Best Hotels in Bohemia: Karlovy Vary Spa, Český Krumlov Castle & Czech Beer (2026)
Grandhotel Pupp, the Karlovy Vary grande dame founded in 1701 and filmed in Casino Royale, and Hotel Ruze in Český Krumlov's 16th-century Jesuit college — where to stay among Bohemia's spa colonnades, UNESCO castle towns and the world's best beer.
Bohemia: Spa Colonnades, Castle Towns and the Home of Pilsner
Bohemia is the western half of the Czech Republic, the historic kingdom around Prague — but its character shows best outside the capital. In the wooded valley of the Teplá river sits Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), founded by Emperor Charles IV in the 14th century around a dozen hot mineral springs, the fiercest of which, the Vřídlo, erupts at 72°C and jets water metres into the air inside its own colonnade hall. The town’s 19th-century golden age built the grand colonnades along the river — the neo-Renaissance Mill Colonnade, some 132 metres long, is the showpiece — and drew a staggering guest list: Peter the Great, Goethe (a repeat devotee), Beethoven and Karl Marx all took the waters. In 2021 Karlovy Vary was inscribed on the UNESCO list among the Great Spa Towns of Europe, and every July its International Film Festival, founded in 1946, turns the colonnades into Central Europe’s biggest red carpet. South Bohemia answers with Český Krumlov, the UNESCO-listed Renaissance town wrapped in a horseshoe bend of the Vltava beneath the country’s second-largest castle. And everywhere there is beer: Czechs drink more of it per capita than any nation on earth, Pilsner lager was invented in the Bohemian city of Plzeň in 1842 by the Bavarian brewer Josef Groll, and České Budějovice — Budweis in German — still brews the original Budweiser, Budvar, at the heart of one of history’s longest trademark disputes. Order it unpasteurised from the tank (tankovna) wherever you can.
Karlovy Vary
Grandhotel Pupp Karlovy Vary — 1701 Imperial Colonnaded Spa Resort Suite
Price: €200–1,500/night | Location: Mírové náměstí 316/2, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
The Grandhotel Pupp anchors the top of the spa promenade and is one of Europe’s oldest grand hotels, tracing its history to the Saxony Hall of 1701 and to Johann Georg Pupp, the confectioner whose family built it into the town’s social headquarters. Behind the vast neo-Baroque facade are chandeliered halls, a spa drawing on the town’s thermal tradition, and the Festival Hall that hosts the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s premieres each July. Film fans know it twice over: the Pupp stood in as Hotel Splendide in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, and it is often cited as an inspiration behind Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. The Mill Colonnade and the hot springs are a ten-minute stroll along the river.
Hotel Ruze Český Krumlov — 16th-Century Renaissance Former Jesuit College Suite
Price: €150–600/night | Location: Horní 154, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic
Hotel Ruze fills the Renaissance college the Jesuits built in the 1580s on Horní street in Český Krumlov, under the Rosenberg five-petalled rose that gives the hotel its name. Vaulted ceilings, a sgraffito facade and period-furnished rooms suit the setting, and the terrace looks across the Vltava gorge to the castle — the second-largest castle complex in the country after Prague Castle, its painted round tower rising directly opposite. The old town’s main square is two minutes away, and staying overnight here means having the UNESCO-listed lanes largely to yourself once the Prague day-trip coaches leave in the late afternoon.
Beyond the Hotels
Plzeň, Budweis and the Bohemian Paradise
Beer pilgrims should detour to Plzeň, where the Pilsner Urquell brewery tour ends with unfiltered lager drawn straight from oak barrels in the sandstone cellars where the style was born in 1842; České Budějovice pairs the Budvar brewery with one of the largest market squares in the country. Northeast of Prague, the Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj) is a protected landscape of sandstone rock towns, pine forest and ruined castles — Hrubá Skála and Trosky castle silhouettes are the classic views, threaded by well-marked trails. Karlovy Vary pairs naturally with Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad), the second of the West Bohemian spa triangle, an hour away.
FAQ
When is the best time to visit Bohemia? May–September for warm weather, terrace beer gardens and the full spa-promenade experience; early July brings the Karlovy Vary film festival (book the Pupp far ahead or steer clear that week). Winter has its own case: Český Krumlov under snow is arguably Bohemia’s most romantic sight, and spa treatments suit the cold season.
Can you actually drink the Karlovy Vary spring water? Yes — that is the point. Buy a lázeňský pohárek, the flat porcelain sipping cup with a spout handle, and work your way along the colonnades tasting springs of different temperatures and mineral loads. Chase it with the town’s other institutions: a sweet oplatky spa wafer and a glass of Becherovka, the local herbal liqueur nicknamed the thirteenth spring.
How do you get around Bohemia without a car? Reasonably well: direct buses link Prague with Karlovy Vary (about 2 hours) and Český Krumlov (about 3), and trains cover Plzeň and České Budějovice. A car helps only for the countryside — the Bohemian Paradise rock towns and the smaller spa towns are slow going by public transport.
Is Czech beer really the best in the world? Czechs would say the argument is settled by consumption — the country has led the world in beer drunk per capita for decades. Judge for yourself in a tankovna pub serving unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell from horizontal tanks, poured with the thick wet foam the Czechs insist is essential; at roughly €2–3 for a half litre in most towns, the research is affordable.