"Karlsteijn" a Karlstejn Travel Page by littlesam1

While planning my trip to Prague I came across information about day trips from Prague to Carlstejn. It seems almost every guide book I read suggested this day trip. So of course I had to make plans to follow this advice. But getting here is not all that easy. I used the information from the current edition of Fromme's Travel Guide and found myself having lots of problems. It directed me to a small train station outside of the main tourist area in Prague. Here I was to purchase a bus ticket to Carlstejn. My problem started when I arrived at the station. No one spoke English. I tried to explain that I wanted to purchase tickets for Karstejn. The man at the ticket booth told me Ne English. Cesky Cesky. I understood what he meant. He did not speak English. Please speak in Czech. So I then tried to show him a picture of the Karstejn Castle. He told me again very loud. Cesky Cesky. Believing this to be a lost cause I walked over to an information window. There was a picture of the Castle on the wall next to the window. What luck I thought. I addressed the lady at the information window and once more I realize she does not speak any English and could not help me. So much for Frommers advice. The Frommer guide advised me not to take a guided tour from downtown Prague. It would be much more adventureous and rewarding to find my own way to Carlstejn. Easy for the book editor to say.

I decided to try to get to Karlstejn again the next day. This time I went to the Old Town Square in Prague and purchased a ticket from Martins Tours. I thought this would be a good way to finally get to Karstejn. The price of the Martin tour promised a four hour tour in multiple languages, plus lunch everything included. What more could I ask for.

Our guide spoke English but it was hard to understand him at times. Especially when he was telling us about some thingsthat were not included on the tour. Like transportation to the castle once we reached Karstejn. We had to pay for another bus to take us to the castle once we arrived in the village. We had the option to walk up the steep walks to the castle, which I would not have minded. But our tour was scheduled to begin in less than half an hour and I would not be able to walk the distance in time I was informed. So I paid a second fee for the transport. Also on the trip we all found out that the tour and guide was not necessarily in multiple languages. We had Italians, Russians, Spanish, and English speakers on the tour. English was used for the tour. Unfortunately the Italians on the tour spoke little English. When they complained that it was supposed to have been multiple languages they were handed a printed page with information in Italian that they could follow as we took the tour. Once again this was not quite what was promised.

Now go back and look at the picture of this beautiful little village on the top of my page. Was it worth all of the hassle. Yes it was. But it could have been so much easier. I later found out that there is a train from another station in Prague that takes daily trips to Karlstejn. I would have saved some money and some aggrivation had I done a little more research.