Czechia Tour Overview
Czechia rarely gives itself away at first glance. Medieval squares, baroque churches, forests and small towns suggest a familiar European landscape. Yet beneath that surface lies a more complex story, shaped by shifting borders, overlapping cultures, and 20th-century events that left deep marks on everyday life.
According to legend, Princess Libuše founded Prague where a man was carving a threshold for his house. From this image unfolds a journey across multiple thresholds between past and present, East and West, Czech, German, and Jewish cultures; between those who stayed and those who left; between silences and voices.
The journey is anchored by two main readings, Alena Mornštajnová’s Hana and Milan Kundera’s The Joke. These novels allow us to move both geographically—from Prague into Northern Bohemia and Central Moravia—and thematically, opening space for conversations about memory, exile, responsibility, and resilience.
This journey offers more than an introduction to Czechia. It gives you the historical and literary context to begin making sense of a country that rewards those willing to cross its thresholds with attention.
Walk Prague as a “city of thresholds,” from Kafka to Havel
Begin in Prague, where Gothic towers, Austro-Hungarian architecture, and traces of the century sit side by side. This is a city where multiple narratives overlap and where much of modern Czech literature finds its setting and tension. Join a Kafka walking tour and visit the Franz Kafka Museum, encountering him as a deeply physical, ironic, and place-bound writer. Read excerpts from The Joke where it begins and experience Havel’s Audience read aloud as a shared, lived text—an entry point into Czech absurd drama, dissidence, and postwar history.
Visit Terezín and Moravia to understand Hana and the work of memory
Travel beyond Prague into the wider country. In Terezín, a former concentration camp and ghetto, confront the historical realities that shape Hana. Continue east into Central Moravia, a region of small towns and strong local traditions. In Valašské Meziříčí, Mornštajnová’s hometown, experience how memory is intimate and generational, shaped by war, silence, and endurance—and feel how the novel resonates differently when read in its own landscape.
Explore Northern Bohemia’s landscapes and the idea of “living in truth”
Move north toward the foothills of the Giant Mountains, into a less-travelled part of the country. Here, forests, villages, and former borderlands hold the traces of displacement and political change. Visit sites connected to Václav Havel, including his summer home at Hrádeček, and a brewery associated with Audience. Through the work of Karel and Josef Čapek and the experience of these places, consider how literature, ethics, and politics intersect in everyday life.
Experience Moravian culture, literature, and folklore in context
In Central Moravia, visit the Muzeum Brněnska (Museum of Literature), where exhibitions provide a deeper sense of the region’s literary and cultural traditions. Explore sites connected to the Ride of the Kings, where The Joke reaches its final scene, and consider folklore not as nostalgia, but as a living, contested space where tradition and ideology collide. Here, you encounter what might be called a distinctly Czech ability to “laugh through tears”—irony as survival, and humour as resistance.
Get the benefits of our small groups, always
You may have seen tours of 35 or 40 people advertised as “small group.” Or even been on one of these big-bus experiences. Our tours are truly small, with a cap of 17. This means lots of face time with your guides, stays at family-run hotels that are off-limits to big groups, and the freedom to enjoy the company of new friends or take time for yourself.
Czechia Itinerary at a Glance
Day 1: Arrive to Prague, discussion and welcome dinner
Day 2: Kafka Museum and a literary walking tour
Day 3: Terezín, travel to Bohemia
Day 4: Discussion, The Giant Mountains, Václav Havel sites
Day 5: Literary Bohemia and baroque monasteries
Day 6: To Moravia via Smetana’s birthplace
Day 7: Discussion, Kundera library and historic Brno
Day 8: Discussion, Olomouc and 20th-century history
Day 9: Prague / Visit to the Clementium library
Day 10: Departure
Accommodation
Hotel Certovka or similar, Prague
Hotel Continental or similar, Brno
Readings
- The Joke by Milan Kundera
- Hana by Alena Mornštajnová
- The Audience by Václav Havel
- Selected short readings by Franz Kafka
Our two main novels allow us to move both geographically and thematically across Czechia while opening space for broader conversations about memory, exile, responsibility, and resilience. Shorter texts—poetry, drama, and excerpts—surround these main readings and deepen our engagement with place.
