2 1/2 hours from Prague, 3 hours from Vienna, and 4 hours from Munich lies what is basically the most gorgeous city I've ever been in, and this is a review for where you should (without a doubt) stay when you come here. And you should come here. You've probably never heard of Český Krumlov. Lord knows I hadn't and lord knows I'm too lazy to give you the full historic rundown on this now UNESCO-protected city, so you'll just have to do the research on your own damn time, but just take my word for it. You need to get here. We were only planning on spending two days here, but after seeing the town for just two hours at night, we decided to scrap our Amsterdam plans and spend the extra time here... which ended up being really affordable given we were visiting in the off-season in mid-late November and that our absolutely beautiful inn not only felt more home-like than my actual home, but was also a steal at only $70 a night. Now, I'm sure it costs a pretty penny more in the warmer months, but this place could easily charge 4 times that amount and still rank as 5 stars in my book. All hardwood floors, recovered barn-wood beams, modern and minimalist design, Egon Schiele artwork, towel warmers, and best of all- HEATED BATHROOM FLOORS. You better believe I turned that sh*t up to a hot-coal level burn... and it burned sooo good. They only have 5 rooms, and we ended up occupying 3 of them during our stay... each one was our favorite in their own way. Most rooms had multiple step levels, a desk, couch, tv (with many a pornographic channel... apparently comes standard in the Czech Republic basic cable package because that was the case everywhere). Some rooms had those really nice rainfall showers, another had a whirlpool bathtub. There's free wifi and the toiletries were the good kind and if you look in your room's armoire you'll find an umbrella, slippers, first aid kit, and a few other niceties to have handy while traveling. The woman who works/owns the Inn was basically a retired supermodel (maybe not for real, but she could have been) and can give you plenty of suggestions for places to eat, sightseeing, entertainment, etc. The location is prime being just a 4-5 minute walk to the town center and just minute from a convenience store that I believe was open 24-hours and sold some pretty fantastic and affordable wine and chocolate and chips... all the basics you'll want for a spending a night in with your travel mates, laughing, joking, drinking, and watch the funniest full-nude phone sex ads you've ever seen until the sun comes up. If you want, they can make you breakfast as well, but we always opted to go out and get our grub since the entire city is beautiful and so walkable. The area is really safe and though it appeared to be mostly a quiet getaway or quiet sight-seeing town, we never ran out of exciting things to do. Penzion Athanor (or Athanor Apartmany, as it was called on some brochures) is THE place for you if you enjoy leisure, beauty, fun, and free soft core, and also happen to be traveling throughout the region. **They also operate two other Inns in the area that I'm sure are just as nice. Do a little research and it'll pay off ten-fold. read more

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