The 11 Best Travel Experiences in Czech Republic

The Vltava River loops almost completely around this medieval town, wrapping its red-roofed old town and Renaissance castle in a natural moat.

A 13th-century castle tower rises above the rooftops, and its viewing gallery gives the single best angle over the whole horseshoe-shaped town below.

Narrow cobbled streets, largely untouched by wartime damage, still follow their original medieval layout.

The largest ancient castle complex in the world by area, a walled city-within-a-city on a hill above Prague that has housed Bohemian kings, Holy Roman emperors, and now the Czech president.

St Vitus Cathedral's Gothic spires rise above the walls and are visible from almost anywhere in the city, especially from Charles Bridge at dusk.

The complex holds multiple palaces, gardens, and museums, so a single ticket barely scratches the surface.

Charles Bridge has carried foot traffic over the Vltava since 1402, running dead straight from the Old Town gate tower to the castle bank beneath a parade of thirty blackened baroque statues.

At dawn, with mist on the river and Prague Castle rising behind, it's one of Europe's great city walks; by mid-morning it's one of Europe's great crushes, buskers and all.

Prague's Old Town Square has been the city's beating heart for centuries, surrounded by a colourful ensemble of Baroque, Romanesque, and Gothic buildings.

The 15th-century Astronomical Clock performs an hourly show, while the twin towers of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn create one of Central Europe's most distinctive skylines.

Prague Spring opens every year on the same date - the anniversary of composer Bedrich Smetana's death - with a ceremonial performance of his symphonic cycle Ma vlast in the Smetana Hall, before three weeks of orchestral concerts by international ensembles fill the city's grandest halls.

Founded in 1946, it remains one of Europe's most respected classical music festivals, with the Rudolfinum among its most beautiful venues.

The Gothic cathedral inside Prague Castle, holding the Bohemian crown jewels and the tomb of Saint Wenceslas.

Mucha's Art Nouveau window in the north nave throws colour across the stone on bright mornings.

The south tower's 287 steps give the best view over the red roofs of Mala Strana.

St Barbara's Church rises over Kutná Hora, a UNESCO-listed medieval silver-mining town an hour from Prague.

Building began in 1388 and dragged on for five centuries, leaving a soaring Gothic nave ringed by flying buttresses and gargoyles, with faded frescoes of miners and moneyers inside.

It shares the skyline with Baroque terraces and the Jesuit College, making the old town worth a half-day wander.

Pravčická brána is the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe, a 16-metre stone bridge rising from the forested plateau of Bohemian Switzerland National Park near the German border.

Closed to walkers since 1982 to halt erosion, it's instead viewed from three platforms and the 19th-century Sokolí hnízdo chalet built into the rock beneath it.

Reaching it means a steady uphill hike from Hřensko.

Karlovy Vary is Bohemia's grandest spa town, its curving colonnades and belle-époque facades built around thirteen mineral hot springs that locals have taken for their health since the 14th century.

Visitors sip the sulphurous water from porcelain spa cups while wandering the Teplá riverside promenade, and the wooded hills above hide viewpoints reachable by funicular.

It hosts a major film festival each July.

Telč's arcaded square is one of Europe's best-preserved Renaissance ensembles, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992: dozens of gabled townhouses in pastel stucco line up around a long rectangular plaza, each in a slightly different pattern.

A moated chateau anchors one end, its English park and fishponds wrapping around the old town, rebuilt in stone after a 1530 fire destroyed its wooden houses.

Český ráj (Bohemian Paradise) is the Czech Republic's oldest protected landscape, a UNESCO Global Geopark of sandstone rock towers, castle ruins and pine forest ninety minutes from Prague.

Its best-known corner, Prachovské skály, threads narrow rock corridors and wooden stairways past viewpoints over layered stone pinnacles, while the twin-peaked ruin of Trosky Castle marks the skyline for miles around.