Just starting to put together ideas for a trip next year. My question is given 10 to 12 days should I visit another city I.e. Budapest or Berlin ... or should I spend those days visiting the lovely towns in the CR? Never been to CR. Visited Budapest 30years ago and never to Berlin. Renting a car and driving through visiting towns looks interesting. Thoughts?
We spent a month in/around Prague a couple of summers ago and still didn't see everything! The CR is an amazingly beautiful country with many interesting sights, historical locations, many beautiful villages and gorgeous landscapes. I very much want to go back again sometime.
If you want to rent a car then you can see a lot of C.R. without driving long distances. In relatively small area you can find mountains, highlands, lowlands, forests, meadows, fields, lakes, ponds, castles, chateaus, a lot of small towns, villages. Nowadays English is a mandatory language at school so you will always find someone who speaks at least some English (younger people). I recommend Rick Steves book Prague & the Czech Republic. You will find some interesting itineraries there and his choice what to see is amazing. Perhaps I would add Brno to his selection.
This spring I had a well-filled two weeks in Czechia, limiting myself to the eastern part (mostly Moravia). Cities like Hradec Kralove, Olomouc and Brno are all well worth a visit, and are a good base for sights around, such as amazingly attractive Kromeriz. The train brings you almost everywhere, but a car would give you much more flexibility for the countryside.
I agree with seeing the above first three listed towns in Moravia from a historical view. My choices too this summer, at least Olomouc and Brno for day trips to be sure.
Just to make it clear: Brno, Olomouc, Kromeriz are in Moravia, Hradec Kralove is in eastern Bohemia.
Now seeing tonfromlaiden mentioning Hradec Kralove and Fred's post I put it together. I remember Fred was (is) interested in the history of battle of Austerlitz. Well, Fred there was even bigger battle nearby Hradec Kralove and it was 150th anniversary just last year. Fred, we missed it. Well, this year there will be smaller crowds there.
http://www.hkregion.cz/dr-en/105254-150th-anniversary-of-the-prussian-austrian-war-in-1866.html
There are several interesting links from this website and of course one can also google Battle of Hradec Kralove.
@ Ilja...You are absolutely right, leave it to your sharp eye (!!) to see the connection between 2016 and 1866, the Battle of Königgrätz, the biggest battle in Central Europe in the 19th century, or sometimes known in anglophone historiography as Sadowa. Admittedly, that date significance of the 150th totally escaped my attention when I was in Prague for the day trip or in Brno last June, too focused on Napoleon and getting to Slavkov, will go back this time to see the Zentrum in Slavkov Yes, we missed it. It was quite doable going their from Prague.
Thanks for the informative link...very good to know.