Czech Republic
Recommended Day Trips from Prague
Time permitting, we recommend visiting the towns below. While a day trip is possible, there is definitely enough to see to warrant spending a night.
Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad)
Karlovy Vary is the largest well-known in Czech republic, located 130 km away from Prague in a picturesque valley, surrounded with the Krusne mountains at the junction of two rivers: the Tepla and Ogrzle.
The city was founded by the Czech king and Roman emperor Karl IV in 1350 approximately. As the legend goes, the King who hurt his leg when hunting in this place, it with the help of the local hot springs. The development of the city was closely connected with the therapeutic effect of 12 hot and 1 cold mineral springs with the temperature ranging between 7,9 DC and 73 DC.
Natrium-bicarbonate-sulfate thermal waters have a unique chemical composition, such type of waters do not exist anywhere in the world. The hottest spring Vridlo (Geyser) spurts out up to the height of 12 meters.
Annually it is visited by 85 000 guests from 70 countries and about 2 million visitors come for a short period of stay. The city, situated not far from the German border, has its own airport. The population is 56 000 people. Karlovy Vary is a city of romantic architecture and famous colonnade with its balneological springs, a nice place for lounging about picturesque parks and thick woods.
For the recent years to attract more foreign tourists new hotels and spa have been built and the old ones have been reconstructed in the resort zone.
International film festivals and congresses, music festivals, get-together meetings of out- standing political statesmen, artists and scientists are held here.
The city offers ample opportunities for lovers of sport: golf, tennis, the oldest race course in Czech republic (1899), shooting-ran ge. Karlovy Vary are famous for its world-known traditional herb liqueur "Becherovka", made of an infusion of 20 herbs, mineral water "Mattoni" made of aragonite and unique geyser salt. However, the main attraction of this spa town from year to year remains effective classical spa resort that has been improving for six hundred years.
Cesky Krumlov
The town of Cesky Krumlov is more and more turning into the final destination of thousands of visitors from our own country and abroad. This is no wonder, as it has been preserved as a medieval architectonic historical monument even now and is picturesque located on the meander of the Vltava River.
The unrivaled status of the town led to the declaration of Cesky Krumlov as a Historical Urban Reservation as early as 1963.
The significance of Cesky Krumlov as an unusual Historical Monument was pointed out in 1992 by the act of the International Association of UNESCO. Cesky Krumlov was included among the monuments of world importance, those to which exceptional care, attention and support had to be indispensably devoted. The unique urban integrity contains more than 300 historical buildings and its atmosphere is absolutely incomparable.