A full circuit of the northern section of Slapy reservoir, starting in Slapy village: 26 km

• The Slapy reservoir – the sixth largest in the country – was created in 1955 by damming the river Vlava around 30 km from Prague. It is a popular vacation spot with sandy beaches and many water sports activities and boat trips available along its scenic shores. There are a number of good walks in the area, which has extensive mixed forests and is surprisingly hilly – providing plenty of viewpoints over the lake.
• There are, however, relatively few bridges, which makes it problematic to create circular routes around the reservoir. The route shown in the map below is a rare exception, with a crossing at the northern end of the reservoir, using the road that runs along Slapy dam and then Živohošť Bridge, 10 km upstream.
• Most of the route on the eastern side is in forest and there are only rare views of the reservoir (except during the crossings), whereas the trails on the western side are some distance from the shore, passing through the quaintly named villages of Čím and Buš. The route has quite a number of short hills, with 780m of height to ascend-descend over the 26 km length. None of the paths are difficult, but this is still quite a strenuous walk.
• There are a couple of options for refreshment along the route, including two snack bar-restaurants (map points 4 and 9) which are usually only open in the summer season. However, the stylish restaurant Svatojánská Rotunda can be found on the road between Buš and Slapy. It is open year-round.

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

• The route assumes a start-finish in Slapy village, which has bus connections with the Prague station, Smíchovské nádraží. For drivers, there is a small parking area, next to the Slapy-kostel trail junction (the start point in the map above)
• At the Slapy-kostel trail junction, join the YELLOW trail heading towards Pod Homolí, which is reached after 3.3 km
• At the junction, join the BLUE trail heading towards Třebenice
• After 3.4 km cross the dam and continue on the BLUE trail for 1.7 km to reach the junction in Rabyně
• At the Rabyně junction, join the GREEN trail heading towards Měřín
• After 2.2 km pass the Stromeč junction, continuing on the GREEN trail towards Měřín
• After 2.7 km the trail reaches the public road leading down to Měřín village. At this point (unless wanting to add an extra 3.5 km by taking the GREEN trail loop through Měřín) take the unmarked path on the opposite side of the road. This short cut trail leads across the meadow and back onto the GREEN trail after 400m
• After 1.1 km reach the Jablonná trail junction and here turn right onto the BLUE trail heading towards Živohošť. most
• After 2.9 km cross the bridge and continue a further 600m on the BLUE trail to reach the Živohošť. most – levý břeh junction
• At the junction, turn right onto the RED trail heading towards Čím
• This trail leads all the way back to Slapy village, reached in 8 km