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All-day sightseeing walk

This walk route is ideal for those who want to see as much as possible. It will guide you through all the prominent places of Karlovy Vary.

Successful route overmastering manual, or what you should take along:

1. good walking shoes
2. sufficient stock of liquids
3. live batteries for your camera (or enough film rolls for those who confess by classical photography)
4. cash for admission fees, car fares, souvenirs or refreshments
5. an appropriate bag, ideally a two-shoulder-straps knapsack to carry a bottle of water and to store souvenirs
6. tasting of spring water: remember to drink only a small amount of mineral water without previously using alcohol or nicotine; watch out: cold springs have laxative effects while warm springs inhibit the digestive processes

Are you ready for your walk?

Our route starts at the Jan Becher Museum in the very center of the city, on T.G.M. Avenue. Guided tours in the museum begin at 9 a.m. Why not be first?! Here you can buy a favorite souvenir to take home from Karlovy Vary - the Becher liqueur. Perhaps you should postpone its tasting until evening.

Jan Becher muzeum

Name	Opening hours	Admission fee
JAN BECHER MUZEUM T.G.M. 57, Karlovy Vary reservations: tel.: +420 353 170 177 fax: +420 353 229 421 e-mail: muzeum@jan-becher.com web: www.becherovka.cz	Mon - Sun 9:00 - 17:00	Adults 100.- CZK Children/students 50.- CZK

When you get out from the sweetly scented building, pass through the archway above the Becher Museum and walk up the hill. Davida Bechera Street will quickly take you to Krále Jiřího Street that also ascends at a perceptible angle.

Approximately 100 m before the end of this street, in a turn, you can see a structure that does not really fit in the company of residential villas. It is the orthodox St. Peter and Paul. At a park lagoon opposite the church, you can stop in a restaurant called Little Versailles.

Just a few meters from the church (at the end of the street) turn left. Make a few steps and you will find yourself in front of the statue of Karel Marx. Turn to the left again and walk down the hill on Sadova Street until you reach Dvořák Park on the Tepla river bank.

Nearby this meticulously kept park dominated by the statue of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák you can find several interesting routes. If you stand facing the Tepla River, the closest whole on your right-hand side is the Park Colonnade, followed by the Military Spa Institution and Spa III.

Pass Spa III and walk on the promenade in the direction of one of the most distinguished structures of Karlovy Vary.

Soon, you will arrive at the largest, best known and most popular Karlovy Vary colonnade - the Mill Colonnade. The ceiling of this grandiose building is carried by 124 columns. In between them, 5 mineral springs are discharged.

Keep to the same river bank and enter a street between little family houses (the river will disappear from your sight for a while). Before you reach another halt place, you will pass the InfoCenter, stores with souvenir and gift, glass, jewelry, etc. However, the very first sight to go past will be the Golden Key House (Zlatý klíč) which is home to one segment of the Karlovy Vary Museum. Art lovers should not miss its exhibition.

The Karlovy Vary Regional Museum

Name	Opening hours	Admission fee
Golden Key House Lázeňská 21/3, Karlovy Vary phone: +420 353 223 888 web: www.kvmuz.cz	Wed - Sun 9:00 - 12:00 and 13:00 - 17:00 (lectures and exhibition)	Adults 20,- Children 10,- Family 25,-
Former building of the district administration authority Nová louka 23, Karlovy Vary phone: +420 353 226 252	Wed - Sun 9:00 - 12:00 and 13:00 - 17:00 (permanent exposition, exhibitions)	Adults 30,- /15,-* Children 15,-/10,-* Family 55,-
Museum library Study room for the professional public Zámecký vrch 22, Karlovy Vary phone.: +420 353 224 433	Research project day Mon 8:00 - 18:00 Wed 8:00 - 16:00 If you want to research materials in the library, please report your visit on the phone.

Regardless of whether you decided to see the exhibition or not, the street you are on will take you to three colonnades. On the right is the Market Colonnade with the Chateau Colonnade behind it. Across the street, the Thermal Spring Colonnade displays another ‘best’ of Karlovy Vary. If you are cold, the Thermal Spring will certainly warm you up. The geyser of its water is exhaled from the granite subsoil of Karlovy Vary and is 72°C hot. At this colonnade you can buy souvenirs, taste mineral spring water, have a snack or, explore a part of Karlovy Vary’s underground and learn more about its mineral springs. Above the Thermal Spring there is the church of St. Mary Magdalene. During daily church services you can admire its lovely interior. A guided tour in the church crypt can be arranged at the InfoCenter.

