Happy New Years!

This is my first post of 2018 and it has been an amazing year. At the time of posting, I’m about to leave Prague (please see start of an Adventure #3), and I have a few more posts to wrap up my time from this lovely country and city!

The beautiful town of Karlovy Vary is one of the major day trips from Prague I was able to do before my departure from the Czech Republic. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it and one of my friends that came to visit highly recommended it (I was at work when he went).

My father and grandmother were in town for the holidays and so we went to this spa town, much to my delight to check this off my list.

Karlovy Vary is known for its thermal waters and hot springs and along the colonnade/river walk there are several drinking fountains for this healthy water at different temperatures.

My father thought it tasted like soda water while I thought it tasted like metal. You decide, but it is worth the trip.

Along this walk are beautiful buildings and basically at the end is the Grandhotel Pup, which James Bond, Casino Royal was filmed at.

Due to it being right before Christmas many of the buses from Prague to there were full, so we got an early bus at 8 (2 hour ride).

Our first stop was the information center which is quite close to the two stops at Karlovy Vary. I honestly have no suggestion which stop is better as they are quite close to the center and to each other.

The info center is also close to the Becherovka museum. This is a popular Czech alcohol, but the original flavor reminds me of Fireball Whiskey.

It’s not actually where they make the drink, but a museum on the process and the history as well as a small tasting of the 3 different flavors.

We couldn’t get an English tour, but ended up being the only ones on the Russian tour. They had given us audio guides previously, but I thought that since we were the only ones they might give the tour in English anyways, nope.

It’s a 45 minute tour and afterwards we made our way down the colonade.

I’m sure in the summer it is bustling with people and everyone is enjoying the spas, but we just wanted a small day trip.

We got on the 3pm bus back- there were plenty of room on the buses back, just the buses there were full.

There were several different walks/hikes one could take and I could see easily spending a day or two here.

Out of all the day trips, I wouldn’t say this be the top priority. However, if you are tired of seeing castles, this is a good option.

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