Day trips from Prague: 113 places within 2½ hours by car

The village razed by the Nazis in June 1942 in revenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. The memorial includes a bronze sculpture of 82 children.

Home of Kozel beer and its live goat mascot, a fixture of the brewery yard for decades. Founded by industrialist Franz Ringhoffer in 1874.

A Baroque church built against a limestone cliff in the Bohemian Karst, over the cave where, legend says, Ivan, the first Czech hermit, lived in the 9th century. A steep path climbs to the cross on top of the rock for a view down the valley.

A family microbrewery in Slaný with its own taproom, known for hoppy pale lagers and seasonal specials.

A flooded limestone quarry in the Bohemian Karst, nicknamed the Czech Grand Canyon.

Lobkowicz vineyards on the Elbe terraces below Říp hill, among the oldest wine sites in Bohemia.

Founded by Charles IV in 1348 to guard the imperial regalia and holy relics. The Chapel of the Holy Cross is inlaid with semi-precious stones and 129 panel paintings.

The lone hill rising from the Elbe plain where, legend says, Forefather Čech looked out over the land and claimed it for his people. On the summit stands the Romanesque Rotunda of St George, rebuilt in 1126.

Above the confluence of the Vltava and Elbe, the Lobkowicz chateau has made wine for centuries; tradition credits Charles IV with bringing Burgundy vines here.

The largest cave system in Bohemia, where counterfeiters minted coins in the 15th century.

Emperor Rudolf II bought this brewery in 1583, giving it the royal title it still carries. It lies in the hop-growing Rakovník region.

An 18th-century fortress that the Nazis turned into a Gestapo prison, next to the Terezín ghetto. Today a memorial to the victims.

A heart spa on the Elbe, founded in 1908 after a mineral spring was struck in the castle courtyard. Its colonnade and park lie beside the river.

The tallest menhir in Czechia, about three and a half metres of stone standing alone in the fields near Klobuky. Local legend says it moves one step closer to the village church with every ring of the bell – and when it gets there, the world will end.

A village microbrewery near Slaný that grew into one of the busiest craft producers in the country, from classic lagers to barrel-aged specials.

The car maker's museum on the site where Laurin & Klement started out building bicycles in 1895: cars from the first voiturettes to rally Fabias, and a restoration workshop you can look into. Tours of the plant next door can be booked.

The Czech Railways museum in a former engine shed of the Buštěhrad Railway, with the country's largest collection of steam locomotives, rides on a narrow-gauge line and steam trains on some weekends.

The centre of the Bohemian wine subregion, with a wine centre in the restored castle and a big harvest festival each September.

Příbram mined silver for centuries and uranium after the war. In Březové Hory you ride a mine train into the Ševčin adit and walk through headframes, engine houses and miners' cottages.

One of the most important Marian pilgrimage sites in Bohemia: a Baroque complex on a hill above Příbram, built around a medieval statue of the Virgin and reached by a long covered stairway from the town.

In the Elbe valley below the České středohoří hills, this village has rock-cut cellars and one of the oldest wine traditions in Bohemia.

The highest peak of the České středohoří (837 m) and the windiest place in the country by measurement, with a weather observatory on top.

A brewery with roots in 1564 near Turnov, known for keeping most of its beers unpasteurised. A popular stop for cyclists heading into Bohemian Paradise.

Mushroom-shaped sandstone pillars topped with 'lids' in the Kokořínsko protected landscape, near Kokořín castle.

One of the oldest spas in Europe, where hot springs have been used since the Middle Ages and which later drew European nobility.

Sandy pine forest between the sandstone rocks — slippery jacks and pine boletes, often the first flush of the season in June.

The country's largest sparkling wine producer offers cellar tours and tastings in a town otherwise known for beer.

A small chapel decorated with the bones of some 40,000 people, arranged into a chandelier and a coat of arms by woodcarver František Rint in 1870.

A craft brewery in the hop town of Žatec, known for hop-forward and experimental beers.

A Bohemian winery working vineyards around the silver town, with tastings in cellars above the Vrchlice valley.

Birthplace of the golden pale lager: in 1842 Bavarian brewer Josef Groll brewed the first Pilsner here. Tours end in the historic cellars with unfiltered beer poured straight from oak barrels.

Oak and beech woods in a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Penny buns and oak boletes after warm rain, July to October.

A microbrewery, hotel and beer spa in the Černice district of Plzeň, brewing everything from wheat beers to dark lagers.

A cathedral-scale Gothic church funded by silver miners and begun in 1388. Silver once made Kutná Hora the second town of the kingdom (UNESCO).

Žatec is the home of Saaz hops, and its hop landscape joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2023. The complex includes a hop museum, a lookout tower and a hop-themed astronomical clock.

Humpolec's brewery dates back to 1597. The Bernard family bought it at auction in 1991 and turned it into one of the country's best-known independent brewers.

Sandstone towers around Hrubá Skála chateau in Bohemian Paradise, with a view across to Trosky.

