Lonely Planet Prague & the Czech Republic

Mark Baker, Neil Wilson

Description

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Prague & the Czech Republic is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Count statues on Charles Bridge, marvel at the Renaissance splendour of bohemian town Cesky Krumlov or explore Prague's Old Town -all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Prague & the Czech Republic and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's Prague & the Czech Republic Travel Guide: Full-colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, art, architecture, beer culture Free, convenient pull-out Prague map (included in print version), plus over 30 colour maps Covers Prague, Bohemia, Moravia and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Prague & the Czech Republic, our most comprehensive guide to Prague & the Czech Republic, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled. Looking for just the highlights of Prague? Check out Lonely Planet's Pocket Prague, a handy-sized guide focused on the can't-miss sights for a quick trip.About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and phrasebooks for 120 languages, and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more, enabling you to explore every day. Lonely Planet enables the curious to experience the world fully and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves, near or far from home.TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Sujets

• Czech Republic

Informations

• Publié par: Lonely Planet
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781787012318
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 57 Mo

Extrait

Prague & the Czech Republic

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Prague & the Czech Republic
Prague & the Czech Republic's Top 12
Need to Know
First Time the Czech Republic
What's New
If You Like
Month by Month
Itineraries
Travel with Children
Eat & Drink Like a Local
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

Prague
Neighbourhoods at a Glance
Prague Castle
St Vitus Cathedral
Charles Bridge
Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock
Prague Jewish Museum
Vysehrad Citadel
Sights
Activities
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Bohemia
Bohemia Highlights
Karlstejn Castle
Konopiste Chateau
Kutna Hora
Terezin
Ceske Budejovice
Cesky Krumlov
Trebon
Tabor
Plzen
Karlovy Vary
Marianske Lazne
Moravia
Moravia Highlights
Brno
Telc
Trebic
Mikulov
Valtice-Lednice
Znojmo
Olomouc
Kromeriz

Understand

Understand the Czech Republic
Prague & the Czech Republic Today
History
Czech Life
Arts in the Czech Republic
Architecture
The Czech Republic on Page & Screen
A Nation of Beer Lovers

Survive

Directory AZ
Accommodation
Customs Regulations
Discount Cards
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
GLBTI Travellers
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Prague & the Czech Republic

Since the fall of communism in 1989, the Czech Republic – and its capital in particular – has evolved into one of Europe’s most popular travel destinations.

Old Town Square, Prague | Angelina Dimitrova/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


Prague, Cradle of Culture
Everyone who visits the Czech Republic starts with Prague, the cradle of Czech culture and one of Europe’s most fascinating cities. Prague offers a near-intact medieval core of Gothic architecture that can transport you back 500 years – the 14th-century Charles Bridge, connecting two historic neighbourhoods across the Vltava River, with the castle ramparts and the spires of St Vitus Cathedral rising above, is one of the classic sights of world travel. But the city is not just about history; it’s a vital urban centre with a rich array of cultural offerings, and a newly emerging foodie scene.

Castles & Chateaux
The Czech Republic's location at the heart of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire has seen a long history of raiding tribes, conquering armies and triumphant dynasties. This turbulent past has left a legacy of hundreds of castles and chateaux – everywhere you look there seems to be a many-turreted fortress perched above a town, or a romantic summer palace lazing peacefully amid manicured parkland. The number and variety of Czech castles is simply awe-inspiring – everything from grim Gothic ruins clinging to a dizzy pinnacle of rock, to majestic, baroque mansions filled with the finest furniture that Europe’s artisans could provide.

Folklore & Tradition
The Czech Republic may be a modern, forward-thinking nation riding into the future on the back of the EU and NATO, but it is also a country rich in tradition. This is most apparent in South Bohemia and Moravia, where a still-thriving folk culture sparks into life during the summer festival season. During this time, communities from Český Krumlov to Telč to Mikulov don traditional garb, pick up their musical instruments – and wine glasses – and sing and dance themselves silly, animating ancient traditions in one of the best examples of ‘living history’ in the Czech Republic.

Where Beer Is God
The best beer in the world just got better. Since the invention of Pilsner Urquell in 1842, the Czechs have been famous for producing some of the world's finest brews. But the internationally famous brand names – Urquell, Staropramen and Budvar – have been equalled, and even surpassed, by a bunch of regional Czech beers and microbreweries that are catering to a renewed interest in traditional brewing. Never before have Czech pubs offered such a wide range of ales – names you'll now have to get your head around include Kout na Šumavě, Svijanský Rytíř and Velkopopovický Kozel.


