The hook
A belle-époque spa town strung along a wooded river valley, where the ritual is to stroll grand colonnades sipping warm mineral water from a spouted cup, as Europe's aristocracy did for centuries.
01Why it's worth it
Karlovy Vary, once Carlsbad, grew rich as the grandest of the Bohemian spa towns, where royalty, composers, and writers came to "take the cure" at its hot mineral springs. The town is a pastel confection of ornate hotels and cast-iron colonnades built for exactly one purpose: promenading between the springs with a special two-handled porcelain cup, drinking the warm, faintly metallic water that bubbles up along the valley. Whether the water does anything is beside the point; the theatre of it, the architecture, and the setting in a steep green valley are the draw. The town also makes the herbal liqueur Becherovka and hosts a well-regarded international film festival each summer. It is a gentle, slightly old-world half-day rather than a headline sight.
02How to experience it
Buy the traditional spout cup, walk the colonnades, and taste the different springs, which vary in temperature and mineral punch. Ride the funicular up for a view over the valley, and try a shot of the local Becherovka. It is at its liveliest during the July film festival.