The forest path network
Tens of kilometres of maintained paths around the town, all free.
On foot uphill from the town on the numbered paths starting at several points in the spa district. The climb takes half an hour to an hour depending on where you begin. Maps are available at the tourist office and the paths are well signed.
The climb to the Diana tower is the best known; you can go up by funicular and walk down or the reverse, and the view from the tower takes in the town and the surrounding forest. Many paths branch from there, so you can choose the length to fit your time.
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A wooden viewing gazebo standing on a slope in the woods above Karlovy Vary, on one of the walking paths that ring the town. Its name comes from the camera obscura, the optical device that projected an image of the outside scene onto a surface inside a darkened room โ the principle the camera was later built on. Gazebos of this kind were raised in the nineteenth century as viewing points along the spa walking routes. That explains something about Karlovy Vary invisible in its centre: the town was not only springs but a whole system of forest walking paths, with gazebos, benches and viewpoints, because walking was part of the treatment prescribed to guests. Those paths still exist, are still maintained, are free, and run for tens of kilometres around the town. The gazebo itself is a short stop on the route rather than a destination: the view is over the town's valley, and the real value is in the walk.
Tens of kilometres of maintained paths around the town, all free.
The paths exist because walking was part of the prescription for spa guests.
A view over the Karlovy Vary valley from above the woods.
The Karlovy Vary woods, above the town