Things to Do in Český Krumlov: Castle, Theatre and the Vltava

Český Krumlov is a town of 12,658 people wrapped inside a double bend of the Vltava in South Bohemia, with the second-largest castle complex in Czechia on the ridge above it, and one full day covers it, but staying a night is what makes it worth the journey. Day-trippers from Prague arrive around 11am and leave around 4pm; the hours either side of that are when the town belongs to whoever stayed.

The historic centre has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1992. Almost everything here is within ten minutes of everything else on foot, and the castle garden, the riverbanks and the old town itself cost nothing.

Prices are in Czech koruna, checked on 10 September 2026 and converted at the Czech National Bank rate for that day: €1 = 24.25 Kč, $1 = 20.88 Kč, £1 = 28.23 Kč.

Český Krumlov Castle: which ticket to buy

Český Krumlov Castle is not one ticket but seven, and picking the wrong one is the commonest mistake visitors make here. The complex covers 40 buildings and five courtyards on a rock above the river, and the parts of it are sold separately by the National Heritage Institute. The 2026 adult prices are below.

Reduced prices apply to seniors over 65, young people aged 18 to 24 and ZTP cardholders, and children under 6 go free everywhere. The courtyards, the covered Cloak Bridge and the bear moat are free to walk through, which is why the castle looks busier than its ticket sales suggest.

If you buy one thing, buy the Castle Museum and Castle Tower ticket: it is self-guided, needs no reservation and ends with the view that put the town on every Czech tourism poster. If you buy two, add Tour Route I for the Masquerade Hall.

The best things to do in Český Krumlov

Fifteen things fill a day and a half in and around Český Krumlov, and the list below runs roughly in the order a walking day takes them.

1. Český Krumlov Castle and the Cloak Bridge

Český Krumlov Castle is the second-largest castle complex in the country after Prague’s, begun in the 13th century and rebuilt in Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque by the Rožmberk, Eggenberg and Schwarzenberg families in turn. Forty buildings and five courtyards run along the ridge, linked at the far end by the Cloak Bridge, a covered five-storey viaduct that carries corridors on three levels across a ravine.

Brown bears have been kept in the moat below the first courtyard since 1707, and they are still there. Walking the courtyards, the bridge and the moat costs nothing.

2. The Castle Tower

The Castle Tower is the round painted tower that appears in every photograph of the town, and climbing it is the one thing to do here if you do only one. Its Renaissance decoration was painted in 1590, the climb is a spiral stair, and the gallery at the top looks straight down onto the red roofs inside the river bend.

The ticket is shared with the Castle Museum, is self-guided and needs no reservation, which makes it the easiest thing to slot into a busy day.

3. The Castle Museum

The Castle Museum occupies the historic rooms of the upper castle and covers the four families who held Krumlov and what they left behind: furniture, arms, portraits, ceramics and the castle’s own archive. It is included in the Castle Tower ticket and there is now a mobile guide for it.

Allow 45 minutes. It is the context for everything else on the ridge, and it is indoors, which matters in a South Bohemian winter.

4. The Baroque Castle Theatre

The Baroque Castle Theatre of 1682, rebuilt in 1766, is one of very few Baroque theatres anywhere that survives with its original stage machinery, scenery, costumes and props intact. The wooden machines that changed the sets in seconds still work, and the tour is the only way in.

It costs 400 Kč, and it is the one part of the castle that requires a reservation. Tours are limited to protect the fabric, so book before you travel rather than at the gate. If you only have one castle ticket in you and you care about theatre, make it this one.

5. The Old Town

The old town fills the loop of the Vltava below the castle, and it is a single continuous medieval and Renaissance streetscape rather than a set of monuments. Náměstí Svornosti, the main square, holds the town hall, the plague column and the Infocentrum, and the lanes running off it lead down to the water on three sides.

It is free, always open, and it is the reason for the UNESCO listing. Walk it once in daylight and once after 9pm, when it empties.

6. St Vitus Church

St Vitus Church is the Gothic parish church whose tower answers the castle tower across the river, built between 1407 and 1439. Inside are net vaulting, Renaissance and Baroque altars, the tomb of Vilém of Rožmberk and a set of wall paintings.

