Snow in Czech Republic

I had a great trip to Spindleruv Mlyn in the Krkonose mountains. There was snow there in October and there should be snow there at xmas. Depending on the weather, you might be able to do some skiing, or perhaps climb up Snezka, the Czech Republic's highest mountain.

Sumava National Park, a beautiful plateau in South Bohemia, not far from Cesky Krumlov (but around 4 hours from Prague by public transport) is also very likely to be covered with snow around Christmas.

The first snow already fell this year in the mountains on the CZ-PL border... though there is no 100% guarantee it will be there when you arrive. You could do a daytrip to Spindleruv Mlyn to catch a glimpse of it.
Take the metro in Prague till the final stop, Cerny Most, and there are buses from there to S.Mlyn every hour or so. Hop on the 7/8am bus and you'll have all day to walk around the forests and town, have dinner and go back to Prague again.
Sort out times and prices at www.vlak-bus.cz. It will be wise to buy your bus tickets in advance at that time of year as it can get busy with other daytrippers - you can do that at the Florenc bus station in central Prague.

I spent a few days between X-mas and New year, in Cesky Krumlov last year. 5 cm of snow, the river was half-frozen, extremly beautiful, and not so many tourists. Is that normal for C K at time of year? Some people from the hostel went skiiig, nearby as well.
Planing my X-mas vacation somewhere in Europe and having problems desciding.

spindlermühle is the german name for spindleruv mylin (or spindle-mill in english),
take a look at those wonderfull pictures! it is not further away than 150 kilometers
from prague.

sumava or böhmerwald (in german) bohemian forest (in english)

is rigth too, we call the hills west of there "bavarian forest".

take the train via budweis (cesky budejovice) and böhmisch krumau
(cesky krumlov) to "nova pec" close to lake lipno. prepare! you are out
in the woods, do not expect any sort of a las vegas style entertainment!

(on the other hand, you only pay around USD 0,40 for a 0,5 liter glass of budweiser)

'super

Edited by: superlufti2000

Thanks everyone for such fantastic information.

You might want to take a trip to Liberec as well. Its in the Krkonose Mountains so likely will get more snow that some other areas of the country. You can go up to the Jested look out point and get a very nice view of the surrounding area.

One thing I will say is that Czech winters the past few years have been quite mild and more wet than snowy. The last couple of years have actually been quite distressing for ski area operators do to much reduced snow falls.

I live in Brno and the past few winters here have been more wet than anything else.

I agree that Liberec could be a nice option - it had snow for Christmas when I lived there. In the north I would say any town between Liberec and Trutnov is 90% likely to have snow. Elsewhere in the Czech republic your chances of seeing snow are about 60%.

Totally unscientific - just my thoughts.

western and central europe
mostly have an oceanic (atlantic)
climate.

the czech republic is in between
the russian (continental) dry climate
and the mediterranean/north sea
winter-wet climate.

all areas in central europe
were not "snowsafe"
anymore since the mid '80s.

the further east (or northeast) you go,
the higher you can rise your expectations
to see some powderish snow.

"northeast" means sweden, finland, estonia,
latvia, lithuania, eastern poland and/or russia.

every place above 1.000 meter
above mean sea level - MSL -
(equals to 3.000 feet in elevation) is
a good bet for a "white location"
during christmas (every + 100
meters = -1° celsius).

spindelermühle (spindleruv mlyn)
and sumava mountains are above
1.000 metres MSL.

'super

Edited by: superlufti2000