Prashant_S

Hello All ,

Greetings from India !!!!

I would be visiting Czech Republic along with my wife.

I would be living in Trebon and Ceske Budejovice for 3 months (10th Sept, 2015 - 6th Dec, 2015). Apart from Prague, I would love to visit cities/countries near Czech Republic on almost all weekends, preferably by public transport (train/bus). Maybe, I would start my journeys on friday evenings and come back to Trebon/CB by Sunday Night or Monday Early Morning.

Would love to have as much suggestions as possible

nytraveler

Is this a vacation or are you traveling on business or for school? You choice of locations seems kind of odd. Trebon is a tiny village while CZ is a larger town and I would think there are more services and people who understand at least some English.

Also, have you looked at train schedules from wherever you would be living - and why not stay in Prague, which presumably has man more/better connections?

Do you speak Czech at all? Assume you would be renting an apartment and will need to deal with shopping and daily activities and not sure how easy that would be with only English.

As for trips to other places - what are your interests and how is your budget.
Czech Rep is quite inexpensive - but based on budet you may want to avoid Switz and Scand and focus on the less expensive areas of western europe (Germany) and central europe.

hetismij2

Whether you can visit other countries will depend on the type of visa you apply for.

nytraveler

Agree - if you might be leaving Schengen you may well need other visas as well as a Schengen visa that allows for multiple entries.

Christina

I'm sure the OP didn't randomly choose Trebon to say in several months in all of Europe, he had a reason.

As for suggestions, this is just logistics. YOu can look at a map and see what countries are close by where this would be feasible. Austria is the best and easiest; Poland, Germany and Slovakia are possible but will take about 5-9 hours one way by train. Given the location of Ceske Budejovice, Germany (Munich or Dresden) will be about 5-6 hours one way by train, so you could do it, but it will take up more time out of a weekend. You can get to Vienna in only about 3:30 hrs, so that's a good possibility, and Salzburg in about a half hour more. Bratislava and Krakow will also take about 6 hours or more.

Use www.bahn.de to check train schedules, I think they show buses if it's the best option. There are other places in the CR you could visit more easily than other countries, of course. Too bad your location isn't the greatest for day or weekend trips by train (or plane, of course).

Now Brno is a big city and budget airline Wizzair flies from Brno to London, that would be feasible for a weekend. Fares are less than 50 euro each way and only take an hour. https://wizzair.com/en-GB/FlightSearch

Prashant_S

Thanks for all the replies....some of the queries I can answer:
1. Yes, I have a Schengen Visa that allows multiple entries;

2. The reason for choosing Trebon is because I have been invited as a Visiting Scientist by the Czech Academy of Sciences and my accommodation has been arranged in Trebon

I can see that the nearby countries are pretty near .
I have planned to visit atleast Paris, Munich, Vienna...for the other options mentioned above, I think on weekends I can be a bit adventurous and try to visit as many places as possible....

HOW GOOD IS THE WEATHER DURING THIS TIME...does anyone have any ideas ????

RM67

Hi Prashant - click on my ID and you should (hopefully) see a trip report for the east of the country - The Beskydy mountains and Ostrava. This is a lovely region, not really frequented by many non-Czech tourists and I think you might find it interesting. Rail travel is generally pretty cheap in the CR and it's not a huge country anyway, so your plan to get round by public transport should work for the most part.

I would think rail travel to places like,say, Vienna, Berlin etc would be pretty straightforward too.

(From a fellow scientist )

LKCritical

I lived in Prague for 2.5 years and traveled lot within Czech Republic and the neighbor countries during that time.

My favorite places in Czech Republic outside of Prague:
Czech wine country Moravia: Mikulov & Valtice are my favorite towns. Beautiful place and great white wines! You can bike between the different villages and wine cellars. Fall is a great time to visit:
http://www.czechtourism.com/p/sc-cze...vest-estivals/
Cesky Krumlov: beautiful old town. Must see when in Czech Republic!

Places out of CZ I traveled for a weekend trips:
Poland:
Krakow
Wroclaw

Hungary:
Budapest (have an overnight stay in Bratislava, Slovakia on the way)

Austria:
Vienna. If you have more time, take a train to Slovenia. Worth of visit! I lived there for 6 months and this little country has lot to offer. Train takes around 5 hours from Vienna.

Germany:
Berlin
Munich
Dresden etc.

Useful links:
https://bustickets.studentagency.eu/?0
http://www.cd.cz/en/default.htm
http://www.polskibus.com/en
http://www.easyjet.com/us/

Based on my experience September & October you'll still have a nice weather. Nov it start to be cold (still change for a nice days) and Dec you might also get some snow.

nytraveler

Prague is on the central european plain and has 4 definite seasons. Early fall is usually quite pleasant but you have to be prepared for rain. Once you get into Nov and Dec you can get weather that is quite cold - esp at night - and snow is possible - although not likely until later in Dec and into real winter.

You will need clothes for weather that can go down into the 30s (farenheit), including warm jacket/hat/gloves/scarf and good rain jacket or coat, sturdy umbrellas and waterproof shoes or boots.

Ingo

You are going to hate the weather in Nov/Dec - grey, windy, cold (sometimes freezing), drizzle, rain, snow. Sept/Oct can be nice, mild and sunny, with beautiful colours (foliage!), but in some years the storms come in early, nobody knows.

You underestimate the distances, btw. Trebon is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, it takes a while to get to a big city where you have access to an airport from where you can fly to your dream destinations like Paris etc. It is doable for weekends, but you'll hardly have more than Saturday and a half Sunday there.

nytraveler

Sorry - weather there is no worse than in rest of northern europe and much of north america - it's what you would expect of a temperate climate. Not an issue as long as you have proper clothing. Unlikely to have real blizzards that time of year.

RM67

The winter weather will only enhance the Christmas markets, beer baths and warming heavily meat based cuisine. I don't see it as a disadvantage, and if it's to tie in with work then the OP probably doesn't have a huge amount of choice over the date anyway.

Ingo

No blizzards at that time of year?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Jeanett

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkan_Lothar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Quimburga

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skane-Orkan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jude_storm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Xaver

Just pointing out - because you asked about the weather - that cyclones are a pretty common occurance in Oct-Dec. Nothing to worry about, but be prepared that the weather will be ugly, at least every now and then.

fourfortravel

We live in Vienna, and I use the www.czechtourism.com website rather frequently to plan weekend and day trips to CZ.

September and early October will be best for regional fall festivals, which offer a "bonus" of food and drink to make exploring a town a little more interesting. By late October many castles (Hrad) and palaces (Zamek) will be closing for the winter, so plan ahead for touring any that pique your interests. The first couple of weekends in November are, at least in my opinion, a little dull in Central Europe; fall festivals have ended but Christmas and Advent markets haven't quite opened. Those would be the best weekends for short "city breaks," by train to Prague or Vienna, or further afield to other cities if you can find decent airfare.

September and into early October "should" offer lovely weather. After that the weather is predictably hit-or-miss. We've experienced snow in Vienna by late October, and have also had 20° weather in Innsbruck in late November. Plan for gray and cold, and dress in layers. Warm footwear can not be emphasized enough!