Hiking

Many roads lead to … How to find your way around.

Here you will find an overview map of the region. Seeking advice on destinations? The online tour-finder of the Saxon Switzerland Tourist Board provides route suggestions with maps for printing. Whether you take a guided tour (for current events see our calendar), have a National Park guide lead you on your way or explore a variety of attractions on your own – these things you should know: The National Park is an area of peace for the natural environment and, at the same time, an area of recreation for people, where they can experience untouched nature: Hike along over 400 km of marked and usually well accessible trails, some of which are also suitable for easy walks. In the entire area visitors must stay on the trails. In the core zone, visitors are allowed to use only designated routes. How to find your way, you will see in the following markings. For the National Park, there is a trail concept, which describes, among other things, what paths can be accessed. Please note any maintenance work on trails in our news.

Each color has a different meaning: blue stands for national, red for regional and green and yellow for local trails. You may also encounter the following special markings in the National Park area:

	Educational trail with information boards (e.g. the rafters’ track in the Kirnitzsch valley)
	European long-distance trail E3 (Atlantic Ocean – Ardennes – Ore Mountains – Carpathian – Black Sea)
	Painters’ Path – 112 km along the tracks of the Romantic painters through the Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland; the Painters’ Path is based on the historical standard route from the beginning of the 19th century

Moreover, there are 16 km of mountain trails in the National Park, which are marked with a green triangle on gray background. Because of the required physical condition, they are suitable only for experienced hikers.

Mountain trail (mostly difficult, good physical condition required)

To make the summits in the National Park accessible to climbers, special access paths to the rocks are marked in the terrain:

	Climbing access: Access path to summits (no additional safety precautions have been taken here)
	No Access – Trail closed for natural protection

All markings, signs and information boards in the National Park are funded, logistically registered, replaced when damaged and maintained by the National Park Authority – a contribution for our guests for better orientation in the field.

Then and now

For more than two hundred years people have walked through the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Once the painters of the Romantic era discovered Saxon Switzerland; this marked the beginning of the comprehensive tourist development of a landscape that was hardly accessible until then. Excursions and hikes in and through Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland came into fashion. From then on, they determined the tourism industry; it evolved into an independent industry, from which more and more people were making a living. Or, at least, they improved their meager income a little. Knowledgeable tour guides took the hikers onto the rocks and view points. Guesthouses for the so-called “summerfreshers” were established and inns would serve a cold beer to hikers after a strenuous tour. – And today? People still walk largely on the formerly established network of trails. Just different …. Even the guides still exist today! They accompany hikers, share their inexhaustible knowledge of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and their trails, show you interesting and hidden facts about the fauna, flora and geology of our rocks.