Travel | Topic Archive

Holesovice market is the largest in Prague and attracts 12 million visitors a year. Fruit and vegetable stalls are perhaps its biggest draw, though it also features some regular shops, and lots of Vietnamese stalls, selling everything from knuckledusters to fake designer clothing. Now its operators are working hard to modernize the market and clean up its image. They have even given it a new name: River Town Prague.

Prague's Troja district is one of the city's most luxurious residential areas. It is also the home of Prague Zoo, which after Prague Castle, is the most visited place in the capital. But the district was hit hard by the floods in 2002 and it also boasts two more sites that only a few tourists know about. City Hall is now introducing an ambitious new project that hopes to turn Troja into an attractive place of fun and leisure.

Today we're in Brandys nad Labem-Stara Boleslav just north-east of Prague. This place has a rather long name - the longest in the country, in fact, and that's because it actually used to consist of two separate towns: Brandys nad Labem and Stara Boleslav.

This edition of Spotlight comes to you from the Czech Republic's famous Jested Mountain: the site of a popular ski hill as well as a space-age hotel.

In today's Spotlight we visit the Moravian town of Bystrice pod Hostynem, close to the city of Zlin. Lying beneath the Hostyn Hill, which is a place of pilgrimage but also offers ideal hiking routes and skiing conditions, the town attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Just a few moments ago I arrived in the town of Nymburk, our location for today's Spotlight. Nymburk lies in Central Bohemia, just 50 kilometres east of Prague. Now, it may not be an obvious destination but the town is in many ways remarkable.

One thing missing so far from this Christmas season is proper Christmas weather: snowy conditions and temperatures well below zero degrees Celsius. So far this month, the mercury has stubbornly stayed well above freezing, for instance, daily it has been around 11 degrees Celsius). That has some skiers suffering - with very few runs at any ski hills operating. Still, it's too early to get too worried yet: as Jan Velinger reports, operators are confident things will soon take a turn for the better.

The house of culture in the Moravian town of Prostejov is one of the country's best examples of the art nouveau style. Built by the famous architect Jan Kotera, it celebrates its 99th birthday this Friday. Dita Asiedu takes a tour around the newly renovated structure with the house of culture director Alena Spurna:

Undeterred by the onset of winter weather, hordes of tourists swirl in eddies around the Old Town Square—in front of the famous Astronomical Clock, by the carts selling sausages and cups of hot wine, down the passages lined with stalls crammed top to bottom with knickknacks and gewgaws. It is a site that is as rich in art and history as it is bustling with activity. This place is one of Prague's nerve centers, the beating heart of the old city.

For first-time visitors the world-famous Konopiste Chateau or Karlstejn Castle are natural choices for daytrips outside of Prague but one destination visitors might want to consider is the royal Czech town of Rakovnik, a veritable historic gem found less than 60 kilometres west of the Czech capital. Archaeologists have found that long before it was established as a town, the site of Rakovnik and its surroundings, was favoured by tribes as far back as the Stone Age. Finds on display at the local TG Masaryk Museum in Rakovnik show some of the oldest