The best hiking routes in South Bohemian Region

The South Bohemian Region is defined by a clear contrast between flat, waterlogged basins and forested border mountains. In the lowlands, CHKO Třeboňsko presents a landscape engineered since the Middle Ages, where walkers follow flat dirt tracks and dykes between hundreds of artificial fishponds, peat bogs, and pine woods. Underfoot, the paths here are mostly level sand and packed clay, offering easy walking without any significant climbs.

For rising terrain, the southwestern border is dominated by Národní park Šumava and the adjacent CHKO Šumava. This is a high-altitude granite plateau where the trails cross peat portals, spruce forests, and glacial lakes. The paths often consist of wooden boardwalks over wet peat or stony forestry tracks. Further east, the Přírodní park Novohradské hory offers a quieter, similarly forested upland along the Austrian border, characterized by beech forests and old granite quarries, but without the higher peaks found in Šumava.

Choosing where to walk depends on your preference for water or woodland. CHKO Blanský les provides a smaller, distinct limestone and granulite hill area covered in beech forest, offering steeper but shorter climbs than the border parks. In October, the beech leaves in CHKO Blanský les turn a bright copper, making it a distinct alternative to the dark, evergreen spruce forests of the higher border ranges.