Klatovy, West Bohemia, July 23 (CTK) – A west Bohemian publisher has issued the first ever tourist guide to the whole Sumava mountain range covering its Czech, Austrian and Bavarian parts, describing 600 localities and offering photos as well as a lot of useful information, Petr Flachs has told CTK.
Flachs represents the Stary most (Old Bridge) publishing house seated in Plzen, the centre of West Bohemia.
A team of five authors prepared the guidebook Sumava, Bavarian Forest and Muhlviertel for two years.
The guide acquaints the readers with the history of all settlements, villages and towns involved, and also of memorial sites and natural sights in the region.
It also offers a list of educational trails and walking routes, all ski complexes and the rules of visitors’ behaviour, Flachs said.
He said Muhlviertel, the Austrian part of Sumava spreading south of the southernmost Czech border, is rather unknown.
The publisher house’s other co-owner, Petr Mazny, said 1.8 million people annually visit the Bavarian Forest National Park, which is the second most-visited tourist destination in Germany.
“Out of the foreigners who come to spend one day there, 60 percent are Czechs, whose number has been rising every year,” Mazny said.
The Czech part, or the Sumava National Park (NPS), is almost three times larger than the Bavarian Forest, but the number of people visiting it is only slightly higher, Mazny said.
He said Marita Haller, from the border town of Zwiesel, provided fresh information about the Bavarian part of Sumava, where much has changed and new attractions have mushroomed in the past decade.
According to Mazny, people tend to return to printed maps and guides, preferring them to online information.
