A Visit to the Beautiful Village of Tabor, Czech Republic

If you’re travelling to Prague, try to go outside the city and visit the beautiful village of Tabor.

After spending close to three days in Prague (check out our Prague itinerary!), we changed locations. Our plan was to visit the incredible medieval town of Cesky Krumlov but we thought it would be a shame to travel through the Czech Republic for three hours and not stop to explore anything along the way. There were so many options, including spending a day in České Budějovice, but ultimately, we decided we’d explore the small village of Tabor.

Departing Prague for the Village of Tabor

Tabor is an incredible little town approximately 1.5 hours from Prague. We booked our transportation from Prague to Cesky Krumlov with Martin at Prague Taxi and Transfers  and arranged with Martin in advance to  visit the village of Tabor along the way.

As planned, our driver arrived in front of our Prague apartment at 7:30 sharp. It was an early start but we had a long day planned. We all settled in to a very clean minivan for the drive to Tabor. Our plan was to arrive in Tabor around 8:45 and stay until 10:30 so we could arrive in Cesky Krumlov with plenty of time to explore.

Arriving in the Village of Tabor

Tabor is a small town but unique in history. Most towns during this time were founded by kings or nobility. Tabor, instead, was founded by the Hussites in 1420. Hussites were followers of Jan Hus. Jan Hus was a catholic priest who spoke out against the pope of the time and the idea of paying for forgiveness of sins. He called for reformation of the Catholic church and was actually the beginning of the protestant movement. He was excommunicated and burned at the stake.

Czech’s were so horrified by the treatment of Jan Hus that they turned further away from the catholic church and started a crusade against the leaders of the catholic faith. These crusaders were called Hussites, after Jan Hus and the crusades were called the Hussite wars.

Being peasants themselves, the Hussite crusaders fought, and won, many wars using only peasant tools which were made into deadly weapons. The Hussite wars lasted over 20 years. (Check out our top 15 sights in Prague for more information on Jan Hus and where to find a few of the incredible memorials in his honour.)

During our two hours in Tabor we planned to visit the Hussite museum, do an underground tour through the cellars around the main square, explore the square and, if time, climb the church tower. Clearly, I completely underestimated the amount of time we should have allowed this beautiful little town.

Exploring Tabor

We arrived in the village of Tabor just before 9:00. We were able to park in the center of Tabor’s beautiful town square.

We went directly to the tourist center as that is where the Hussite museum is located. It’s really easy to find.

Tabor Visitor Centre and Hussite Museum

We had hoped to do the 9:00 underground tour to start but it was already full. The lady at the desk recommended that we book immediately for the 10:00 tour which we did.

Unfortunately, her English wasn’t very good and my Czech was non-existent. I purchased the tickets right away and because they were the same price as the family ticket I had read about that included both the museum and the underground tour, I assumed we could start with the museum.

That unfortunately wasn’t the case. We hadn’t purchased the combo family ticket after all. Instead, while the same price, we had purchased individual tour tickets for the five of us. We were told that we’d have to pay the same price again to visit the museum. Not wanting to pay double, we opted to skip the museum.

In retrospect I really regret that as I had read that it’s a great museum and Caiden had done research on the Hussites before we left home. I wish he could have seen it.

To make the best of things, we decided to wander while waiting for our underground tour. Our first stop was in search of coffee. We left Zizka Square and walked down Prazska U to see the beautiful Renaissance facades on the buildings. There wasn’t a soul around and walking down that beautiful street was worth the visit to Tabor.

Beautiful sgraffito. The work is actually carved into the walls to show the white below.

So incredible the work that went into the outside of these beautiful buildings!

While wandering, we found a little coffee kiosk just setting up in one of the most beautiful buildings on the street. The young man operated from a window on the side of a building. He was incredibly nice and between us all, we managed to order delicious cappuccinos. He told us he enjoys practicing his English.

We wandered between the streets to the Luznice river to see the remaining walls from the 15^th century.

Such beautiful side streets

We had a gentle walk back towards the town square. The streets leading to the square were intentionally created in a zig zag format to prevent attacking armies from advancing during the Hussite wars. In the square is a large statue of Jan Hus himself.

We looked for the entrance to the church tower and explored around the church located on the corner of the square.

The entrance to the tower was actually behind the church. Once you walk around it’s easy to find. The kids really wanted to climb but we were really close to our tour time so we meandered back to the tourist center instead.

Beautiful roof of one of the buildings in the Tabor town square

We knew the tour would only be in Czech but there was an English pamphlet so we each took turns reading it before the tour so that we knew what we were seeing. I’m so glad we did as it was dark and it would have been difficult to see if trying to read it during the tour.

Note: The tour doesn’t allow photos without a special ticket. You can purchase a photography ticket at the main desk for, if I recall correctly, less than a dollar and they’ll give you a sticky tag to place on your shirt to indicate to the guide that you’re permitted to take photos.

The underground tour travels approximately 1km under the town square.

The townspeople dug cellars under their houses and these cellars were subsequently interconnected. The tour was interesting, to a certain extent. It was very cool to see how food was stored and people hid in the cellars during the wars.

While there seems to be a lot of mannequins, there were also many tunnels and caves leading up to each of these so it was pretty cool.

That said, the kids found it a bit boring as they couldn’t understand what was being said. Sydney found the most fun laughing at Lucas who, at over six feet tall, kept hitting his head. Sisterly love! (They had hard hats available and while I wore one, no one else did.)

If you like the idea of underground tours and have more time to explore Czechia, we definitely recommend you check out the amazing activities in Znojmo City where there are many different types of tours throughout its underground tunnels, including adrenaline tours.

We finished our tour around 10:45 and headed directly back to our minivan to continue our voyage from the village of Tabor to Cesky Krumlov.

While our morning didn’t go exactly as planned, I’m glad we chose to visit. It would have been nice to have had more time but it was a nice taste of another part of the Czech Republic.

Our next stop was one day in Cesky Krumlov. 

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