About the atlas

Who makes the atlas

eSOUBYTOVÁNÍ is an independent guide to places to stay in Czechia. It helps you choose a place – a region, a town, a landscape and a kind of accommodation – before you start looking for a particular bed. The content is prepared by, and is the responsibility of, eSOUBYTOVÁNÍ. Articles carry no personal bylines, because there are no invented authors behind them.

• We write guides to regions, towns and types of accommodation, each with its sources and the date it was checked.
• We draw maps from open data and verified coordinates.
• We build planning helpers: Stay Finder, the Stay DNA profile, the 48-hour weekend plans and the map with layers.

What we stay away from: we sell no rooms, handle no bookings, and carry no affiliate links or advertising. We do not review individual hosts, and we do not invent experiences, quotes or ratings. We only recommend a specific restaurant or place to stay once we have checked it systematically – which so far is none.

Contact: atlas@esoubytovani.cz. More on the Contact page. The domain used to belong to a different project – see domain history.

The English pages are written from the Czech originals and contain the same facts, scores, coordinates and sources. Place names keep their Czech spelling with diacritics, because that is what you will see on signs and maps. Where a Czech term is what you will meet on the ground, we give it in brackets the first time, for example “tourist tax (poplatek z pobytu)”.

Where the facts come from

Wherever possible we check facts against primary or official sources: government ministries (health, environment, culture, regional development), national park administrations, the National Heritage Institute, spa and heritage-site operators, the railway infrastructure manager (Správa železnic) and carriers, and legislation in the Collection of Laws. General facts about places (coordinates, areas, dates) we take from Wikipedia and, where it matters, compare with another source.

Sources sit under every page in a collapsible list, with the date we last checked them. Many are only available in Czech, and are marked so. We do not give opening hours, prices or timetables, because they change – we link to the operators and to IDOS, the Czech journey planner.

Our texts about spas are not medical advice; a doctor decides whether treatments are suitable. Rules (national parks, tourist tax, travelling with dogs) are summaries – what is binding is the wording of the regulations and the operators’ terms. We carry no commercial content today; if any is added, it will be clearly labelled and kept apart from the editorial pages.

How we rate places: Stay DNA

The scores on eSOUBYTOVÁNÍ are not measurements. They are editorial estimates meant to help you compare places quickly. Every destination has a profile on nine axes, on a scale of 0–10, based on publicly available information (national parks and protected landscape areas, the list of spa towns, cycle networks, transport links) and on comparison with the other destinations in the atlas. The score is relative: 10 means “among the best in Czechia”, not “perfect”.

Axis	What we rate
Nature	How much protected or undeveloped landscape is within reach on foot or by bike from typical accommodation.
Cycling	Density of waymarked routes, climbing, surface quality, the option to hire or carry a bike.
Wellness	Officially designated spa towns, wellness facilities open to the public, treatments using a natural resource.
Family	Short journeys, safe water for swimming, activities for different ages, a plan B under a roof.
Food	Local specialities and protected names, wineries and breweries, variety of food.
Nightlife	Evening life: bars, culture, places open after 22:00.
Peace	Noise and bustle in season, visitor density, the chance of solitude.
Dogs	Space to roam without cars, protected-area rules (leads, bans), getting there by public transport with a dog.
Car-free	Direct train or bus connections from large cities and getting around on the spot without a car.

What the scores do not mean: they are not visitor ratings, nobody pays for them and they say nothing about individual places to stay. When we get better evidence we adjust a score and note it in the list of corrections.

The “Know before you go” panel

The verbal ratings (excellent / very good / good / fair / poor / limited) are based on the same evidence as Stay DNA. Information about transport and rules (for example a direct train, or the rules for dogs in national parks) is factual and has a source on the page. The season chart is an editorial estimate on four levels (off season / fair / good / best) based on weather, when attractions are open and how busy places are. Each level is shown by the height of the bar as well as by colour, and in words for screen readers.

Stay Finder

1. Each priority you choose adds points to a destination according to the matching Stay DNA axis (e.g. “Cycling” → the Cycling axis). “History” and “Water” add a fixed bonus to destinations we have marked as historic or water-based.
2. “Who is going” adds a weighted score (family → Family axis × 1.5; dog → Dogs axis × 1.5; as a couple → a bonus for peace and romance).
3. Atmosphere: a match adds 10, a mismatch subtracts 6.
4. Distance is calculated as the crow flies (haversine) from the chosen city to the destination’s reference point. Bands: up to 1 h ≈ up to 70 km, 1–2 h ≈ up to 140 km, 2–3 h ≈ up to 210 km (with a 15 km tolerance). It is a rough estimate – the real journey is longer.
5. You are shown the five destinations with the highest total, and the styles of accommodation that occur most often among them.

