Private Karlstejn castle trip from Prague with Lunch & Admission
Description
The land of Czechia includes more than 1000 castles and chateaus. If you have to pick only one to visit, Karlstejn castle is a great choice. The role of this medieval castle (14th century) exceeded any other in the country - it was designed as a place to store the crown jewels, royal treasures and collections of holy relics. Today the castle has become the jewel itself.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Your private guide and driver will pick you up at your Prague place. After 45 min of comfortable drive you reach Karlstejn village. Starting from there you walk up to the castle about 20 min (elevation 170 ft). Explore the courtyards and enjoy 1h public guided tour of the Imperial Palace in English. It served as a seat of the caesar and his court (joining a group, castle is closed on Mondays, in winter months & limited in spring / autumn). Other public guided tours (Holy Cross Chapel, 100 min) are optional. This unique place is full of stories and legends. One of them says that the castle was built only for secular and sacred purposes of the king, therefore to be able to meditate, women were forbidden from entering. You will enjoy all of this plus traditional Czech lunch. You will be accompanied by nice professional local guide that can customize the program to your needs. You will feel like you are on a trip with an old local friend with the best insider tips and recommendations.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Anywhere in Prague. Outside Prague by agreement.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(5)
We were extremely pleased with our private tour. We chose the more inclusive tour of the castle…. & saw far more than the basic which was great . Our guide Michal helped us get a taxi for the uphill trek from parking area. Much appreciated considering the stairs in the castle! Very doable for those hale & hardy. Downhill was fine. Michal took us for a very nice lunch at a local restaurant. He gave us a thorough and interesting history of the sites and region. The vehicle was very clean and comfortable. We couldn’t have hoped for more!
The guide was knowledgeable .. good food.. the guide also suggested places in Prague that is worth visiting. Extremely helpful..
Me and my daughter had this great private tour with Michal. Michal was in touch with me after the booking and even though the tour included only the basic tour of the castle he was willing to change it for the (basic + chapel tour) if we paid the difference in cost. I decided to pay that difference of 600 korunas and Michal was happy to purchase the ticket which included the chapel (it turned out later that we did not receive the basic tour at all). We were picked up from our hotel on time. The drive up to the castle is very nice (perhaps 45 minutes or so). There is a 20-minute walk up to the castle from the parking lot through a road that can be a bit steep at times. Karlstjen castle is located in Cesky Kras national forest. Emperor Karl IV, the Bohemian King and the Holy Roman Emperor built the castle in 14th century to store the jewels of the Holy Roman Emperor. The jewels were stored in the Holy Rood Chapel of the castle. Michal bought the tour ticket in English language. So, we were handed over to the castle guide who guided us inside the castle (there are some steep steps to climb if you have knee issues). The guide was very good. For some strange reason and I am not sure why and I am a bit sad about that, we did not get the tour of the imperial living quarter of Karl IV (which is included in the basic tour and should have been included in our more expensive and all-inclusive tour). Upon reading later I realized that we never got to see a big chunk of sites - Imperial Palace, Hall of Knights, Chapel of St. Nicholas, Royal Bedroom, and Audience Hall. However, the parts we saw are beautiful. Some of the 13th century wall paintings are precious items to see in this castle. The Holy rood chapel has wall studded with precious or semi-precious stones and has many paintings of important officials of that time. The view of the top of the castle is also spectacular! After the tour of the castle, Michal took us to a nice restaurant in the area for a nice lunch. For my drink, I had Kofola (which is Czech coke) for the first time and it was very nice! We talked a lot with Michal about Czech history and religion. I found Michal nice, knowledgeable, and very fluent in English. It was a very nice day in Czech Republic! If I come to Czech Republic again and take a private tour, I will surely contact Michal.
Hi Rupa, I truly appreciate your descriptive review, thank you!! I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment regarding the private rooms of the emperor, I think there was some unfortunately some confusion going on. The 2nd tour in the castle is not called "all-inclusive" but "exclusive" and as I mentioned in our written conversation the two main tours the castle offers (basic vs. exclusive) are different in content: A) BASIC TOUR - Imperial residence of Charles IV. (doesn't include the chapel) B) EXCLUSIVE TOUR - Karlstejn Castle Chapels (longer, sacred rooms and The Holy Cross Chapel) You are touring 2 different parts of the castle in these 2 tours so it is not combined together. To see all of it you would need to take both of the tours (55 + 100 min). But I'm very glad for your feedback and from now on I will emphasize more the difference between these two. As a compensation I would like to offer you or your daughter free Kofola next time on a tour. Thank you again for taking the tour with me and for writing such a nice feedback! Michal
Myself and my partner were picked up by Michael from our hotel, he drove us to the castle and accompanied us up the hill to the entrance, we then had an hour long tour of the castle and lunch was included. Michael was a great tour guide, super friendly, spoke great English and very informative. Would highly recommend him :)
Hello Katie, it was very nice day and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really appreciate your time to write it down! Thank you, Michal
The tour of Karlstejn castle was enhanced by a great tour guide. Michal did a great job of explaining the history and the unique details of Karlstejn and local area. He also took us to a local restaurant that was excellent
Dear Jere, thanks for leaving such a nice feedback! I hope you enjoyed all the other tours planned and also some relaxed spontaneous time ;-) Thanks for joining me on the tour, Michal
