MrpAlert had that happen for StarMegaDo last year. PM him to find out what he said/why the boss caved, in case it can help you.

And off course we don't need unions. Your rights, just like mine, will be restricted with each passing year. Your vacation days will be dictated by your company so don't bother planing with your partner because your companies will not see the problem.

Bitter much - Where did that come from and why here? :confused:

the_happiness_store and I know each other in real life and this is a personal joke.

Does anyone have plans to take day trips out of the city (beyond those where there's easy infrastructure to do so...Karlstejn, Kutna Hora, etc.)? Or is looking for another place in the country to stay before/after the DO?

As a matter of fact, yes for both. Do you have any suggestions??

Alas, will not be able to attend this one. Hope this becomes a recurring event!

Hi,
It looks like I won't be able to partake in the festivities this year unfortunately. Please have a Pivo or 10 for me.

Bostonbali

I'll be flying into Prague June 5th and out on the 16th. I'd love to take some excursions.

I was thinking about taking overnight trips to Berlin and Vienna since there is direct train service to both of those places, but I'm open to any and all suggestions!


...and BTW, I showed my boss my current numbers, then just sold another $5,000 worth of services to put me at $7,000 above my revenue goal. I don't know what will happen if for some reason I don't make my goal, but oh well.

DAY TRIPS FROM PRAGUE

So this is kind of tough, because the C.R. is a small country and has a great train/bus system, so many places are easily accessible.

I think the three most popular day trips are:

KARLSTEJN: a small town with a big castle, about 40 minutes out of Prague by train.

KUTNA HORA: a town with a ossuary (bone church), about an hour out of Prague by train.

CESKY KRUMLOV: picturesque tiny town on hills above a winding river with a castle looming above it all, and its own brewery.

KRUMLOV is a difficult day trip...several hours on a bus or train each way (many take the bus because it's quicker and the bus station in CK is more ideal than the train station. However, the final leg of the train ride -- from Ceske Budejovice to Cesky Krumlov, is pretty amazing.

All three of these locations are very heavily touristed by non-Czechs, with prices to match. All three are the subject of organized bus tours from Prague, with, you can imagine, the corresponding markup.

So these are the places you'll read about in guidebooks, hear other tourists talking about, etc. they're all fine, there's a reason that they're tourist favorites.

But there are so many other interesting, less crowded, cheaper places not so far away. Up the Labe/Elbe river towards Germany are some interesting river towns...Usti nad Labem and Decin are two cities/towns on the river. Decin is further away -- right near the German border, but still only 90 minutes on the EC train. Both have cool town centers, Decin has a castle, there are hills surrounding so you can have nice views of river+town+ castle. And they are relatively untouristed. I think I had a beer in Decin a couple years ago for 12 crowns (at some of the places along the river in prague theyr'e 80).

Hradec Kralove is another nice smaller city about the same distance outside of Prague.

For something a little closer, the town of Beroun is maybe 45 minutes out of Prague by train, at the conflux of two rivers, has a beautiful old square and architecture between the square and one of the rivers. It's also on the same line and only a few km from Karlstejn. You could hit up Karlstejn in the morning, then walk along the river to Beroun, eat a meal and take the train back to Prague.

OF course there are 100 other places within 60 or 90 minutes of Prague that are interesting or fun, especially for a day.

OTHER PLACES TO STAY

CESKY KRUMLOV, as mentioned above, is probably the second-most visited spot in the country. A lot of the tourists are day trippers though, and it gets a lot less crowded at night. If you're heading south (like to Vienna) anyway, it might be worth an overnight or two.

CESKE BUDEJOVICE, is a nice enough city (and home to Budvar, aka the original Budweiser -- Budejovice is Budweis in German), but it is also in a great location to serve as a hub for travel in south Bohemia. Krumlov, for example, is like an hour away by train. But there are tons of towns, castles, rivers, etc in South Bohemia that are cheap, unvisited, have breweries, etc. Could easily spend a week+ in this region and spend way less money than expected.

