Trip tips
Castles, towns, nature and places worth going out for. Selected tips link to a story.
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From the apartment — distance first, then what you are looking for. A wider choice also includes closer tips.
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Must have
Some places are still listed as tips without full detail — we add them gradually.
Showing 125 of 125 tips
Alšova jihočeská galerie — Wortnerův dům
On foot 14 min · By car 9 min
Wortnerův dům is the exhibition hall of Alšova jihočeská galerie. You do not come for a permanent display but for what is on now, so check the programme beforehand. The building itself is worth attention: with battlements and corner turrets it looks more like a small fortress than a burgher's house.
Biskupská rezidence — on the way to the walls
On foot 19 min · By car 6 min
On the walk from the square to the walls stands a striking building with a tower, today's bishop's residence. The town paid for it, the Piarists built it and a bishop moved in. On such a narrow street it has an unusually long façade — try counting windows: each was originally meant to be a classroom.
Budějovický Budvar
On foot 35 min · By car 9 min
The brewery on the northern edge of town offers walk-through tours without booking and unfiltered lager straight from the tank. The name Budweiser, which Budvar has disputed with American Anheuser-Busch for over a century, simply means "from Budějovice" — and this is the only place in the world where you need not wonder which of the two beers you will get.
Černá věž
On foot 14 min · By car 9 min
The best view over Budějovice is from the gallery of the Černá věž. Two hundred and twenty-five steps lead up, past six bells. The largest weighs three and a half tonnes and was cast, among other reasons, to protect the town from lightning, flood and war.
Dominikánský klášter and Piaristické náměstí
On foot 18 min · By car 7 min
Here you reach the very beginnings of Budějovice. Work on the oldest building in town started in 1265 together with the founding of the city. Inside, medieval wall paintings survive, including a St Christopher over ten metres tall.
Hajíčkův obchodní dům
On foot 14 min
Opposite Wortnerův dům stands a department store from 1910 whose façade is almost entirely large mirror-glass panels in fine iron frames. It was the first modern department store in town. Almost nobody notices it — it reflects the houses opposite and in the narrow street you look ahead.
Hvězdárna a planetárium České Budějovice
On foot 22 min · By car 6 min
The observatory and planetarium suit an evening or a day when weather is poor. The second public observatory in Bohemia arose in 1937 from a collection by amateur astronomers — no single patron. The planetarium still uses a projector from 1961.
Jihočeské divadlo and the revolving auditorium
On foot 18 min · By car 6 min
Jihočeské divadlo plays in Budějovice and in summer also at the revolving auditorium in the chateau garden in Český Krumlov. The auditorium was the first of its kind in the world. At the very beginning it did not turn by motor — forty people powered it.
Jihočeské muzeum
On foot 16 min · By car 4 min
Jihočeské muzeum is a good choice on a day when the weather is not kind to walking. It was founded in 1877 from gifts by local people and today holds over 800,000 objects — including moldavites formed when a meteorite struck in what is now Bavaria and ejected material as far as South Bohemia.
Katedrála sv. Mikuláše
On foot 14 min · By car 9 min
The church has stood on this spot since Budějovice was founded in 1265. After the great fire, Italian builders reshaped it into today's Baroque form. Inside are also the relics of St Auratius, patron of the town, brought here from the Roman catacombs in 1644.
Koh-i-noor Hardtmuth
On foot 16 min · By car 6 min
Pencils have been made in Budějovice since 1848 and the company shop is normally open, so you can take home something genuinely local. The famous yellow Koh-i-noor was created here too, named after the diamond in the English coronation regalia.
Lannova stopa — avenue, monument and shipyard
On foot 6 min
Lannova třída leads from the station to the centre, so you may walk it before you know whom it is named after. Vojtěch Lanna was born in the shipyard and later built hundreds of boats a year. When the railway came, he did not treat it as rivalry — he had freight carried straight to the river.
Molo v Háječku
On foot 21 min
The wooden jetty stands above the confluence of the Vltava and Malše, where the town was founded in 1265. Constellations are routed into its handrail. It does not compete with the observatory nearby: one shows stars, the other carries them.
Muzeum koněspřežky
On foot 25 min
A small museum recalls the first public railway on the European continent. It ran from here to Linz and horses still pulled the wagons. Not everyone welcomed the build: opposition was so strong that peasants went after the builders with axes. Inside you learn how it ended and why the line closed.
Náměstí Přemysla Otakara II.
On foot 14 min · By car 9 min
The heart of Budějovice is an almost perfect square, 133 metres on each side, lined with forty-eight Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque houses. In the middle stands the Samson fountain, whose lower basin is a respectable seventeen metres across, with four stone Atlases holding up the upper bowl. And although the square is a square, an old legend says you can still lose your way here.
