Hop Country to Žatec
České středohoří · Point to point · hiked 8 December 2023
A 39.6 km winter weekend down the Ohře — Friday leg to Louny and the Šalanda pub, Saturday through the hop country past Stekník into UNESCO Žatec.
A winter čundr shaped like a proper weekend: short Friday leg, long Saturday, Sunday morning train home. The country is the flat hop and grain land along the Ohře — no summits, no crowds, just river, fields and two good towns.
Friday
An afternoon train to Slavětín nad Ohří leaves a comfortable eight-kilometre evening walk along the river through Počedělice into Louny. Dinner at Šalanda — our favourite pub in town — and the night in Louny.
Saturday
The long day heads west out of Louny, keeping company with the Ohře through Skupice and Březno u Postoloprt, where the fields hide one of the country’s best-researched prehistoric settlement sites. Past Mradice the hop poles begin — first scattered, then everywhere — until Stekník appears on its low spur, a rococo château alone in the hop fields, with its five garden terraces facing the afternoon sun. The final stretch follows the Zlatý potok country into Žatec, arriving through the warehouse quarter that earned the town its UNESCO listing. Beds, pubs and the Sunday train home are all within the old town.
Practical info
| Start | Slavětín nad Ohří railway stop — by train |
|---|---|
| End | Žatec railway station — by train, bus |
| Terrain | field track |
| Food & water | Šalanda (Louny) (pub , km 8 )
— the Friday dinner stop — a favourite |
| Links | Open route on Mapy.com |
| GPX | Download track |
On the way
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Louny
A royal town on the Ohře below the southern edge of the České středohoří, with preserved walls, the Žatec Gate and Benedikt Rejt's late-Gothic church of St Nicholas.
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Stekník
A rococo château standing alone in a sea of hop fields — five Italian garden terraces from the 1760s stepping down its southern slope, part of the Žatec UNESCO landscape.
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Žatec
The world capital of hops — a medieval town whose warehouses, oast houses and surrounding hop fields were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 2023.
