Czech Republic

Prague earns every superlative thrown at it. The castle floating above the river, the Charles Bridge crowded with statues and buskers, the Old Town square where a medieval clock still draws a crowd on the hour. The trick is knowing when and where: dawn walks across the bridge before the city wakes, dinners in Malá Strana cellars, concerts in baroque chapels rather than tourist halls. Then leave the capital, because the Czech countryside is the underrated act. Český Krumlov coils inside a river bend under its own castle like a film set. Moravian wine country rolls south in soft green waves. Bohemian spa towns still do the full colonnade-and-cure ritual. And everywhere, the beer is a national art form, poured with ceremony and costing next to nothing.