Maps and data

• National borders: Natural Earth 1:10m Admin 0 Countries (public domain), v4.1.0 via world-atlas@2.0.2. Natural Earth is in the public domain. We simplify the data when building the site with the Douglas–Peucker algorithm and project it with a simple equirectangular projection centred on 49.8° N.
• Tourist regions are not administrative units and have no official borders. On the map we therefore draw them as a dashed area around a reference point. Reference points:
  • South Bohemia: 49.0800, 14.6200 – reference point between České Budějovice and Třeboň
  • Šumava: 49.0606, 13.4825 – Šumava National Park (Wikipedia)
  • Krkonoše: 50.7000, 15.6600 – between Špindlerův Mlýn and Pec pod Sněžkou
  • Bohemian Paradise: 50.5300, 15.2000 – between Turnov and Trosky
  • Bohemian Switzerland: 50.8835, 14.3893 – České Švýcarsko National Park (Wikipedia)
  • Prague: 50.0875, 14.4214 – Prague (Wikipedia)
  • Vysočina: 49.4500, 15.7500 – reference point between Telč and Žďár nad Sázavou
  • South Moravia: 48.8500, 16.6500 – reference point near Mikulov
  • Beskydy: 49.4900, 18.2700 – Pustevny (Wikipedia)
  • Jeseníky: 50.1300, 17.2000 – between Praděd and Jeseník
  • Karlovy Vary region: 50.1500, 12.7500 – between Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně
• Points in the layers have coordinates from Wikipedia (the article for each place, as of 12 October 2026). The lists for each layer:
  • Spa towns – Czech Ministry of Health – List of spa towns in Czechia (in Czech). A selection of places with official spa-town status (statut lázeňského místa) where medical spa rehabilitation care is provided.
  • Castles and châteaux – Editorial selection; management and access per the National Heritage Institute / Wikipedia (in Czech). An editorial selection of castles and châteaux open to the public, not a complete list.
  • Lakes, fishponds and reservoirs – Wikipedia (area and altitude data, in Czech). A selection of bodies of water that make sense as a base for a stay.
  • National parks – Czech Ministry of the Environment – National parks (in Czech). All four Czech national parks. The point marks an approximate centre or landmark.
  • Long-distance cycle routes – Třeboňsko.cz – Long-distance cycle routes (in Czech). Towns on the Prague–Vienna Greenways and the Rožmberk Heritage loop (schematic, not the exact route).
  • Skiing – Editorial selection; locations per Wikipedia (in Czech). Well-known mountain resorts with ski areas, not a complete list.
  • Wine – Wikipedia – Moravia wine region (in Czech). Wine towns of South Moravia.
  • UNESCO World Heritage – UNESCO World Heritage List; Czech Ministry of Culture. All 17 World Heritage sites in Czechia (as of October 2026). Serial sites are shown as a single point.
  • For families – Editorial Stay DNA (About the atlas). Destinations with an editorial Family score of 8/10 or more.
  • With a dog – Editorial Stay DNA (About the atlas). Destinations with an editorial Dogs score of 8/10 or more.
  • Wellness – Editorial Stay DNA (About the atlas). Destinations with an editorial Wellness score of 8/10 or more.
• Routes (the Prague–Vienna Greenways, the Rožmberk Heritage Greenway) are schematic lines joining the towns in the order given by Třeboňsko.cz, not the exact route.
• Local maps (the Třeboň area) draw fishponds as circles whose area matches the water surface according to Wikipedia. They do not show the real shape of the shoreline.

Distances and times

For every distance we state whether it is a road distance (from a route planner, with the source under the article) or a straight-line distance (calculated from coordinates). Journey times are approximate. We do not give timetables – check them in IDOS.

Illustrations

All the “postcards” on the website are original drawings made in code (SVG). They do not faithfully depict a particular place, only the mood of a landscape. We will add photographs once we have our own or licensed ones.

When we get it wrong

Please send a mistake, an out-of-date fact or a broken link to atlas@esoubytovani.cz – the page address and what looks wrong is enough.

• We fix factual mistakes as soon as we can and update the page’s date checked.
• A significant correction (one that changes the meaning of a text) goes into the “Updated – what changed” box on that page and into the list below.
• Typos and wording are fixed without a record.

List of significant corrections

None so far.

What comes next

The atlas is built so that one day it can also carry verified host profiles with direct contact details (see the sample profile). If that happens, such profiles, paid promotion or sponsored articles will always be clearly labelled and kept apart from the editorial content. Editorial scores will not be for sale.