Ski Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is not terribly well known internationally for its downhill ski areas, but there are in fact more than 100 of them stretching across the country, the largest of which have at certain times made it in to international tour operators' brochures attracting skiers from across Europe.

It  is particularly popular to ski the Czech Republic amongst German skiers who pop over the border to enjoy lower prices and in some cases better ski slopes than they find in Germany. It’s also possible for skiers based anywhere in Europe to fly in to one of the Czech Republic’s airports on a low cost airline and find a small ski hill within a few kilometres.

Particular popular Czech ski resorts for German skiers and boarders include Železná Ruda Špičák, one of the largest ski centres in the Czech Republic and located very close to the German border. It also has more challenging terrain than most of the country’s resorts including the Spicák sector with several kilometres of steep runs, linked by a ski bus to the other slopes.

There have been downhill ski slopes in the Czech Republic for more than a century but few have developed beyond a few drag lifts in a village meadow, most of them run by separate local owners, so common lift passes are a rarity.

There are several larger Czech ski resorts which have invested money in new lifts over the past few decades since the stagnation of the ‘communist block’ era has moved further in to the past.

The country’s largest is Špindlerův Mlýn, a scattered community centred around the old village of St. Peters, located in the central Krkonose Mountains, about 140 km (90 miles) from Prague. It has a beautiful Baroque church (1807) and was once popular with Franz Kafka and more recently the tennis legend Martina Navratilova.

One of the highest ski areas in the country and also with the longest slopes over a near 500m vertical and more lifts than most others including several modern chairlifts, there are two local ski areas. The highest ski area is Horni Misecky and snow cover is usually good to late April, with recent investment in snowmaking making up for any natural deficiencies if they ever occur. 

Pec pod Sněžkou is another of the Czech Republic's most famous resorts, located by Snezka (Snow) Mountain, the country's highest peak (1602m). Originally an iron mining town, tourism became more popular after the first World War and the first drag lift was installed more than 70 years ago. It has a dozen lifts, most of them drags, and a single challenging black run, the 600m long Hnědý vrch II descent.

Rokytnice nad Jizerou in the Jizera river valley offers skiing on Lysa Hora (the bald mountain), close to Harrachov.  It has the most lifts and one of the greatest vertical differences between its highest and lowest lifts but these are spread over four separate ski areas surrounding the small resort. There’s night skiing here to 9pm and some of the longest pistes in the country at up to 3.2km. read more...

Snow: next 3 days

Ski resorts of Czech Republic, alphabetically

Resort	Webcam (click to zoom)	Top and bottom snow depth	On-piste	Off-piste	Forecast snow in next 3 days (click for forecast)	Weather forecast for 3 days ahead Weather report	Last snow
Bedřichov					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 52.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Benecko - Herlikovice					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 53.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Boží Dar - Neklid					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 46.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Černý Důl					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 48.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Červenohorské Sedlo					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 29.0mm), heaviest during Sat afternoon
Desná - Parlament					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Deštné					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 29.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Dolní Dvůr					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 48.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Harrachov					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Horní Domky/Lysá Hora					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Janské Lázně - Cerna Hora					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 47.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Javorovy Vrch					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 25.0mm), heaviest during Sat morning
Ještěd					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 52.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Josefův Důl					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 53.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Kašperské Hory - Sumava					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 65.0mm), heaviest during Sun night
Klínovec					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 46.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Klíny					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 38.0mm), heaviest during Sat night
Kořenov - Rejdice					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Lipno - Kramolín					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 64.0mm), heaviest during Sun night
Malá Úpa					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 44.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Mladé Buky					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 44.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Nové Město na Moravě - Harusak					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 37.0mm), heaviest during Sun afternoon
Ostružná					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 31.0mm), heaviest during Sat afternoon
Ovčárna - Praděd					1 cm	Heavy rain (total 24.0mm), heaviest during Sat night. Later becoming colder with a dusting of snow on Sun morning
Paseky nad Jizerou					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Pec pod Sněžkou					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 49.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Petříkov					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 31.0mm), heaviest during Sat afternoon
Příchovický U Čápa					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Přimda					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 43.0mm), heaviest during Sun afternoon
Pustevny					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 27.0mm), heaviest during Sat morning
Ramzová					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 28.0mm), heaviest during Sat afternoon. Later becoming colder with a dusting of snow on Sun afternoon
Říčky					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 28.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Rokytnice nad Jizerou					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 54.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Severák					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 53.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Špindlerův Mlýn					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 51.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Strazne					2 cm	Heavy rain (total 46.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning. Later becoming colder with a dusting of snow on Sun morning
Tanvaldský Špičák					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 55.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Telnice					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 42.0mm), heaviest during Sat night
Žacléř - Prkenný Důl					0 cm	Heavy rain (total 42.0mm), heaviest during Sun morning
Zadov					6 cm	A light covering of new snow, mostly falling on Sun afternoon will be washed away by heavy rain (total 56.0mm) on Sun night
Železná Ruda Špičák					6 cm	A light covering of new snow, mostly falling on Sun afternoon will be washed away by heavy rain (total 52.0mm) on Sun night