Entry to the nave is free outside services, and the church runs concerts through the season. It is two minutes from the main square.

7. Egon Schiele Art Centrum

The Egon Schiele Art Centrum at Široká 71 is the town’s main gallery and it is built around the Austrian painter’s connection to Krumlov, his mother’s birthplace, where he lived and worked in 1911 until the town drove him out. A permanent exhibition covers his life and work, with changing shows in the rest of the building.

It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, and the 2026 exhibition runs into January 2027. It is the one museum here that is not about aristocrats.

8. The Czech Marionette Museum

The Czech Marionette Museum sits in a former church on Radniční and holds several hundred puppets from the Czech marionette tradition, which is on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list alongside Slovakia’s. Some of the figures are two centuries old, and there is a working miniature theatre.

It is small, cheap and genuinely odd, which is a fair summary of Czech puppetry.

9. Rafting and canoeing the Vltava

The Vltava through Český Krumlov is shallow, slow and dotted with weirs, which makes it one of the easiest rivers in Europe to paddle without experience. Rental outfits along the bank hire canoes, rafts and inflatable boats by the hour or the day, drive you upstream and pick you up downstream.

The short version is the run through the town itself, half an hour with two weir chutes. The full version is the stretch from Vyšší Brod down, which takes a day or several. Season runs roughly May to September, and water levels decide whether the weirs are shootable.

10. The riverbanks

The banks of the Vltava below the castle are where the town relaxes, and they are free. Bars and cafés put tables on the grass, people swim off the shingle in July, and the view up at the castle from the Lazebnický bridge is the one every visitor takes.

Late afternoon is the hour for it, once the coaches have gone and before the restaurants fill.

11. Krumlov Mill

Krumlov Mill, Krumlovský mlýn, is a restored watermill on the river turned into a restaurant and cultural venue, with a courtyard, a small brewery and a programme of concerts and exhibitions. Its terrace sits directly over the water.

It works as a lunch stop between the old town and the river, and as somewhere to end the evening.

12. The monasteries

The Český Krumlov monastery complex on Klášterní is a joint Minorite, Poor Clares and Beguine foundation of 1350, restored and reopened as a set of visitor attractions. Cloisters, gardens, a herb garden, workshops in medieval crafts and an exhibition on monastic life fill it.

It is the least visited significant site in town and the one that repays a visit with children who have run out of patience with painted ceilings.

13. The Wax Museum and the town’s small museums

The Wax Museum on Dlouhá is one of a handful of small private museums in the centre, alongside the torture museum and the puppet workshops. They are commercial rather than curated, and they are honest about it.

They fill a rainy hour. The town’s serious collections are the Castle Museum, the Egon Schiele Art Centrum and the marionettes.

14. Kleť Hill

Kleť is the 1,084 m (3,556.4 ft) summit north-west of the town and the highest point of the Blanský les protected landscape area, with a stone lookout tower of 1825 on top and an observatory beside it. The lookout tower is open around the clock and the view runs to the Alps on the clearest days.

Kleť Observatory holds the largest lens telescope in Czechia and opens to the public only in the summer: daily except Monday in July and August, and weekends only in June and September. A chairlift runs up from Krasetín, and marked trails climb from Zlatá Koruna and Holubov.

15. Rožmberk Castle

Rožmberk Castle stands on a rock over the Vltava about 25 km (15.5 mi) south of Český Krumlov, and it is the seat the Rožmberk family came from before they moved to Krumlov. The Upper Castle is a ruin; the Lower Castle is furnished and shown on guided tours, with a Gothic hall, an armoury and a famous portrait gallery.

It pairs well with the drive south towards Vyšší Brod and the Lipno lake. A rental car makes the whole of South Bohemia reachable, and our guide to castles in Czechia covers the rest of them.

The free walking tour

Wiseman Free Tour runs free walking tours of Český Krumlov twice a day, at 10.30am and 2pm, from April to October, and they are the fastest way to understand the town. Tours start in front of the Infocentrum on Náměstí Svornosti, run about 90 minutes and are led by guides in red T-shirts carrying red umbrellas with a meeting-point sign.

