Central Europe hits and highlights in 10 days

Czech Republic | Nov 1 - Nov 10, 2025

Definitely our favorite hotel of the trip. Excellent location, comfy and modern room with amenities. Beautiful building. Restaurant was busy but otherwise good.

This was not our favorite hotel. We maybe got an unlucky room assignment, but we arrived to a very hot room and as the cooling system was turned off for the season (reasonable as it is November) the advice was to open the window, which is also completely reasonable, unless your room only has a skylight, and no windows that open. The staff were not super helpful in helping us with this though it was advertised they had fans. All of this being said the location of this hotel is spectacular - a block from the Vlatava river and Charles bridge a 5 minute walk. As we don't spend a lot of time in hotels to begin with, we made do and survived to the next location!

This was a great hotel! Location was great, very close walk to the old city and ~10-15 minutes walk to the train station. Hotel room could use some cosmetic renovations, but otherwise everything was very functional, clean and working. We were upgraded to a larger room which came with a bathtub. We really enjoyed the breakfast in the morning - the best of the four hotels we stayed at during out 10 day trip! The woman who greeted and helped us in the morning in the dining room was so warm and inviting - I did not get her name, but I shout her out anyway :)

This is a beautiful and clearly newly updated hotel. We only stayed one night, but loved the location - about 10-15 minute walk to the main museum/palace areas and in a slow enough side street that felt safe and quiet. Cool wine theme they are sticking to. The room was large, big airy windows, and a wine bar/restaurant that was "open" 24 hours - we didnt exactly test this out, but we did try to sit for a glass of wine before leaving and they did serve us but don't expect a dedicated wine expert all times of day.

We arrived after a red-eye for this tour so while we may have been tired, it was necessary to get a grip of the city and the people. It was a Saturday evening and our guide Ildigo/Indigo was lovely. She is a quirky and opinionated woman in all of the best ways - we learned a lot and used what we learned to guide our evening and next several days in the city.

This was a spectacular tour - our guide Chris was not only invested in the food of Czech republic but how the food is connected to the people, the land and the history. He was aware of our pescatarian diet ahead of time and was able to highlight a tremendous abundance of Czech food, and beer/wine! It was a rainy day which did not subtract even a little from the quality and experience. HIGHLY recommend if you're into food and history while walking around with a friendly guide.

Great, short boat ride. There is a small indoor area and a rooftop - we were lucky that while it was raining all day, the hour of our tour was dry and we enjoyed the rooftop view and fresh air much more than indoors. A great way to see the sights and enjoy a drink or two.

I will preface this review with the fact that I am a rider and lifelong equestrian and made this a required stop on our tour - but WOW was this spectacular. As a horse person, I found the training session even more special and intimate than the performance. You are able to see two 30 minute sessions of the SRS professional riders doing schooling rides on the amazing stallions, first the high level older horses and then the younger "young and wild" (per the announcer haha) 5-6 year olds. If you are a horse person or are fascinated by horses in general, you will love this. There is a ton of nuance to what they are doing a there is an announcer that does a decent job of explaining the high level stuff.

Outstanding, incredible nature and views in this lovely national park. This is a FULL day trip - over 12 hours with our guide who was also our driver. It was a small group (seven of us total) and there was one pair in our group that was ill prepared for the day - seemingly not their fault as they signed up for a less strenuous hike and were directed to our group to consolidate. I would keep that in mind if trying to book a more or less strenuous hike with this company. That being said, it was not very strenuous for us who are fit and active regular hikers and we saw many sights, went over the border into Germany, and spend time with a great group of travelers as well as a vibrant and fun guide. A large lunch is included, you won't be hungry. There is a fair amount of driving to/from (4+ hours) in a passenger van.

Gerhart was our guide for this full day outside of Salzburg. We were privy to visit Hallstatt early and in the off season - it is a spectacular Alpine lake town that apparently is over touristed and has strict regulations that we did not have to deal with for the aforementioned reasons. It is really pretty and charming. There is a small ancient Roman ruin display/free museum that was an added bonus. Bad Ischl was next stop which was lovely, beautiful and had great historical significance. St Woflgang was next and thoroughly stunning. Lots of world history, old churches, and gorgeous views. We were blessed to end the day on Gaisberg mountain - overlooking much of the Austrian Alps and all of Slazburg and the valley extending dozens of miles in either direction. We ended were on sunset - this guide was great. Highly recommend.

Our guide was SO good - We learned so much, there were moving and emotional parts to her tour regarding the history of this extremely beautiful and significant city. We sadly had to leave slightly early as we had a VERY short amount of time in Vienna and therefore a packed itinerary. Christina was extremely knowledgeable and friendly.

The musicians were phenomenal. To hear their performance of this work was a privilege for sure. The venue itself is old and therefore somewhat difficult to navigate and not physically super comfortable. This particular concert was in the smaller of the two music halls - I didn't know either of them existed in the world prior to my showing up so I didn't have a preference but if you're a music head and want to be in the grand music hall, double check before booking this.

Judit is a lovely woman who has a lot of love and caring for her country and city - she was opinionated and charismatic but kind and informative all at the same time. the best qualities for a tour guide! We saw a lot of special things and got a feel of the city upon arriving. Well designed for the remaining days of our tour.

This was a four course dinner cruise along the Danube with live music. The food was really good and service was prompt and friendly. The boat does several loops and you see some of the same sights a few times, but they are all beautiful and worth seeing over again!

This was super fun, and as people who like to eat and cook, we did both and learned a lot doing it! The tour started at the main city market - our guide actually missed us/there was a missed connection and we started the tour ~30 minutes late due to this but the experience was so good it made up for lost time. We cooked with a small group in a local apartment retrofitted for cooking class. Experiencing with with fellow tourists felt genuine and we sat and ate the food we made like a new group of friends eating a home cooked meal - which it was. I have already incorporated the recipes into my daily cooking.

This was a long day - there was over 5 hours of driving with a much smaller amount of time on the ground so I feel like I could have spend my last day doing something with less sitting in a car - that being said all of the experiences were excellent and worth visiting. Pecs is a small cultural city and was fun to visit - the ancient Roman ruins were probably the highlight. It was a Sunday so a lot closed and not super vibrant but fun none the less. The wine tasting in Vilany was excellent and I learned a lot about Hungarian varietals. We did have a bonus stop at Judit's museum - Monument Park the sculpture park that showcases old communist statues and is a very interesting and important commentary of the era.