Czech Republic in 7 days: Prague and Český Krumlov

Day 2 — Castle day, done the smart way

• 08:30 — Tram 22 up the hill (the classic move — ride it like a tour bus; it IS the pickpockets’ favourite line, so bags zipped).
• 09:00 — Prague Castle at opening (Circuit A/basic ticket CZK 250: St Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica, Golden Lane; grounds and courtyards free 6:00–22:00). At 9 am St Vitus is nearly empty and the stained glass (including Mucha’s window) burns in morning light; by 10:30 the groups arrive and the magic halves.
• 11:30 — Golden Lane’s doll-sized houses (Kafka wrote at No. 22), then down the castle steps into Malá Strana: baroque lanes, the Wallenstein Garden’s free peacocks-and-grotto weirdness, lunch in a cellar tavern (~CZK 250).
• 15:00 — Kampa Island and the Lennon Wall, coffee by the millwheel.
• 18:00 — Petřín: funicular up (city transit ticket), the mini-Eiffel lookout tower (~CZK 200; 299 steps) for sunset over a city of a hundred spires. Mirror maze for anyone under 12 or over 60.
• 20:00 — Dinner in Malá Strana; the castle floodlights switch on and the whole hill goes golden.

Day 3 — Dawn on the bridge, the Jewish Quarter

• 06:30 — The alarm that pays for the trip: Charles Bridge at dawn — 30 statues, mist on the Vltava, swans, and nearly nobody. By 09:00 it’s a procession; at 06:30 it’s yours. (Rub the plaque at St John of Nepomuk; wish accordingly.)
• 09:30 — Breakfast, then Josefov, the Jewish Quarter (combined ticket ~CZK 550): the Old Jewish Cemetery’s 12,000 tilted stones stacked twelve deep, the Spanish Synagogue’s Moorish gold, and the Pinkas Synagogue — walls hand-written with 78,000 names. Quietly devastating; give it the morning it deserves.
• 13:00 — Lunch at a New Town lunch-menu spot (the “polední menu” — ~CZK 180–260 for two courses — is the local economy’s gift to travellers).
• 15:00 — Free-range hours: Náplavka riverbank (Saturday farmers’ market), the upside-down horse in Lucerna Passage, or shopping for Bohemian crystal (Moser for the real thing; anything street-side is Chinese glass — honesty as usual).
• 19:00 — Vltava evening cruise (~CZK 400–500/hour): bridges and the lit castle from water level. Cheesy, lovely, worth it once.

Day 4 — Kutná Hora: the bone church

• 08:37 — Direct train from Praha hl.n. (~CZK 180–240, ~1 h — go weekday morning; the bus groups land mid-morning and leave by 14:00). Local shuttle-train or 20-min walk to Sedlec.
• 10:00 — The Sedlec Ossuary: the remains of some 40,000–60,000 people arranged — chandelier, coat of arms, garlands — by a 19th-century woodcarver into the most sincerely strange church in Europe (CZK 120, or the CZK 250 combo with the cathedral). It manages to be contemplative rather than ghoulish; kids generally find it “the coolest thing all week”.
• 12:00 — Walk or hop into town for lunch on the medieval square (~CZK 220).
• 14:00 — St Barbara’s Cathedral (combo ticket): the miners’ Gothic masterpiece — silver from these hills funded half of Bohemia — with frescoes of coin-minting where saints usually go. The terrace view over vineyards is the bonus.
• 17:00 — Train back; evening at a Letná or Riegrovy Sady beer garden — sunset over all of Prague with the locals, ~CZK 65 a glass.

Day 5 — Vyšehrad, New Town, and Prague at your pace

• 09:30 — Vyšehrad fortress (free): the quiet other castle — ramparts above the river, the Slavín cemetery where Dvořák and Mucha rest, and Prague’s best picnic lawns.
• 12:30 — Lunch, then the Dancing House photo and a walk up Wenceslas Square — 1918, 1968 and 1989 all happened on this boulevard; the museum-café balconies overlook it all.
• 15:00 — Pick your Prague: the Mucha Museum (~CZK 380), the Klementinum library tour, or simply the lanes of Nové Město with a chimney cake — and here’s the site’s beloved honesty: trdelník is an Instagram-era import, not an old Czech tradition. Eat it anyway; it’s delicious. Just don’t call it heritage.
• 19:00 — Farewell-to-Prague dinner: a classic cellar (U Modré Kachničky duck) or modern Czech (Eska) — ~CZK 500–900 pp at the top end.
• 21:00 — Jazz at Reduta or AghaRTA (genuinely good; the ubiquitous “black-light theatre” is tourist kitsch — skipping it is a service this guide happily performs).

Day 6 — Český Krumlov: stay past five

• 09:00 — RegioJet/FlixBus to Český Krumlov (~3 h, CZK 200–350 — book seats a few days ahead). Drop bags at your pension inside the river loop.
• 13:00 — The town is a UNESCO miniature: a Vltava horseshoe wrapped around medieval lanes under a castle on a crag. Climb the castle tower (~CZK 200) for THE view, walk the painted Cloak Bridge, and in summer watch rafters splash down the weir with beer in hand (join them — rentals ~CZK 400).
• 17:00 — The reason you’re overnighting: the day-tripper tide (Prague and Vienna buses) drains away, and the town exhales. Golden-hour lanes, swifts over the rooftops, riverside tables with castle views — this is the Krumlov postcards pretend is always there.
• 19:30 — Dinner in a riverside cellar (trout, duck, dark lager from the local Eggenberg brewery — ~CZK 300–450 pp). Night walk: the floodlit tower with nobody under it.

Where to stay in Krumlov (one night): the in-loop pensions and small hotels — Hotel Růže (the grand Jesuit-college option), riverside Pension Athanor / Krumlov House-style guesthouses (~CZK 2,200–3,200) — tiny inventory; book early and by current reviews.

Day 7 — Slow morning, fly home

• 08:00 — Krumlov before breakfast — mist on the river, empty lanes — then the Egon Schiele Art Centrum (the painter’s complicated hometown museum) or a last castle-garden stroll.
• 11:00 — Bus back to Prague (~3 h), landing you at the airport corridor by mid-afternoon — book an evening departure; if your flight leaves earlier, flip Krumlov to a long day trip and keep night 6 in Prague instead.