Bohemian Switzerland National Park

Bohemian Switzerland National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Bohemian Switzerland is the sandstone park on the Czech–German border north of Prague, an hour and a half from the capital and forty minutes from Dresden, and it is sold from both cities as a day trip, usually combined with the German Saxon Switzerland across the border and its Bastei bridge. The day tours from Prague by minibus drive to the park, walk to the Pravčická brána, the largest natural rock arch in Europe, take the boat through the Kamenice gorges and, in the two-country versions, cross to the Bastei in the afternoon; they are a full day with three or four hours of walking and are the practical way for visitors without a car, since the public transport to the trailheads is slow.

The private tours set their own pace and can add the Tisá rock labyrinth or the Děčín castle; the e-bike and mountain-bike trips ride the forest roads, the scooter downhills run from the Děčín hills, and the via ferrata on the Pastýřská stěna cliff in Děčín is the climbing option. The thermal-bath tours pair the park with the spa at Teplice. There is no entrance fee for the park; the Pravčická brána viewpoint and the gorge boats charge small tickets, and the arch itself has been closed to walking on since 1982. Independent visitors take the train from Prague to Děčín and the bus to Hřensko or Mezní Louka, and walk the loop of the arch and the gorges in a day.

Visiting Bohemian Switzerland National Park: what you will see

The park was created in 2000, the youngest in the Czech Republic, and covers 79 square kilometres of the Elbe sandstone mountains on the Czech side of the border, continuous with the German Saxon Switzerland park, a landscape of sandstone that the rivers have cut into gorges, towers and walls with pine and beech forest on the tops and in the ravines; the name was given by two Swiss painters of the eighteenth century who found it like home. The Pravčická brána, an arch of 26 metres span and 16 metres high on a ridge above Hřensko, is the park's symbol and the largest sandstone arch in Europe, with the Falcon's Nest hotel of 1881 built against its foot as a viewpoint and restaurant; the trail from Hřensko or Mezní Louka reaches it in an hour and a half, and the Gabriela path continues along the cliff line through the forest.

The Kamenice river gorges below Mezná, the Edmund and Wild gorges, are walked on paths cut into the rock and crossed by the punt boats that ferrymen pole through the narrowest sections, where the walls close overhead, a tradition since 1890. The Jetřichovice rocks to the east have viewpoints on the Mariina skála and the Vilemínina stěna, the Tisá walls on the western edge are a labyrinth of towers where films are shot, and the Růžovský vrch is a basalt cone above the sandstone with a forest that the park calls its jungle. The 2022 wildfire burned a quarter of the park around Hřensko and Mezní Louka, and the blackened slopes and the regrowth are part of the walk now. Peregrines nest on the cliffs, the black stork in the ravines and the lynx has returned; the Elbe below Hřensko is the lowest point in the country. The German side has the Bastei bridge and the Königstein fortress.

Bohemian Switzerland National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The park is open at all times, with the Pravčická brána site open from about 10 am to 6 pm in season and closed on weekdays in winter, and the gorge boats from April to October. Spring from April to June and autumn from September to October are the best months, with the beech woods green or gold and the trails dry; summer is warm and busy, with the arch and the gorges crowded at midday, so walk early; winter brings snow and ice to the gorges, with the boats stopped and the arch site open on weekends only. Allow a full day for the arch and the gorges, two with the German side. Děčín is the gateway town, Dresden forty minutes north, and Prague an hour and a half south.