Prague

Fly into Václav Havel Airport and transfer to your hotel in the Old Town or Malá Strana (Lesser Town). The first view of Prague from the Charles Bridge at dusk — the 30 Baroque saints lining the bridge's balustrades above the dark Vltava, Prague Castle illuminated on the hill above — is one of Europe's most romantic urban moments. Walk the bridge, then dinner in Malá Strana at one of the restaurants in the Baroque lanes below the castle.

Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in the world — 70,000 square meters of palaces, churches, galleries, and gardens on a limestone promontory above the Vltava. St. Vitus Cathedral inside the complex is one of Europe's great Gothic cathedrals, with a nave that took 600 years to build and stained glass windows designed by Alfons Mucha. The Old Royal Palace, the Golden Lane (a 16th-century alley of tiny craftsmen's houses where Franz Kafka worked for a winter), and the castle's south gardens with views over the red rooftops of Malá Strana are all included in the castle ticket.

The Old Town Square is Prague's heart — the extraordinary Gothic facade of the Týn Church, the Art Nouveau Obecní Dům (Municipal House) on the square's edge, and the medieval Astronomical Clock (Orloj) on the Old Town Hall, which performs an hourly mechanical procession of the Twelve Apostles that has been running since 1410. Josefov, the medieval Jewish Quarter, contains Europe's best-preserved medieval synagogues and the medieval Jewish Cemetery where 100,000 people are buried in 12 layers of graves over 12,000 square meters.

Český Krumlov — 3 hours south of Prague — is one of the most completely beautiful small towns in Europe: a UNESCO World Heritage medieval town built in a tight loop of the Vltava River, dominated by a castle complex second only to Prague's in size, with painted tower frescoes, a Baroque theater with its original stage machinery, and streets of colored Renaissance and Baroque facades. The town is small enough to walk entirely in an afternoon — the castle gardens, the revolving auditorium of the Baroque theater, and the view from the castle bridge over the river bend are all extraordinary.

Beyond the tourist center, Prague is a city of neighborhoods. Vinohrady — the Art Nouveau residential district east of Wenceslas Square — has Prague's best cafe culture, independent wine bars, and a genuine neighborhood atmosphere on streets of fin-de-siècle apartment buildings. The Žižkov TV Tower (covered in crawling baby sculptures by David Černý) offers the best views of Prague's rooftops. The Nusle Bridge, the Holešovice art district, and the riverbank promenade north of the old city are all deeply local and completely tourist-free.

Bohemian Switzerland National Park — 1.5 hours northwest of Prague on the German border — is one of Central Europe's most dramatic landscapes: a sandstone plateau deeply carved by river erosion into a wilderness of rock towers, arches, and canyons that looks like it belongs in the American Southwest. The Pravčická Arch (the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe) and the Edmund Gorge (a dramatic slot canyon navigated by flat-bottomed boats) are the park's highlights — both within a morning's hiking distance of the trailhead.

Final coffee and trdelník (chimney cake, a local pastry) in the Old Town before your flight. The airport is 30 minutes from the center.