Private Tour Guides for Day Trips from Prague

We took two day trips during a recent stay in Prague. The first was to Dresden with Kamil Vondrous, who with his wife Petra, owns Prague-extra.com. Kamil was our guide for the day and met us at our hotel at the pre-arranged time. After about a 2-hour drive, we walked around the Old Town and then had a nice lunch together. After lunch, we walked a little longer, and then my wife and I toured the Albertinum Musuem and then the 'Green Vault' on our own while Kamil attended to other business. We then met up at an agreed upon time and headed back to Prague. Kamil was an excellent, knowledgeable guide, who was friendly and engaging. We very much enjoyed our day together and would highly recommend him if you are looking to arrange a private tour in or out of Prague. The second day trip we took was to Terezin, with Helena Katzlingerova-Rakytkova ('Helen') of Wittmann Tours. Although I had previously taken this tour with Wittmann (but not with Helen) 8 years prior, my wife wanted to visit Terezin, so we signed up for a group tour. Unfortunately for Wittmann - but fortunately for us - we were the only two persons on the tour that day, so it was essentially a private tour. However, for this we did have to pay extra, which was made known to me up front, so it was not an issue at all. Wittmann does not commit to the group tour of Terezin without at least three persons confirmed, plus besides Helen there was a driver of the van; so I did not consider the added cost to be unreasonable. And Helen, who has been guiding for Wittmann since its inception over 20 years ago, gave a fantastic tour! In fact, we went to places that I did not see on the previous tour, such as inside the walls of the Small Fortress. Helen is extremely knowledgeable about Terezin and has personal ties to a survivor, about whom she and her husband wrote a book (Life Forbidden, by Jan Rakytka - about Prof. Felix Kolmer), which I purchased along with several other books at the Museum shop. I don't think one can say that he or she 'enjoyed' a visit to a former concentration camp, so I will say that it was extremely informative, historical, thought-provoking, personal, and sad when one realizes that most of the Terezin prisoners did not survive the war. If you are interested in a visit to Terezin with Wittmann tours, try to take the tour with Helen.