Czech Republic Discovery Guide

Prague is the obvious answer and it deserves it — a city that came through the twentieth century with its medieval and baroque core physically intact, which almost nothing else in central Europe managed.

But the country rewards leaving it. Cesky Krumlov is a complete Renaissance town inside a bend of the Vltava. Kutna Hora was a silver city rich enough to rival the capital and has the cathedral to prove it. Olomouc has the second-largest historic centre in the country and a fraction of the visitors. Brno is the modernist counterweight, with the Tugendhat Villa by Mies van der Rohe.

Then there is the beer, which is not a cliche — pilsner was invented in Plzen in 1842 and the Czechs drink more per head than anyone on earth. And a dense network of castles, spa towns and sandstone landscapes, all reachable by a train system that actually works.

If you have a long weekend

Prague: the castle and Mala Strana on one day, the medieval centre and Josefov on another, and the third in Vinohrady and Zizkov where people actually live. A day trip to Kutna Hora for the cathedral and the ossuary at Sedlec is an easy hour by train.

If you have a week

Add Cesky Krumlov and the south Bohemian pond country, then Brno for the Tugendhat Villa and the Moravian Karst caves, and finish in Olomouc.

If you want beer

Plzen for the Pilsner Urquell brewery and its cellars, Ceske Budejovice for Budvar, and Zatec for hops. But the real experience is a village pub anywhere, where unfiltered beer is poured by people who take the pour itself seriously.

If you want landscape

Bohemian Switzerland in the north, where the Elbe cuts through eroded sandstone towers, and the Adrspach rock town. The Sumava forest along the Bavarian border, and the Krkonose mountains for walking and skiing.

If you want spas

Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne, part of a UNESCO-listed group of European spa towns, where the drinking cure is still taken seriously.

Czech culture is sceptical, literate, secular and very funny, in a way that takes some getting used to.

Irony as a default

Understatement and deadpan run through Czech humour, and Good Soldier Svejk — the story of a man who defeats the Austro-Hungarian army by following its orders too literally — is the national character’s own preferred description of itself. Enthusiasm is regarded with suspicion.

The least religious country in Europe

Around two-thirds of Czechs state no religious affiliation, the highest share on the continent. The baroque churches are magnificent and mostly empty, and this has roots running from the Hussite reformation through forced re-Catholicisation to forty years of state atheism.

The pub as an institution

The hospoda is where Czech public life happens: cheap, unpretentious, beer brought without being ordered, and conversation the point. Dissent was organised in them under communism.

Cottages

An extraordinary share of families have a chata or chalupa in the country, a habit that took hold under communism when there was money but nothing to buy and no way to travel. Cities empty at weekends.

Bohemia and Moravia

Moravians will tell you they are warmer, more religious, more musical and drink wine rather than beer. They are largely right.

• Bohemia
• Moravia
• Silesia

Prague’s old town is genuinely overwhelmed, and the pressure is concentrated in a few hundred metres between the Charles Bridge and Staromestske namesti. Staying in Vinohrady, Zizkov or Holesovice, eating away from the centre, and visiting the castle early or late spreads the load without costing you anything.

Go beyond Prague. Olomouc, Plzen, Ostrava and the Moravian wine country all want visitors and have room for them. The train makes this easy and cheap.

Stag and hen tourism has done real damage to how Czechs regard visitors, particularly in Prague. Drinking is a serious part of the culture and public drunkenness is not.

Exchange booths in the tourist centre advertising “no commission” are a long-running scam; use a bank ATM or a card. So are taxis hailed at the castle or the main station.

The trdelnik sold everywhere as a Czech tradition is not one. The actual food is better.

May, June and September are the best months: warm without the July heat, long days, gardens open, and the worst of the crowds either not yet arrived or gone.

July and August are hot, busy and expensive in Prague, though Czechs themselves leave for their cottages and the outdoor festival season is at its peak.

December is worth a specific trip for the Christmas markets in Staromestske namesti and Wenceslas Square, which run from late November to early January and are genuinely good. Cold, dark by four, and busy.

January to March is cheap, grey and quiet, with the castles and chateaux mostly closed — most open only from April to October, and this catches people out.

Easter brings its own markets and a set of customs that are still observed in the villages.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the country

The country is noticeably cheaper than western Europe outside Prague’s tourist core, where prices are now close to German ones.