A Plzeň craft brewery working with modern hops in IPAs and pale ales – a counterpoint to the city's lager tradition.

A sandstone rock town with narrow passages loved by children and climbers; it appeared in The Chronicles of Narnia films.

A peat spa near Pardubice, with a spa house designed by the modernist architect Josef Gočár.

One of the oldest stud farms in the world, breeding the ceremonial Kladruber horse since 1579. UNESCO since 2019.

Legend says an army of knights led by St Wenceslas sleeps inside the hill and will ride out when the Czech lands are in their greatest need. A short climb through beech woods leads to a wooden lookout tower on the summit of Velký Blaník.

Below Vysoký Chlumec castle, brewing has been recorded since 1466, and the brewery has been tied to the Lobkowicz family since the 16th century.

A sandstone rock town near Jičín with narrow gorges and dozens of viewpoints.

A military zone closed to the public until 2016, now the best-known mushroom ground within an hour of Prague. Boletes and bay boletes from late June, peak in September.

Two towers on volcanic basalt plugs, nicknamed Baba and Panna, the emblem of Bohemian Paradise.

Founded by the radical Hussites in 1420 and named after the biblical Mount Tabor. Tunnels run beneath the old town.

Czech puppetry is on UNESCO's heritage list, and this museum in Chrudim's Renaissance Mydlář House holds thousands of puppets, from travelling marionette theatres to figures from around the world.

A 14th-century village church abandoned after part of the ceiling fell during a funeral in 1968. In 2012 the artist Jakub Hadrava filled the pews with 32 ghostly plaster figures of the former parishioners, and the visitors they drew have paid for a new roof.

Home of Probošt's mechanical nativity scene, carved by a local carpenter and his friends over some forty years and still set in motion by its original mechanism – a national cultural monument, with some 400 more nativity scenes around it.

Baroque sculptures carved straight into sandstone boulders in a forest near Kuks: in the 1720s Matthias Bernard Braun cut a Nativity scene, hermits and saints into the rock for Count Franz Anton Sporck. A rare open-air gallery, on UNESCO's tentative list.

The largest Czech spa town, listed in 2021 among the Great Spa Towns of Europe. A dozen hot springs feed the colonnades, ending with the Vřídlo geyser at about 73 °C.

A small brewery in the Lusatian Mountains, brought back to life in recent years in a town that brewed beer for centuries.

Quiet forest on the German border, less picked over than the Prague-side woods. Boletes and chanterelles, July to October.

Moser has made lead-free crystal in Karlovy Vary since 1857, for royal courts and presidents. The visitor centre has a museum of its glass and a tour of the hot shop, where the glassmakers blow and shape it by hand.

A small spa in the Jizera Mountains below Smrk, using iron-rich springs known since the 16th century.

Birch and spruce on the ridge above the spa towns — birch boletes and milk caps, late July into October.

The largest fishpond in the Czech Republic, completed in 1590 by Jakub Krčín. The autumn carp harvest is a spectacle.

A peat spa in a small town above the Lužnice, reached from Tábor by the first electrified railway in Austria-Hungary.

State-owned brewery known for its long 90-day lagering and a century-long dispute over the name 'Budweiser'. Water comes from its own deep artesian wells.

One of the oldest pilgrimage sites in Bohemia, at the foot of the Jizera Mountains: legend dates it to 1211, and the vast Baroque basilica was consecrated in 1725. A small 14th-century statue of the Virgin still stands on the high altar.

A glassworks in the Krkonoše making glass since 1712: watch it blown from a gallery above the furnaces, then visit the glass museum – and the brewpub in the same hall, where a glass wall looks onto the glassmakers.

The largest natural sandstone arch in Europe, 26.5 m wide, in Bohemian Switzerland National Park.

Rebuilt by the Schwarzenbergs in the 19th century in the style of Windsor Castle, with lavish interiors and an English park.

A remote Jizera Mountains hamlet in a peat-bog valley below the volcanic cone of Bukovec.

A small West Bohemian spa whose Prusík spring is among the most carbon-rich mineral waters in the country.

A castle on a rock in a tight bend of the Ohře, once called the key to the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Peat cut from the Třeboň bogs is used for the baths here, in a town of fishponds and Renaissance houses.

A family brewery with a tradition from 1573 and cellars cut into granite. Also known for its beer spa, where guests bathe in a mix of hops, yeast and brewing water.

Blueberry undergrowth and spruce; bay boletes here are often clean of maggots thanks to the altitude. August to October.

An arcaded Renaissance chateau covered in more than 8,000 sgraffito 'bricks', no two alike. Composer Bedřich Smetana was born in its brewery.

Founded in Třeboň in 1379, it ranks among the oldest breweries in the country. It stands by the Rosenberg chateau, surrounded by the region's fishponds.

A cascade over granite steps near Harrachov, with 'giant's kettles' carved into the rock.