They are tip-based rather than free in the strict sense, which is the model everywhere in Central Europe. Between November and March, check the operator’s schedule before turning up, because the winter timetable is thinner.

How many days do you need in Český Krumlov?

One full day covers Český Krumlov and two make it a better trip. The town is small enough to walk in an hour, so a day is decided by how many castle tickets you buy: the tower and museum plus a wander takes half a day, adding Tour Route I and the Baroque Theatre fills it.

Stay one night if you possibly can. The town’s whole character changes between 4pm and 11am, when the day coaches from Prague, Vienna and Salzburg are not in it. Two nights lets you add the Vltava, Kleť or Rožmberk without cutting anything.

A one-day plan for Český Krumlov

A Český Krumlov day works uphill to the castle in the morning and down to the river in the afternoon. The plan below assumes you slept in the town.

1. Before 10am: the old town, empty. Walk Náměstí Svornosti and the lanes down to the water while the day coaches are still on the road.
2. 10.30am: the free walking tour, or straight up to the castle if you would rather not be in a group.
3. Midday: the Castle Tower and Castle Museum. Self-guided, no reservation, and the view is the reason you came.
4. Early afternoon: one guided castle tour. Tour Route I for the Masquerade Hall, or the Baroque Theatre if you booked it.
5. Mid-afternoon: the castle garden and the Cloak Bridge. Both free, and the garden is where the crowds are not.
6. Late afternoon: the riverbank. A drink on the grass under the castle, once the coaches have gone.
7. Evening: dinner in the old town, then walk it again. After 9pm the streets are empty and lit, and it is a completely different town.

Where to stay in Český Krumlov

Stay inside the river loop, in the old town, because the whole point of an overnight here is being in the centre when the day visitors are not. Latrán, the street running under the castle, and the lanes around Náměstí Svornosti hold most of the guesthouses, and almost all of them are in listed buildings with the constraints that implies: stairs, no lift, small rooms.

Two alternatives cost less. Plešivec and Horní Brána, just outside the loop, are five to fifteen minutes’ walk from the square and considerably cheaper, and Nové Spolí sits across the river with parking. For a family or a longer stay, an apartment in one of the old-town houses gives you a kitchen and more space than a hotel room in a medieval building can.

Driving into the historic centre is restricted, so book somewhere with parking or use the car parks on the edge and walk in. Our guide to prices in Czechia sets out what a night here costs against Prague.

What to eat in Český Krumlov

Eat South Bohemian, which means carp, freshwater fish and game alongside the national standards. South Bohemia is the pond country that supplies Czech Christmas carp, and the local kitchens do it better than Prague does.

The dishes to look for are guláš, svíčková and vepřo knedlo zelo as everywhere, plus grilled trout, carp and the region’s game in season. Medieval-themed taverns are a Krumlov speciality and range from good to pantomime; the ones down by the river tend to be the better cooking. Beer here is South Bohemian, with Budvar from České Budějovice half an hour north and Eggenberg brewed in the town itself. Our guide to traditional Czech food goes further into the dishes.

How to get to Český Krumlov

Take the coach from Prague. Direct services run from Prague’s Na Knížecí and Florenc stations to Český Krumlov in about three hours, and the advance fare is low. The train takes longer and needs a change at České Budějovice.

Compare coaches and trains to Český Krumlov across the operators in one search, because RegioJet, FlixBus and the state railway run the corridor at different prices and times. From Prague by car it is about two and a half hours on the D3 and needs a motorway vignette, which is digital and tied to your number plate.

České Budějovice is 25 km (15.5 mi) north and roughly 30 to 45 minutes by bus, which makes it the obvious base if Krumlov is full. Cross-border shuttle minibuses run from Vienna, Salzburg, Linz, Hallstatt and Passau, take three to four hours and are booked door to door. There is no airport; fly into Prague, or into Linz or Vienna if you are coming from the Austrian side, and compare flights before fixing dates.

