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Help me decide - Czesky Kremlov during music festival?

We are planning a 10 day trip to Prague and Budapest in August 2018. We have initially planned 4 nights Prague, 2 nights CK, and 3 nights Budapest. I have a hotel reservation for CK but I expect the town will be extremely busy due to the music festival.

Since we are not particularly interested in the music festival, should we plan to visit another small town instead on our way to Budapest? We will be using public transportation. CK is highly recommended, so I hate to miss it but we will be in two very busy cities and might prefer a different experience.

Has anyone been to CK during the music festival? Was it impossible to get into restaurants? We can embrace the experience if it’s truly not to be missed but I always travel with the expectation that I will return someday so as not to regret the things that I can’t visit. Another experience might be perfect for this trip.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

Posted by
2487 posts

Have a look at Mikulov. Quiet place with castle and gardens, and a restored Jewish quarter. A 15-min train ride from the Lednice castle park. A welcome rest between the two big cities.
Mikulov is nicely halfway (3,5 hrs from Prague, 4 hrs from Budapest), 40 mins from Breclav on the main Prague to Budapest railway line.

Posted by
4637 posts

Cesky Krumlov is only one. It's a gem. Fairy tale and magic. In August it will be very busy - music festival or not. International music festival will last for some time: July 20th to August 11th. I looked at the program and it looks interesting:
http://www.ckrumlov.info/docs/en/atr721.xml .
To enjoy Cesky Krumlov (as well as Prague) I recommend get up early and you will have C.K. and Prague almost for yourself.
If you would like something more peaceful and less crowded then I agree with tonfromleiden on Mikulov. It's a pretty hill town and capital of wine in the Czech Republic. Nearby are two chateaus - Lednice and Valtice and a huge park between them. Look here about the area: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/763 . To get all necessary information read the chapter Mikulov Wine Region in Rick Steves book: Prague & the Czech Republic. The big advantage is that Mikulov is on your way to Budapest almost in the half way. You get off the train to Budapest in Breclav. Get there on a local train and in less than 30 minutes you are in Mikulov.