European and, increasingly, American (North and South) and Asian tourists are discovering this country with history pre-dating the birth of European civilization and replete with well-preserved Medieval towns, splendid palaces, and impressive castles .

By now, everyone has heard about the wonders of Prague, its marvelous capital city. Testifying to this buzz are the huge groups of tourists on the the Charles Bridge, Prague's most famous tourists attraction, and thousands of tourists strolling every day through the thousand-year old Prague Castle, or Hradcany, throught the fairy-tale streets of Mala Strana (The Lesser Quarter, The Little Quarter, The Small Quarter) and the Stare Mesto (The Old Town) or admiring and photographing  the amazingly well preserved Baroque facades of many of its neighborhoods.

Prague, international gateway to the Czech Republic, is just one highlight of a proper tour of this exciting little country. A tourism map lists more than 500 independent sites throughout the Czech Republic, including places on the UNESCO World Heritage list, protected historical towns, open-air museums of folk architecture, castles and palaces, monasteries and pilgrimage sites and historic ruins.

Not only Prague and the spa towns are worth a visit. Beautiful countryside around Prague, mountains in the north, plentiful nature in Moravia are interesting parts of the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic, home of over 10 million people, made up by the lands of Bohemia and Moravia, is a major European tourist center. Its capital, Prague, is one of the most beautiful European cities. Czech Republic spas, particularly Karlovy Vary (Carslbad) and Marianske Lazne (Marienbad), are among world most famous.

Czech is the main language spoken, English and German are other languages widely spoken. The Czech lands have traditionally been a strong contributor to European arts and sciences, and Prague has been an important cultural center for over thousand years.

The Czech Republic comprises the former provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia, together often called the Czech Lands. It borders Slovakia in the east, Austria in the south, Germany in the west, and Poland in the north. Prague is the capital and largest city. In addition to the capital, major cities include Brno, Ostrava, Plzen (Pilsen), Ceske Budejovice (Budweis), Hradec Kralove, Olomouc, Liberec.

81% of the people are Czechs and 13.2 percent Moravians, with small minorities of Slovaks, Germans, Poles, Gypsies, and Hungarians.

From October 28, 1918 to Dec. 31, 1992, the Czech Republic was part of Czechoslovakia, a federal state in which Slovakia was the other half.

The Czech Republic consists of several distinct physical regions. In the Western part of the country are the Bohemian Highlands, bordered on the northeast by the Sudeten Mountains, by the Ore Mountains (Krusne hory) on the northwest, and on the west by the Bohemian Forest (Cesky les) and Sumava Mountains. The Moravian Lowlands occupy the eastern section of the republic.

The highest elevation is Mount Snezka peak (1,602 m/5,256 ft) in the Krkonose Mountains (part of the Sudeten range). The principal rivers are the Labe (Elbe), Morava, Vltava (Moldau), Dyje, Opava, Luznice, Jihlava, Sazava, Svratka, Odra and the Becva.

The mean average temperature ranges from 8 degrees to 10 degrees C (46 degrees to 50 degrees F). Winters are generally not too cold, usually with only a few days of subfreezing weather. Summers are moderately warm, maximum temperatures reach about 27 degrees C (80 degrees F).

Sizable forests consist mostly of evergreen trees such as spruce and fir, mixed in lower-lying areas with deciduous trees such as oak, beech, birch, and linden. Rabbits, deers, foxes, squirrels, weasels, and muskrat are found in forested areas. Bears, and lynx live mostly in animal preserves. Partridge, doves, pheasant, wild geese, blackbirds, swallows, and storks are abundant. The most common fish are carp, trout, pike, and perch.

Czech musicians, composers, architects, artists, and writers have made enduring contributions to their fields.

Most visitors to the country head for the capital, Prague (http://www.BoutiqueBB.com/CzechRepublic/Prague/), with its extraordinarily rich heritage of historic buildings and virtually intact medieval city center. But it would be a mistake to assume that Prague (http://www.BoutiqueBB.com/CzechRepublic/Prague/) is the only interesting place in the whole country. Czech Republic, with its rich architectural and cultural heritage, has a lot more to offer.

Besides the romantic countryside, tourists visit friendly mountains, with thousands of extraordinary photo opportunities, world-famous spas, offering regeneration, relaxation and cures to various illnesses as a bonus to "the nineteenth century elegant, opulent lifestyle, modernized by the twentieth century liberalism", thousands of castles, palaces, churches, monasteries, historic cities, unique food with surprising tastes, "best beers in the world", to the excellent, modestly priced wines, known only to a few.

One of the features of wine-growing areas is that sampling the product becomes a bit of a ritual; here it's made more interesting by the distinctive small household wine cellars, or vinne sklipky. Some are partially underground, some are more like huts, some constitute virtually a "wine village".

The Czech Republic has also a rich cultural heritage. Prague was a major European musical center in the 18th century, represented by classical composers such as Josef Myslivecek (1737-81), Jan Ladislav Dusek (1760-1812), friend of Mozart. 19th century Czech music was created by Bedrich Smetana, who, using folk sources and his own inspiration, almost single-handedly created a modern Czech musical style and Antonin Dvorak, whose work combined cosmopolitanism with nationalism, emerged as one of the most renowned composers of his day. Leos Janacek, whose creative period came after 1900, had a unique style based on the speech patterns of his native district of Moravia. Also in the romantic nationalist tradition were Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) and, somewhat later, Josef Suk and Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949).

