Most people who go to the Czech Republic only visit Prague, its capital, and usually spend 3 or 4 days there. We decided to stay in the country for a week because of a very special Czech friend I met in a bank queue in Brazil almost 10 years ago: Zuzana.

Zu lives in Zlin (Moravia region), which is about 3 hours away from Prague, that is, on the other side of the country. As we really wanted to go to Prague and also get to know its little corner, we agreed to do the most rushed thing at the beginning, so that later we would have more freedom to wander around the region.

Map of the Czech Republic

Summary itinerary

With this in mind, we put together the following itinerary:

I'll share this one post in two parts, the first being dedicated only to Prague and the second dedicated to the Moravia region. I believe it will be more organized and if you only want to know about Prague, you won't need to read the rest, right? 🙂

Detailed Itinerary

To learn more about our 8-day trip to the Czech Republic, click on the links below:

• 4 days in Prague – click here
• 4 days in Moravia – click here

Getting to know Prague

The historic part of the city is truly BEAUTIFUL and, to our surprise, very clean and organized. The streets are relatively narrow and quiet, but you can always find shops, restaurants and bars. What we saw most were jewelry and crystal stores (considered the best in the world),  souvenirs, currency exchange and wooden puppets/toys (very traditional in the country). Kiosks selling typical foods, especially sweet rolls Trdelnik, are also quite common.

We thought we would find many pubs around the city, since the Czech Republic is the country that consumes the most beer in the world, but we were disappointed at this point. We even found some bars/pubs scattered throughout the city, but unfortunately we found that it is possible to smoke inside most of them. Talk about going in, smelling the strong smell of cigarettes and turning around. Annoying.

Zu and her boyfriend, José, took us to very traditional, non-touristy restaurants and made sure to help us choose our dishes (sometimes these places didn't have menus in English). We loved ALL the dishes we ate, especially the goulash and the fried cheese. How delightful!

And best of all: we found everything VERY CHEAP.

Our lunches with two main dishes and 2 pints of beers (500 ml each) came to 10-15 euros for the two of us! We paid that for just one main dish here in Dublin. Paradise there, right? We tried all the beers we saw in front of us (many good varieties, really) and our favorite was the Unfiltered Gambrinus. Does anyone know?

Attractions we visited

We spent 3 full days in Prague at the beginning of the trip and 1 day at the end, so we got to see quite a bit. We visited the Prague Castle (which is the largest castle in the world) and the St. Vitus Cathedral inside it, the famous Charles Bridge, the beautiful baroque church Saint Nicholas, the Old Town Square and its medieval astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter with its cemetery and several synagogues, the Our Lady Victorious Church (where the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague is located), the city's main squares and islands, among other attractions (you can see more details of the places we visited in post I'm going to write about Prague). I've selected some photos below for you to start enjoying. <3

Hosting

For the first 3 days, we chose a very simple hotel outside the city center (Inturprag) and we only paid 15 euros per night with breakfast! That's right: 15 euros! The good thing about it is that it's very close to a metro station, so if you want to save money, I think it could be a good option. Don't expect luxury, it's pretty basic.

On the last day of our trip, we chose a hotel next to the train station, as we arrived by train from Zlín and took the bus to the airport the next day from the station itself. We stayed at Chopin Hotel Prague City for 58 euros, including breakfast. The room was much more comfortable and we didn't even think the hotel was too far from the attractions.

Transport

The city has a metro, trams and buses that cover the entire tourist area. We did most of the sightseeing on foot, but since the hotel was far from the city center, we bought a 3-day transport pass. We paid 310 Czech crowns (11 euros) per person for unlimited access to all types of transport in the city. It was definitely worth it!

Getting to know Moravia

We stayed at our friends’ house in Zlín and from there we went to several different places, taking day trips. Their city is not a tourist city, but it has a very interesting history, which I will share below.

The story

At the end of the 19th century, there were about 3,000 inhabitants in the town, until a guy named Tomáš Baťa decided to open a shoe factory. The company supplied shoes to the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I and grew so much over the years that many Czechs moved to Zlín in search of jobs.

Baťa had the brilliant idea of building standardized houses for his workers and charging symbolic prices for them, so today most of the houses you see are these, which are considered National Heritage. In addition to these houses, he and the following generations of his family built universities, libraries and very advanced schools and expanded their businesses to other countries, including Brazil. Small world, huh? Anyway...there's a lot more to say, but I think this sums it up well.

The wine of the region

The Moravia region is famous for its wines, so we took advantage of the opportunity to do a lot of tasting. All the wines we tried were recommended by our friends and were delicious. I can't say which one was our favorite, but I'll look for the names of the ones we really liked and add them later. post from Moravia.

The best part is the price: we found several wines that were considered excellent for 4 or 5 euros. The price of a bottle is… that’s the price of a glass in Dublin. Oh! If you think 5 euros is too expensive for a stylish glass bottle, you can go to a wine store and ask them to put the wine straight from the barrel into a plastic bottle. It’s only a good idea to do this if you’re going to drink it the same day. They do it all the time!

We drove around Zlín and the surrounding towns and after a few days of driving on them, we can praise the Czech roads. We didn’t see any potholes or toll booths, but we did see plenty of signage. Granted, everything was in Czech and that doesn’t help tourists much, but the roads are of good quality. They’re so good that I slept on almost every journey. 🙂

The attractions

We visited some places that left an impression on us, including Old woodpecker, which is an open-air museum that imitates a 16th-century village. You can enter the houses, the markets, the churches and easily imagine what life was like there back then. I thought it was really cool! We decided to have lunch at the village restaurant and it was there that I tried the delicious fried cheese for the first time (I mean, delicious!). Now just imagine… a nicely melted Milanese cheese, delicious local wine, a cozy atmosphere with traditional Czech music, people you love and snow falling outside. Isn't that a perfect lunch? <3

Another place that was really cool was the city of Luhačovice, famous for its hot springs and many spas. The most famous water in the region is Vincentka, They say it is good for colds, bronchitis, etc. because it has many minerals in its composition. We went to a place where you can drink this water for free (it is sold in pharmacies) and many people went with plastic bottles to take it home. We tried it and found it quite bad...salty and carbonated, you know? But if it is good for the body, why not, right?

The last attraction in the region, but not the least important, was the winery Templar. We did the tour on Friday night and hearing the details of its history since the 13th century, the excitement only increased. We finished the tour with a well-watered and delicious tasting and then we went to dinner inside the winery. Super pleasant and different atmosphere, great food and wonderful wines...all for 16 euros for the two of us. We loved it and recommend it!