OLOMOUC is a university 'town' in Moravia. It's beautiful, laidback, fun, cheap, relatively untouristed, vibrant, and the home of a really stinky cheese. Giant park and fortress kind of rings the city. Great place to visit.

DECIN also makes a good base for exploring Saxon Switzerland, right on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic. The Labe runs through here, so it's possible to canoe or raft between the Czech Repubilic and gErman towns, or you can stay in German inns over the border, go hiking, see waterfalls, bike along the river, etc. This is what people see on the train between Dresden and Prague.

I'm just not that big of a fan of Vienna, but I know everyone's tastes are personal. Both are reasonable for overnight trips, but you're talking 4+ hours each way on the train.

For closer options, Dresden is a surprisingly great city, Olomouc, could do the spa thing at Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), or even go to Brno, the capital of Moravia.

Please add me to the confirmed list.
Booked my flights, but still looking for a hotel.
Will arrive on friday on time for the welcome dinner.

The Do Calendar sounds very good. Besides the gatherings at dinner or brunch, I was pleased about the Vltava River Cruise.

Looking forward seeing you in wonderful Prague. :)

Looking forward to seeing you again!

Cheers.

http://www.jetsetter.com/sale/oldtow...control-button

Old Town Square Hotel - Prague

$210 a night for The Family Suite. The Suite is approximately 1,076 square feet and features a living area with a leather sofabed, a master bedroom with a leather sofabed and views of Old Town Square. Includes breakfast.

I just completed some flight bookings

Arrive LH3732 2:05PM 10 June
Depart LH1393 10:05AM 13 June

Retirement dreams and Marlikestotravel will be arriving June 7 in the evening...we will be residing at the Marriott. Looking forward to this!!

I have 5 people going from PRG Airport to one of the city hotel. Does AAA taxi or private airport shuttle require advance booking? Is there a counter inside the airport that I can possibly use?

thanks

yuchung5

Marlikestotravel and Retirement dreams have 4--5 days to spend in CZ. We will travel by public transportation, and upon leaving Cz. we need to get to Nurnberg to join up with a river cruise. We would like to see Karlovy Vary and Cesky Krumlov... would be happy to stay in Cesky Budejovice per your recommendation. (willing to do day trips but dont want to move around every day, 2 stays are fine). What would be the best way to handle this, considering difficulty of getting to KV... any suggestions which to do first, hopefully making transportation issues less difficult?? Thanks in advance, RD

I posted the free Amazon "Let's Go Europe 2011" [Kindle Edition] download a few days ago in the SPAM forum. Here's the thread if you're interested.

Thanks Boxo. Unfortunately, Amazon.com very kindly tells me I need to go to Amazon.co.uk where I can download it for £8.64. A US address and IP address is an asset many take for granted.

That's about the only thing we take for granted. Given the US$$ is getting its arse kicked by the GBP, Euro, etc, we'll take any freebies we can get. Hmm, I know w/ a VPN you can 'pretend' to have a US IP, but I don't think that will work w/ a Kindle.

Chers.

Oddly enough, it is only asking $2 from me.

I don't know if you were intending for me to answer, but I'm going to anyway :P

This may be a lot to try to cover in a few days, unless you like trains a lot.

Would make sense to go to Budejovice/Krumlov first, then Karlovy Vary. Train times:

Prague-CB: 3 hours
CB-CK: 50 minutes
CB-Karlovy Vary: 5 hours with 3 changes, or 6:45 with one change (back in Prague, if that tells you anything).
Karlovy Vary - Nuernberg 3:30 with 2 changes, or 4:30 with 1 change (including an hour in Cheb, more on that in a minute)

So if you're minimizing time on trains, you're talking 12 hours in the course of 4 or 5 days, with something like 8 different train stations and a host of connections involved.

