bob_brown

I plan to be in Prague in late June for 4 nights. At the moment, I plan to take one tour out of Prague.
Cesky Krumlov is the city I am considering for the one day excursion.

I have two questions about visiting Cesky Krumlov:

1. What are the tradeoffs, advantages and disadvantages in doing on my own?

2. If I decide to go with a guided tour from Prague, does anyone have a suggestion as to which tour company I should consider?

I have looked at the web pages for Cedok and Martin, but there is little I see to help me decide.

Given the similarity of the descriptions I wonder if both agencies are "fronts" for the actual operators of the tour, i.e. Cedok and Martin sell the tickets while another organization operates the tour by providing the guide, driver and bus.

nannibray

Hi again, bob_brown. Hope I can be of as much help to you as you were to me on Zermatt.
Husband and I were in Cesky Krumlov on June 10, 2006. It is a fantastic choice as a trip from Prague!! We did 1 overnight and stayed at Pension Barbakon in CK. but you could also do as a day trip.
From my notes - we took a Bus to Cesky Krumlov from Florence Station in Prague which left at 9:00. The bus was crowded and made several stops to receive or deposit passengers. I think we had reserved seats for the bus and had probably bought the tickets a couple days ahead at the Florence Station in Prague> Bus stop in CK was very near Old Town aprox. 4 blocks (we had luggage so we took taxi to Pension Barbakan) TI in town is helpful and provided maps.
Go directly to the castle and reserve a tour in English. CK is a photographers paradise!! You will love it.
Don't know about bus schedule BACK to Prague. We took a train from Cesky Budevice to Prague and continued on to Krakow. (Had to take a 30 min. taxi from CK to C. Budevice)
CK is easy to do on your own!! More freedom, more time there, and probably cheaper.

Viajero2

Bob-- check out the following website: http://www.encyklopedie.ckrumlov.cz/...ekt_seznam.xml

it may help you decide if a tour is even needed.

Also, rent the movie "The Illusionist"; the first scenes were filmed on the streets of Cesky Krumlov. There is a shot of the castle that is just fantastic!! Have a great time!

Christina

Martin Tours is not a front, it is a company. I took that tour to Cesky Krumlov and the guide was excellent, and the tour was wellplanned. The only thing I didn't like about it was when I went, they had a small van (only about 6 people) and the seats were VERY HARD. So given it's about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive each way, it wasn't as comfortable as I'd like.

Cedok is a travel agency, as their website says. It isn't a front, just a travel agency (it is the official state travel agency and they are very good as an agency, by the way -- I suppose they are not state-run anymore, not sure, it was the official one under Communism, you know how that goes). If you need train tickets, they are an excellent place to go and more efficient and pleasant than going to the train stations. They charge a very small service fee for that, but it's worth it.

So Cedok is selling some other companies' tours, I imagine. I've taken Prague Sightseeing Tours for other trips and they were excellent (better buses than Martin), so if it is them, I would think they'd be fine, also.

The only advantage I can think of doing it on your own is you might save a little bit of money, and you could stay as long as you want, I guess. In theory, you might not even have as much time as a tour, as the transportation logistics are more complicated, and you'll be tied to the bus/train schedules. The private tours also probably have a private tour scheduled of the chateau (Martin Tours did) that you can't get on your own. On your own, you wouldn't have any guide telling you about things, either. The Martin Tours guide was superb in terms of his knowledge of history and the area (and very fluent in several languages). So were the Prague Sightseeing tour guides that I had.

I believe Cedok uses Prague Sightseeing tours. YOu can book through them or on your own (and they have a sales kiosk right near Namesti Republicky, which is also a meeting location for the bus). You can also book on their website, I think www.pstours.cz Maybe they are even owned by the same people as Cedok, don't know, you can compare the tours and see if they are the same. I think it is them as I took their Hlubouka tour and it is described the same by Cedok (that is an excellent tour, also, by the way, so you might consider it).

Cedok seems to have slightly cheaper rates than booking directly, they might get a discount.

nannibray

Some neat things to do in Prague:
1)Climb Charles Bridge Tower for lovely view
2)Ascend the O.T.Hall tower for view over the town square and Tyne Church, St. Nicholas church and Jan Hus Memorial (There is an elevator for most of the ascent)
3) River Cruise (if you get the boat from the opposite side of the Charles Bridge on Kampa Island shore, you will save about 20% on the tickets. (same cruise itinerary, but cheaper because it is not as convenient for most people. Our hotel was on Kampa Island and we priced both locations.
4) Attend a preformance (opera) at the National Theatre, or the State Opera, or BOTH. They are BOTH incredibly BEAUTIFUL and the ultimate clutural experience.
ENJOY!!!

iris1745

Bob; If you want some great information that can be downloaded, on both CK and Prague, go to inyourpocket.com ENJOY Iris

bob_brown

Thanks for all the great advice.
I have until June 21 to get it all sorted out.

I have a hotel (Mala Strana), tickets to two operas, airport transportation by private car, and soon the Cesky Krumlov tour. I think I will go either with Cedok or the pstours.cz after checking the schedule. I just about have to do Cesky Krumlov on Tuesday because I have something planned the other nights.

Thanks for the tip on the butt bruising tour buses! That I don't need.

Christina

You probably can figure out the company, I believe they only do it on certain days of the week and that might be a tipoff (Martin tours some days, PS other days).

I don't think you would make a mistake using Prague Sightseeing, though, as I've used them twice and they were excellent both times -- the guides, itinerary, and comfort of the buses.

It's possible Martin Tours has a better van now -- it wasn't even a bus, just a van with 6-8 seats, but it was some kind of van with very hard seats, as if they had no cushioning at all. PS Tours had really nice buses, and on a long drive, you might as well enjoy the trip. All of their guides I had were local Czech people with a lot of knowledge, but completely fluent in English, so that wasn't a problem.

bob_brown

I have noticed that the English in the email correspondence I have exchanged so far has been at a very high level.
So far, it reads like email I would receive from a native speaker.