A town where movement is prescribed
Mariánské Lázně has a unique relationship with movement: here it is part of the treatment. The terrain cure — walking on prescription — has been practised for over two hundred years, and modern medicine agrees. We covered that side in Movement at the spa extends life.
This article is about something else: sport for the joy of it. Because few towns the size of Mariánské Lázně pack so much into so little space — the oldest golf course in the country, an 18-hole disc golf course, tennis courts with a pedigree, pools, kilometres of running trails and, in winter, even a ski slope. And almost all of it within walking distance of the colonnade.
Running: forest paths instead of concrete
For runners, Mariánské Lázně is a small paradise. The town is wrapped in the Slavkov Forest and a network of more than 70 kilometres of marked trails that begin literally past the last houses. At 578–630 metres above sea level, running stays pleasant even in summer — as we calculated in Escaping the heat, hot spells never last all day here.
Where to run:
- The spa parks — flat loops around the colonnade and the Singing Fountain, ideal for an easy jog; in the morning you will meet more runners than cars
- The forest paths above the colonnade — surfaced promenade paths with gentle climbs, the very ones the terrain cure uses
- Loops through the Slavkov Forest — for longer tempo runs; forest roads and trails with views, and the waymarking reliably brings you back to town
Tip: the running map is really the map of hiking trails — every one of them works at a jog, in both directions.
Walking and nordic walking: the sport they invented here
It sounds like a joke, but it is not: walking is the most quintessentially Marienbad sport of all. The terrain cure — dosed walking on paths with defined gradients — is prescribed here as a procedure. Nordic walking gave it a modern form: with poles you engage up to 90% of the body's muscles, against about 40% in ordinary walking. The routes lead straight from the spa park into the surrounding forests, graded from flat green routes to red ones for active sportspeople.
The routes are the same ones runners use — from flat park loops to the climb to Koliba and Krakonoš. And if you want to turn walking into an experience, follow the most beautiful walks.
Scooters and bikes: the Slavkov Forest from another angle
Off-road scooters are a surprisingly ideal machine for the rolling terrain around the town — fun downhill, training uphill. Ask at the hotel receptions about hiring one; a favourite loop runs via Kladská and back past the forest springs.
Cyclists have it even easier: the Koliba–Krakonoš cable car — incidentally the oldest operating cabin lift in the Czech Republic — carries bikes in summer, so you can ride up the hardest climb and glide back into town. A marked network of cycling routes of every difficulty surrounds the town; find tips among the day trips.
Tennis: courts with a story
The TCF Schicht Mariánské Lázně tennis complex on Anglická street is one of the prettiest clay-court venues in the region — and in August 2026 it hosted the international junior Billie Jean King Cup Juniors. Courts can be hired by the hour and racket hire is arranged on the spot. Playing tennis a few hundred metres from the colonnade, surrounded by forest, is an experience hard to find elsewhere.
Golf: the royal classic and a version for beginners
The Royal Golf Club Mariánské Lázně is a chapter of its own: founded in 1905 at the initiative of the English King Edward VII, it is the oldest golf course in the Czech Republic and the only club in continental Europe with the title "Royal". The eighteen-hole championship course lies high above the town among the forests — and the altitude visibly lengthens the flight of the ball. The full guide is on our golf page.
You do not need a handicap, though:
- The public 9-hole course in the spa zone offers golf and footgolf with no membership and no green card
- Chip&Putt is a shortened form of the game that truly every member of the family can manage — the ideal first contact with golf
Disc golf: the newest arrival, loved by families
Since 2022 Mariánské Lázně has had an 18-hole disc golf course at Na Voře — 1,862 metres long, built from the town's participatory budget. According to UDisc, Mariánské Lázně is in fact the best disc golf town in the Karlovy Vary Region. You grasp the rules in five minutes, discs can be borrowed at the hotel receptions, and a round takes a family a pleasant hour and a half.
Swimming: a pool under your own roof
In Mariánské Lázně you need not go anywhere to swim — most Ensana hotels have their own pool, so you can fit in your morning lengths before breakfast:
- Butterfly offers a 12 × 6 m pool with a whirlpool, sauna and gym under one roof
- Nové Lázně has the historic Roman Baths — you swim between marble columns from 1896, in a monument with no parallel in Europe
The hotel pools serve guests, free to use throughout the stay. The Roman Baths also admit the public subject to free capacity — ask the Nové Lázně spa reception (spa.nl@ensanahotels.com).
Swimming is also the ideal complement to spa treatment — gentle movement without loading the joints, exactly in the spirit of what the doctors here recommend. And afterwards, straight to the whirlpool or the sauna rituals.
Fitness under expert guidance
You will find gyms right in the hotels — and the Marienbad speciality is that fitness here is often led by a physiotherapist, not a poster trainer. Our physiotherapist Eliška has recorded a series of short videos with neck and thoracic spine stretches you can do in a hotel room or on a park bench — all of them on the Active September page or on the Ensana Mariánské Lázně YouTube channel (in Czech, demonstrated on screen).
Winter: a ski slope five minutes from the colonnade
Yes, Mariánské Lázně has its own ski resort. Skiareál Mariánky offers 1,450 metres of slopes, a cabin cable car and two lifts, evening skiing three times a week and a children's park. The lift is a few minutes' walk from the colonnade — making Marienbad one of the few spa towns where you can ski in the morning and lie in a mineral bath in the afternoon. More in Winter in Mariánské Lázně.
Putting a sporting stay together
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | running or nordic walking | parks, forest promenades |
| Late morning | treatments and pool | hotel |
| Afternoon | golf, tennis, disc golf, scooters | venues in and around town |
| Early evening | stretching with Eliška | room or park |
| Evening | colonnade and a concert | town centre |
Sport is not the reason to come — that would be the springs and spa care. But it is the reason a stay never grows stale. And if you come in September, when the town is quieter after the main season and the weather is ideal for movement, the Active September programme awaits on top.
