A short walk in the vineyards above Valtice chateau – 5 km

Valtice is at the center of the country’s most important wine region. In the cellars of Valtice’s unique neo-Gothic chateau, built by the Lichtenstein dynasty on the foundation of a powerful medieval border fortress, the Salon vín annual exhibition of the 100 most prestigious Czech wines awaits thirsty visitors.
Before embarking on a tasting of a few of these wines, a stroll in the vineyards close to the chateau might be a good idea. The multilingual Valtice educational vineyard trail runs through the chateau’s English style park into the low hills to the south of Valtice town, near the Austrian border. These hills are dotted with vineyards and the occasional Classicist monument, built by the Lichtensteins at the height of their power at the beginning of the 19th century.
The 5 km trail has many well prepared information boards, but does not have trail markings so it is best to follow the route on the mapy.cz application. The high-point of the route is the spectacular Kolonáda Reistna, built in the style of a Greek triumphal arch. From there the route descends to Valtice with broad views towards Mikulov and the Pálava wine region. The paths are easy, with around 100m of height difference.
In Valtice itself, apart from the chateau area and the Salon vín exhibition, there are several good refreshment options to explore, mostly on the náměstí Svobody main square. There is good pizza at Nonna, tasty ice cream either at Valgelato (through an archway off the main sqaure near Nonna) or at Kavárna Galerie Reistna (200m to the northeast of the main square along the RED trail) and excellent coffee and speciality deserts at Něco Sladkého, just a few buildings along from Nonno, on the main square.

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

Starting at the main square (which has paid parking spots and is a short walk from the bus station), head into the chateau complex
Walk though the chateau courtyards (the Salon vín exhibition is in the cellars to the right) to enter the English park area
Follow the footpaths through the park in a southwesterly direction climbing gently past the Jeskyně Peklo man-made cavern to exit the park and enter the vineyard area located on the low ridge
Take the main path westwards though the vineyard area for 1.8 km to reach the Kolonáda monument. From there descend following the public road down into Valtice town