Prague fills three days. Bohemia fills the rest.
Which river cruise is worth the dinner price. What the ossuary at Kutná Hora costs once the coach is included. Whether Český Krumlov survives being a day trip. Reviews of every tour you can book in Czechia.
01The castle hill, the river at night, the bone chapel, the beer cellar.
Four bookings a first week in Czechia hangs off. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningPrague Castle 2.5-Hour Tour Including Admission TicketUp the hill before the coaches, through the cathedral and the Golden Lane, admission already in the price.
02The evening one50-Minute Sightseeing Evening CruiseFifty minutes on the Vltava with the bridges lit. The cheapest thing in Prague that feels expensive.
03The day outKutna Hora UNESCO Site Tour with Bone ChapelKutná Hora and the Sedlec ossuary, an hour east. Silver money built the cathedral; the bones are the reason you remember it.
04The beer educationPilsner Urquell Experience & Beer TastingThe Pilsner Urquell cellars and a glass drawn from the oak. The lager everyone else copies started in this room.
Prague for the spires, then whatever the morning train reaches.
A capital that survived the twentieth century with its skyline intact, a Renaissance town wrapped in a river bend, a chapel decorated in bone, a spa valley, a sandstone gorge and a castle on a limestone crag. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Almost everything in Prague is a twenty-minute walk from everything else.
The centre is compact, cobbled and mostly closed to cars, and a guided walk starts at much the same price whichever quarter you pick. So the decision is not cost, it is which three hours you want explained to you.
Prague was built to be looked at from the water.
The bridges, the castle wall and the weirs line up from a deck in a way they never do from the embankment. Fifty minutes with a coffee, three hours with dinner, or a flat-bottomed boat that slips into the Devil’s Channel beside Charles Bridge.
Prague: the hill before nine, the cellars after dark.
Everything in Prague →
Climb to the castle while the courtyards are still empty, come down through Malá Strana and the bridge, and let the evening happen underground. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Guided, or just the entry pass
The plain circuit ticket gets you into the cathedral, the Old Royal Palace and the Golden Lane. A guide costs more and is the difference between a pretty courtyard and a thousand years of coups.
The square, the clock, the cellars
The astronomical clock performs on the hour and disappoints most people; the medieval streets two metres below the square do not. Walking tours that include the underground are the ones worth the money.
Josefov, done properly
Six surviving synagogues and a cemetery where twelve thousand stones lean into each other because there was nowhere else to bury anyone. Check whether the entry tickets are inside the price before you book.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Czechia.
Every Czech tour we have reviewed →What earns each of them the slot, what it costs, and how long it takes.
1
50-Minute Sightseeing Evening Cruise
Board at Pier 4 for a 50-minute Vltava cruise past Rudolfinum, Charles Bridge, Kampa Island, Prague Castle, and Petřín Tower. Choose the warm indoor cabin or open deck, use the audio guide in Czech, English, or German, and bring headphones for the mobile guide.
From · $21
Read our review →
2
Medieval Dinner with Unlimited Drinks
from $75
3
Skip-the-line Castle Ticket and Optional AudioGuide
from $35
4
Castle Tour with Local Guide and Entry Ticket
from $61
5
Prague Castle 2.5-Hour Tour Including Admission Ticket
from $57
6
Oldtown, Medieval Underground & Dungeon History Tour
from $30
7
Vltava River Night Cruise with Buffet
from $81
8
Panoramic Vltava River Cruise
from $16
Every good Czech day trip leaves Prague before nine.
Český Krumlov is three hours south and wants a full day. Kutná Hora is one hour east and fits a morning. Karlovy Vary and the sandstone gorges sit in opposite directions, so pick one and give it the whole day.
Every day trip out of Prague →
What a day in Czechia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Prague is the cheap capital it used to be only if you know which side of these bands to book from.
Entry tickets, the short river cruises, walking tours and a tasting at a brewery tap.
The full days out: Kutná Hora, Terezín, Karlovy Vary, dinner cruises and the small-group castle runs.
Private guides, Český Krumlov door to door, and the sandstone-gorge days that eat twelve hours.
Three Czech ideas nobody else had.
Cathedrals and old squares run the length of Europe. A chapel furnished in human bone, a bath full of warm beer, and a chamber orchestra playing in a hall of mirrors do not.
The Sedlec Ossuary
A monk was sent to Jerusalem in the thirteenth century and came back with a jar of holy soil, which he scattered over the graveyard at Sedlec. Half of central Europe then wanted burying there. Six centuries later a woodcarver was handed the overflow and built a chandelier, four pyramids and a coat of arms out of it. Entry runs on timed slots and photography is restricted inside.
- 1Kutna Hora UNESCO Site Tour with Bone Chapel★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,917 reviews
- 2Kutná Hora, St.Barbara’s Church, Sedlec Ossuary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 673 reviews
- 3Day Trip to Kutná Hora by train from Prague★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 587 reviews
The Beer Spa
You sit in an oak tub of warm water, hops and brewer’s yeast with a tap of unfiltered lager beside your elbow, then lie on a straw bed to sweat it out. It began as a Bohemian brewery’s idea of a wellness product and became a genuine Prague fixture. Almost every one of these is priced per tub rather than per head, so it works out cheapest as a pair.
- 1Bernard Beer Spa with Beer and Massage Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 4,164 reviews
- 2Beer Spa Bernard with Beer and Massage Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 447 reviews
- 3Caroline Bernard Beer Spa Prague with Beer & Massage Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 283 reviews
The Chamber Concert
Prague never stopped programming small halls: the Mirror Chapel in the Klementinum, the Lobkowicz palace above the castle steps, a baroque church with forty seats. A ticket costs less than a decent dinner, the programme is usually Vivaldi or Mozart, and the room is the reason to go rather than an excuse.
- 1Entry Ticket Classical Concert at the Mirror Chapel★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,636 reviews
- 2A. Vivaldi Four Seasons at St. Salvator Church★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,951 reviews
- 3Mozart Ballroom Concert Ticket with 3-Course Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,200 reviews
Four Czech bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on timed slots, brewery schedules and a season that closes behind you.
- 01Kutna Hora UNESCO Site Tour with Bone ChapelThe ossuary sells timed entry with a cap on each slot, and the day trips are built around the slot the operator holds.
- 02Pilsner Urquell Experience & Beer TastingThe cellar tasting only happens on the guided tour, and there are a handful of English departures a day.
- 03VIP Best Reviews: Bohemian & Saxon Switzerland from PragueThe gorge boats on the Kamenice run in the warm months and stop entirely when the water is high.
- 04Entry Ticket Classical Concert at the Mirror ChapelA hall of that size sells maybe a hundred seats, and the good nights go before the week does.
Czechia drinks more beer per head than any country on earth. It shows.
Lager was invented ninety minutes west of Prague and the country has been refining the argument ever since. Book the brewery tour for the cellar tasting, the food walk for everything that is not goulash, and the pub crawl for the floors below street level.
From November the square is beautiful and the wind is not.
Prague sits at the same latitude as Frankfurt with none of the coast, so the cold is dry, the afternoons end at four, and standing outdoors stops being the plan by early December. Everything worth doing here is already indoors: a cellar restaurant, a museum, a concert, a tub of warm beer.
By place — the capital and the roads out of it
Prague, a castle, the ossuary, then south to the river bend.
Kutná Hora
Český Krumlov
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