Pivovar Samson
On foot 29 min · By car 5 min
The oldest brewery in town — brewing since 1795, a century before Budvar. Tours run year-round but only by prior booking. Worth knowing: for over a century this older brewery was not allowed to use its own historic name — Budweiser Bürgerbräu had claimed it for the younger one.
Solnice
On foot 19 min · By car 9 min
The historic Solnice from 1531 now combines a Renaissance hall with a restaurant and its own microbrewery. Beer does not arrive in barrels — it flows through pipes laid seventy metres beneath the square paving straight into the restaurant.
The great fire of České Budějovice (1641) — a shared story
One fire reshaped much of historic Budějovice and its traces link several places in our guide. It began with a barber-surgeon heating ointment for a wounded arm. In seven hours 226 houses burned.
U Zelené ratolesti — where the horse railway met Lanna
On foot 50 min · By car 10 min
The coaching inn from 1821 still stands, with a guesthouse and restaurant you can visit. The courtyard with the historic coach house matters most: these spaces were for horses, wagons and goods, not guests. In 1838 Vojtěch Lanna had a horse-railway siding brought here.
Vodárenská věž
On foot 28 min
At first glance the tower from 1724 can look like a fragment of a castle. In fact it is a technical monument that pumped water from the Vltava into the town, including to the Samson fountain. It was not for drinking. The town got drinking water only in 1882, through a second, entirely separate pipe ending at street fountains. Pipes to flats came only from the 1950s.
Zátkův dům — bust on Krajinská
On foot 17 min
A bust on a house in Krajinská recalls a man who spent eight years trying to reconcile the Czech and German halves of the town. An agreement was passed in May 1914. Three months later the First World War began.
Železná panna
On foot 19 min · By car 6 min
The Železná panna is one of the best-preserved parts of the Budějovice fortifications and dates from the 14th century. On four floors it now holds the only permanent exhibition in the Czech Republic devoted to Přemysl Otakar II.
Bike / inline České Budějovice–Hluboká
On foot 31 min · By car 7 min
The cycle path along the left bank of the Vltava runs from Budějovice to Hluboká nad Vltavou — to the chateau. You start at the car park by Dlouhý most, ride on the flat and off the road, so it suits inline skates or families with children.
Bike and e-bike hire
On foot 24 min · By car 7 min
You do not need to bring your own bike. Classic and e-bikes are rented at the Infopoint on Jiráskovo nábřeží in the centre and at Vodácké centrum in České Vrbné. From both places you can head out on the flat cycle path along the Vltava towards Hluboká.
FUNSPACE České Budějovice
On foot 17 min · By car 6 min
FUNSPACE is for when you want a break from sights and a bit of play. In one place you find laser game, escape room and other activities right in the city centre.
Letní plovárna
On foot 24 min
A functionalist site from 1933 on Sokolský ostrov, minutes from the square, nicknamed little Budějovice Barrandov. The fifty-metre pool was to be the largest in interwar Czechoslovakia — and people swam in it a year before it was fully finished.
Outdoor escape game — Budějcká bojovka ("Horník Rudolf")
A five-kilometre loop in the countryside near Rudolfov with fifteen puzzles and roughly three to five hours of walking and solving. Played in the open air, so no fixed opening hours — you choose the date and start when you like. Book at least the day before.
Paddleboard, kayak, boat — Vodácké centrum ČB
On foot 86 min · By car 15 min
In České Vrbné you can hire a paddleboard, kayak or boat. The site also has its own slalom course, so the water here is more than scenery.
Sightseeing cruise on the Vltava / Malše
On foot 21 min · By car 7 min
A commented boat trip shows Budějovice from the surface of the Vltava and Malše — a view you rarely get on foot. You also reach their confluence, where the whole town began in 1265.
Stěna Lanovka
On foot 9 min · By car 6 min
A bouldering wall in the centre, over eighty routes and courses even for adults who have never climbed — you climb low above mats, so you need not learn to belay. Note opening hours: weekdays only, closed at weekends.
Wellness Beseda — private sauna and hot tub
On foot 12 min · By car 5 min
Sauna, hot tub and rest zone for your group only. No sharing with other visitors — the evening is genuinely yours.
XBowling Budějce (OC Čtyři Dvory)
On foot 55 min · By car 11 min
Bowling centre in OC Čtyři Dvory — ten professional lanes, shoes included and free parking. One of the oldest in the country and a reliable evening when it rains outside.
Bezdrev
By car 20 min
A large pond just before Hluboká is a practical short water stop on the way to the chateau; if you stay longer, the official tourist route folds it into an roughly 22 km flat loop around Hluboká.
