Czechia Itinerary: 5 Days in Prague, Český Krumlov
Five days in the country that got through the twentieth century with its old towns intact: three in Prague, where a thousand years of architecture stands shoulder to shoulder and nothing was bombed flat, then south to Český Krumlov, a Renaissance town wrapped in a double loop of the Vltava.
Czechia ranked #36 worldwide with 10.6 million international arrivals (2024, UN Tourism data compiled by worlddata.info, border arrivals; the Czech Statistical Office counts accommodation guests instead and reports a lower figure, so published rankings vary). Last reviewed 2026-08-08.
Czechia · 5 days Prague → Český Krumlov
Best time: May, June, and September, long light, open terraces, and none of the July crush.
Prague: Charles BridgeDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMCharles Bridge
The 1357 stone bridge lined with Baroque saints, laid at a time chosen by court astrologers. Cross it at 6am or after 10pm, in daylight it is a slow-moving river of people.
🚶 ~20 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.8 mi
🖼️1:30 PMMucha Museum
Alphonse Mucha's Paris poster years, in a small central palace, the Art Nouveau style Prague still wears on its building fronts, gathered in one place.
🚶 ~10 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.4 mi
🌆6:00 PMStaré Město (Old Town)
The medieval core around the square, where the crowd gathers on the hour to watch a 600-year-old clock do its rounds. Walk two streets off the main drag and the noise drops by half.
Prague: Prague Castle and St. Vitus CathedralDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMPrague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral
The largest ancient castle complex in the world by area, and the Gothic cathedral at its heart holding the Bohemian crown jewels and Mucha's stained glass. The grounds are free to walk; the interiors need a circuit ticket.
🚶 ~15 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.6 mi
🥾1:30 PMPetřín Hill
The wooded hill above Malá Strana, reached by funicular or a switchback walk, topped by a lookout tower built in frank imitation of the Eiffel. Orchards on the slopes bloom in April.
🚶 ~40 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.5 mi
🎟️6:00 PMCommunism and the Velvet Revolution walk
A guided walk through the 1948–89 city: the balcony, the square, the underpass where the students were beaten in November 1989. The buildings are unremarkable, which is exactly why a guide is worth it.
Prague: Astronomical ClockDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMAstronomical Clock
The 1410 clock on the Old Town Hall, the oldest still operating anywhere. The apostles parade hourly from 9:00 to 23:00; the tower above it gives the square's best view and almost nobody queues for it.
🚶 ~29 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
🖼️1:30 PMNational Gallery, Veletržní Palace
Modern and contemporary art in a 1920s functionalist trade-fair hall that is itself the exhibit. The Czech interwar avant-garde here is world-class and quiet.
🚶 ~41 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMMalá Strana
The Lesser Town under the castle, Baroque palaces, embassy gardens behind high walls, and steep lanes that empty completely after the day-trippers leave.
Arrive in Český KrumlovDay 4
🚌8:30 AMBus to Český Krumlov
Prague to Český Krumlov in about 3 hours by direct coach from Na Knížecí or Florenc, reserved seats, cheap, and more frequent than the train, which needs a change at České Budějovice and takes closer to 4 hours.
🚌 ~3h · 84 mi
🚶 Cobbles on foot
🏛️2:00 PMČeský Krumlov Castle
The second-largest castle complex in the country, layered from a thirteenth-century Gothic core into Renaissance and Baroque wings. Interiors are guided-tour-only and closed November to March; the courtyards and gardens stay open.
🚶 ~3 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMOld Town
A single knot of cobbled lanes inside the river bend, Renaissance facades with painted-on stonework, and small squares that go quiet the moment the coaches leave at five.
Český Krumlov: Castle TowerDay 5
🏛️9:00 AMCastle Tower
The round painted tower over the town, a tight climb to the view that puts the whole river loop, the red roofs, and the forested hills in one frame. Open year-round.
🚶 ~3 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🖼️1:30 PMEgon Schiele Art Centrum
A converted brewery showing Schiele, who lived here in 1911 until the town ran him out, plus rotating modern exhibitions. His mother was Krumlov-born.
🚶 ~3 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🎟️6:00 PMGuided castle interiors circuit
The Renaissance and Baroque state rooms, seen only with a guide on a timed circuit. Book on arrival for later the same day; the English slots fill first.
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Best time to goMay, June, and September, long light, open terraces, and none of the July crush. December turns Old Town Square into a Christmas market worth the cold. January and February are cheap, dark, and genuinely beautiful under snow.
Recommended splitPrague 3d · Český Krumlov 2d
Local tip: Change money at a proper exchange office and never at the ones advertising "0% commission" near Old Town Square. The rate is the trick. Czechia keeps the koruna, not the euro, and card payment is near-universal, so you need less cash than you think.
