The main local ski resort is at Lipno about 30 minutes drive away from Cesky Krumlov. Full details of what is on offer can be found at the Skireal Lipno website. In summary the resort offers both downhill and cross-country skiing routes, a snowboarding park, as well as ski schools and tuition for adults and children. There is a special skibus from Cesky Krumlov, which runs at the weekend and on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Skis and other equipment can be hired at the resort.
There are plenty of trails for cross-country skiers around the
Cesky Krumlov area. The Sumava National Park is generally recognised as
the Czech Republic's foremost cross-country skiing area.
There are loads of well marked and maintained cycle trails across the area - you can buy special bike maps from the Information Centre. In the summer the Sumava National Park is a magnet for mountain bike riders, but there are other routes with gentler climbs closer to Cesky Krumlov, such as the one between Cesky Krumlov, Horice Na Sumave and Lipno. Cycling offers a wonderful way to see the countryside. You can hire bicycles in Cesky Krumlov from a lot of sources, including possibly your hotel; some of them will deliver you and the bike to and from the bike trail. Look out for Shocart bike maps.
One of the great Czech holiday activities is to canoe or raft down the Vltava River stopping at campsites along the way. The area around Cesky Krumlov is very popular and the river takes you past some lovely countryside. Again you can hire rafts and canoes, plus all the other equipment you need in Cesky Krumlov and it and you can be delivered and collected to and from the place you want to go. The trip from Cesky Krumlov to Zlata Koruna for example takes about 3 - 4 hrs and a canoe costs about £15. Alternatively you can just go round and round Cesky Krumlov, the river bows so much that it is quite easy to do so. If you don't like the idea of even that you can join the great sport of standing on the footbridge by the weirs below the castle and laughing at or cheering those canoeists who dare to take on the rapids there. Lake Lipno is where you need to go to do some sailing. The sailing and rowing boats can be hired there and you can also arrange hire in Krumlov itself.
Good rock climbing sites are within easy reach of Cesky Krumlov, along the Vltava River and in the Sumava National Park. Equipment can be hired locally. The travel agency Expedicion in Soukenicka Street organises climbing trips and provides experienced instructors.
This is one of our favourite activities when we go Cesky Krumlov. The Czech Republic's system of waymarking and footpaths is wonderful and uses colour-coded waymarks. There are loads of footpaths radiating out of Cesky Krumlov and which very rapidly take you into some lovely countryside. The Klet Mountain (in the Blansky Les Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) which rises above Cesky Krumlov is covered with footpaths. Not that you have to keep to the paths in the forest - the Czechs certainly don't as they dive into the undergrowth looking for mushrooms. Further afield the Sumava National Park offers walking in a wide range of scenery - along mountain streams, over moorland lakes created in the Ice Age, through ancient forests and through alpine meadows.
A number of educational trails have been created for the visitor which have noticeboards at various key sites along the way. They include the NT Bear Trail (Medved Stezka), the NT Schwarzenberg Canal Trail, the Boubin Primeval Forest Trail, the Brloh Trail and the trail between Trisov and Holubov. Details of these and other trails can be found on the Eurobeds site.