Summer is here! This was the 3rd consecutive year we visited China and this time we routed through Prague. Why Prague? Long story short….since my daughter started kindergarten and school attendance became stricter, I had to make adjustments and at that time, airfares were crazily high. I came across Hainan Airlines flies direct from Prague to Beijing and the price was very cheap, only $373 from Prague to Guangzhou via Beijing. Flights from Boston to Prague are always cheaper than other European destinations so when adding all up, it was much cheaper to fly Boston to Prague, stop for few days, Prague to China than Boston to China! Unfortunately, due to the Middle East conflict, Hainan cut its schedule, and our original 4 days in Prague got slashed to just 2 nights. 😢
After arriving in Prague on time, the new EU entry system wasn’t that bad and we got through the fingerprint scan and photo relatively quick; no queue. Then, thru immigration by photo and fingerprint validation. It was around 3 PM when we got to our apartment, Gold Art Apartments, near the old town. Weather was great, blue sky and a cool breeze! Our last visit to Prague had been overcast and grey, so seeing the city bathed in golden sunlight was a treat!
And the Astronomical Clock — finally! Last time it was hidden behind scaffolding, so seeing it in full, glorious detail was incredibly satisfying. The kids were just as excited as I was.
More beautiful buildings around the old town square:
We strolled through the stunning old town square, soaking in the beautiful baroque architecture, before making our way to the iconic Charles Bridge. Packed with tourists as always.
My daughter was happy to see the castle on the background; she’s all into princesses and castles!
The other side of the Charles Bridge, our silly kids wouldn’t stand still for photos 😛
There is a playground on the opposite side of the bridge! The kids couldn’t wait to check it out! It has to be one of the most picturesque playgrounds ever!
We spent at least half an hour there, the kids didn’t want to leave haha.
Since we had been to Prague before, we took it very easy and just relax. For dinner, we went to Fulala (福来啦), very close to our apartment. But it turned out their hand-pulled noodles weren’t good at all, their broth wasn’t rich in flavor, and the noodle looked like spaghetti instead of hand-pulled!
Their dumplings were okay, nothing special!
After dinner, we went back to our apartment….the entrance has this nice chandelier.
I booked via Booking.com and got the instruction to check-in the day before to fill out all the paperwork, received the code to get into the apartment. The apartment was basic, clearly meant for vacation rentals. The living room has sofa beds to accommodate as much people as possible.
The bathroom is so cramped, barely any space to put anything!
The bedroom, not much furnishing:
It was okay for a 2-night stay given its location. But unfortunately, on the last night, Jason saw bed bugs OMG. It was a nightmare to deal with! Jason stayed up the whole night watching and checking on the kids, we cramped into the bedroom to sleep. It had fewer bed bugs than the sofa beds in the living room! I sent messages to the host and they denied on finding any bed bugs after we checked out. We had videos and photos as proofs and they said they believed us and offered us a refund of 1 night. What??? The bed bugs have been there, we didn’t realize it until the last night so after back and forth, the host agreed to fully refund us. After 16+ years of traveling, this was the first time we came across bed bugs 🙁 The apartment was highly rated too on Booking.com so we were very unlucky this time!
Since we hadn’t discovered the bed bugs on the first night, our second day was blissfully untouched by the drama — and it was the day I’d been most excited about: a day trip to the infamous Český Krumlov! Originally, I was planning to rent a car and drive there with a stop at the beautiful Hluboká Castle to give us the flexibility but with the change in flight schedule, it was easier to go with bus. I booked with FlixBus, departing from Central Bus Station Florenc at 7 AM and arrived at 9:30 AM. We used Bolt (like Uber) to get the bus station, it was less than 10 min away from our apartment and very inexpensive for the ride. The Český Krumlov bus station was located right outside the old town center, it was an easy 10 min or so walk into the center. The map of Český Krumlov:
Entry to the town center:
It was cloudy and cold that day but luckily, the clouds were cleared afterwards.
The shops were still closed, the town was barely awake, and the whole place felt almost fairytale-like. Then we spotted it: the pink Castle Tower, rising above the rooftops like something out of a Brothers Grimm tale.
We wandered through a park that frames the castle in a perfect panoramic view, down streets lined with colorful, centuries-old buildings, and across one of the many charming bridges that crisscross the Vltava River as it loops dramatically around the entire town. Each bridge offers a completely different angle of the castle tower — every shot looked like a postcard.
The street is lined with unique buildings like those:
We were getting closer and closer to the castle:
The shops weren’t open yet and the town was still quiet.
By the time we reached the castle, the clouds had cleared and the sun broke through, transforming the scene entirely.
The intricate wall paintings covering the entire tower were astonishing up close — you can’t quite appreciate from photos just how detailed they are.
River rafters were already gliding past below us, and the riverbanks were dotted with cozy little cafes just beginning to open their doors.
There are bridges all over the old town; each gives a different view of the castle tower.
We climbed the stairs up to the castle.
A look back of the town:
The castle grounds have different admission tickets to enter different buildings. We purchased the ticket to go up the Castle Tower for its views…..it was quite expensive at 280 CZK (~$13), kids under 6 was free (my son), and my daughter was 80 CZK.
We walked up those wooden stairs to get up the tower and it got narrower and narrower.
A wooden model of the Castle Tower:
At the top, the panorama was absolutely breathtaking: the entire medieval town curled inside the river’s bend, surrounded by rolling green hills as far as the eye could see. Pure fairy-tale magic.
The castle which we didn’t visit:
I took a panorama of the town surrounded by a river and hills:
My kids liked the climb, they said it was “easy peasy” for them 😀
On our way out of the castle, Jason saw a bear below the castle :O Apparently it’s been a Český Krumlov tradition since the 16th century to keep bears in the castle moat. The kids were absolutely stunned.
After the castle tower, it was already lunchtime so we walked back to the town center to have lunch at My Saignon. The pho noodle soup there was decent and inexpensive, 3 bowls of phos for $47.31!
After lunch, we took our time and explored more of the cute town.
One of the squares with pastel colored houses:
More of cute houses:
The horse at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum that got my kids excited to have picture with!
This bakery/cafe has its own water wheel!
Another view of the Castle Tower from the bridge:
I pointed to my kids that we were up there in the morning, see those people that looked so small?
Above the hill is the castle complex:
While the kids were watching the boats, I walked across the bridge to get photos from this side of the town:
That was the end of the old town so we started our walk back.
We stopped at the park again for its beautiful views of the Castle Tower and took more photos with the blue sky.
On our walk back to the bus stop, one last view of the fairytale town.
Overall, Český Krumlov was well worth a day trip to visit; it’s a beautiful old town surrounded by a river and hills. It’s compact enough to explore comfortably in a few hours but rich enough that every corner reveals something new. It was far less crowded than I expected, which made the whole experience feel relaxed and genuinely magical rather than rushed.
Once we got back to Prague, we used Bolt directly to Kungfu Ramen Smetanovo for our dinner. The noodle soups here were much better than the ones we had at Fulala! Their boba tea was good too, my kids love boba tea so it was a reward for them 🙂
The adorable rabbit-shaped buns had the kids giggling with delight.