In addition to its mineral springs, the Market Colonnade also prides on a relief illustrating the discovery of the city. Across from this colonnade you can find a typical example of Art Nouveau, the Felix Zawojski House.

Leave the Market Colonnade and keep on walking on the same river bank lined with picturesque cafés and hotels. Right before a turn on the other bank of the Tepla River, there is the other building of the Karlovy Vary Museum that administers a permanent exposition (It introduces the history of the Karlovy Vary region, the history and development of balneology, etc.). It features unique exhibits and provides interesting information on the history of the largest Czech spa community.

Continue walking along the river until reaching the Grandhotel Pupp. Before you carefully explore this luxury hotel, enter Mariánska Street and take a cable car going uphill to the Diana outlook tower that offers the nicest view of the spa quarter of the city.

From Diana you can walk to a place called Deer Jump to a chamois statue, or to Charles IV Belvedere.

Behind the hotel yet on the other side you can find the remarkable structure of Spa I (former Emperor’s Baths) and a bit further behind the spa is an. At the Pupp your walk route picks up Goethe’s path and runs around the bust of J. W. Goethe and the Art Gallery where you can see works of art by Czech and foreign artists.

Art Gallery

Name	Opening hours	Admission fee
Art Gallery, Karlovy Vary Goethova stezka 6, KV tel: 353 224 387 fax: 353 224 388 e-mail: info@galeriekvary.cz web: www.galeriekvary.cz	Tu - Sun 9:30 - 12:00 a 13:00 - 17:00 Gallery holds regular cultural and educational programs for the public that may request changes in the operating hours.	Depends on a project Every first Wednesday of the month all of the gallery’s exhibitions can be seen free of charge.

Stay on Goethe’s path and walk some 400 meters from the Art Gallery to the Post Office Manor House. Before you get there, you will go past a Friedrich Schiller monument and a bit farther around a statue of Bedřich Smetana. The decent atmosphere of the Post Office Manor House restaurant is a great place for taking your time over a cup of fine coffee and letting your feet get some rest.

When you replenish your energy, step out into the street Slovenská in front of the Post Office Manor House and walk downstream to the Richmond Hotel.

The Richmond Parkhotel. is situated approximately 350 m from the Post Office Manor House. Besides being an enthralling example of classicist architecture, the hotel provides many more attractions in its park: A deer statue, a gazebo with the Štěpánka spring, a Japanese garden and the monuments of the polish poet A. Mickiewicz and the German composer L. V. Beethoven.

Your way continues from Richmond on Slovenska Street to the public transport stop Richmond. Take a bus and get off at the Libušina stop. Then walk to the left towards the Imperial Hotel. Those of you who are in good physical shape can try a more challenging alternative and walk some 120 m past Richomnd along the road behind the Charles IVbridge where you turn right. Then go up the hill on forest zigzag paths taking you behind the Hotel Imperial.

Whichever way you followed to get to the hotel, its size and amenity will take your breath away. When you get an eyeful of the sight, take the downhill path to the cable car station at the Imperial from where you will take a ride to Theater Square .

Return some 100 m upstream and view the recently reconstructed Municipal Theater. Maybe, itsprogram will offer something that will make you come back for an evening performance.

Then walk downstream, go trough the already familiar buildings of the St. Mary Magdalene church and the Thermal Spring Colonnade. Keep on walking downstream until seeing the Spa III on the opposite bank. Turn left. Behind the library you will find a path crawling over terraces to the swimming pool on top of the Thermal Hotel. When you reach the terraces you can say good bye to the exquisite spa zone and look down at the places you visited not long ago.
Then walk down to the other side of the Thermal and cross the river on the Post Office bridge.

On the right, in Smetana Park you will see Spa V or so-called Elizabeth’s Spa (named after the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I.).

This route will take you to T. G. M. Avenue that creates a busy business center of the city. It offers a wide range of boutiques, restaurants, and other amenities. When you get to a fountain a few meters above Mc’Donalds go down to the right. On your right hand before a turn running into Zeyerova Street there isí National House, whose catastrophic condition is pitiful. Go through Zeyerova Street down to the municipal market place, next to a public transportation bus station.

That is all, friends. If you did not get enough walking miles today, you can always use public transportation services and go for a ride to one of the many outlook towers built in Karlovy Vary. The destination of your trip will be only up to your consideration.