Hello! We will be in Prague for work in early April for several days. Then we have about one week to travel outside Prague. Must sees and dos? Overwhelmed by the choices. Willing to do sleeper trains. We do not plan on renting a car.
Thanks in advance!
From Prague you can go anywhere.
Why not tell us what kind of experiences you are looking for. Another city? Nature? Scenery? Museums? History?
You can take the train to Krakow. It's about 6 1/2 hours with a change in Katowice. Krakow is awesome! Visit the salt mines. You could visit Auschwitz if you are in the mood. Be forewarned. It's obviously very depressing.
If you prefer to stay in the Czech Republic, the following places are really nice to visit:
Cesky Krumlov - lovely small city with an amazing castle and a river
Karlovy Vary - this is a spa town in the mountains with underground springs; very different architecture from Prague
Telc - another very pretty small town; town center has colorful buildings; a wonderful castle; and ponds on either side of the town.
I have heard Olomouc is nice but I haven't been there.
Not sure how you would get around in Czech Republic without a rental car. There are buses and trains but I don't know how convenient and frequent they are. You could also look into a private driver.
Historic cities near Prague that make pleasant day trips include Kutna Hora and Tabor. Both are 60-90 train minutes away. Olomouc is a walled medieval city which once was part of the Swedish Empire and today is a university city of 100,000 residents that is well worth 2-3 nights. Olomouc is 2:15 from Prague by high-speed train.
Olomouc is very attractive. So is Brno. And they aren't swamped by tourists like Prague is. I didn't have significant problems getting aound Czechia without a car, though it could be more challenging if you head to smaller places.
I would stay in the Czech Republic...but I'm a little partial as I have a tentative itinerary in mind for future travel😊. Olomouc is very interesting and can easily fill a day or two. There are great itinerary suggestions in Rick Steve's "Prague and the Czech Republic" book; the new edition was just released last month.
