The Ohře Valley and the Ore Mountains — hops, Kadaň and Boží Dar
Four days in the Ohře valley and the Ore Mountains: UNESCO hop country at Žatec, royal Kadaň, a porcelain château in Klášterec and upland Boží Dar. This is a corner of Bohemia where there is always a free table on the square and a free pitch at the campsite by the Ohře. The route climbs from the flat hop gardens through the river valley up onto the plateau below Klínovec, and the longest day's drive takes under an hour. The programme mixes monuments, porcelain and peat bogs, so it works with children as well.
From Prague you take the D7 to Žatec, whose hop-growing landscape is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Hop and Beer Temple on náměstí Prokopa Velkého holds an exhibition on malting, the Sladovna gallery, a monastery garden and a microbrewery in a former hop store. In the afternoon head for the baroque château of Krásný Dvůr, which the Czernin family built in the 1720s as a hunting seat and which has been a national cultural monument since 2001. From May to September it opens Tuesday to Sunday, with Mondays closed, and in October only at weekends and on public holidays — fortunately the landscape park from the late 18th century is freely accessible all year round.
Mírové náměstí forms the core of Kadaň's urban conservation area: the town hall tower, the baroque Holy Trinity column and, just around the corner, Katova ulička (Executioner's Lane), which at sixty-six centimetres is the narrowest named lane in the country. Above the river stands the Franciscan monastery, a national cultural monument, and the Maxipes Fík riverside promenade invites a stroll. In the afternoon move on to Klášterec nad Ohří, where the château's porcelain tour leads through twenty-one rooms of Czech production history and a fairy-tale tour in the cellars keeps the children busy. The English park around the château covers roughly ten hectares and some hundred and fifty species of trees and shrubs from all over the world.
It pays to climb onto the Ore Mountain plateau from Klášterec via Vejprty — the gradient is steadier than the long hairpins up from Jáchymov, and your motorhome will thank you for it. Boží Dar holds the title of the highest town in Central Europe, and the educational trail through the Božídarské rašeliniště national nature reserve runs on boardwalks above the wetlands; children will enjoy the Baby Jesus Trail here. Klínovec, the highest peak of the Ore Mountains (1,244 m), can be reached on foot from Boží Dar, or you can take the cable car from the ski resort — check the operating days in advance, as it may not run on Mondays. From the summit the view reaches deep into the Saxon side of the range.
On the way down, stop in Jáchymov. In the sixteenth century the thaler was minted here, a name that eventually found its way into the word dollar, and the local mining landscape has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2019 as the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region. If you want to go underground, book a tour of the Johannes gallery in advance. In the afternoon you drop down to Ostrov and return to Prague via Karlovy Vary and the D6.
Up to 3.5 t, which covers the vast majority of motorhomes on the market, Czechia uses an electronic motorway vignette — ten-day, monthly or annual, bought against the registration plate at edalnice.gov.cz. On this route you only need it for the D7 from Prague towards Chomutov and, on the way back, for the D6 from Karlovy Vary; the Ohře region and the Ore Mountains are covered by first- and second-class roads, which are free of charge. Above 3.5 t the vignette does not apply: the vehicle must be registered in the MYTO CZ system, carry an on-board unit, and the toll is calculated from the charged sections driven and the emission class. There is no toll mountain road or tunnel on the route — as for other costs, budget for parking at Krásný Dvůr Château (30–50 CZK per day depending on the season), for parking in the towns, and for a cable-car ticket if you use it to reach Klínovec.
Autocamping Vikletice, Vikletice (municipality of Chbany) — on the right bank of the Nechranice reservoir, pitches for caravans and motorhomes with an electric hook-up, showers and toilets; open from mid-April to the end of September. · ATC Hradec, Hradec 87, Rokle near Kadaň — above a meander of the Ohře not far from Kadaň, with cabins as well as caravan pitches and a restaurant on site; confirm a motorhome pitch by phone in advance. · Autokemp U jezu, Rašovice, Klášterec nad Ohří — right on the Ohře below the château, accepts motorhomes and caravans, electric hook-up, drinking water, showers and toilets.
Mírové náměstí in Kadaň lies in an urban conservation area with an adjoining pedestrian zone, so you can neither drive nor park a motorhome in the centre — leave the vehicle at a park-and-ride car park on the edge of town and walk in, the historic core is small. Žatec works the same way, and parking in the centre is charged at machines on top of that. Overnighting outside a campsite is not permitted in Czechia without the landowner's consent, and in the protected areas of the Ore Mountains that goes double. There is no campsite for motorhomes in Boží Dar itself or at Klínovec, so drive up into the mountains from the Ohře valley, use the paid car parks of the resorts during the day and come back down to a campsite for the night.
The most reliable service point on the route is Autokemp U jezu in Klášterec nad Ohří — drinking water is piped to the pitches and it is also the only such place directly below the mountain part of the trip. Arrange chemical toilet emptying there with the staff in advance, though; according to the available information it cannot be taken for granted. Autocamping Vikletice by the Nechranice reservoir has no confirmed dump station either — only an electric hook-up and pitches for motorhomes are documented — so ring ahead in both cases before you set off. Above Klášterec, that is on the Vejprty — Boží Dar — Klínovec — Jáchymov stretch, do not expect any motorhome service point at all: head up with a full fresh water tank and empty waste tanks.
Adria Compact
Both Kadaň and Žatec are explored on foot from the edge of town, and Boží Dar is reached by a long mountain climb — the compact low-profile Adria Compact is built for exactly that: it is one of the shortest low-profile models in the range, so it gets through narrow approach streets and parks even where a longer vehicle would be in the way. For cold nights on the Ore Mountain plateau it has heating and a full bathroom, so you can travel in May or October too.
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