FAQ

The operation of aircraft capable of flying without a pilot (so-called "drones", but also so-called "Thai lucky balloons" or similar devices) and model aircraft in the entire territory of the national park, with the exception of built-up areas and buildable areas, is prohibited by the Nature and Landscape Protection Act . The reason for this measure is to prevent disturbance to animals, especially birds, but also to ensure peace of mind for visitors to the national park.

The regulations on civil aviation allow for take-offs and landings to use only areas that are outside the territory of a national park, protected landscape area, national nature reserve, nature reserve, national natural monument and natural monument, if to use the territory of a national park, protected landscape area, national nature reserves, nature reserves, national natural monuments and natural monuments have not been approved by the relevant nature protection authority.

The KRNAP Administration is responsible for granting an exception or consent in the territory of the KRNAP.

Details on the use of unmanned aircraft can be found at: http://www.caa.cz/letadla-bez-pilota-na-palube

In the past, some roads leading through avalanche cadastres were closed by the Mountain Service for safety reasons. Currently, neither the Mountain Service nor the KRNAP Administration closes any roads for safety reasons. Only on roads that cross avalanche paths, the Mountain Service installs signs informing of the danger before the start of winter. So you can walk on all marked hiking trails even in winter, but you need to consider your plans with regard to the avalanche situation or other danger (icy path).

Yes, there is an entrance fee to enter the territory of Karkonoskiego Park Narodowego (KPN). The cash desks are at the approaches from the Polish hinterland. When entering the KPN from the Czech side, you will not come across them, but visitors can now purchase the entrance fee to the KPN electronically at https://kpn.gov.pl/bilety. You can pay a one-day entrance fee of PLN 10, one-day entrance fee of PLN 20 or a three-day entrance fee of PLN 24 by credit card or bank transfer. Pupils and students, pensioners, disabled persons and professional soldiers will pay a reduced entrance fee of PLN 5. Children under the age of 7 do not have to pay the entrance fee.

Camping is not permitted on the territory of the Krkonoše National Park. The ridge sections are part of the KRNAP quiet area, where it is not possible to walk on open terrain outside of marked paths. So you could easily run into trouble with the law when staying the night. However, there is a wide enough range of accommodation in mountain huts, hotels and guesthouses at affordable prices throughout the mountains that it is not necessary to sleep in the open air.

Krkonoše and Šumava are different mountain ranges. In the Krkonoše Mountains, in contrast to Šumava, we also have a sufficient number of accommodation entities in the ridge part of the mountains - cabins, hotels and guesthouses, whose services tourists can use. It is therefore not necessary to create a system of "emergency" shelters. Providing a service (toilet) for such night shelters would cost considerable funds, which are not available, and would bring with it an additional load on tourist routes by car traffic.

Precisely because the Giant Mountains are a national park. The Nature and Landscape Protection Act states that bicycles cannot be ridden anywhere other than on designated routes. The KRNAP administration has therefore reserved more than 400 km of official cycling routes (https://www.krnap.cz/cyklotrasy-krnap/). It should be borne in mind that the Krkonoše Mountains are interwoven with a network of 800 km of footpaths and many cycle paths run parallel to the footpaths. The danger of collisions between pedestrians and cyclists is real and you need to be careful and considerate. Most cycle paths are circular. Only a few are blind, meaning that at their end it is impossible to continue and cyclists have to turn back. These are cycle paths to Luční bouda, Labská bouda, Vosecká bouda and to Jelenka.

No, it is not possible to legally ride a bike to Sněžka, neither from the Czech nor from the Polish side. In the Krkonoše National Park, it is possible to ride bicycles only on officially designated cycle paths.

The entry of motor vehicles into the Krkonoše National Park is regulated by law. In addition to the security forces and the administrator of the territory, for example, owners or tenants of buildings, supplies, etc. have the right of entry. In general, it can be said that the movement of motor vehicles on the KRNAP territory is not desirable, but with regard to the operation of mountain huts, hotels and guesthouses, it cannot be ruled out.

Krkonoše National Park is classified in the IUCN categorization as Protected Landscape, i.e. category V. Being in category II (National Park) would mean at least prospectively reaching 70% of the extent of the park's undisturbed territory. This is not only not possible in the Krkonoše Mountains, but also desirable from the point of view of nature protection. A large part of KRNAP is made up of ecosystems that were not only influenced by human activity, but directly created and would disappear without human intervention. These are ecosystems that are very valuable (mainly mountain meadows and pastures). So KRNAP is, of course, a national park. From the perspective of the IUCN, it is a national park that protects the cultural landscape on a large part of its territory. You can find more detailed information about the IUCN and its categorization here: www.europarc.cz

It is forbidden for dogs to run freely in the Krkonoše National Park. In practice, this means that they do not have to be on a leash, but must be within reach and under the command of their master. However, we recommend keeping it directly on a leash. Especially near pens with grazing livestock. The reason is both the protection of wild animals and other visitors. These are the rules for the territory of the Czech Krkonoše National Park. On the Polish side of the mountains, where stricter rules apply, but the dog must be on a leash.

