New Year's Morning at Košťál

A short 11.6 km New Year's Eve walk from Lovosice over the Košťál ruin to Třebenice — a morning hike with an afternoon train home.

Some hikes are rituals: we walk a short one like this every New Year’s Eve — a morning in the hills, back in Prague by late afternoon — and this corner of the western Středohoří is built for exactly that. Eleven kilometres, one proper climb, trains at both ends.

From Lovosice the route slips out of town through Vchynice under the flank of Lovoš and follows the field paths through Radostice towards the ridge. The day’s centrepiece is Košťálov — the bare cone with its ruin visible from half the lower Ohře — and the summit is where the New Year’s tradition happens: a small fire, a few beers, the year’s last view. In December the light is low and the basalt cold, which is most of the charm.

The descent drops to Kololeč on the edge of Třebenice, where the train home runs on the Lovosice–Most line — with Třebívlice one stop further if a pub before the mainline connection appeals.