Boubínské jezírko
By car 60 min
The pond below Boubín is today one legal way to reach the edge of the Boubín primeval forest — a marked path leads to the dam while Knížecí cesta remains closed to visitors.
Černé jezero
By car 110 min
The largest glacial lake on Šumava has one of the most accessible lake routes from Špičácké sedlo — about 3.5 km one way on asphalt — and you can continue on a harder loop to Čertovo jezero.
Čertovo jezero
By car 110 min
The glacial lake below Špičák makes most sense together with Černé jezero, but the connecting ridge is steep and stony — a comfortable lake walk becomes a proper mountain route.
Chalupská slať
By car 60 min
An roughly one-kilometre trail from Svinná Lada leads on a post-war boardwalk to a large peat lake with floating islets — Šumava wetland without a full-day trek.
Jelení jezírko (Medvědí stezka)
By car 60 min
An artificial retention pond linked to the Schwarzenberg canal lies on Medvědí stezka; the shorter Ovesná–Jelení variant is about 7 km — a quieter Šumava tip where the way matters as much as the goal.
Jezero Laka
By car 90 min
The smallest and highest Šumava glacial lake is a quieter goal for guests who accept a longer walk — the official route from Železná Ruda is 14 km and about 4.5 hours.
Olšina
By car 45 min
Olšina pond is a quiet water goal near Horní Planá without mountain climb; for more than a short stop, a 7.3 km educational trail circles the same pond through wetland and forest.
Plešné jezero
By car 60 min
Glacial lake below Plechý reached by a long forest approach; from Nová Pec part of the way follows the Schwarzenberg canal, so one goal can become a full Šumava day.
Prášilské jezero
By car 90 min
Glacial lake reachable on a shorter eight-kilometre loop from Slunečná, or turn it into an active day with Poledník — the official long variant is 17.5 km and over five hours' walking.
Třístoličník – Plechý – Plešné jezero
A full-day ridge route from Nová Pec over Plešné jezero and Plechý towards Trojmezí and Třístoličník is about 22 km according to the municipality and ends in Nové Údolí, where you can return by train.
Vítkův hrádek
By car 60 min
Ruin high above Lipno is only about 400 m on foot from free parking and from the tower opens a view over the dam towards the Alps — an easy goal that mainly pays off in clear weather.
Holašovice
By car 27 min
Holašovice are on the UNESCO list for an exceptionally preserved village green lined with farmsteads in rural Baroque. It is not an open-air museum — people still live in the houses. In five centuries the population was replaced almost entirely twice.
Kleť — Josefova věž lookout and cable car
By car 27 min
A trip to Kleť can combine the cable car and the view from the oldest stone lookout in Bohemia, standing since 1825. Prince Schwarzenberg had it built for his family. Its shape closely recalls the tower from the Schwarzenberg coat of arms.
Observatoř Kleť — KLENOT and the asteroid hunters
By car 27 min
On the summit of Kleť stands the highest observatory in the Czech Republic and one of the places where new bodies in space are genuinely searched for. Over a thousand asteroids were discovered here and the team took part in one of five cases in history when an impact was predicted in advance.
- Tip without details
Český Krumlov
By car 45 min
Castle and chateau complex over 6 hectares — second largest in Bohemia after Prague Castle, wrapped by a meandering Vltava. Historic centre, river, evening atmosphere. We are still preparing a detailed card for this place.
- Tip without details
Lipno / Stezka korunami stromů
By car 60 min
The largest water surface in the Czech Republic — 48.7 km², hence the nickname South Bohemian sea. Views, rather a full-day programme. We are still preparing a detailed card for this place.
- Tip without details
Tábor
By car 45 min
Founded in 1420 by Hussites under Jan Žižka and named after biblical Mount Tabor. A maze of lanes and underground passages once confused enemies — today it confuses navigation more. We are still preparing a detailed card for this place.
- Tip without details
Třeboň
By car 15 min
Ponds around the town were built already in the 16th century by Rožmberk regent Jakub Krčín, including Svět below the town. Historic town, chateau, spa atmosphere. We are still preparing a detailed card for this place.
- Tip without details
Zámek Hluboká nad Vltavou
By car 15 min
Neo-Gothic rebuild 1840–1871 modelled on English Windsor — Duchess Eleonora was so taken on a visit to England that she had the old structure torn down. Chateau, park, gallery in the riding hall. We are still preparing a detailed card for this place.
A walk by the water
On foot 19 min · By car 5 min
A quiet stroll along Zátkovo nábřeží and across Sokolský ostrov shows Budějovice from a completely different angle. You can walk as far as the confluence of the Vltava and Malše — where Přemysl Otakar II founded the town in 1265.
Jezerní slať
By car 60 min
Peat bog between Kvilda and Horská Kvilda has only about half a kilometre from a small car park and a viewing tower — ideal short stop when you want Šumava bog without a long hike.