There are many places in the Krkonoše Mountains where this activity can be practiced legally. Unfortunately, however, some seek the ridge plains, which are protected as KRNAP quiet areas. The Act on the Protection of Nature and Landscape does not allow entry (or entry) outside the marked path in these places. Plains kiters may disturb the rare black grouse, which, unlike kiters, has nowhere else to live. Another reason may be damage to the sedge and other woody plants in places where the growing season (ie, among other things, the time for regeneration of the damaged plant) lasts only 70 days in the whole year. In practice, this means that snowkiting in the wider vicinity of Luční and Labská bouda, including the plains on the other side of the state border, is undesirable and therefore also penalized. On the other hand, the Giant Mountains really offer kiters good terrains where kiters can ride. A good location is the vast meadows in the vicinity of Brádler's sheds, Medvědí bouda or Moravská bouda in the central Krkonoše Mountains. The meadows around Vrchlabí also have a good terrain configuration.

They are not there entirely on purpose. Even in the Krkonoše Mountains, the principle applied in most national parks in Europe applies: "What you bring into nature, you also take back with you. Leftovers after your visit do not belong in it." In the past, we had bins on the main tourist routes and one of the results was that when they were not taken out daily, their contents were regularly spread around by crow-like birds and small animals, so the situation in the field was still unrecognizable in terms of littering. worse than now. The regular removal of garbage from the territory, which is 550 km² (and it would be necessary every day - see the previous reason) would entail significant financial costs, which can be eliminated simply by the visitor taking his own garbage nicely back "to civilization" . In addition, regular garbage collection would add another burden to the already uncomfortably (for a national park) high traffic load. There are approximately 800 km of hiking trails in the Giant Mountains. Even if only one lorry drove around them every day, this burden would be considerable for the Krkonoše nature.

The cable car to Lysá Hora leads to the most valuable parts of the Krkonoše National Park. For this reason, it was already a considerable compromise on the part of the KRNAP Administration that 15 years ago it agreed that a four-seater cable car would be built on the site of the old out-of-service ski lift. In 1995, the basic condition for granting a building permit was already clearly established that it was possible only on the condition that the cable car would only be in operation in the winter season and with sufficient snow cover. The cable car has an upper station in places where there is no summer tourist route. It is an extremely valuable area from a naturalistic point of view (primarily the arctic-alpine tundra and frost-sorted soils that were formed over the last 200,000 years due to the climatic conditions there) and from the point of view of nature protection (the density of tourist routes in the Krkonoše Mountains is significantly above average in the European context of national parks, and the peak Lysé hory, at least in the summer, is one of the few quiet locations where animals can take refuge from disturbance. Several variants of the cable car's summer operation are currently being assessed. This will show whether any of them are acceptable in terms of impact on nature.

Forests in the Krkonoše National Park are not economic forests, but special purpose forests. This is why the local foresters manage the forests differently. In ordinary forests, logging residues (mud) are removed from the forest and the forest thus becomes "visually" cleaned. In the Giant Mountains, however, this dendromass will serve other life (beetles, mushrooms, etc.). Leaving the litter in the stand to decompose naturally without concentrating it in piles is generally (on an international scale) considered a condition of close to nature forest management and has a demonstrable positive effect on soil chemistry and the microbial life of forest soils. Dead wood is the basis of new life. It will gradually disintegrate. With the same vision, we leave the den trees, which are a natural nesting place for birds, and some fallen trees in the forest. The KRNAP administration is the only national park in the Czech Republic with FSC, which means that we manage our forests in an ecological way. Keeping a certain percentage of wood in the forest is one of the conditions.

You can't. The entry of motor vehicles into the Krkonoše National Park is regulated by law. In addition to the security forces and the administrator of the territory, for example, owners or tenants of buildings, supplies, etc. have the right of entry. In general, it can be said that the movement of motor vehicles on the KRNAP territory is not desirable, but with regard to the operation of mountain huts, hotels and guesthouses, it cannot be ruled out.

It is not in the interest of nature protection and traffic control to thicken the network in this sensitive area. This follows not only from the conservation principles of the KRNAP Administration, but also from the approved KRNAP Care Plan. In addition, the intention to lead a cycle route here was repeatedly discussed and met with resistance from some owners of the road's plots of land or surrounding properties.

The KRNAP administration has built shelters against bad weather in several places. However, they are not primarily intended for overnight stays, they are not equipped for this (toilets, etc.). You can find them in Ručičky, above Krakonošová breakfast, on Janoušk's path, at the crossroads U Čtyřech pánu, in Rovinky, Svozu, Malá Martinovka, Krásné plani, Klínovky, Černý potoc, Rejdišti, V Končiná, on Cestník, Wenceslas Square, Černého hora, Rohu phanárica , at the Albeřice border crossing and under Lesní hreben. Shelters have also become part of the tourist infrastructure. You can find out which they are and where to find them here: https://www.krkonose.eu/poznejte-krkonosske-utulny. Shelters are only meant to wait out bad weather and not to spend the night.

In the Czech Republic, this is possible if you do not destroy riparian vegetation (or otherwise endanger the nature of the Krkonoše Mountains) in connection with swimming, and provided that you do not violate the ban on entering off marked paths in the KRNAP quiet area. However, swimming in the waterfalls is prohibited in the Polish part of the national park.

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