My wife and I will be visiting the Czech Republic in Nov. We would like to rent a car and explore the country side. Any suggestions on out of the way places that are fun to explore or neat out of the way hotels with good food would be appreciated. Any suggestions about renting a car would also be appreciated. Many thanks Keith
If you're looking for a mixture of history, architecture and scenery, castles and beautiful countryside Český Ráj is a wonderful place. It's a wonderful place just north and east of Prague. There are castles, rock formations, narrow canyons, etc. I highly recommend taking bicycles along, since some of the trails are probably too long to do a day hike. Here's a website with pictures: http://www.ceskyraj.cz/index_flash.html The English pages are still under construction (although some English pages are viewable), but if you just click around, you'll get an idea of what's to see there.
Sova: Thank you. I loved the link and my wife and I feel it is just what we are looking for. Have you travelled there? Can you recommend accommodation in the area, the best way to get there and if it is possible to hire bicycles? Any other suggestions appreciated. We would really like to stay with some locals if possible. We aren't going until Nov. so have time to do some planning. thanks again Keith
Keith, I have travelled there several times. I was living in Mlada Boleslav at the time (I still wear my Skoda t-shirt ), so I don't know anything firsthand about lodging. My friends and I also had our own bicycles, so I can't recommend any bicycle rental places. The Cesky Raj page has a page which lists several places around the area to rent bikes, even an online rental reservation for one place, although I can't personally vouch for anyone of them. The page is unfortunately only in Czech. http://www.ceskyraj.cz/turistika/cyklo/ You might also try the local information centers: http://www.ceskyraj.cz/english/ic/ The ones in Jicin and Turnov apparently offer tour packages, guides, trail maps, bicycle rental info--in short, probably everything you'll need. This may be your best bet. Just send them an e-mail. Perhaps also one of the MyCzechRepublic moderators can give you some advice. I know that they have connections with some tour groups, although I haven't seen anything on the site near Cesky Raj. Good luck!
Slova: Could you recommend the best community to stay in. I am having trouble getting a feel for the communities. thanks Keith
i recommand you could do that in some travel agent in prague, e.g American Express. in somewhere the money becomes worthless, e.g near charles bridge
Keith, Mlada Boleslav is the only place I really know in the area, with respect to the community. It isn't the most picturesque town in the world, as it practically built around the Skoda car factory, but the people are generally friendly. Jicin is more picturesque, and though it is smaller than Mlada Boleslav, I would guess that is probably more tourist-friendly. The other small towns (e.g. Turnov) I would assume to be typical tourist towns, although I didn't spend much time in the towns, prefering rather to be out in the wild.
even though I lived in Turnov for a year and I love the town very much I'd say that Jicin is the most beautiful and coolest town in that(cesky raj) area. Mlada Boleslav is sorta cool but there's hardly anything there except the Skoda facotry and the Skoda museum(which is the coolest museum in the world by far, except for maybe the Barbie/toy museum in prague). the public park is nice and there's a really good pizza place in the mall(olympia center). but other than that...well...there's pretty much nothing but basicly, if I were you I'd check out: Trosky Mála Skála and hruby rohozec the skoda museum is also cool. Liberec, though it's not in the cesky raj, is also a very pretty city and well worth checking out.