Getting around Český Krumlov

Walk. The old town is a pedestrian zone, the castle is a five-minute climb from the square, and the furthest point inside the river loop is fifteen minutes from the nearest.

The streets are cobbled, steep in places and hard on wheels, so a wheeled suitcase is a mistake and a pushchair is work. Cars cannot enter most of the centre; park in the numbered car parks on the edge and walk in. For anything outside the town, Kleť, Rožmberk, the Lipno lake, you need a bus, a bike or a car. Our guide to getting around Czechia covers the intercity options.

Český Krumlov in brief

The town’s basics are set out below.

The town grew below a castle first recorded in 1253, was held by the Rožmberks for three centuries, then by the Eggenbergs and the Schwarzenbergs, and its German-speaking population was expelled after 1945. Because it lost its economic reason to exist, nobody rebuilt it, which is exactly why the medieval and Renaissance street plan survived intact and why UNESCO listed it in 1992.

Český Krumlov questions

Is Český Krumlov worth a day trip from Prague?

Český Krumlov is worth the trip, but a day trip gives you the town at its most crowded. The coaches arrive around 11am and leave around 4pm. Staying one night gets you the empty streets at breakfast and after 9pm, which is when the place is remarkable rather than merely pretty.

How much does Český Krumlov Castle cost?

There is no single castle ticket. Tour Route I costs 300 Kč, Tour Route II 260 Kč, the Baroque Theatre 400 Kč and the Castle Museum with the Castle Tower 280 Kč, with reduced rates for over-65s, 18 to 24-year-olds and children. The courtyards, the Cloak Bridge, the bear moat and the castle garden are free.

Do you need to book Český Krumlov Castle tickets?

Only for the Baroque Castle Theatre, which requires a reservation. The other tours take group bookings but sell to individuals on the day, and the Castle Museum, Castle Tower and Stables are self-guided with no reservation at all.

How do you get from Prague to Český Krumlov?

Take a direct coach from Prague’s Na Knížecí or Florenc, which takes about three hours. Driving takes about two and a half hours on the D3 with a digital vignette, and the train needs a change at České Budějovice.

Is Český Krumlov expensive?

Český Krumlov prices above the Czech average in its historic centre because the whole town is the attraction, and below Prague’s centre overall. The castle garden, the courtyards, the riverbanks and the old town itself are free, so the cost of a day is the tickets you choose plus food.

Is Český Krumlov good for children?

Yes, with the right choices. The bear moat, the monastery craft workshops, rafting on the Vltava, the marionette museum and the Kleť chairlift all work with children; four consecutive guided interior tours do not.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Five details decide how a Český Krumlov day goes, and they are listed below with the most important first.

1. Book the Baroque Theatre before you travel, or skip it. It is the only part of the castle that requires a reservation, tours are limited to protect 18th-century stage machinery that still works, and the 400 Kč ticket is the one thing here you cannot pick up on the day.
2. Sleep in the town, not in Prague. The day coaches from Prague, Vienna and Salzburg land around 11am and leave around 4pm. Before and after those hours the old town is close to empty, and it is the difference between a photograph and a memory.
3. Buy the self-guided ticket if you buy only one. The Castle Museum and Castle Tower cost 280 Kč together, need no reservation, and the tower gallery is where the postcard view is taken from. The Castle Garden next to it is free.
4. Take the free walking tour at 10.30am or 2pm. Wiseman’s guides start in front of the Infocentrum on the main square in red T-shirts with red umbrellas, run about 90 minutes and work on tips. It runs daily from April to October; check the schedule between November and March.
5. Do not count on Kleť Observatory outside summer. The lookout tower on the summit is open around the clock all year, but the observatory itself opens to the public daily except Monday only in July and August, and at weekends only in June and September.

Český Krumlov sits well with the rest of South Bohemia and the wider country: see our guides to České Budějovice and the Budvar brewery, to Czech destinations, to festivals in Czechia, and to Prague’s Christmas markets if you are travelling in December.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Czechia for independent travellers, including the castle tickets, guesthouses and apartments, South Bohemian kitchens and the coaches and car hire that reach Český Krumlov, and updates this page when prices, tours and opening rules change.