Chebsko

The far west — a border basin of extinct volcanoes, bubbling mineral springs and Cheb's medieval core, with Franconian half-timbering on the Czech side of the line.

A direct train from Prague reaches Cheb in under three hours, and the town makes the natural base for days that are short, flat and strung around geological oddities: the Soos reserve, where mofettes bubble carbon dioxide through mineral crusts, and Komorní hůrka, one of the youngest volcanoes in central Europe — Goethe himself dug into it. Mineral springs surface everywhere between the spa towns. Cheb itself repays an afternoon of its own — the medieval marketplace with the Špalíček merchant houses and the imperial falc are unlike anything else in Bohemia.

The walking is gentle basin-and-woods country between Cheb, Františkovy Lázně and the border villages like Hazlov and Aš in the Aš salient, where the architecture turns Franconian half-timbered. Rail radiates from Cheb’s junction, and the flat distances suit early and late season well.