Charming Old city in Czechia - tips and information

As we were researching our 6 week tour of Eastern Europe in 2025, one place kept appearing on travel blogs and forums as a must see add to our itinerary… Český Krumlov.

Český Krumlov is a fairytale town with a charming old city. We’ll give you our feedback as to whether it was worth the trip (It was!) and some inside info on what to do when you’re there and how to make the most of your visit. We visited for 2 days in late August 2025, and it was a highlight of the trip. It has amazing picture perfect vistas, a car free old city, a palace / castle that you can tour, a tower with a panoramic view of the town, river activities like rafting, an outdoor concert venue and Engish style formal gardens. In short there’s a lot to do there. There’s also good local cuisine. It’s a small town, so if you’re looking for non-Czech international cuisine or nightlife maybe Prague is a better fit. It’s also a bit hilly, so if mobility is an issue you might want to consider other options.

Things to do

Castle Area

Castle / Palace

• Take the tour, it’s about an hour - you’ll see the chapel, a number of great rooms, halls, and learn about the history of the town and the Castle.
• We bought a timed ticket in advance - https://www.zamek-ceskykrumlov.cz/ (use the official site, it provides a decent tour with a local guide)
• There are two options - tour route 1 and tour route 2 - we were happy with tour route 1, which shows some of the nicer areas of the castle I believe - see https://www.zamek-ceskykrumlov.cz/en/plan-your-visit/tours
• we did not do Tour 2, and it doesn’t look nearly as good
• note - these areas within the castle are only accessible with a guide!

Some images from the palace tour:

The Castle Tower

• Near the castle but a separate ticket you can buy individually
• This we bought at the kiosk in person, I don’t think you need to buy this in advance
• 134 steps to the top, great views from here!
• Small museum is included - we skipped the tour for this and did it self guided (quickly).

Castle Bridge and Castle Garden

• if you walk through the castle, you’ll keep going across the castle bridge and continue uphill to the English style gardens which are on the hill above the castle.
• It’s a bit of a hike up but worth it, also you’ll find a few panoramic photo spots back at the town and the Vltava river winding through it.
• Access to the garden is free, there is a small concert venue in the back that is requires a ticket if there is that show that day.

If you did all of that stuff, that’s probably a solid half day if you’re quick, longer if you move at a leisurely pace or elected more than one tour. You also probably need a sit and a snack. In the summer there’s a small cafe that sells beer and coffee on the other side of the bridge from the castle (also where one of the good photo spots are)

Cesky Krumlov Old Town / Vltava River Activities

If you’ve covered the castle complex on the north bend of the river, there’s more to see on the actual peninsula that makes up town - we recommend:

• If you’re in the summer, book a raft trip down the river - you can do this without any skills (and without getting wet) on these wooden rafts with bench-like seats. We were lucky to be the only one on our time slot so it was a “private” tour. You’ll learn a bit about the town as you float from one side of the town to the other. Since the river makes a big loop around the old city, it’s only a 10-15 minute walk back to town from the drop off point.
• There are more exciting white-water tours where you do get wet, if that’s more your thing.
• Church of St Vitus - that’s the big cathedral on the south side of town - pretty, but not a must do if you are short on time
• More viewpoints - see Seminární zahrada on google maps for a great place to watch sunset fall over the castle from a small park

We booked a relaxed rafting tour from Malecek Rafting (https://www.malecek.cz/) - We booked a seat on the historical sightseeing cruise - its a wooden platform with bench seats and a raft guide poles you down the rapids, some excitement, but mostly still river.

Food

• Svejk (https://www.svejkck.cz/en/home/) was our favorite place that we tried. It’s a bit downhill from the castle on the same side of the river as the castle. They serve Czech fare, goulash, dumplings, rabbit, Pivo (beer). Some highlights: If they have homemade chips with horseradish dip, it’s a must try. Also the Goulash is very good - served Czech style, it comes with more meat, less root vegatables, and fresh bread on the side to soak up the sauce.

We also had a reservation for Papa’s living room, which has outdoor seating on the river with a view - food was a bit fancier than Svejk but I actually preferred the rustic homeyness of Svejk better. You’ll find loads of Chimney cake / gelato dessert places as well

Getting here

A lot of people visit Český Krumlov as a quick stop on a bus tour or river cruise, but if you can make it work, staying overnight is absolutely worth it. We stayed two nights, and once the day-trippers leave, the town feels completely different — quiet, atmospheric, and way more enjoyable in the evenings and early mornings. We didn’t have a car for this part of the trip and didn’t miss it at all. We used CK Shuttle, which made getting in and out really easy

• Picked us up right at our hotel in Vienna (A few other cities are options)
• Dropped us off at our hotel in Prague on the way out
• Choice of private or shared vans (we chose shared, and had no company for one of the transfers)
• Cost was about €50 per person per leg - see https://www.ckshuttle.cz/

The drive itself was scenic — we even spotted some old Cold War–era border remnants as we crossed into Czechia from Austria. One small thing to note: the historic center of Český Krumlov is car-free, so the shuttle may not be able drop you directly at your hotel. We had to walk a few blocks, not a big deal.

Where to stay

Assuming you’re staying one night, and we reccomend doing that, there’s definitely some options. Hotel Ruze looked like one of the more upscale options - we elected for GarniHotel Castlebridge, which had a great location right on the river facing the castle. The room was cozy (i.e. Small) but having a balcony made up for it to enjoy the view, especially as they light up the stone bridge at night. Breakfast was standard European continental-style breakfast. I would stay there again.

Final Thoughts

Český Krumlov is definaltely worth a day trip, but what we really appreciated was how serene it was after all the tourists leave - consider staying a day or two here. There’s enough activities for one overnight stay, and maybe two if you want to take it slow - regardless, there definately enough activity to make it worth the effort - and private transfer from Salzberg, Vienna, or Prague makes up for the last of convienient train service.