It is actually surprising how can you avoid riding on the streets and regular roads while biking through Prague. Sometimes we can even imagine we are in a different city. With warm summer weather our main destination was to take a swim in the Hostivař reservoir in Prague, so the question was where to start our circular ride. We enjoyed this ride in particular because you pass by so many different water features.
Hostivař reservoir is really a great recreation area. Easy to get to by public transportation and has many different walks to take in nature. You can swim for free on part of the lake or you can pay to go into the area that includes a beach and several food options. Although it is mostly families enjoying the water and beach, there is a section reserved for a nude beach.
A good starting point we found was on a dead end street in front of Thomayer’s hospital. Polly had not so fond memories of this hospital 8 years ago, but was happy to see the wild muflon (sheep) were still in the woods close to the buildings.
After a little climb through Krč forest we followed a modern bike path and zigzag through the side streets of the neighborhood of Spořilov. Then we meandered along the stream called Botič in a little natural park. The route goes over the stream by a little bridge with stairs, which unless you are an expert rider you will need to make use of the ‘walk’ button on the e-bike.
When riding on this route be careful crossing Pražská street, which can be pretty busy. But then you will be on a pleasant bike path (points 5-8). If the weather is reasonable and the beach is open, you can cross the dam and enter the swimming area (points 6-7). Just note there is no biking inside of the fenced area.
You should pay good attention to your ride between where the path is pretty narrow (points 8 and 9) and watch your head at the underpass which is quite low (point 13). Also you might notice that it is not just your perspective that the tunnel is getting smaller but a reality as you go through. We thought the best part of the trip is between point 14 to 15. If you think you want to save your battery and cut the trip short you can follow the yellow tourist trail back to the finish at point 15. Otherwise you can climb to the top of Krčský les and enjoy the long ride downhill as we did.
https://en.mapy.cz/s/futoratoda – 28 km with very little elevation gain. Any bike would be fine for this ride.
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