I'm not sure if you have a specific interest in Karlovy Vary, or if you're simply interested in a Czech spa. If it's the latter, I might recommend Marianske Lazne. It is much less worldly (many fewer Russians, as well as other internationals), more Czech, cheaper, and would shave a few housrs of train time from your agenda. It's much more ornate, but much smaller as well.

CB-ML: 3:20 with 2 changes
ML-Nuernberg: 3 hours with 2 changes, or 4 hours with 1 change (including that hour in Cheb)

Now, about Cheb: the main square is 500m or so from the train station. The river front is another 200m or so past that. If you're traveling light and are mobile, I'd take a short walk and at least go to the square, which is really nice and charming (and, unlike Prague, Krumlov, or the spa towns, basically untouristed).

Google image Cheb, ML, and KV.

Another thing to consider would be to head in the direction of KV from Prague initially and check out some of the small towns in between (skipping South Bohemia entirely). Krumlov is extraordinarily beautiful, but there are many towns in Western Bohemia that are really nice and charming and much cheaper/undiscovered. Zatec is somewhat on the way, and is one of the more important places for beer in the Czech Republic -- which is saying something. Zatec is Saaz in German, and if you're a beer person you know this as one of the main hops varieties, and especially important in pilsners.

If you definitely want to see both Krumlov and Karlovy Vary, definitely do them in that order, otherwise you'll add significantly to the time totals above...

Happy to field more questions, I'll try to check this thread more often.

Best,
Adam

One word about the river cruises. If it is a hot day, anyone with respiratory issues may wish to skip it (and, in fact, may not want to really spend much time down near the river at all). There are a ton of tourist boats plying their trade, many of which are burning diesel. The geography of Prague (river valley surrounded by hills) means that the exhaust often gets captured around the river. On days like that, I try not to leave the hills...even someone in good physical shape gets annoyed and my eyes will burn if I'm around it too long.

I don't have a respiratory condition (like asthma), but would it be a consideration to bring a facial mask, a la at the risk of looking like we're in a crowded populous Asian city where smog and SARS were reasons why people wore the masks?

Oh good grief. Seriously - not going outside in public & face masks? I've been in places w/ multiple river cruises & never encountered that. I'm not saying it shouldn't be a concern, but I'm pretty sure the word would have gotten out long before now by the tourist orgs to not book any PRG river cruises cuz their bookees are going to croak. Just MHO. Also it goes w/o saying our organizer wouldn't have put a river cruise on the itinerary if we were all going to drop like flies. OVMV.

Cheers.

nevermind

Then his comment makes even less sense. I get it if it's just in PRG area, but most river cruises go through non-industrial areas for the most part, so no one needs to wear masks or worry about pollution/keeling over.

This is nothing against adventureadam who has provided so much good information on this thread that I've actually linked to it in the Marriott forum as a wealth of information about PRG.

BTW - reading his post, he is, from what I can tell, talking about PRG river cruises, not other river cruises.

Cheers.

Thank you for posting this! As a person with pulmonary issues, information like this is very important to me to know in advance. I will certainly take this possibility into account.
Some of us are not blessed with the same pulmonary system as you. In fact, some of us are O2 and respirator dependent at night and information such as this posted by adventureadam is very important to us. Even though we have some physical limitations, we still like to travel, although sometimes have to skip things that others may be able to handle without difficulty. It is just a fact of our life.

I understand & respect your situation, but I would also say if that's the case then finding out from the organizer of the event the name of the river cruise operator to get their input is actually important if one has pulmonary issues (or for that matter, any other activities for the weekend).

Presumably the river cruise operator would know, especially since they deal w/ a lot of folk on a regular basis, including folk w/ pulmonary issues.

Having said that, each person has to decide for themself what risk they're willing to take & no harm, no foul if they choose not to partake in something. What's right for one might not be right for another.

Cheers.

Yeah, sorry, I misread and not-quickly-enough deleted my post.

