The Complete Guide to the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic — Czechia for short — sits at the geographic heart of Europe and travels like a country two or three times its size: a thousand-year tapestry of Gothic spires and Baroque domes, fairy-tale castles on wooded crags, golden-stone spa colonnades, and some of the best, cheapest beer on the planet, all packed into an area smaller than Ireland. You can wander a UNESCO-listed medieval core in the morning, tour a hilltop chateau after lunch, and be nursing a half-litre of Pilsner in a vaulted cellar pub by nightfall, rarely travelling more than a couple of hours between them.

The natural anchor is Prague, one of Europe's great capitals and among the few large cities to come through the 20th century with its historic skyline intact. The seat of the 14th-century Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, it strings the largest ancient castle complex in the world above a tangle of cobbled lanes, the statue-lined Charles Bridge, the astronomical clock of the Old Town Square, and the whole golden sweep of the Vltava embankment. Two or three days barely scratch it, and it remains the gateway through which almost every trip begins.

But Prague is only the opening chapter. The country divides into two ancient lands: Bohemia in the west, rolling and castle-strewn around the capital, and Moravia in the east, gentler and greener, its capital Brno a young, design-minded university city with a modernist masterpiece (Villa Tugendhat) and the vineyards of South Moravia at its back. Between and beyond them lie the set-pieces that make a Czech itinerary feel inexhaustible: Cesky Krumlov, a tiny medieval town folded into an S-bend of the Vltava beneath a vast Renaissance castle; the silver-mining town of Kutna Hora with its bone chapel and soaring cathedral; and a roll-call of UNESCO World Heritage sites — more than a dozen, among the densest concentrations in Europe.

In the far west, the West Bohemian spa triangle — Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Marianske Lazne and Frantiskovy Lazne — preserves a belle-epoque world of pastel facades, hot mineral springs and grand colonnades where you sip the cure from a porcelain spout; all three are now inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe. Czechia also claims one of the highest densities of castles and chateaux anywhere — well over two thousand — from clifftop Karlstejn to riverside Hluboka.

Then there is the beer. Czechs drink more of it per head than anyone on earth, and with reason: the modern pale lager was invented in Plzen (Pilsen) in 1842, and the Czech pub — the hospoda — is a national institution, where a freshly tapped half-litre often costs less than bottled water. Pair it with hearty plates of roast pork, dumplings and goulash and you have a food-and-drink culture that is a destination in itself.

Practically, Czechia is easy and forgiving. It is safe, central and superbly connected by train and bus; it joined the EU in 2004 and the Schengen area in 2007, though it keeps its own currency, the Czech koruna, which makes it noticeably better value than neighbouring Germany or Austria. Most first trips pair Prague with one or two smaller gems over four to seven days; ten days or more let you loop through Bohemia and Moravia at a relaxed pace. This guide covers when to go, how to get around, the best cities, and the beer-and-food culture so you can build the trip that fits you.