Kutna Hora travel review & recommendations by dare

A day trip to Kutna Hora

Actually, it would probably be very nice to stay more than a day in Kutna Hora, but for a short and sweet trip out from Prague a day will do.

For some reason we couldn't take a bus from the bus station in Prague on a Sunday. Only trains were available. So, from Prague train station (hlavni nadrazi) you can get return tickets for about 4-8E.

The country side is well worth seeing. In September the sunflowers were dying and getting ready to be harvested.

You arrive in Kutna Hora at the train station (of course) which is about 2-3k out of town. Everything is a nice walking distance if you are a walker. There are tourist busses available, although on weekends and off season they might be hard to come by. There are good maps posted around at all the tourist sites. You can also take a local train into the centre of town. They know when the trains with the tourists are coming and there was a train and a bus on hand when we arrived.

About 1k from the train station is the Kostnice or Ossuary, which is the lovely church decorated with the bones of about 40,000 locals. The church's grounds were blessed with soil from the holy land so it was a very popular place to be buried.

The Church of the Assumption is close to the Kostnice and is also very nice. There is no charge to get in.

The town is lovely and old and I recommend walking through some of the back streets near to the local train station (the one in town) or away from the main centre. Its beautiful and quaint. Along the walk to and from the train station the town moves from old to more modern (you get some views into the 'suburbs'). Its an interesting contrast.

I think that the Cathedral of St Barbora is absolutely beautiful and admire the exterior architecture more than that of the Cathedral of St Vitus (I believe they were done by the same architect). There is also a wonderful view down the valley. Entry is by donation.

The Castle is Kutna Hora is also very interesting and the Mint has a lot of fantastic history to it as well.

This time of year (September) on a Sunday town was practically empty and many shops were closed, but all of the sites were open. It made for a very relaxed day that didn't have to be shared with throngs of tourists. V Nice.

I did a package day tour a long time ago to Kutna Hora and covered these main sights. This is probably what you could cover in a busy day on your own. However, having now been back independently I've discovered that a number of the sites are not very expensive or free, so I'd have to say that taking the train and pounding pavement is a huge cost saver.

Again, I'd recommend staying longer and seeing some more of the less popular sights. It is a beautiful town - especially when you see more of the town and less of the tour!