Using Brno as a base for day trips

I can’t comment on using Brno as a base as I don’t know the distances to your other sites. Usually we consider anything within an hour or two an ok amount of time to spend using a base city. Brno is a rather large city we’ve been to twice but only to visit the monastery where Gregor Mendel taught and did his famous experiments. We visited once in 1998 and again in 2023. What a difference 25 years makes. The museum and its organization have really improved. I highly recommend booking an English tour directly with the young, eager staff online through their contact me part of their webpage. You will probably be assigned a guide with a key ring FULL of large old keys to gain access to the library, church, Mendel’s room, etc. We asked for a tour that combined the 3-4 individual tours they listed as an all in one. I think we spent about 2-3 hours and it was a very reasonable price that we paid when we arrived.

There is a huge brewery next door if you need a place to sit and reflect after the tour. We took a cab back and forth from the train station to the monastery. However there is a transit hub right outside of the monastery if you are using the tram/bus system to get around in the city. We visited the monastery as a day trip by train from Vienna on my birthday outing last summer.

https://mendelmuseum.muni.cz/

If you're interested in the history, where you are in Brno is not too far from Slavkov, which is better known as Austerlitz, the site of the disastrous combined defeat of the Russians and Austrians by Napoleon in 1805.

I've been to Slavkov a couple of times as day trips from Brno pre-pandemic. From the train station is ca. 30 mins. walk to the Zentrum, where the famous Schloss/ chateau is situated, Schloss Austerlitz with its rather extensive and good coverage of Napoleon and the history in 1805....just a lovely site.

It's also doable going to Olomouc/Olmütz to see the Schloss there.

In 1805 on the eve of the battle, the Schloss was the Russian military HQ, and ten years before the Schloss was the site where Lafayette was held prisoner by the Austrians in spite of repeated diplomatic attempts by the US to secure his release.

This area of the Czech Republic, Moravia, has absolutely lovely countryside going from Brno to Slavkov to Olomouc.

Thank you Mona and Fred for your recommendations. We are (of course) very interested in history, so your tips are going on my list of possible things to do in and around Brno. The guys in our group will like the brewery recommendation! It sounds like the answer to my question is that Brno is a good place to base ourselves.

The brewery is a huge commercial brewery with a long history in CZ. It is literally next door to the monastery and university transit center. I really wish we’d had time to sit on the expansive deck and take a look around inside but we’d spent so long at the monastery and needed to get back to Vienna. https://www.starobrno.cz/

Brno is not touristy, and I enjoyed my stay there as a solo traveler. It's a tech-hub and third-wave coffee city. If you enjoy specialty coffee, Brno will not disappoint.

Hi,

You're welcome.

Keep in mind too that Brno was/is a province capital. The famous composer and musician Erich Wolfgang Korngold birth house is located in Brno. I saw his house in Vienna, a plaque in German indicated that, not too far from the youth hostel I stayed in in 1971 on Pulverturmgasse.

Two tips for Brno. One, ask for their recommendations for Moravian wine, not beer. 2) Never refer to them as Czechs, always as Moravians (strong regional identity). If you want to be right in the centre of wine country then consider Znojmo. Great train connections for Jihlava, Brno, Olomouc and Vienna plus short taxi rides to wineries and scenic sites.

Thank you everyone for the excellent tips about Brno and the surrounding area! This is amazing