The best things to do in Karlovy Vary are the Vřídlo geyser in the Hot Spring Colonnade, the Mill and Market colonnades, the Diana funicular and lookout, the Becherovka museum and the Moser glassworks. Two days covers the spa valley on foot. A third buys Loket Castle or the Singing Fountain at Mariánské Lázně.
Karlovy Vary is the spa town Charles IV founded in the fourteenth century, laid along the narrow valley of the Teplá. You drink the hot springs from a spouted cup under five colonnades, then ride a funicular into the forest above the rooftops.
The town’s reason for being. The Hot Spring shoots up to 12 metres inside its own glass pavilion at 73 °C, and the 1975 colonnade around it cools the water for the drinking bowls. Fill a spa cup and sip slowly; it tastes of salt.
Josef Zítek’s neo-Renaissance hall, opened in 1881, runs 132 metres along the river with five springs under its roof. Twelve sandstone figures of the months line the attic. Taste the springs in order and compare the temperatures.
The funicular climbs from beside Grandhotel Pupp to the Diana lookout tower, opened in 1914, with a lift to the platform and free entry. Walk down through the forest via the Stag’s Leap rock and the town opens up below you.
Josef Vitus Becher began distilling his herbal bitter here in 1794, and the museum sits in the old factory. Visits are guided only, about 45 minutes, and end with a tasting of four measures. Over-18s only for the glass.
Fellner & Helmer’s carved wooden Market Colonnade was meant to be temporary and is still standing. A bronze relief over the Charles IV Spring tells the legend of the king bathing his injured leg here.
Ludwig Moser opened an engraving shop here in 1857, and the house still makes lead-free crystal, cut and engraved by hand. The museum covers the house style; the tour puts you on the hot floor beside the glassblowers.
Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer’s High Baroque church, built from 1733 to 1736, rises right above the Hot Spring. Beneath it lies a Gothic crypt lined with bones from the old town cemetery.
The last spa house in town open to anyone who walks in. Book a 90-minute pass to its 25-metre pool, whirlpool and saunas, or a mineral or carbon dioxide bath from the treatment list.
The 1970s Hotel Thermal was built for the film festival, and its outdoor thermal pool on the hillside terrace is open to the public. Swim in warm spring water with the spa valley spread below.
The neo-Baroque grand hotel at the top of the spa valley opened in its present form in 1894 and hosts the film festival’s stars each July. Café Pupp is the way in without a room key.
The first weekend of May: the town keys are handed over and the springs blessed.
Thun’s porcelain fair at the Národní dům, held again each September.
A spring half marathon through the spa valley; 16 May in 2026.
The country’s biggest film festival; the 60th edition ran 3 to 11 July 2026.
Five days of folk ensembles on the colonnades in early September.
A two-night light festival projected onto the spa buildings.
The Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra opens its season with this festival.
Stalls along the Mill Colonnade from late November to New Year.
Direct RegioJet coaches leave from Terminal 1 roughly hourly and reach Karlovy Vary in about 1 hour 45 minutes.
The fastest link from Prague. RegioJet and FlixBus run in under two hours to the Tržnice stop by the spa zone.
Trains from Prague take over three hours via Chomutov. The lower station runs a scenic line to Mariánské Lázně.
Thin round oplatky made with thermal water, sold warm on the colonnades.
The herbal bitter distilled here since 1794, served cold as a digestif.
Becherovka with tonic and lemon, the town’s standard long drink.
Drunk warm from a spouted porcelain spa cup as you walk.
Beef sirloin in a cream and root-vegetable sauce, with dumplings.
With red cabbage and dumplings, a staple of the town’s Czech kitchens.
Roast pork, bread dumplings and sauerkraut.
The house cake of Café Pupp, ordered with afternoon tea.
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