Southern Bohemia - Rent a Car or Train?
 

Hi,

My husband and I are planning a trip to Czech Republic in October, we will be coming from Salzburg Austria and contemplating our options after that. Wondering if we should rent a car from Salzburg and drive our way (slowly) to Prague, or should we take a train to Prague or to Czech southern border and rent a car from there to tool around Southern/Western Bohemia for a few days.
Or...Should we just take a train around? We like smaller out of the way towns and sites... Any comments? Any smaller interesting towns or interesting natural sights to see in this region? We like to take day hikes alot too...

Also, wanting to get Ice Hockey Tickets to a game in Prague (we come from Detroit Red Wings Territory!) and wondering how I go about doing this.

Would love any advice you can give!

Jeen

Hi J,

Try www.autoeruope.com and see if they will let you take a car into the CR.

((I))

A car into CR is no problem.
We'd prefer a car to a train, as there are numerous towns of interest. The choice of those depends on your interests/preferences/dislikes: what are your feelings about: crafts, palaces, cathedrals, museums, nature?
And how many days available?

We drove from Germany to Prague to Cesky Krumlov. On entering the Czech Rep. from Germany, we could not tell the difference. Roads very good and gas stations too. From Prague to Cesky Krumlov in Southern Bohemia, the roads were also pretty good. I am not sure if this speaks for the whole country but I heard that they are building highways and improving roads at a fast pace. Of course, I am sure, if you go into an out-of-the-way small village, you may not encounter such good roads. But what would you be doing there anyway?

The advantage of having a car is that you can stop when you want. I was told that apart from Prague where you have to be careful about where you park your car, the other places are ok. Having said that, it is still wise not to leave anything in sight in your car while parked.

If Prague is at the beginning or end of your journey, you don't need the car there. If it is in-between, then park in a secured garage and leave the car there for the whole duration of your stay. If you key in 'Trip report - Prague & CK' into the search field, you should find my report which has some parking tips. I made several entries there so read all. Parking in Prague is not cheap. In Prague we paid 400CZK per day (reduced rate cos we parked 3 days) but in Krumlov we paid 170CZK per day. If you find a hotel with parking in Prague, it may be free or heavily discounted.

While in Cesky Krumlov (which I'm sure will be on your list to visit), we were happy that we had come by car. The bus stop was out of the town center. I didn't see the train station so can't say. We drove our car through the narrow streets right to the apartment doorstep, unloaded and drove out to the parking lot. There is no parking in the little town.

Whatever it is, if you rent a car, take all precautions for the worst that could happen. And don't forget the vignette which allows you to travel on the autobahn.

While in Prague, the hotel had a copy of Rick Steve's guide. I found it to be better than mine because he pointed out what you should see and what you could miss. He listed some small villages worth visiting. You may want to check it out.

Hi All,

Thanks for all the good tips! Yes, Prague is at the end of our trip so we need the car from Salzburg to Prague and have about 4 to 5 days to tour with a car. We are not big city people and prefer smaller towns for lodging. We like castles, hiking, driving tours, seeking out local breweries (this is a definite for us!), etc...

Also, does anyone know how I can find out about hockey tkts in Prague?

Thanks!

Jeenie

Hi jeenbean; Prague is an easy drive from Salzburg. You will first encounter Cesky Budejovice and Cesky Krumlov. We stayed in the Grand Hotel in CB in the medieval square. While we loved the town, CK is a 'must'. A night in CK is very well spent. Salzburg to Prague is about five hours and these towns are perhaps half way between the two cities. Get a taste of these places, with free downloads on inyourpocket.com ENJOY Iris

I am really glad to read this thread. We are going to be in Germany and CZ for 12 days in December for the Christmas markets and wondered about renting a car. We'll be travelling from Frankfurt to Prague with a few stops. The only difficulty seems to be Prague but now it sounds manageable if we find good parking there before we leave home.

Can anyone suggest what road conditions might be like in early December ?

Road conditions in Dec - if the weather continues like it has been for the past few years with no or hardly any snow in Dec, there should be no problem. Sometime in Feb this year there was a massive pile up of around 200 cars (I think that was it - but probably not all in one place) in the Czech Rep on the autobahns. This happened because it was raining and the temperature dropped to below zero causing the water on the roads to freeze. If you were travelling fast and did not slow down, then you can imagine what will happen when you encounter slippery ice!

In Germany, when there is snow, the snow ploughs will be out in full force to clear the major roads. Not sure about the Czech Rep. Just use common sense. As I said, the roads are very good.

Galiano: between Prague and the CR southern border there's a beautiful cathedral just off the autoroute, in a village called Kladruby. It's gorgeous inside (far more so than St. Vitus in Prague); when we visited it, we thought it would be great to visit at Christmas time if they had choirs sing there, because the acoustics were perfect for it. If you were so interested, it might take a fair amount of googling to learn whether they had Christmas programs, but I thought I'd mention it in case that interested you.

Just a quick anecdote since you mentioned hockey.
In 2000, the Prague team won something (sorry don't know hockey about hockey), so as we were walking around, the streets started erupting into a cheering parade. We ran to see what the commotion was and saw the team pass by on the parade. Then later in the main square people were partying hard. I have a great photo of my now DH grinning with a few guys in hockey jerseys and a flag. So cool when things like that happen.

Tomboy - good tip. I'll see what I can find out.

Munich Madl - I assumed that the roads would be plowed certainly in Germany. I'm not so concerned about snow, actually more concerned about parking !

Munich_madl: my ears pricked up (only figuratively!) at your mention of "don't forget the vignette that allows you to travel on the autobahn."

What's that all about?

I've travelled extensively on German autobahns over the course of 4 different trips there (the last one in 2003), and I've never heard of such a thing.

Is this something new I need to know about for next time I go there?