Leave the car at home: several of the Czech kings' old castles sit along the rail lines out of Prague. Charles IV kept the imperial treasures at one, an archduke filled another with suits of armor, and Kutná Hora grew rich on silver. Here's what we checked, from the crown treasury at Karlštejn to a fire tornado at a Liberec science center.
Karlštejn is Emperor Charles IV's medieval castle, on a wooded hill above the Berounka River and the small town of the same name. The basic guided tour climbs through the Knights Hall, the emperor's bedchamber, a former castle prison and the treasury, which holds a copy of the St. Wenceslas Crown.
In the Well Tower, kids can look down a 78-meter well with its medieval water wheel.
Kutná Hora grew rich on silver mining in the Middle Ages, and its UNESCO-listed old town still shows it. Three sights do most of the work with kids: the Sedlec Ossuary, a chapel decorated with human bones; St Barbara's Cathedral, with its tent-shaped roofs; and the Hrádek silver museum, where tours go down into a medieval mine.
The ossuary can upset younger or sensitive kids, so talk it through first.
Křivoklát is one of the oldest castles of the Czech kings, with origins in the 12th century, set in the Křivoklátsko woods. Guided tours lead through the second courtyard, a prison, a dungeon, a Gothic chapel and the Knights' Halls. The longest tour adds the ramparts and the Large Round Tower.
Tours are led in Czech, so it suits kids who like looking more than listening.
Konopiště began as a 13th-century Gothic castle and was rebuilt by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, as his family home. Guided tours lead through furnished apartments, a chapel and one of the richest armories in the Czech lands, lined with suits of armor and weapons.
Outside, a landscape park with a lake and a rose garden with greenhouses give kids room to run between tours.
iQLANDIA is a four-floor hands-on science center in Liberec, about an hour and a quarter by car from Prague. Ten interactive exhibitions cover space, math, water, the senses, the human body and old inventions, and a fire tornado swirls in the Elements hall. The iQPLANETARIUM shows dome films in the same building, and kids can combine both on one ticket.
Leave the car at home: several of the Czech kings' old castles sit along the rail lines out of Prague. Charles IV kept the imperial treasures at one, an archduke filled another with suits of armor, and Kutná Hora grew rich on silver. Here's what we checked, from the crown treasury at Karlštejn to a fire tornado at a Liberec science center.
Karlštejn is Emperor Charles IV's medieval castle, on a wooded hill above the Berounka River and the small town of the same name. The basic guided tour climbs through the Knights Hall, the emperor's bedchamber, a former castle prison and the treasury, which holds a copy of the St. Wenceslas Crown.
In the Well Tower, kids can look down a 78-meter well with its medieval water wheel.
Kutná Hora grew rich on silver mining in the Middle Ages, and its UNESCO-listed old town still shows it. Three sights do most of the work with kids: the Sedlec Ossuary, a chapel decorated with human bones; St Barbara's Cathedral, with its tent-shaped roofs; and the Hrádek silver museum, where tours go down into a medieval mine.
The ossuary can upset younger or sensitive kids, so talk it through first.
Křivoklát is one of the oldest castles of the Czech kings, with origins in the 12th century, set in the Křivoklátsko woods. Guided tours lead through the second courtyard, a prison, a dungeon, a Gothic chapel and the Knights' Halls. The longest tour adds the ramparts and the Large Round Tower.
Tours are led in Czech, so it suits kids who like looking more than listening.
Konopiště began as a 13th-century Gothic castle and was rebuilt by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, as his family home. Guided tours lead through furnished apartments, a chapel and one of the richest armories in the Czech lands, lined with suits of armor and weapons.
Outside, a landscape park with a lake and a rose garden with greenhouses give kids room to run between tours.
iQLANDIA is a four-floor hands-on science center in Liberec, about an hour and a quarter by car from Prague. Ten interactive exhibitions cover space, math, water, the senses, the human body and old inventions, and a fire tornado swirls in the Elements hall. The iQPLANETARIUM shows dome films in the same building, and kids can combine both on one ticket.
