More than two million tourists descended on Prague last year, and the city is fast reaching capacity. But away from the capital, the Czech Republic has much to offer and is largely unvisited.
Music festivals
Music lovers are not restricted to the world-famous Prague Spring Festival and the concerts of the Czech Philharmonic. There are many other musical gems on offer throughout the year (see www.musica.cz) including the Karlovy Vary Festival of Early Music during the last week in July, the International Piper Festival at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Luby in August, and the international singing competition in Ceske Budejovice in August and September.
The Valtice Festival in southern Moravia is held annually at the end of this month in an unrestored 12th-century castle in the middle of the country's best wine region. You can spend a weekend listening to concerts and opera, picnicking in beautiful scenery and sampling the local wine.
Great outdoors
If, after that, you feel in need of some exercise head a few miles north-west to the Czech answer to the Pennine Way. Greenway is a hiking trail stretching along 250 miles of unspoilt land between Vienna and Prague.
The trail heads west along the Dyje river and the Vltava river, crossing southern Moravia and south Bohemia, taking in the historic towns of Telc, Trebon and - one of the country's gems - the Unesco World Heritage Site of Cesky Krumlov, before twisting north to Prague.
Twenty miles north-east of Prague, the village of Ostra offers enough activities to fill a whole week. A renovated turn-of-the-century school houses a health and beauty centre providing herb baths, mud therapies or aromatherapy massages. There's a lake for swimming, bicycling paths that run deep into the forest alongside the Labe river and walking trails through nature reserves. Accommodation is available in a local campsite or in wooden cabins, reminiscent of holidays in the communist era.
The star attraction in Ostra is the Botanicus complex - nine acres of organic gardens, constructed last spring and based on original family-ownership plots of a century ago. A kitchen garden, English rose arbour, medicinal plant collection, Chinese garden, croquet lawn edged by limes and three hedge-mazes are open to the public between April and the end of September for around £2 a head. The house attached to the gardens has a Great Guild Hall where medieval banquets can be laid on for up to 40 people.
Greenway trail: 00420 542 218350; fax: 00 420 542 221744 (e-mail: greenways@ecn.cz).
Botanicus: 00420 325 551558; fax: 00420 325 552121 (e-mail: botanicus @botanicus.cz)
Jewish heritage
Since the fall of communism a decade ago, Jewish families from around the world have been able to gain access to their heritage for the first time in over 40 years. The tours run by Sylvie Wittmann run from March to the end of December, taking in the Jewish ghetto in the southern city of Trebic - the best- preserved Jewish quarter in Europe - and, further to the east, the medieval city of Telc. You can take a day trip by bus from Prague to the 18th-century fortress town of Terezin, which was converted by the Nazis into a concentration camp. Pilsen, an hour's drive to the east of Prague, is home to Europe's second largest synagogue although it is probably more widely known for the Pilsner Urquell brewery.
Wittmann Tours: 00 420 2 222524 72 (email: sylvie@wittmann-tours.com).
Spas
The cream of European royalty used to take their cures at Karlsbad, two hours' drive north of Prague, and it is fast being restored to its former glory. Visitors, mostly Russian and German, imbibe the salty spa waters, said to be particularly good for gastric complaints, and breathe in the cool forest air above the city. The town is home to some of the country's grandest hotels (see www.hotel-dvorak.cz) and some splendid golf courses. In July, it hosts an international film festival (www.iffkv.cz)
Castles
This is castle country. Apart from the 300 or so that are up for sale (appointments with estate agents can easily be arranged during your trip), there are plenty to visit, most of which are desperately in need of your cash to overhaul the plumbing and upholster the furniture.
Tom Zahn of Pathfinders organises weekend "getaway" tours taking in some of the best. If you spend a long weekend cycling, hiking and canoeing (three nights, £138) in the Sumava region, you get to stay at the Hotel Atava in Rabi, which claims to be "the largest castle ruin in Bohemia".
Other weekends include horseriding, concerts, visiting a medieval festival, and celebrating the wine harvest in Valtice. Pathfinders provides guides and transport and will also organise balloon rides, bungee jumping or shooting.
Pathfinders: Na Homoli 5, Prague 4, 143 00 Czech Republic; tel/fax: 00 420 2 4440 0472 (e-mail: getaways@pathfinders.cz).
Horse riding
If taking to the gallops is more to your liking, the Kinsky stud, established in 1832 by Count Octavian Kinsky at Clumec and Cidlinou in east Bohemia, holds its annual Feast of the Kinsky Horses every June. Riding lessons cost less than £4.50 an hour, and you can join the annual October drag hunt for £50 a head followed by a castle ball for £24 a ticket. The following day, most participants head over to the nearby Great Pardubice Steeplechase, one of the world's toughest horse races.
For the Kinsky Stud, call Liba Pulpan on 00420 448596035. Drag hunt, call Nader Safari on 00420 606 614613.
Fishing and skiing
British-based Academy Tours organises fishing holidays in southern Bohemia and skiing trips to the Krkonose mountains close to the Polish and German borders. Resorts have slopes suitable for all abilities, and services are improving fast. A week-long skiing holiday will set you back around £200.
Contact Academy Tours through Wendy Dolejskova, 36 Crossland Crescent, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, WV6 9JY, fax: 01902 839805 (e-mail: academy.tours@lineone.netemai.
The practicals
Go flies Stansted to Prague from £68 return, Czech Airlines (020-7255 1898) from £164 return. Car hire is cheap if you go to a local operator rather than the international chains, although there's hardly a place that can't be reached via bus or train (information in English: bus details, train details). Czech Tourist Authority, 5 Great Portland Street, London W1N 5RA, 020-7291 9920, e-mail: gillespie@london.czech.cz
