Czechia Road Trip in June

Posted by Sara K (Colorado) on 01/07/26 10:11 PM

Hello!

We are starting a trip in Munich (only because airline miles get us there nonstop) and are planning to rent a car and drive around part of Czechia and then return to Munich to fly home. We are two adults and two teenagers. We originally looked at flying from Munich to another city (Prague, Vienna or Budapest), but found it difficult to line up flights without a 5 hour layover and/or a huge expense. We have done a family trip in and around Munich and my husband travels there for work, so we have no interest in staying in that area.

These are the cities/towns that seem to be recommended a lot in the western half of the country. I wasn't considering going further east, but could if there is something amazing to see.
Karlovy Vary
Český Krumlov and/or České Budějovice
Prague (of course)
Telč

Are those all great places to stop? Any places I should add or remove? I read somewhere that Český Krumlov is extremely crowded with tourists, but our last trip was to Rome, so I'm wondering if we would find it crowded? :) We love walking around/exploring and don't like downtime except to eat and sleep. Some of us love WWII history and some love classical music. We would also like to build in a stop for something active outside (hike, raft, climb, whatever) if anyone has suggestions for that.

We have seven nights to book and I was thinking of allocating three nights to Prague. Any thoughts on how many nights to spend in other towns? My daughter and I will be in France ahead of time, so when we fly to Munich to meet the other half it will be a short trip and we won't be tired, so I will be driving. We will probably leave the Munich airport the first day around 11am.

And is driving in Czechia an issue at all? We've rented cars in Europe many times, but have never been there.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Posted by GeoffB

State of Washington, USA

01/07/26 11:11 PM

349 posts

My wife and I spent 8 nights in Czechia in Aug 2025, driving from east to west to Prague, and then on a shuttle bus to Český Krumlov.
We visited (but did not stay overnight in) Telc, Mikulov, and Kutná Hora.
We stayed overnight in Prague (5 nights), Slavonice (1), Valtice (1), and Český Krumlov (1).
For our interests our itinerary worked well.

I had no problem driving in Czechia. (I have also driven without issues in other countries, eg. Poland, France, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany...)

Český Krumlov was not that crowded when we visited; a tour guide said that it is much less crowded than pre-COVID (and that the proportion of American tourists has dropped). Regarding your desire on doing "something active", we saw many people rafting the small river through Český Krumlov.

Details are in our trip report: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-czechia-aug-2025

Since you will be driving from Munich, here is a link to our trip report that includes renting a car in Munich in Sep 2025: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-austria-bavaria-aug-sep-2025

NOTE: Before renting a car near the main train station in Munich I had read many negative reviews about the car return process; these reviews were by customers who had been charged for undocumented scratches. Therefore, before leaving the rental lot we spent about 20 minutes photographing every small scratch on the exterior of the car.
The car return near the main train station is handled by a single company for all (or at least most) of the rental companies. The gentleman who met us when we returned the car immediately pointed out a scratch on the bumper; I immediately showed him the photo of that scratch that I had taken on my phone. He then ceased inspecting, said "we're good", and accepted the car. I have not had this happen during any of my previous rentals, anywhere.

Posted by Carol

Chicago, IL

01/08/26 02:23 PM

106 posts

I believe traveling between countries will made the car rental more expensive. We too have flown into and out of Munich. However, we took a train to Prague--which is hugely walk-able with excellent public transport. We rented a car from Sixt near the main train station in Prague when we needed one. While visiting an entire month, we only rented a car for 4 days, using the train system instead.