Day trip from Prague to Konopiste Castle

Take the train to Benesov (about 90 minutes )and then a taxi from the train station to Konopiste,or walk it takes less than 30 minutes.
There is or was a local land train for tourists might only run at certain times of the year.
http://www.benesov-city.cz/en/
http://www.zamek-konopiste.cz/en/
been a few year since I was last there and then there were timed tours to go on.if you are not a fan of stuffed birds then avoid it as there are 1000's.The Grounds are very nice and worth wandering around.

http://jizdnirady.idnes.cz/vlakyautobusy/spojeni/
this link will give you info on trains, there is an English version on the right hand side of the page if you scroll down a bit.

Thanks Unclegus. You always come through. Would you recommend a day trip to Tabor rather than Konopiste?

Personally, I think Konopiste is a must-see! Even though it's not terribly old, it is a fantastic window in time to the old regime of Bohemia. If you are at all interested in weaponry or hunting, there are few places to rival Konopiste. Even if you aren't interested in these things, it's an over-the-top display of what someone who is fixated on a hobby with plenty of money to throw at it, can do!
There are 4 or 5 different tours - each one focuses on different aspects of the castle. We took tours one and two. Tour one focuses on the weaponry collections along with the hunting trophies that line the hallways. Each weapon the prince collected has been meticulously labeled and displayed - I've never seen anything quite like it anywhere. He had several people on staff who had the full time job of taxidermy, labeling each kill with the date and where it was shot. Tour two is more of the public rooms and offices of the prince - this one includes the best hallway of hunting trophies as well as the historic places in the castle that were visited and used by many visiting dignitaries and family members. If you've seen the movie The Illusionist, which was filmed at Konopiste, then you'll recognize many rooms from the second tour.
There is a very good restaurant on site - it is very inexpensive but has excellent food as is common outside of Prague. They only take cash.

By train to Benesov; fast train takes 40 minutes: direction to Ceske Budejovice; slow train (stops at all stations) takes little over 1 hour. From Benesov to Konopiste follow Unclegus' instructions. Konopiste or Tabor? A lot of history is connected with both. Read a little bit about it and then decide what would interest you more. Konopiste was owned by Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was assassinated in Sarajevo. Austria then declared war on Serbia and World War I started. Check this website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/8-things-didnt-know-franz-ferdinand
Tabor, unlike most other towns which were founded by king or nobility, was founded by religious group Hussites. Google to learn more.

Tabor is a lovely place and I can highly recommend it, It is really up to yu to diceide if you would rather visit there than Konopiste.
this is an extract from my trip report of may 2011.
Tuesday 17th May

We have a day trip to Tabor today. I had heard about this place on travel forums and found out that it was easy to get to from Prague, Andy had some DVD’s of European train travel and Tabor was featured in the Czech Republic one so we decide to go.

Return tickets cost 382kc for the two of us and we left from Hlavni at 9.16 am, the journey was fine until we reach Benesov where we have to transfer to a bus as there is some engineering work being done to the track, about 30 minutes on the bus took us to some place that shall forever remain nameless, a 2 horse town in the middle of nowhere, we re join the train and are in Tabor about 10 minutes later than scheduled.

Once in Tabor we walked to the main town it is a 15 minute or so walk but there are buses you can use, we enjoyed the walk and were delighted by the small town of Tabor, it has a warren of streets that are quite confusing, for many years this was an enclave of the Hussites in the Czech Republic and they basically rebuilt the town, I am not going to give a history lesson, you want info just google it.

The place is really nice with a town square some obvious town walls and a very nice little tower which gives great views over the town and of the surrounding countryside. There is also a medieval museum within the tower building which is very nice and informative, cost for both tower and museum was 80kc each.

We have lunch in the restaurant Modra Ruze, pork steaks with ham, potatoes and loads of veg. (150kc); it was very nice though I wasn’t so keen on the potatoes. this was washed down a Staropramen beer (22kc).

Fed and watered we headed to the town hall and to the Husite museum there, nice exhibits and some great dioramas of battles ,all a bit lost on me as I just could not really work out all the history.

We then took the tour of the underground vaults that start here, The Museum and vaults tour cost 100kc for both.

The tour was great fun, you have to wear a hard hat and even someone as short as me bumps their head, we joined a tour with about 40 school kids and their teachers, the tour was in Czech and we were the only 2 non Czechs on the tour, the guide very kindly came to us at each interesting bit and explained in basic English where we were so we could check on the English crib sheets we had been given ,very kind of her it was not in her remit to do that but she kindly gave us that info. The tour finishes in another part of the square and we return the short distance to the town hall to return our hard hats and crib sheets, it has been real fun. We then take a wander out of the old part of town and down to a waterfall area and carp farm, all very nice though the waterfall is a bit quiet, we then walked along the man made reservoir (there is history about why this was built, something to do with a fire in the old town and no water to put it out) back to the station.

It has been a great day, nice warm weather, a lovely town, a nice meal, and really nice people. This is a day trip I can recommend folk trying, not many English speaking tourists about, but a nice place with enough to keep you interested for the day and people that are genuinely pleased to see visitors.

And I would add to Unclegus information: Tabor is not in R.S. book, so no Rickniks there.

Thanks to everyone who answered my query. We had a successful and fun day taking the train to Benesov and visiting Konopiste Castle. We caught the 9:30 train from the main train station and had a pleasant half hour walk through on a forest path. Luckily we got on the Number III, 11:30 English tour through the private chambers. The guide was very entertaining. As Rick suggested we brought a picnic lunch to enjoy in the gardens. Then we did the Number I tour of the official chambers at 2pm. We went with a Czech group, paid 30% less than an English tour and had audio guides that worked out very well. Catching the train back to Prague was equally simple. Konopiste is a beautiful Castle with interesting history and adornments. The weather was beautiful, the train was clean, the staff at the stations were friendly and helpful and the castle staff were lovely. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Happy Travels!

glad it all worked out for you,using public transport in in the CR is very easy and cheap.
Did you notice if the bears were still in Konopiste, I can't remember seeing them last time I was there but did see them several years ago.

The bears were there when we visited in July.

Thanks Anita. I must try and get back out to Konopiste sometime soon, just never seem to have enough time when I am there, but retirement is not far away and that will allow me a bit more time to spend in the country

Hi,

If you do end up deciding for Konopiste to see Schloss Konopischt, as it is referred in the PBS article above, look for the big wall map where the Archduke had envisioned his reforms on the minority nationalities in the empire, a sort of federalism. The map's title reveals that: Die Vereinigten Staaten von Groß-Oesterreich (the United States of Greater Austria). The PBS article in the above link is informative, a good introduction. G Wawro is a decent historian, if you don't mind his editorialising from time to time.

Fred, tjcurley already decided for Konopiste and went there yesterday. By the way "The PBS article in the above link is informative". Which link? I cannot find any.

@ Ilja...I am referring to what you posted above on 9/28/15 at 8:05 pm, to look up that PBS article as a historical reference. Maybe I didn't say it correctly.

Thanks Fred, I didn't look above enough.