Why I Love Prague & the Czech Republic
By Neil Wilson, Writer
Well, there's the beer. Not only did the Czechs invent the best beer in the world, they've been reinventing it over the last decade with a wave of innovative new microbreweries. And the history. If you want to learn about European history, you'll find it all here compressed into an easily digested package – from Good King Wenceslas and the Defenestration of Prague to the Habsburg empire, two world wars, the Cold War and the Velvet Revolution. Then there's cubist architecture, weird art and the Czechs' deliciously dark sense of humour. And did I mention the beer?
Prague & the Czech Republic's Top 12

Counting Statues on Charles Bridge
Whether you visit alone in the early morning mist or shoulder your way through the afternoon crowds, crossing Charles Bridge is the quintessential Prague experience. Built in 1357, its 16 elegant arches withstood wheeled traffic for 500-odd years – thanks, legend claims, to eggs mixed into the mortar – until it was made pedestrian-only after WWII. By day, the famous baroque statues stare down with stony indifference on a fascinating parade of buskers, jazz bands and postcard sellers; at dawn, they regain something of the mystery and magic their creators sought to capture.

LianeM/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


Top Experiences
Gawking at Prague Castle
A thousand years of history is cradled within the walls of Prague's hilltop castle , a complex of churches, towers, halls and palaces that is almost a village in its own right. This is the cultural and historical heart of the Czech Republic, comprising not only collections of physical treasures such as the golden reliquaries of St Vitus Treasury and the Bohemian crown jewels, but also the sites of great historic events such as the murder of St Wenceslas and the Second Defenestration of Prague.

Minikhan/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


Top Experiences
Renaissance Splendour of Český Krumlov
The sleepy, southern Bohemian town of Český Krumlov is arguably the Czech Republic's only other world-class, must-see sight aside from Prague. None other than National Geographic has dubbed this former medieval stronghold one of the ‘world’s greatest places’, and once you catch a glimpse of the rocky, rambling Renaissance castle (the second-biggest in the country after Prague), with its mesmerising multicoloured tower, you'll feel the appeal. Yes, this really is that fairy-tale town the tourist brochures promised.

MingYao Lau/500px ©


Top Experiences
Underrated Olomouc
Olomouc , set in a broad, fertile stretch of the Morava River basin, is one of the Czech Republic's most underrated cities. Legend says it was founded by Julius Caesar. Today it is a youthful, laid-back university town, friendly and cheap, with cobbled streets and the largest trove of historical architecture outside Prague – and hardly a tourist in sight. Despite a somewhat bedraggled, sooty outskirts, its historical centre is certainly northern Moravia's most beautiful town. Don’t forget to try the cheese, Olomoucký sýr, reputedly the smelliest in the Czech Republic.

Justinas Galinis/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


Top Experiences
Fairy-Tale Karlštejn Castle
Karlštejn Castle was born of a grand pedigree, starting life in 1348 as a hideaway for the crown jewels and treasury of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV. Perched high on a crag overlooking the Berounka River, this cluster of turrets, sheer walls and looming towers is as immaculately maintained as it is powerfully evocative. The brightest star among the constellation of castles that lie scattered across Bohemia, Karlštejn will fulfil even your wildest expectations as to what a Central European fairy-tale castle should look like.

Tequiero/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


Top Experiences
Prague's Old Town Square
Despite the swarms of tourists, crowded pavement cafes and over-the-top commercialism, it’s impossible not to enjoy the spectacle of Prague's premier public space : tour leaders, with umbrellas borne aloft like battle standards, thrusting through the crowds gathered to watch the town hall's amazing Astronomical Clock; students dressed as frogs and chickens handing out flyers for a drama production; middle-aged couples in matching rain jackets and sensible shoes, frowning at pink-haired, leather-clad punks with too many piercings; and a bored-looking guy with a placard advertising a museum of torture instruments. Verily, all of human life is here.

Francesco Iacobelli/Getty Images ©


Top Experiences
Kutná Hora's Bone Church
In the 14th century Kutná Hora rivalled Prague as the most important town in Bohemia, growing rich on the veins of silver ore that laced the rocks beneath it. Today it’s an attractive town with several fascinating and unusual historical attractions. Get an insight into the life of a medieval miner on a tour of a former silver mine, or marvel at the ingenuity of the man who created art out of human remains at the grimly fascinating 'bone church' of Sedlec.

Sedlec Ossuary | Casdesign/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


Top Experiences
Czech Beer
'Where beer is brewed, life is good', according to an old Czech proverb. Which means that life in the Czech Republic must be very good indeed, as the country is awash in breweries both large and small. Czech beer has been famous for its quality and flavour since the invention of Pilsner Urquell in 1842, but in recent years there has been a renaissance of microbreweries and craft beers, and you can now enjoy everything from classic ležák (pale lager) to kvasnicové (yeast beer) and kávové pivo (coffee-flavoured beer).

Frantic00/SHUTTERSTOCk ©


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