diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
index b32609cd..4547b94e 100644
--- a/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,18 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
+from datasets import DownloadMode, load_dataset
+
 TESTS_ROOT = Path(__file__).parent
 FIXTURES_ROOT = TESTS_ROOT / "fixtures"
 DATASET_BUILDERS_ROOT = Path("dataset_builders")
+
+
+def _check_hf_conll2003_is_available():
+    try:
+        load_dataset("conll2003", download_mode=DownloadMode.FORCE_REDOWNLOAD)
+        return True
+    except ConnectionError:
+        return False
+
+
+_HF_CONLL2003_IS_AVAILABLE = _check_hf_conll2003_is_available()
diff --git a/tests/data/test_dataset.py b/tests/data/test_dataset.py
index 7db0f3b8..2d390e2b 100644
--- a/tests/data/test_dataset.py
+++ b/tests/data/test_dataset.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 from pytorch_ie.data.dataset import get_pie_dataset_type
 from pytorch_ie.documents import TextDocument
 from pytorch_ie.taskmodules import TransformerSpanClassificationTaskModule
-from tests import DATASET_BUILDERS_ROOT
+from tests import _HF_CONLL2003_IS_AVAILABLE, DATASET_BUILDERS_ROOT
 from tests.conftest import TestDocument
 
 
@@ -265,6 +265,10 @@ def test_dataset_with_taskmodule(
         assert not document["entities"].predictions
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    not _HF_CONLL2003_IS_AVAILABLE,
+    reason="the Huggingface conll2003 dataset is not reachable and the local PIE-variant depends on it",
+)
 def test_load_with_hf_datasets():
     dataset_path = DATASET_BUILDERS_ROOT / "conll2003"
 
@@ -279,6 +283,10 @@ def test_load_with_hf_datasets():
     assert len(dataset["test"]) == 3453
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    not _HF_CONLL2003_IS_AVAILABLE,
+    reason="the Huggingface conll2003 dataset is not reachable and the remote PIE-variant depends on it",
+)
 def test_load_with_hf_datasets_from_hub():
     dataset = datasets.load_dataset(
         path="pie/conll2003",