Eh, no worries. :) It at least raises the issue for others who might be affected. I would also say that if others do have health issues, it would help the organizer if they let him know in advance, even if each of us are responsible for our own selves & the organizer can't take responsibility. it helps both sides.

Cheers.

Thank you very much for the info...I obviously didn't make myself clear...we have 4--5 days to spend in Czech area....then head off to Nurnberg to hook up with a week long river cruise from there. So its not as crazy as it seems for those 5 days... I am very interested in all your suggestions... I particularly like to at least check out (ummm..no pun intended) some of the non touristy areas as well. I have been a little perplexed about logistics getting between those 3 places.

Seriously? :rolleyes: I would no sooner seek medical opinions of organizers or river cruise operators, than I would with anyone who does not have a good understanding of respiratory and pulmonary issues. I am an adult and am able to manage my disabilities quite well, thank you.
I don't know where you get your data on this, but my guess is that it is based on nothing but a wild guess. I think you may be presuming a bit too much, unless of course you have personal experience in this area.
Seriously? Looking at the list of attendees most of us are experienced travellers. We don't need you to lecture us about acceptable risks of harm. We can all make our decisions what we would like to do or are able to do or not do.
Seriously? Should I embroider a large scarlet letter on my chest so everyone can identify all the folks with disabilities? I am responsible for my own person. I function quite well in the real world on a day to day basis all by myself, thank you very much. Please remember that you are just an attendee at this DO, not an organizer, so pronouncements about what you feel is appropriate to disclose is really irrelevant.

I again, would like to thank adventureadam for mentioning this possibility. While it is an important consideration for me, clearly it is not for you.

I didn't mean my question to stir up this much of a tizzy :o

I was a bit concerned when adventureadam (a) made a mention of pollution (why now, after all, every big city has pollution) and, this one more prevalent, (b) it was mentioned that even people in good physical shape might have an issue (and whilst I have no prevailing conditions I wouldn't say I'm very fit).

The suggestion I made was really just to gauge how serious it may or may not be. There's nothing wrong with doing it if it is suggested or recommended, and if it's overkill then so be it (and all better for us).

Just as if we were going through the Sahara on camel back, it'd probably be an idea to wear a hat but no one could force you.

And I didn't mean for my response to do so either :(

I've been to PRG before; didn't notice a 'major' problem w/ pollution - unlike some other cities that come to mind :eek: But since pollution could be a concern for some/affect respitatory, the heads up is appreciated.

Right now my bigger concern is the $$ tanking.

Cheers.

Wow, never would have thought that would have been a controversial post. I was trying to be helpful.

To be clear, yes, I am talking about the local Prague river cruises (the ones that go up and down the Vlatava for a few blocks). Long-distance river cruises do not come through Prague proper.

I have nothing to gain by posting this warning, so I'm not sure why some (one?) are so skeptical.

I'm a healthy 34 yo male with no health issues. And yet on hot, sunny days in the summer, particularly when there is little breeze, I avoid going near the river. Why? Because of the layer of exhaust that settles over the river and a few blocks on either side of it. It becomes harder for ME to breathe, and I don't like the stinging feeling in my eyes. Perhaps I'm especially sensitive, but my friends, associates, etc. feel the same.

On a day with a lot of tourists, there may be as many as 15 boats doing these cruises. And once you see the Vlatava here and the routes, you'll understand the problem. The range of these boats is about 2km, so it's a lot of boats in a small area, with a kind of natural trap for the exhaust.

I didn't warn of, or predict, death. I did not warn anyone against going outside. I don't think it's helpful to mischaracterize what I said.

I'm simply saying: able-bodied people may have slight discomfort, and those with prior conditions may have a more serious discomfort, to the point of not really enjoying the ride.

Hopefully it will be cooler, or there will be a nice breeze, or whatever, and this will be unnecessary advice. Simply trying to give information about a potential negative experience ahead of time. Do with that advice what you will.

As someone with breathing issues in these situations, I appreciate the warning.