You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
We're sorting out the details for our hols this year - heading to the Czech Republic for two weeks of exploring, good beer and not sending any emails 🙂
Week one we'll be just South of Prague - Karlstejn/Beroun sort of way.
Week two is Brno area - we have friends who live there who we'll hook with for 1/2 days but otherwise the tiem is ours 😀
So - what do you recommend to not miss? what are the hidden gems? We'll have a 4 year old girl in tow - who loves Princess Castles (lots of those I think :)) and otherwise want to do a mixture of stuff - definitely including some bike days (we're hoping to hire over there), outdoorsy, caves and animals a favourite too.
We're planning on hiring a car for the whole time to maximise the fun 🙂
Thanks in advance
TM
Go to Cesky krumlov - it's a world heritage site and well worth a walk around.
We did a medieval castle to the South East of Prague that was great too, oh and the Bones church that McGregor/Boorman did on the long way round.
We didn't see too much as we were heading for the WSBK at Brno. Worth a trip if there's any racing on and you're into that sort of thing.
Brno's nuclear power station tour is ok. The place doesn't look that safe so might not be there for long. It's a bit flat for mountain biking in that area so leave the family to their own devices for a couple of days and go for shooting guns and whores. There's a great Cheshire Oaks type place in Brno with bloody cheap stuff.
Thanks Folks - interesting
Bones church looks awesome 😮
any more top tips?
TM
Mikulov - about an hour south of Brno has a nice castle and a hill to walk up. We did some geo-caching which adds a fair bit of exploring round the castles.
Go to the Pilsner urquell brewery in Plze?, where pilsner beer originates from. Well worth the the trip for the first week. For the second week, visit Olomouc, a small city just east of Brno, it's a unesco world heritage site and has some lovely old architecture to it. You also have Olomouc zoo if that's your thing. Keep away from Ostrava though, its a dirty horrible city. If you have time, go to northern CZ where the Krkonoše mountains are, borders with Poland, it's awesome up there!
That's my neck of the woods - whereabouts near Beroun will you be?
Few comments - Cesky Krumlov has got very "tourist" but is still lovely. Bit far away for a day trip though, but if you'll have a car you could over-night?
The "bones church" is in Kutna Hora, worth a look. Nice cathedral also.
Plzen brewery for sure. Karlstejn castle obviously. If you want something less touristy, there's also Krivoklat castle, which is nice, but there's not much there. Koneprusy caves are interesting, but a lot of steep stairs (about 120?) to climb up at the end - your daughter will probably ask you to carry her.
Prague's easily reachable, there's a train at least once an hour, takes about 45 mins to the centre of town.
TBH, riding is probably nothing special, but then I don't have anything to compare it with. No access issues though. Buy a hiking map and look for the coloured paths. They're well marked on the ground.
Not sure what else... heavy drinking is always an option of course. 😆
At work now, but I'll get an email on my profile at weekend if you want to mail me.
Thanks Squidlord (top name btw).
We have some time at the Hotel Karlstejn, right next to the castle (we know it'll be touristy!) and then over to a B&B in Krivoklat.
Not got the Brno leg sorted yet
TM
twiglet_monster,
There's the region of 'Krivoklatsko'/Berounka valley is excellent for road cycling and some basic mountain biking. Have a google.....
If the weather is good, I recommend hiring a kayak on the Berounka river for the day (going from Zvikovec to Roztoky and stopping at the pub "hospoda u rozv?d?íka" for beer and Czech food...
There's many other excellent places and in no particular order- hiking to Tyrov castle, the gardens/forests of Lany Chateau ( http://www.hrad.cz/en/prague-castle/the-lany-chateau/)
Squidlord, curious where you are based? We are based in Lany......
@crazybrab - I'm just outside Beroun, but work in Prague. Lany's nice. Are you Mr Zeman? 😉
If you want to go biking I can recommend [url= http://www.singltrekpodsmrkem.cz/en/ ]Pod Smrkem[/url]. Designed by some famous Welsh geezer, too. Right on the border to Poland.
Squidlord, no, but we are his neighbours (just over the fence).....
Ceske Budejovice (sp) and erm drink lager
was at that Singltrek Pod Smrkem today 🙂
not bad. will certaily be going back at some point to try the other half of the trails.
cheap too. 23p for bike wash token, or shower token. and a massive £1.45 to park for the day. and it all goes to pay for trail maintenance (and yep I did see a guy maintaining a trail, where one fo the streams crosses)
camping by a lake and beach volleyball, bike shop, bike rental, all the necesaary facilities. pretty decent setup.
Another vote for Cesky K. & Bone Church, both well worth visit.