zxcvbnm

Are there any scenic national parks near Prague, Budapest, Vienna, or other parts of Eastern Europe?
Is there hiking there? Is early October too cold to go?

kja

Of course there are! Have you done a google search? Checked the Rough Guides or Lonely Planets for these countries?

One of the most spectacular = the Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. I have no idea whether that meets YOUR criteria for "near."

fourfortravel

National Park Thayatal (German)/Národní park Podyjí (Czech) is a shared park along the Austrian/Czech border that was once "No Man's Land." From Vienna the drive is about two hours; the park has spectacular hiking trails for all skill levels and is one of our favorites.

Neusiedlersee National Park is about an hour from Vienna and easily accessible by train. The trails are not difficult, but the scenery is pretty.

I think early October, on a nice weather day, should be fine for hiking.

unclegus

For Prague I would suggest this.

https://mapy.cz/turisticka?x=14.1697...Karl%C5%A1tejn
this is an area about 40 minutes by train from Prague and there are many good walking routes in the area.There are two I do on a regular basis.
1. train to Karlstejn then walk to the castle and then follow the route to Svaty Jan p Skalou (St John's under the rock), there is a couple of places there to eat and drink, you can then continue the walk to Beroun over the hill,good walking though there is affair bit of up and down but nothing a seasoned hiker would worry about.Total walking time 4-5 hours.
2.Train to Karlstejn then a walk along by the river to Beroun, very easy walking whicjh will take less than 3 hours and another hour to that if you decide to walk to the castle first for a look around.There are a couple of place in Srbsko for refreshments about half way along the route.
easy to get the train back to Prague from Beroun run around every 30 minutes and take around 40-50 minutes depending on the train.

zxcvbnm

thank you everyone; ill look into these.
kja, ive been to plitvice and it is stunning.

kja

Did you also visit the Krka National Park? If you enjoyed the Plitvice Lakes, you might like it, too -- there are some decided similarities.

tianere

There is plenty of them:
Near Vienna: National Park Upper Austrian Limestone Alps , Verwaltung Nationalpark Gesäuse, NP Donau-Auen, NP Neusiedlersee,
Near Bratislava there are no NP (but there are protected areas as Small Carpathians), our NPs are on north or east of the country , I would recomment NP Slovak Karst/Aggtelek (on Hungarian side) near Miskolc/Kosice,
Near Brno - Protected area Palava or Moravian Carst
Near Prague - NP Krkonose, NP Bohemian Switzerland or NP Czech Forrest

tianere

No, early October is perfect for hiking.

tianere

Krka is overcrowded in summer, Paklenica mountains are cool, but only in spring or autumn, it is too hot in summer there.

Ingo

Early October is perfect for National Park Bohemian Switzerland. Take the fast train to Decin, then bus to Hrensko, hike through the canyons (boat rides) to Mezna and Pravcicka brana, the biggest sandstone arch in Central Europe, and back to Hrensko. It's a full day, though, so have an early start.