Karlovy Vary and the West Bohemian spa triangle
Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně are all walkable, and the castles of Loket, Bečov nad Teplou and Kynžvart ring them. The whole of western Bohemia works from a single base: the motorhome stays parked at the campsite while you set out light for the colonnades, the chateau interiors and the bubbling mofettes at Soos. Five days is enough even with an unhurried drive there and back, and because everything sits close together, there is still time for a spa wafer and a cup drawn from the spring.
From Prague the D6 motorway runs practically to the edge of town, so the whole afternoon is yours. Head for the Mill Colonnade — a neo-Renaissance building by Josef Zítek with 124 Corinthian columns and statues of the twelve months on the roof, with five springs rising beneath it. Buy yourself a spa cup, taste from the individual spouts and leave the evening for a quiet stroll along the Teplá river.
Loket Castle sits on a rocky spur in a meander of the Ohře and is open all year round; inside you will find a Romanesque rotunda, an exhibition on medieval judicial torture in the former prison cells and the famous Loket meteorite. In the afternoon carry on to Bečov nad Teplou, where a Gothic castle and a Baroque chateau share one complex and where the Romanesque reliquary of St Maurus has been on display since 2002. Bečov is run by the National Heritage Institute, closes on Mondays and runs its full range of tours from May to September; outside the main season it opens at weekends only, so check the date and the opening hours in advance.
The Main Colonnade in Mariánské Lázně, which older maps still list as the Maxim Gorky Colonnade, is a cast-iron structure from the Blansko ironworks built in 1888–1889. The Singing Fountain plays in front of it every odd hour from the end of April to the end of October, and the evening performances add coloured lighting. In the afternoon drive up to Kynžvart Chateau, the summer seat of Chancellor Metternich with its extensive library and cabinet of curiosities; it has carried the European Heritage Label since 2019. Here too the gates stay shut on Mondays and the tour schedule thins out outside the main summer season, so check the opening hours in advance.
Františkovy Lázně was founded in 1793 by Emperor Francis II and still consists of yellow-and-white neoclassical houses lined up along regular avenues; the little statue of the boy František is hard to miss. Together with Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně it has belonged since 2021 to the Great Spa Towns of Europe inscribed on the UNESCO list. Keep the afternoon for the Soos national nature reserve near Nový Drahov — a boardwalk leads you across a peat bog with mofettes, bubbling vents of carbon dioxide.
The last day belongs to the drive back along the D6. If you set off early, you can still make a short detour to Cheb, where the square holds a tight cluster of medieval merchant houses known as Špalíček. You will then be back in Prague comfortably during the afternoon.
Up to 3.5 t, which covers most of the motorhomes we sell, you need a Czech electronic motorway vignette linked to the registration plate — in 2026 the ten-day one comes to roughly CZK 300, the monthly one to CZK 480 and the annual one to CZK 2,570; you buy it at edalnice.gov.cz, through the app or at petrol stations. Over 3.5 t no vignette is sold at all: a vehicle of that weight falls under the electronic toll system (mytocz.eu), has to be registered and fitted with an on-board unit, and the rate is calculated from the emission class, the number of axles and the type of road. There is no toll mountain road and no toll tunnel on the route.
Kemp Carlsbad, Staromlýnská 154/35, Březová u Karlových Varů — open all year round, motorhomes and caravans welcome, electric hook-ups and water available · Camp Vary, Olšová Vrata, Karlovy Vary — season roughly from late March to late October, caravan pitches on the edge of the spa woods above the town · Kemp Relax, Beranovka 4, Teplá — open from April to October, caravans welcome according to the operator; a good base between Mariánské Lázně and Bečov · Camping Amerika, Jezerní 151/8a, Františkovy Lázně — from April to the end of October, right by Amerika lake with an area for caravans and electric hook-ups · Autokemp Baldi Jesenice, Okrouhlá–Jesenice u Chebu — from May to September, room for around fifty caravans by the Jesenice reservoir
The spa centres of Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně are pedestrian and traffic-restricted zones that you cannot drive into in a motorhome — leave the vehicle at the campsite or at a park-and-ride on the edge of town and walk or take public transport to the colonnades. The same applies to the tight historic core of Loket below the castle, where a longer vehicle simply will not fit. Kynžvart Chateau has a paid car park not far from the grounds, and at the other stops expect the usual paid areas; in high season it pays to arrive in the morning before they fill up.
The most dependable service point on the route is Autokemp Baldi Jesenice near Cheb — the operator lists electric hook-ups, a water supply and a place to empty waste tanks. Outside the main season the year-round Kemp Carlsbad in Březová will do the job, with hook-ups and water available in spring and autumn as well. In Františkovy Lázně and Teplá it is better to confirm the dump station by phone at reception in advance; the campsites usually have one, but they do not list it in their price lists.
Adria Twin
The Adria Twin has the footprint of an ordinary van, so you can park it on the park-and-ride areas of the spa towns as well as at the visitor car parks at Kynžvart and Loket, where a longer vehicle runs out of marked bays. On a trip where you come back to the same campsite every day and drive out to the sights light, a short overall length is worth more than the extra metres inside.
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