During the 1920s and 1930s many Czech composers, notably the atonalist Alois Haba (1893-1973), were attracted to avant-garde music. A more conservative figure from this period was the French-influenced cosmopolitan Bohuslav Martinu.

Writers like John Huss (Jan Hus), Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), Jan Neruda, Franz Kafka, Karel Capek, Jaroslav Hasek, Milan Kundera, Josef Skvorecky. Nobel Prize winner Jaroslav Seifert, Vaclav Havel, filmmakers like Gustav Machaty, Otakar Vavra, Voskovec & Werich, Borivoj Zeman, Karel Zeman, Jiri Weiss, Jiri Trnka, Karel Stekly, Jiri Krejcik, Vaclav Krska, Laterna Magica and Polyekran by the brothers Alfred and Emil Radok, Frantisek Vlácil, Jiri Krejcik, Milos Forman, Karel Kachyna, Jan Kadar, Elmar Klos, Zbynek Brynych, Ladislav Helge, Ester Krumbachova, Jan Curik, Jaroslav Kucera, Evald Sorm, Jan Nemec, Vera Chytilova, Jiri Menzel, Jaromil Jires, Vojtech Jasny, Ivan Passer, Miloslav Ondricek, Jan Sverak and others.

From Machaty's Ecstasy in the 30s to Menzel's Closely Watched Trains in the 60s and Jan Sverak's Kolya in the 90s, the Czech cinema has won international awards and reached world audiences.

Although it doesn't have many Nobel prize winners, Czech science has many inventions to its credit. Examples include the infamous Semtex explosive and radar Tamara, which can see what other radars cannot see. Another achievement is the discovery and development of polarography, for which Jaroslav Heyrovsky was awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959. And few people realize that it was the Czech scientist Otto Wichterle who invented contact lenses. Jan Evangelista Purkyne, Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, and other world famous scientists worked or were born in what is now the Czech Republic.

Czech architecture, particularly spectacular Baroque and the Art Nouveau is world famous, but only the informed few know that Czech architecture flourished since the Pre-Romanesque. The Church of Virgin Mary, 882-884, was the oldest stone building in Prague.

The Prague Castle (Prazsky Hrad) is the largest ancient castle in the world. Founded in the 9th century, the complex of buildings now occupies 18 acres.

The Cubist movement, which revolutionized the art world in the early twentieth century, was largely restricted to painting and sculpture in Western Europe. However, in Bohemia, Cubism achieved remarkable heights not only in painting and sculpture, but also in architecture and the applied arts. Czech Cubism is unquestionably the most complete realization of the cubist movement in the arts. Various examples of this unique architectural style could be seen in Prague .

The functionalist, which replaced in Bohemia the cubist architecture, was so modern, that buildings erected more than seventy years ago compare favorably with best examples of present architecture. Penzijni ustav (General Pensions Institute), 1929-1933, one of the first air-conditioned buildings in Europe, is a classic example of Bohemian Functionalist architecture.

Typical Czech invention - Laterna Magika (Magic Lantern) a skilled combination of projections, movable screens and stage props, uniting film and theater, mime and dance into one extraordinary stage experience, is admired around the world.

What foreigner tourists  say about the Czech Republic

My husband loves it.

Anything Goes.

A Sea of White.

Best beers in the world.

Excellent hiking and cycling paths.

Affordable spas.

Interesting folklore, excellent food and beers, good wines.

Magnificent castles and interesting old towns.

The Hotel Marriott was excellent, very nice and clean. We ate dinner there two nights because the food was so good. It cost about 1430 kc ($50) for both dinners with a bottle of wine, coffee and desert.

It's a good time to be there.

What international media is saying about the Czech Republic:

One of the world's premier tourist destinations. Unspoilt medieval city centers of Prague, Telc, Cesky Krumlov and Kutna Hora are on the UNESCO World Heritage list, as is the Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk in Zdar nad Sazavou.

You can get anything in the Czech Republic - from a Mac to a lady of the night.

There are many lager beers available, including the original (real thing) Pilsen (Pilsener) beer and Budweis(er).

Charming country with many castles and small towns as well.

One of the most popular travel destinations in Europe.

The country possesses an immense number of fascinating castles, churches and other architectural gems. It has always been known for its musicians, and there are an enormous number of all types of concerts and festivals to choose from. Best of all, the Czechs are an extremely hospitable people, eager to make one's visit as enjoyable as possible.

Top tourist destination.

Centuries old cities and castles.

Hilly, picturesque country.

Rich in ancient towns, castles and churches as well as beautiful scenery.

Gorgeous Renaissance and Baroque houses and palaces.

Outstanding castles.

Wooded, rolling hills.

Thousands of miles of hiking and cycling paths.

World famous spas.

Interesting folklore, excellent food and beers , good wines.

Magnificent castles and interesting old towns.

The jewels of ancient architecture in the Bohemian cities remain in their original, pristine condition. The most important of these is the golden city of Prague, one of the most beautiful cities of Europe.

Bohemia is a tourist paradise in it's own right and offers lovely towns, gorgeous castles and picturesque wooded hills and mountains.

The town Kutna Hora is a treasure of old houses and a cathedral, but the real reason for the visit is to see the unusual "Bone Church". In it many of the decorative features are made of human bones, including a massive chandelier.

This is a country where, in the twentieth century, it was possible to be born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, enter grammar school in Czechoslovakia, go to high school in Germany, work in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, then retire in Czechoslovakia and die in the Czech Republic-all without ever leaving.

One of the most prosperous and democratically free countries in Europe during the period between the world wars.