Traveling with Agata: Skiing in Herlikovice

December 2013 - January 2014

After all that eating at Christmas I was honestly relieved to spend some time doing physical activities and more importantly, skiing after a two-year-break. Besides, there's no better feeling than knowing that you have more than a week off ahead! I was full of anticipation.

As I was crossing the border with the Czech Republic, there was still some snow left.

Yet, the further I drove, the less snow I could see.

I started to worry about ski conditions. Luckily, as it turned out later, I could and I did ski throughout my whole stay in Herlikovice.

I stayed in a nice hotel situated 300 meters from the ski slope. I could check up on skiers from my window every morning! I didn't have to walk there either, as the ski bus system worked wonderfully. Ski buses take you from your accommodation on request or from a free parking lot right to the ski slope.

Herlikovice-Bubakov is a ski resort in the Karkonose Mountains, 130 km from the capital city - Prague and about 50 km from the Polish border. It's quite a good place for skiing at reasonable price. This place seems to be targeted for beginners and medium skiers with mainly blue and red runs.

There are over 11 km of ski slopes there. Sadly, some runs, including my favorite one, were closed due to bad snow conditions. However, the good thing was that I was somehow forced to try out other more advanced trails.

The facilities in Herlikovice - Bubakov ski area are decent.

You'll see ski chairs and cable tows there.

There is also a ski school at which I bought two lessons just to work on my technique. The ski instructors were nice there, yet it was a bit hard to communicate with them either in Polish/Czech or English.

On short breaks, apart from gorgeous views, I could enjoy numerous bars and restaurants with relatively cheap and good refreshments.

Zaly, 1019 m, top

Zaly, foot

A few years ago I fell in love with skiing. Since that moment I've been looking forward to skiing every winter. This ski trip was definitely my favorite one so far. Accommodation conditions and food were excellent. And even despite worse snow conditions, I could still enjoy skiing. As a matter of fact, it was the first time I spent as many as seven days in a row on ski slopes. On top of that, I managed to overcome my fear of skiing on more challenging terrain, I broke my speed record and finally, I even slightly improved my technique.