Mnichovice offers undemanding but close skiing, because it is located 37 kilometers from the center of Prague, near Mirošovice on the Brno highway. Or to Chotoun near Jílové near Prague (you can drive there from the center in half an hour). You can even get here by suburban bus – line 444 from Smíchov or Budějovická.

“People don’t come to us for a planned vacation, but they ski with us when the weather is nice in Prague,” concludes Jan Němeček from Chotoun, where he started skiing seven years ago.

Even when it’s hot, the resorts are working

It was in Chotoun last year that the lifts ran until April, even after most of the traditional winter resorts in the mountains closed. “The biggest problem is that when people in Prague are warm and hot, they do not believe that the lifts a few kilometers outside Prague can work at full capacity. And we do,” adds Němeček.

In Chotoun and Mnichovice, in resorts where the slopes are no longer than 300 meters, they have huge reserves of technical snow this year, even though they did not start skiing here until 20 January. “With the current ones, we can stay above zero for a month,” adds Jan Zenkl from Mnichovice.

Here it is possible to combine skiing with bowling, squash, they also have a hotel with a restaurant and children are attracted to a herd of goats. In Chotoun, he believes that even longer.

The Padák complex in Příbram is also doing well. Even there, they now have good conditions and 50 centimeters of snow. The 320-meter ski slope from the center of Prague can be reached in less than an hour.

Monínec with cable car, rental and a nice restaurant

On January 20, this year they also opened in Monínec in Bohemian Siberia, where a few years ago a proper ski slope “grew up” on the site of the 200-meter track. You will ride here on a 1.2 km long track with a four-seater cable car. From the center of Prague you can get here in an hour and a quarter, on the red slope, which is first steeper and then has a milder slope, skiing in the evening.

Even here, the current outfits are not afraid. “We have a meter of snow, in some places even more, we will drive for a long time,” adds Jaroslav Krejčí Jr. from Monínec. In this area there is a rental shop, two restaurants, a sports accessories store and snow tubing. There is also a ski school equipped with a moving carpet, which is reserved only for courses with instructors.

If you are willing to spend a little over an hour in the car, the reward will be good skiing. For example, in the Jizera Mountains on the slopes of Ještěd. He reports up to a meter of snow cover and good conditions.

A novelty is the children’s corner in Ještěd

This is already proper skiing on nine kilometers of tracks of nice parameters, which serve three chair lifts, four anchor lifts and two rope lifts for the smallest. Since February, they have a new service here: a children’s corner at the lower station of the cable car in Ještěd, where children are looking after you.

“I believe that we will be in operation at least until the middle of March,” says Jan Svatoš from the area, who sees as a great advantage that the Ještěd slopes are run from Prague all the time on the highway, there is no need to cross the mountains, only climb to the cable cars. modified district road. “It is also very popular to combine skiing with a stay in the Liberec aquapark, which we offer at a discounted price. A lot of people use it,” he adds.

The giant barrel was very popular with the people of Prague

Even before Liberec, the motorway also leaves from another area – the Giant Barrel in Jeřmanice, which the people of Prague liked, which pays the tax in the form of a weekend queue.

A four-seater cable car leading to the top of Javorník and a 900-meter ski slope await skiers. It has rather milder parameters and, unlike the Ještěd ski slopes, it will satisfy a less demanding skier or family with children. For the youngest beginners, there is a small area with a tow rope, and even if there is a long queue on the cable car, you can complete the first children’s curves with children without traffic jams. It is also possible to test the bobsled track on the Giant Barrel, it measures 1,100 meters and has 13 turns.

It is also interesting to ski in Telnice, located only 18 kilometers from Ústí nad Labem, where the highway leads from Prague. It is an hour and twenty minutes from the center. Although it has a family style, it offers six lifts with a length of 150 to 900 meters.

In total, skiing takes place here on five kilometers of mostly red tracks. There are also blue slopes at the bottom of the resort or training meadows a little higher. However, there is also a sharper slalom, a nice black piste, and also a children’s park with a ski carousel and a fun slalom. Here, too, they have snow supplies.