Is Karlovy Vary worth a day trip from Prague, what are the colonnades, and how long do you need?

The five colonnades, in the order you meet them

The town is a chain of covered promenades built to shelter the thermal springs so visitors can take the drinking cure in any weather. Walking them is the visit.

• Hot Spring Colonnade (Vřídelní kolonáda): a functionalist glass-and-concrete hall from 1975, housing the Vřídlo geyser. The geyser erupts to about 12 metres; there is also an underground section where you can see how mineral deposits petrify objects.

• Mill Colonnade (Mlýnská kolonáda): the largest and most photographed, designed by Josef Zítka (who also designed Prague's National Theatre). 124 Corinthian columns, 12 statues of the months, and five springs to taste.

• Market Colonnade (Tržní kolonáda): a white wooden lace structure in Swiss style, sheltering the Market Spring and the Lower Castle Spring.

• Castle Colonnade (Zámecká kolonáda): higher on the hillside, overlooking the old town.

• Park Colonnade (Sadová kolonáda): cast iron, beside the Dvořák gardens.

The whole chain is walkable in about an hour without stopping, but you will stop.

The drinking cure, and what the water tastes like

Buy a flat ceramic spa cup with a hollow handle that doubles as a straw — this is the traditional vessel, and it is sold everywhere in town for a few euros.

Then drink. The water is warm and heavily mineralised, and the honest description is metallic, salty and faintly sulfurous, like warm sparkling water with iron in it. Most visitors manage a few sips rather than a course; people doing an actual cure drink measured amounts at specific springs over several days, on medical advice.

Do not expect it to be pleasant. Do expect the ritual to be the point — everyone in the colonnades is doing the same slightly grim thing with a small ceramic cup, and it has been that way since the 19th century.

How long you need

A day trip from Prague is comfortable. Two hours each way by bus or car, and four to five hours in town is enough for the colonnades, the geyser, the Diana funicular and lunch.

We spent two nights here in late September 2022 as part of a Bohemian loop (Prague, Hřensko, Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, Plzeň), and two nights is the relaxed version — it lets you walk the colonnades in the evening when the day-trippers have gone and the town is at its best.

Add the Diana funicular behind the Grandhotel Pupp, up to the Diana observation tower for the view over the valley. It is a short ride and the panorama explains the town's geography better than any map.

Walk Stará Louka and Nová Louka, the parallel promenades along the Teplá river, lined with pastel 19th-century buildings, glass shops and cafés. This is the Habsburg spa-town atmosphere the place is famous for.

Getting there, and what to skip

Buses from Prague's Florenc or via the RegioJet and Flixbus networks run regularly and take about 2 hours; trains take longer and are less convenient because the station is uphill from the centre.

What to skip if you are short on time: the Moser glass factory tour is interesting but consumes two hours, and the Becherovka distillery tour is a queue. Both are good; neither beats the colonnades on a first visit.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in early July takes over the town entirely — hotels sell out and prices spike. Either go for it deliberately or avoid that week.

Frequently asked questions