Dolce in Oblanov near Trutnov — it is open from April to the end of October, has 10 A hook-ups and lies right on the way down from the mountains to Kuks. Below the mountains, Autokemp Na Vyhlídce in Miletín has sanitary facilities with hot water all day, which is practical for the last two days around Kuks and Ratibořice.
Adria Matrix
The Adria Matrix is still a semi-integrated motorhome, so it gets you through the narrow valleys to Špindlerův Mlýn and Pec pod Sněžkou, and depending on the layout it sleeps up to five people — exactly the format for a family trip to the Krkonoše. The double floor and the Truma heating or the Alde hot-water system make themselves felt in June and September, when nights in the mountains drop far below the daytime temperatures.
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