Stromovka
On foot 28 min · By car 6 min
Sixty-eight hectares of green on the edge of town, reachable on foot from the centre. In the middle lies Lake Bagr with its own islet — a place for a whole afternoon rather than a half-hour walk. The lake was never in any plan: it is flooded gravel pits from post-war extraction that filled with groundwater on their own.
Vrbenské rybníky
By car 16 min
A short way from town, a system of four large ponds reachable even by city transport. A four-kilometre educational trail runs on the dams; 193 bird species have been recorded here.
- Tip without details
Poutní kostel Lomec
By car 15 min
Baroque church with a ciborium altar modelled on Bernini's in St Peter's in Rome — the same type exists only in the Vatican and Vittoria in Spain. Interior tours best arranged in advance. We are still preparing a detailed card for this place.
Besednické vltavíny
By car 31 min
Besednice is known for moldavites with exceptionally sculptured surfaces, among the most valued by collectors worldwide. The natural site itself is protected and digging is forbidden. You can dig your own legally at the experience mine by the village.
Doudleby
By car 16 min
Doudleby are worth a trip mainly for history older than České Budějovice itself. The church of St Vincent stands on a Slavic stronghold that once administered much of South Bohemia. Old ramparts are still visible in the land and you can walk them.
Eliášova dědičná štola (Úsilné)
By car 12 min
Eliášova štola is a technical trace of the silver mines near Rudolfov and shows how big a problem groundwater was for miners. They drove a three-kilometre gallery for almost two hundred years to drain flooded workings. The mines themselves died out, but water from the gallery was used as drinking water for Budějovice centuries later.
Rodinný pivovar Bukovar
By car 26 min
A family brewery in Dolní Bukovsko with its own pub and summer garden, eight house beers on tap and brewery tours by arrangement. Half an hour by car — not a stop on the way, but an outing with beer as the reason. Opening hours vary by season — check their Facebook before you go.
Rudolfov — a mining town Budějovice destroyed and then inherited
By car 10 min
Today Rudolfov is a quiet little town minutes from Budějovice, but its past is different. Thanks to mining it was once among the largest towns in South Bohemia. It fell in 1619 and a year later the emperor gave it, with its mining privileges, to Budějovice.
Trocnov — Jan Žižka memorial
By car 16 min
Trocnov is linked to the birth of Jan Žižka and today offers much more than the memorial alone. Since spring 2026 a new visitor centre with a museum exhibition makes it a worthwhile standalone history trip.
Dobronice u Bechyně
By car 60 min
A fine ruin on a rock above the Lužnice is inaccessible as of 24 September 2026 due to the dangerous state of the masonry — come for the valley and the view of the castle from outside, not to plan entry.
Helfenburk u Bavorova
By car 60 min
A large forest ruin above Bavorov has seasonal opening; from the car park expect about a kilometre on foot — or walk from Bavorov for a full-day trip instead of a quick stop.
Karlův hrádek u Purkarce
By car 25 min
A smaller ruin above the Vltava is about 2–2.5 km on foot from Purkarec on the red mark and pairs naturally with raft navigation in Purkarec or a longer walk along the river from Hluboká.
Kuklov
By car 60 min
Kuklov joins the torso of a never-finished monastery church in the village with tiny remains of Kuglvajt castle on a rock nearby — best not as a ten-minute stop but as part of a Brložsko loop.
Louzek
By car 25 min
Forest ruin four kilometres south of Kaplice is free year-round; from a small parking place on road I/3 it is under a kilometre on foot — a quieter counterpart to wilder Sokolčí.
Maškovec / Kotkův hrádek
By car 25 min
An almost vanished castle above the Vltava is for discoverers, not hunters of big ruins — from Kamenný Újezd under 3 km on foot; on site mainly one wall, ramparts, moats and a steep cliff above the river.
Pořešín
By car 25 min
A groomed ruin above the Malše has a castle museum, seasonal opening and parking about half a kilometre in the village — of four castles near Kaplice the most comfortable for visitors who want more than overgrown forest torso.
Příběnice
By car 60 min
Extensive terrain remains of castle and outer town above the Lužnice suit a walking day in the river valley — you can drive near the outer town, but arriving on the red from Tábor or continuing towards Bechyně is richer.
Velešín
By car 25 min
Quiet ruin on a narrow headland above Římovská nádrž is free year-round; from Sedlec about 1.3 km on foot; a new wooden bridge over the moat now opens the core.
Zřícenina Dívčí Kámen
By car 20 min
Large romantic ruin above the Vltava–Křemžský potok confluence always means a walk — from Třísov the shortest path is about 1.5 km; a longer asphalt variant 2–2.5 km suits prams.