Brno · Backpacking

Dorm beds from 400 Kc a person in a 1659 building on Panska, inside the ring and two minutes from namesti Svobody, with a cafe downstairs and a common room open around the clock. Reception runs 08:00-22:00, so message ahead if your train is late.

Zones 100 and 101 take in every tram, bus and trolleybus in Brno plus the reservoir boats. A 60-minute ticket is 25 Kc and a 24-hour ticket 99 Kc, so it pays for itself in four rides.

Brno hlavni nadrazi sits at the bottom of the old town on the main line from Prague and the direct route south to Vienna and Bratislava. Book online in advance rather than at the window.

Paid sights here run in the low hundreds of crowns rather than Prague's three-figure standard: the Technical Museum is 180 Kc (430 Kc for a family) and the zoo 190 Kc. Spilberk sells its casemates tour separately from its exhibitions, so you can do just the one.

Dorm bed 400 Kc, 24-hour transit ticket 99 Kc, a hot main at Lokal 125-195 Kc, one museum 180 Kc. That is roughly 800-900 Kc a day before drinks. Skip the museum, buy lunch at Zelny trh and you are comfortably under 600 Kc.