An easy walk along the river Ohře from Doubí (Karlovy Vary) to the Svatoš rocks – 7 km

• The Svatoš rocks (Svatošské skály) are one of the highlights of a trip along the river Ohře in the Karlovy Vary region. They are a unique series of spectacular granite rock pillars, sculpted from volcanic rock by the action of the river and frost, particularly during the ice ages.
• The rocks attracted the attention of many famous visitors over the centuries, including Goethe and Sigmund Freud. Today, they are are popular with rock climbers, but a more leisurely way to enjoy the pillars is to walk for a couple of kilometres from Doubí (on the edge of Karlovy Vary) following the road directly beside the photogenic river, which is scattered with granite boulders (relics of already disintegrated volcanic rock formations).
• The road leading to the rocks is called Svatošská, and it begins in the centre of Doubí. There are regular buses here from Karlovy Vary. There is also a small parking area 900m along Svatošská (map point 3 below), which saves a bit of walking if travelling by car. The route from the bus stop to the rocks if walking along the road (which is quiet) is 3.7 km (shown in the map as the outbound route). The hiking trail (marked BLUE, and shown in the map as a possible return route) is slightly shorter – 2.9 km – but has some forest footpaths that are not suitable for strollers.
• Opposite the rocks is a snack bar with a terrace to sit and watch the climbers trying to scale the pillars.

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

• See the description above for the directions – there are two route choices, the (longer, but flatter) Svatošská road or the BLUE hiking trail (which has quite a steep forest section)
• Most people who arrive by car and use the parking on Svatošská, simply use the road route there and back