Which excursion...Salzburg or Cesky Krumlov?
My husband and I are looking forward to our first river cruise, The Blue Danube in September. We have selected the Salzburg Walking Tour as our excursion on day 8. However, the Cesky Krumlov Walking Tour sounds wonderful as well but we can only choose one. Any input from travelers who have done both would be appreciated. Thank you.
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Which direction are you going? If eastbound you can do what we did- we planned to arrive 2 days early and pre-booked a private trip to Cesky Krumlove with PragueWalker, then did Salzburg with Tauck.
We’re arriving a day early but we are westbound.
Are you staying later in Prague? If so you could do Cesky Krumlov after the tour.
Unfortunately, no. I guess will just have to make a return visit for CK.
AlanS...I am on the last westbound tour in Oct and will be staying an extra day in Prague. How long is the trip from Prague to Cesky Krumlov? And, how much time did you spend in Cesky?
We left Prague a few minutes after 7:00 am and got back to the hotel in Prague at around 4:45 pm or so. The road was good - smooth- but just a two lane road- so we had to slow down a bit when we got stuck behind a log truck. The one-way trip takes about 2:20 - 2:30 +/- , depending on traffic. If you Google it you can watch the enroute times change as they are updated with traffic info.
So, let's see 10 hrs total time, minus 5 hours in the van (nice Mercedes), leaves 4.5 to 5 hours to tour the castle and town. You can only take guided tours of the castle which go at scheduled times, so to avoid wasting time, your tour company has to plan the visit carefully and if you go during the busy season get your tickets ahead of time. We arrived at a small car park/drop-off(?) above and behind the castle (a Tauck bus from the west-bound cruise arrived just ahead of us and still unloading. They were gone LONG before we left). We briefly toured the gardens- too early in the season for much blooming, then worked our way down from the upper part of the castle- great views from the walls, got our tickets, then toured the the castle (the English-speaking guide was provided by the castle, our Prague guide waited for us to finish). We then walked through town. We had a group of 7 and a few wanted to find a store with Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth colored pencils (famous Czech pencil) which as far as I was concerned wasted valuable time- I'm not a shopper- that we could have spent seeing more of the town. We skipped lunch (each of us had leftovers in the boxed breakfasts that the hotel had prepared for us at my request. The return ride was uneventful. It was too early for the castle's interesting baroque theater to be open for the season, though we really wouldn't have had enough time to take that tour You can check it out in Rick Steves' free online video "Beyond Prague."
It was a long day, but I'm glad we did it! But, if spending 2 1/2 hrs X 2 in a van or car is not your thing, take the Tauck excursion (Lintz is much closer to CK than Prague) and see Salzburg during another tour (e.g. Ultimate Alps & Dolomites). Our fantastic guide spent much of the van ride time, telling us about Prague, the Czech Republic, and Cesky Krumlov.
Thank you! I really do want to see Cesky Krumlov, but will have to give it some thought (if we want to give up Salzburg on this one) since it sounds like that will take up almost all of the extra day we meant to spend in Prague.
Salzburg has more to offer, Opera house is a most and the Mozart House as well. schloss & Maribel gardens are beautiful, and they always have a band playing. Then you have the Sacher torte place, 2 Cathedrals, a small pet cemetery, very cute by the entrance to the castle funicular, the castle is not big deal but the views from the fort are beautiful. Salzburg is very pretty, and people are super friendly.
I did not go on the Sound of Music tour. don't like the music or the movie.
Cesky Krumlov is very pretty, small little town, great beer pubs and a nice center square, with a beautiful little church, other than that it's just all about the the Castle -Castle rooms and the theater super interesting. - also, great views from the Castle Bridge.
I would do Salzburg .