Bohemia is small and the Czech rail network is dense, cheap and reliable, which makes Prague an unusually good base for days out. Several of these are better than a third day in the Old Town.
Under an hour
Karlštejn Castle — 40 minutes by train, then a 25-minute uphill walk. Charles IV built it in 1348 to hold the imperial regalia and the crown jewels of Bohemia, on a crag above the Berounka. The Chapel of the Holy Cross, its walls set with over 2,000 polished semi-precious stones and 129 painted panels by Master Theodoric, is on a separate limited-numbers tour that must be booked well in advance and is the reason to come.
The village below is a strip of souvenir shops. The castle is worth it anyway.
Kutná Hora — 55 minutes by train. The Sedlec Ossuary, decorated with the bones of tens of thousands of people, and St Barbara’s Cathedral, a Gothic church funded by silver miners with frescoes of men at the coalface. Note that the main station is three kilometres from the town.
Konopiště — an hour, by train to Benešov. Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s country house, left much as it was when he departed for Sarajevo in 1914, with a hunting collection of genuinely disturbing scale — he shot something in the region of 300,000 animals and mounted a great many of them.
An hour to two
Terezín — an hour by bus. The garrison town the Nazis turned into a ghetto and transit camp and then presented to the Red Cross as a model settlement. It needs the whole day and the right frame of mind, and it should not be combined with anything else.
Karlovy Vary — two hours by bus. A nineteenth-century spa town in a wooded valley: colonnades, hot springs you drink from porcelain cups with built-in spouts, the Moser glassworks, and the Grand Hotel Pupp. Faded, ornate, and full of Czech pensioners taking the cure alongside the film festival crowd in July.
Mělník — 45 minutes by bus. A château above the confluence of the Elbe and the Vltava, with the vineyards Charles IV planted, and a good wine cellar to sit in.
Bohemian Switzerland (České Švýcarsko) — 90 minutes to two hours. Sandstone rock formations, gorges and the Pravčická brána, the largest natural arch in Europe. Parts were badly burned in a 2022 wildfire and access has changed; check current conditions before going.
Longer, and better overnight
Český Krumlov — three hours each way by bus. A medieval town inside a bend of the Vltava with a castle, a working baroque theatre and enormous day-trip crowds that vanish at five. Stay the night rather than doing it in a day.
Dresden — just over two hours by train, and a different country. The Frauenkirche, rebuilt from rubble with the original stones fitted back in, and the Old Masters gallery. Germany uses the euro; the train crosses the border without a check.
Pilsen (Plzeň) — an hour by train. The Pilsner Urquell brewery tour, which includes tasting unfiltered beer straight from an oak cask in the cellars, and a very good underground tunnel tour.
Practical
Trains — book on the České dráhy site or app. Fares are cheap and advance tickets are cheaper. RegioJet and Leo Express are private operators on some routes with better trains.
Buses — RegioJet and FlixBus cover the routes trains do not, and Na Knížecí and Florenc are the main terminals.
Tours from Prague handle the transport and cost several times the fare. For anything on a direct train, do it yourself.
Sunday services are thinner on rural routes.
Take food. Small Czech towns have limited options and the good ones close early.
Choosing one
One day, no car, and you want the thing you will remember: Kutná Hora. An hour by train and two UNESCO sites at either end of a small town.
Half a day: Karlštejn. Forty minutes each way and a castle on a crag.
Something serious: Terezín, with the whole day set aside.
A spa town and a slower pace: Karlovy Vary.
Beer: Pilsen, and the cellar tasting straight from the cask.
A second country: Dresden, two hours and a completely different city.
Practical, again
The Czech rail network is dense and cheap, and buying on the app a day or two ahead is markedly cheaper than at the counter. Regional trains do not need reservations.
Take a picnic. Small-town Czech restaurants keep short hours, close on Mondays, and stop serving hot food in the middle of the afternoon.
What not to attempt in a day
Vienna is four hours each way by train and is a superb overnight rather than a day.
Auschwitz is sold as a Prague day trip and involves roughly fourteen hours for a visit that deserves not to be treated that way. Terezín is an hour away and is the appropriate site to visit from here.
Bohemian Switzerland in winter, when the daylight runs out before you have finished the walk.