Slavkovský les

The high, boggy plateau behind the spa triangle — mineral springs in the woods, the Kladská bogs, and Bečov's castle with its golden reliquary.

The train from Prague puts you in Mariánské Lázně in around two and a half hours, and from any of the three great spas — Karlovy Vary and Františkovy Lázně are the other two — the walking climbs out of the spa streets onto the plateau above. Up there the days are gentle: spruce forest and high peat bogs, with the boardwalk circuit around the bog lake and hunting lodge at Kladská as the showpiece, and dozens of smaller mineral springs bubbling up in the woods for anyone with a cup. What resurfaces below as the famous springs is this plateau’s rain — the CHKO has protected, in effect, the spas’ water since 1974.

The edges hold the drama: the Teplá valley winding down to Bečov nad Teplou with its castle and the St Maurus reliquary, and long descents into the spa towns’ colonnades. Distances are modest, gradients kind, and rail on the Karlovy Vary–Mariánské Lázně line threads the prettiest valley.