A winter walk around the President’s game park at Lány: 9 km

• Lány is a Central Bohemian village 40km west of Prague, known primarily as the location of the official summer residence of the President of the Czech Republic. The residence is in fact a Baroque chateau which was built on the site of a medieval fortress and modified again in the early 20th century.
• The chateau became the summer (and then permanent) residence of the first Czechoslovak president, President Tomáš Garrique Masaryk, in 1921. There is an interesting museum (open year round) dedicated to Masaryk in the village.
• Most people tend to visit Lány in the summer months, when the attractive chateau park is open for visitors on certain days. The chateau itself is open only very rarely to the general public. Lány tends, therefore, to be very quiet in the winter months. So this is actually a good time to visit the museum and perhaps go for a stroll in the extensive forest areas that surround the chateau (and are part of the larger Křivoklátsko protected nature area).
• There is a marked nature trail of around 5 km behind the chateau park that leads to fenced game reserve, with an observation stand, but this is only open from May to September. The trail outlines flora and fauna of the reserve and the Křivoklátsko forest area. Most of the trail is in managed woodlands, but it is possible to extend the walk into the broader forest area, where there are some attractive ponds created from the marsh land.
• The route outlined below (including a stop at the museum) is 9 km long, with only 90m of height to ascend/descend, mostly on easy and wide forest tracks. There are a couple of sections on unmarked paths, so it is best to follow the full route using the mapy.cz application. Back in Lány village, there are a number of good restaurant and refreshment options (including at the museum) but do try the popular Lánské cukrářství, for its excellent coffee and cake selection (it also serves hot food).

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

• Lány is connected by bus on the route from Kladno. For drivers there are parking areas in the center of the village and at the museum
• From the village centre, take the RED hiking trail in the direction of Pánova louka
• After 900m arrive at the start of the nature trail
• If planning on taking the full 9 km route, leave the RED trail at this point and follow the nature trail (green/white diagonal stripes) in an anticlockwise direction (crossing the main road and following the green/white markings into the forest)
• After 2.6 km arrive at the fenced game reserve, with observation points – usually only open from May to September
• Continue a further 500m on the nature trail and then shortly after crossing a small stream, reach a crossroads
• Turn right at the crossroads (map point 5) and follow the track for 600m to reach the RED trail at the Pánova louka junction (the forest pond pictured in the header is located here)
• Follow the RED trail back in the direction of Lány for 350m and then turn off the main trail to the right (map point 7) on a good forest footpath
• After 400m reach the main road. Cross the road and join the marked cycle path
• Follow the cycle track for 1.3 km, until it branches (map point 8). Take the left hand branch which leads back to Lány village and the museum in 1.9 km