Czech Greenway Trail

AKA Prague-Vienna Greenway (English)
AKA Prag-Wien Greenway (Deutsch)
AKA Praha–Vídeň Greenway (Český)

The Czech Greenway connects Prague to Vienna via a series of roads and trails passing through villages and culturally important places that will let you see more of what the Czech Republic is in seven days than staying in Prague for a year would! The Greenway is a bit rough for a road bike, and not quite rough enough for fat knobbies, but is ideal for a fat-tired tourer, cyclo-crosser, hybrid, or mountain bike with some less aggressive tires.

The Czech Republic Greenway connects Prague to Vienna via a series of roads and trails passing through villages and culturally important places that will let you see more of what the Czech Republic is in seven days than staying in Prague for a year would! The Greenway is a bit rough for a road bike, and not quite rough enough for fat knobbies, but is ideal for a fat-tired tourer, cyclo-crosser, hybrid, or mountain bike with some old 1.95 semi-slick tires.

Check out the Greenway's official web site for reports from other travellers, a list of towns along the trail, and much more. Look for pages specific to bicycling and organized tours.

Prague-Vienna Greenways Route Guide says that they are at work on a Prague-Vienna Greenways guide for bicyclists. The site will provide Google map overlays, cue sheets, and downloadable GPX files for the entire Prague-Vienna Greenways system. That will be great. Portions appear to already be done.

Another map of the greenway and an itinerary by the Greenways Travel Club. Not detailed, but gives a good overview, kind of like a subway map.

Roger Högström and Daniel Backgård walked from Prague to Vienna on the czech Greenways in 17 days in 2008. Check out www.greenways.harnosand.org for photos and a write-up from their trip.

Once you're getting closer to Vienna, there are a couple of tricky parts. The signed Greenway ends in Pillichsdorf. From there, you can pick up the Dampfross Drahtesel Bike Path to connect the Prague Vienna Greenway to Stammersdorf. From there, head due south on the road, or take the Marchfeldkanal Weg till it ends, then head left to find the Donau River and the well maintained path that runs along the eastern bank to get to Vienna.

I finally rode a good chunk of the Greenway (Prague to Jindřichův Hradec ) in 2011 and put a lot of details into the write up that might be helpful to you.

Once in Prague, look for maps at these locations:

ITM

This is a very complete map store, only 5 minutes from the Central railway station (Hlavni nadrazi)
Senovazne namesti 6, Praha 1 [map]
www.mapyapruvodce.cz

KIWI

A travel book store with lots of maps.
Jungmanova 23, 110 00 Praha 1 [map]
tel: +420 2 24948455
www.kiwick.cz

Knihy Kanzelsberger

A publisher and a bookstore, as far as I can tell. Their website is horrible and uses frames and Flash, so I can't link to their list of shops. The following locations may no longer be correct:
Václavské nám. 42, 110 00 Praha 1 - Orbis
Václavské nám. 4, 110 00 Praha 1 - Dům knihy
tel: 224 219 214
www.kanzelsberger.cz

Download free Czech language and German language phrase guides to help you out on your trip.

Greening of the Czech Republic

Taken from National Geographic magazine.

A PASSION FOR HIKING has long kept Czechs on the move - their national hiking club dates from 1888. Partly inspired by our [National Geographic magazine] June 1990 article "Greenways: Paths to the Future," Czechs and Austrians have created the Czech Greenway, a 250-mile-long network of trails between Vienna and Prague.

Traversed by foot, bicycle, horseback, or canoe, the system connects medieval castles and towns with the countryside. Inviting summer visitors who crows big cities to wide-open spaces, it winds through Moravian wine country and Bohemia's beer gardens. Czech history and culture survived decades of communist rule; now, as capitalism emerges, preservation is one of the project's goals. "We're telling the local people. 'Your towns and villages can serve as alternatives to cities drawing masses of tourists,'" says Lubomir Chmelar, director of Greenways/Zelené Stezky. This month the nonprofit group will again offer its tours; last year several hundred hikers took part, many hoofing it for eight days.

The map below has not been edited and includes our trip of the first half of the trail, with all the false turns and a few side routes, along with a complete route. Where the two routes differ, ours is the actual greenway. If the map doesn't load, try refreshing the page.