Things to do in Czechia

Czechia is two lands under one name. Bohemia is the western basin, ringed by hills, with Prague in the middle. Moravia is the eastern half, lower, warmer and turned towards Vienna.

Nothing in it is far. The far corners sit three or four hours from the capital. That is why most of the country sells as a day trip out of Prague.

Bohemia outside the capital

Most of these are an hour or two out. They are done by car with a driver, and the price goes by the car, not the seat.

• Kutná Hora. Medieval silver money, the late Gothic church of St Barbara, and the Sedlec ossuary, where a woodcarver arranged the bones of over 40,000 people in 1870.
• Karlštejn. Founded by Charles IV in 1348 to hold the crown jewels, thirty kilometres out.
• Český Krumlov. A tight bend of the Vltava under a castle with a baroque theatre inside, listed in 1992.
• The spa triangle. Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně, listed in 2021 with eight other European spa towns. The Vřídlo spring throws 73-degree water twelve metres up.
• Plzeň. Where the first pale lager was brewed on 5 October 1842. The cellars are part of the visit.
• Bohemian Switzerland. Sandstone towers and gorges on the German border, with the Pravčická brána arch at the top.
• Terezín. The fortress town used as a ghetto and transit camp, an hour north. History, not sightseeing.

Moravia and the wine

Czech wine is Moravian. Around 96 per cent of the vineyards are here, near Mikulov, Znojmo and Velké Pavlovice. The Pálava ridge stands over the best of them.

Lednice and Valtice form one designed landscape, listed in 1996. Brno is the second city. Autumn brings burčák, wine caught halfway through fermenting.

Practical

• Money. The koruna, not the euro. Cards work almost everywhere; walk past the exchange booths.
• Season. May, June and September are the comfortable months. Winter is cold and dark, and the Christmas markets are the compensation.
• Beer. Czechs have drunk more of it per head than any other nation since the early 1990s. A half-litre in a village pub costs less than a coffee on a tourist square.
• Getting round. Trains and buses link the towns and cost little. Castles and cellars want a car.
• Castles. Interiors are seen on timed guided tours, in Czech unless the English one is booked ahead. Many close from November to March.
• Tipping. Round up or add about ten per cent, saying the whole figure as you hand it over.
• Food. Pork, dumplings and sauce is the base. Try svíčková and the sour rye soup before forming an opinion.