The oldest brewery still working in České Budějovice, founded by the town's burghers in 1795. The brewery restaurant serves its lagers fresh from the site.

A modern brewery in the Vysočina highlands, opened in 2009, brewing unpasteurised lagers from local water.

A Sokolov microbrewery named after the permoník, the mining spirit of the Ore Mountains, brewing lagers and wheat beers.

The world's first radon spa, opened in 1906 with water from the local uranium mines – the same ore from which Marie Curie isolated radium.

A small Krkonoše brewery in Vrchlabí, a good stop on the way to or from the mountains.

An open-air museum of the Vysočina uplands near Hlinsko: timber farmhouses, barns and a water-powered mill and sawmill, put back to work on demonstration days.

A 17th-century pilgrimage village south of České Budějovice: a copy of the Holy House of Loreto, begun in 1648, and a Way of the Cross of 25 chapels winding about 5 km through the fields and woods around Římov.

A craft brewery below Potštejn castle in eastern Bohemia, known for its IPAs and pale ales.

One of the pioneers of the Czech craft beer wave, brewing IPAs, stouts and sour beers in Varnsdorf since 2008.

Spruce forest below the national park, where chanterelles come early and spruce boletes follow. July to October — the park's core zones are off limits.

A South Bohemian village of Rural Baroque farmhouses around a green, preserved almost unchanged from the 19th century. UNESCO since 1998.

Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel's star-shaped church, built from 1719, is designed around the number five, after the five stars of the saint's legend. UNESCO since 1994.

A long Renaissance square lined with arcades and pastel gables, rebuilt after a fire in 1530. UNESCO since 1992.

The only Jewish monument outside Israel listed by UNESCO in its own right, together with the Romanesque-Gothic Basilica of St. Procopius.

A Baroque pilgrimage church near Sokolov looked after by the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, the order founded by St Agnes of Bohemia. The present church and cloisters were built around 1700, probably to a design by Christoph Dientzenhofer.

A small Chodsko brewery revived in 2006 in its historic buildings; its 10°, 12° and dark 14° lagers have a cult following.

Around a hundred mineral springs rise in and around the town; its centrepiece is the cast-iron colonnade of 1889 and the Singing Fountain. UNESCO since 2021.

A microbrewery in Krásná Lípa at the gateway to Bohemian Switzerland, a natural stop after a day in the sandstone rocks.

Thinly populated border forest, one of the least picked regions in the country. Boletes from July, russulas all summer.

The country's second-largest castle complex, above a bend of the Vltava; its Baroque theatre keeps its original stage machinery. UNESCO since 1992.

Flat pine woods between the fishponds, easy walking and reliable in a dry year. Pine boletes, slippery jacks and birch boletes, July to October.

A planned spa town of yellow Empire houses laid out in 1793 around the Františkův spring. UNESCO since 2021.

A Krkonoše spa grown up around a warm spring, at the foot of Černá hora and its cable car.

Beer has been brewed below Český Krumlov castle since 1560, under the Rosenbergs and later the Eggenbergs. Tours take in the brewhouse and cellars.

A quiet children's spa in the Slavkov Forest, below the chateau of chancellor Metternich.

A mofette landscape where carbon dioxide bubbles up through mud and mineral springs, a rare trace of volcanic activity.

The Augustinian abbey in Old Brno where Gregor Mendel crossed peas and worked out the laws of heredity: his story, the garden where he grew them, and the abbey's basilica and library on guided tours.

Brno's historic brewery on the grounds of a former Cistercian convent in Staré Brno. Its gate faces Mendel Square, next to the abbey where Gregor Mendel did his work on heredity.

Under St James' Church lie the bones of an estimated 50,000 people from the old town cemetery. Rediscovered in 2001 and opened in 2012, it is said to be the second-largest ossuary in Europe after the Paris catacombs.

The brewery where Jiří Menzel filmed Cutting It Short, brewing since the late 19th century in a picturesque yard with a museum.

A brewpub in Brno's Jakubská street, one of the first to open after 1989 and still brewing on the premises.

A 13th-century royal castle later turned into a feared Habsburg prison; visitors can walk through the casemates.

A Brno craft brewery in the Slatina district with a wide range of ales and lagers and its own taproom.

Mies van der Rohe's functionalist masterpiece in Brno, completed in 1930, with an onyx wall and windows that sink into the floor. Book tours well in advance.

High spruce country on the Bohemian-Moravian ridge; later and cooler than the lowlands, so the season runs well into October.

A labyrinth of sandstone towers up to 100 m tall, with a boat ride on a small lake and narrow gorges.

The Gothic ruin of the Rosa coeli convent stands above a small town known for its red wines.

A Gothic castle on a rock spur that was never conquered and has kept its medieval look.

At 1,603 m the highest mountain in the Czech Republic, on the Polish border in the Krkonoše. A cable car runs up from Pec pod Sněžkou.

A memorial on Pratzen Heights to the fallen of the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz, the Battle of the Three Emperors.