An easy ‘all season’ walk in the Hřebeny forests near the Cukrák TV transmitter: 8 km

• The TV transmitter called Cukrák, standing nearly 200m tall on the Kopanina hill (411m) near Jíloviště, is a notable landmark on the skyline south of Prague. The third highest tower in the country, completed in 1961, might not be everyone’s first choice for a walking destination, but it is still quite impressive close up.
• More importantly, the forests around Cukrák offer some easy relatively flat trails that are worth exploring in all seasons. As this is the start of the elevated Hřebeny ridge that rises above the valleys created by the Berounka and Vltava rivers there are good views both to the north back towards Prague, and to the south over the meandering Vltava. As most of the walk is on terrain at around 400m altitude, there is sometimes good snow cover in winter, and the views can be excellent at this time of year.
• An easy 7.9 km circuit can be created by starting at the Cukrák D4 highway parking area (there are regular buses here from Smíchovské nádraží in Prague) . The route includes 140m of height to ascend-descend mostly on good forest tracks, which can however get icy and slippery in winter. For refreshments there is a snack bar at the parking area and a well regarded grill restaurant in Jíloviště.

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.com’  to go to a full screen version of the route directly on the mapy.com site. This can be used for on line navigation, saved or exported as a GPX file.

Directions

• From the Cukrák parking area just off the D4 highway, turn right along an access road to the transmitter. After 200m reach the Cukrák trail junction just next to the transmitter
• Turn right at the junction and follow the path that rights straight past the transmitter – the trail is marked with green-white diagonal striped markers (used for nature trails, but there appear to be no information boards on this route)
• After 1.9km the trail reaches a public road. Turn right on the road and cross the highway. Immediately after crossing the highway, turn right onto the exit road from the highway and almost immediately turn left on a side road into the forest. This path accesses the RED hiking trail after 50m
• Turn right onto the RED trail and follow this forest path as it rises towards the viewpoint over the Vltava, reached in 1.6 km
• From the viewpoint continue on the RED trail which descends to reach Jíloviště in 2 km
• Walk on the road past the Motorest . After 200m, take the YELLOW trail to the right – Note: If wanting to visit the grill restaurant, this is 70m further down the road on the RED trail
• Follow the YELLOW trail under the highway and then ascend the hill back to the transmitter, which is reached in 1 km
• Return back to the car park on the same access road as used at the start of the walk