tidy

We will have probably 3 days in Prague and we're thinking we'd rent a car when we depart and visit elsewhere in Czech Repub before going to Vienna. We could have 4 to 6 days for the Czech tour beyond Prague. I will know once I hear from you all as to how much time I want to allot to this and how much in Austria. I know for sure that we want an overnite and at least a day or day and a half in Cesky Krumlow. The other places I am thinking about are Telc (area and castle), Hluboka castle, and possibly the spa town of Karlsbad. What are your thoughts. Do you think the castles at Prague,Telc, Hluboka, & the castle at Cesky Krumlov are good choices or would you rather consider:Konopiste, Karlstejn, or Krivoklat. Believe me I am not interested in doing all of the castles. Thank you.

Kwoo

Hi Tidy,
Just read your post on the France forum so wanted to check here right away. I'm glad you read my trip report for Czech Republic & glad to hear it is helpful. We LOVED every place we visited. I have nothing negative to say about any of them. Cesky Krumlov is more similar to Prague than Karlovy Vary except much smaller, of course. We loved everything about it. I know that some people go to CK as a day trip from Prague, but if you have the time to stay overnight, that is what I highly recommend doing. YOu miss out on so much by going just for the day. The castle was beautiful when lit up at night. Also, we needed 2 nights there because we stopped at Hluboka, which I highly recommend, so we didn't arrive in CK until the evening. So we really had 2 nights & one full day because we left after breakfast for Telc.

The architecture of Karlovy Vary is very different from Prague & CK, but equally beautiful. Visting Karlovy Vary is a different expereience than visiting the other cities/towns because you do different things i.e. going to the spa, walking around & drinking from the mineral springs, shopping. We heard a lot of Russian spoken, and very very little English, but that is fine with us.

And we loved Telc. It is very pretty, the town square is one of the prettiest I have ever seen (if not the prettiest) and the ponds on either side of the town not only make Telc different from the other places, but peaceful & quiet as well.

My husband did all the driving & he didn't have any problems at all. We rented a car with GPS & had a map, too.

We like all of the hotels we stayed in and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. I think I found all of them in my Fodor's guide book.

Of the other 3 castles you mention, I think one of them is empty & supposedly not that interesting; I don't remember about the others. We didn't have time to visit them & we did see a lot of castles.

What time of year are you going?
HOpe this helps.

tidy

We are going in May. I think you went south of Telc, did you do the national park, I can't remember the name. We will do the spa in Budapest so wondering if I want to go to Karlovy Vary as well. If so, we would probably go from Prague and then to Telc, then CK. Then we will drop a car and probably take the shuttle to Vienna.I think we will also do 2 nites in CK. I know that seems like a crazy route but don't what else we can do. I am going to post an itinerary later this evening I think and get some opinons on the whole trip because we do have some flexible days. I so appreciate all the feedback.

joannyc

In addition to the Castle tour in CK, you should check out the tour of the castle's Baroque Theater also! It was very interesting and is limited to about 10 people per tour with only a few tours per day... only 1 morning tour in English when I was there, and, I think, 1 afternoon English tour.

Kwoo

Hi Tidy,
When we were in Telc, we did drive to Znojmo (sp?)to visit the wine cellar, which was recommended to us by the owner of the pension in Prague. He had already contacted his friend to let him know we would be coming. I thing that was south. But we didn't go to the national park because we didn't have the time. We were in Telc for only one night, & then from there we returned to Prague.

Kwoo

HI again,
You are also going to POland on this trip, right? Have you booked your hotel yet? I believe I did post & recommended the Hotel Saski. Sounds like you have a fantastic trip planned.

tomboy

I don't remember a castle in Telc, but our 2nd time there we found a very interesting place (a bishop's building????) on what felt like the southwest corner of the square that we didn't hear about the 1st time.

If you're going to a spa in Buda, I'd recommend skipping Karlovy Vary. The architecture there is quite interesting, but other than that, it was quirky to see people sipping water from pipes. We did'nt see any spas, just walked around.

Hluboka was somewhat interesting on the standard tour, VERY interesting after a fellow tourist slipped the guide a 100 koruna bill to go on an informal tour of the non-standard areas (kitchen, dungeon, locked rooms, etc)

tidy

Yes, we are going to Poland as well. Tomboy thanks for the input about Karlovy Vary because it certainly is out of our way.

Kwoo

There is a castle in Telc, at the back end of the town square. We had a guided tour, & thought it was very interesting & different from the other castles we saw. If I remember correctly, I think the ceilings are very unique & ornate.