Prague, 3 days
Prague is what a European capital looks like when nobody knocks it down. Romanesque cellars sit under Gothic churches under Baroque facades under Art Nouveau apartment blocks, all within a walk, and the castle on the hill has been continuously occupied since the ninth century. It is also a city that changed its own government by filling a square, twice in living memory.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inStaré Město (Old Town). The medieval core around the square, where the crowd gathers on the hour to watch a 600-year-old clock do its rounds. Walk two streets off the main drag and the noise drops by half.Malá Strana. The Lesser Town under the castle, Baroque palaces, embassy gardens behind high walls, and steep lanes that empty completely after the day-trippers leave.Josefov. The former Jewish Quarter: six surviving synagogues and a crowded old cemetery where headstones stand twelve layers deep because the community was never allowed more ground.Vinohrady. The residential district east of the center, tree-lined streets, Art Nouveau apartment houses, and the neighborhood cafés and beer gardens Praguers actually use.
LandmarksCharles Bridge. The 1357 stone bridge lined with Baroque saints, laid at a time chosen by court astrologers. Cross it at 6am or after 10pm, in daylight it is a slow-moving river of people.Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. The largest ancient castle complex in the world by area, and the Gothic cathedral at its heart holding the Bohemian crown jewels and Mucha's stained glass. The grounds are free to walk; the interiors need a circuit ticket.Astronomical Clock. The 1410 clock on the Old Town Hall, the oldest still operating anywhere. The apostles parade hourly from 9:00 to 23:00; the tower above it gives the square's best view and almost nobody queues for it.Vyšehrad. The other castle, on a cliff south of the center, a fortress, a neo-Gothic basilica, and the cemetery where Dvořák and Smetana are buried. Locals come here on Sundays; visitors mostly do not.
Nature and outdoorsPetřín Hill. The wooded hill above Malá Strana, reached by funicular or a switchback walk, topped by a lookout tower built in frank imitation of the Eiffel. Orchards on the slopes bloom in April.Letná Park. The plateau across the river with the city's best skyline view and a beer garden under chestnut trees. A giant Stalin statue stood here until 1962; a metronome swings on the plinth now.
MuseumsMucha Museum. Alphonse Mucha's Paris poster years, in a small central palace, the Art Nouveau style Prague still wears on its building fronts, gathered in one place.National Gallery, Veletržní Palace. Modern and contemporary art in a 1920s functionalist trade-fair hall that is itself the exhibit. The Czech interwar avant-garde here is world-class and quiet.
Worth a guided tourCommunism and the Velvet Revolution walk. A guided walk through the 1948–89 city: the balcony, the square, the underpass where the students were beaten in November 1989. The buildings are unremarkable, which is exactly why a guide is worth it.Traditional Czech beer-hall evening. Czechs drink more beer per head than anyone on earth and invented the pilsner. A guided pub round explains the tank-beer culture and gets you into rooms where no English menu exists.
Getting around PragueTrams, metro, and your feet. Buy a 24- or 72-hour transit pass and validate it once in the yellow machine, inspectors are frequent and unmoved by tourists. Tram 22 runs past the castle and doubles as the cheapest city tour in Europe.
Český Krumlov, 2 days
Getting here: Bus, Prague to Český Krumlov in about 3 hours by direct coach from Na Knížecí or Florenc, reserved seats, cheap, and more frequent than the train, which needs a change at České Budějovice and takes closer to 4 hours.
A Renaissance river town that fell out of history and was therefore never modernized, the Schwarzenbergs ran out of money, the Communists neglected it, and UNESCO listed the result in 1992. The Vltava loops around the old town so tightly that the center is almost an island, with a painted castle on the ridge above it.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inOld Town. A single knot of cobbled lanes inside the river bend, Renaissance facades with painted-on stonework, and small squares that go quiet the moment the coaches leave at five.Latrán. The castle-side quarter across the water, historically the servants' and brewers' district, now the calmer half of town for an evening walk.
LandmarksČeský Krumlov Castle. The second-largest castle complex in the country, layered from a thirteenth-century Gothic core into Renaissance and Baroque wings. Interiors are guided-tour-only and closed November to March; the courtyards and gardens stay open.Castle Tower. The round painted tower over the town, a tight climb to the view that puts the whole river loop, the red roofs, and the forested hills in one frame. Open year-round.Cloak Bridge. The improbable multi-storey covered bridge on stacked arches linking the castle to its theatre and gardens across a ravine. Walking it costs nothing on the garden route.
