The Karlovy Vary travel guide
Slow days · hot springs · Belle Époque hotels
Bohemia’s most storied spa town, told with depth and a discerning eye. Plan a perfect day, weekend or restorative week.
An introduction
A Habsburg spa town that never went out of fashion.
Tucked into a narrow river valley in western Bohemia, Karlovy Vary has welcomed the curious and convalescent since the fourteenth century. Hot mineral springs rise within a few hundred metres of one another, each with a different temperature and ritual.
The town around them is a fantasy of colonnades, pastel villas, grand hotels and deep forest. It is a place built for slow days, and this guide helps you spend them well.
Read the first-timer’s spa guide →The essential edit
Plan your stay
All guides →Things to do
The essential Karlovy Vary
Colonnades, viewpoints, museums and the experiences that define the spa town.
Spa & wellness
The art of taking the waters
A thoughtful first-timer’s guide to thermal baths, drinking cures and spa etiquette.
Where to stay
Grand hotels and quiet hideaways
The best addresses for Belle Époque atmosphere, modern wellness and restorative sleep.
Restaurants
Where the spa town eats
Fine dining, Czech classics, elegant cafés and unfussy local favourites.
Itineraries
Perfect days in Karlovy Vary
Balanced one, two and three-day routes through springs, forest and spa culture.
Day trips
Beyond the spa valley
Castles, spa towns, forests and historic cities within easy reach.
Spa & wellness
A 600-year cure tradition, still going.
From a short thermal bath to a doctor-led three-week cure, the town’s wellness culture is unlike anywhere else in Europe.
Explore the spa guide →Fresh from the editor
Travel stories with substance
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A local experience
See beyond the postcard.
Private walks, spa introductions and day trips with trusted local hosts are coming soon.