Nature and outdoorsCastle Gardens. Eleven hectares of Baroque terraces and a cascade fountain above the town: free, rarely busy, and the best place in Krumlov to sit still for an hour.Vltava riverbank. The town's back garden. Rafting and canoe trips run downstream from here all summer; even without a paddle the riverside path is the loveliest walk in town.
MuseumsEgon Schiele Art Centrum. A converted brewery showing Schiele, who lived here in 1911 until the town ran him out, plus rotating modern exhibitions. His mother was Krumlov-born.Regional Museum. The town's own story in one small building, including a detailed ceramic model of Krumlov as it stood in 1800, worth twenty minutes before you walk the streets it maps.
Worth a guided tourGuided castle interiors circuit. The Renaissance and Baroque state rooms, seen only with a guide on a timed circuit. Book on arrival for later the same day; the English slots fill first.Vltava rafting trip. A gentle half-day float through and out of town on the river that made the place, no experience needed, and the view of the castle from water level is the one nobody photographs.
Getting around Český KrumlovEntirely on foot; the old town is a few hundred meters across and largely closed to cars. Expect cobbles and steep short climbs, so leave the wheeled suitcase strategy at the bus station.
The full plan as text
The same day-by-day plan, expandable day by day. Times are starting points, not homework.
Day 1: Prague: Charles Bridge
9:00 AMCharles Bridge
The 1357 stone bridge lined with Baroque saints, laid at a time chosen by court astrologers. Cross it at 6am or after 10pm, in daylight it is a slow-moving river of people.
1:30 PMMucha Museum
Alphonse Mucha's Paris poster years, in a small central palace, the Art Nouveau style Prague still wears on its building fronts, gathered in one place.
6:00 PMStaré Město (Old Town)
The medieval core around the square, where the crowd gathers on the hour to watch a 600-year-old clock do its rounds. Walk two streets off the main drag and the noise drops by half.
Day 2: Prague: Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral
9:00 AMPrague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral
The largest ancient castle complex in the world by area, and the Gothic cathedral at its heart holding the Bohemian crown jewels and Mucha's stained glass. The grounds are free to walk; the interiors need a circuit ticket.
1:30 PMPetřín Hill
The wooded hill above Malá Strana, reached by funicular or a switchback walk, topped by a lookout tower built in frank imitation of the Eiffel. Orchards on the slopes bloom in April.
6:00 PMCommunism and the Velvet Revolution walk
A guided walk through the 1948–89 city: the balcony, the square, the underpass where the students were beaten in November 1989. The buildings are unremarkable, which is exactly why a guide is worth it.
Day 3: Prague: Astronomical Clock
9:00 AMAstronomical Clock
The 1410 clock on the Old Town Hall, the oldest still operating anywhere. The apostles parade hourly from 9:00 to 23:00; the tower above it gives the square's best view and almost nobody queues for it.
1:30 PMNational Gallery, Veletržní Palace
Modern and contemporary art in a 1920s functionalist trade-fair hall that is itself the exhibit. The Czech interwar avant-garde here is world-class and quiet.
6:00 PMMalá Strana
The Lesser Town under the castle, Baroque palaces, embassy gardens behind high walls, and steep lanes that empty completely after the day-trippers leave.
Day 4: Arrive in Český Krumlov
8:30 AMBus to Český Krumlov
Prague to Český Krumlov in about 3 hours by direct coach from Na Knížecí or Florenc, reserved seats, cheap, and more frequent than the train, which needs a change at České Budějovice and takes closer to 4 hours.
2:00 PMČeský Krumlov Castle
The second-largest castle complex in the country, layered from a thirteenth-century Gothic core into Renaissance and Baroque wings. Interiors are guided-tour-only and closed November to March; the courtyards and gardens stay open.
6:00 PMOld Town
A single knot of cobbled lanes inside the river bend, Renaissance facades with painted-on stonework, and small squares that go quiet the moment the coaches leave at five.
Day 5: Český Krumlov: Castle Tower
9:00 AMCastle Tower
The round painted tower over the town, a tight climb to the view that puts the whole river loop, the red roofs, and the forested hills in one frame. Open year-round.
1:30 PMEgon Schiele Art Centrum
A converted brewery showing Schiele, who lived here in 1911 until the town ran him out, plus rotating modern exhibitions. His mother was Krumlov-born.
6:00 PMGuided castle interiors circuit
The Renaissance and Baroque state rooms, seen only with a guide on a timed circuit. Book on arrival for later the same day; the English slots fill first.
Make this Czechia trip yours
Forward your real booking confirmations to Petrel and it builds this exact day-by-day view for you: flights, hotels, reservations, live flight status, and the travel time between stops. Under a minute.
Start your free tripFirst trip free. No account, no credit card.