We wandered into Ceske B without any real idea about where to stay. The lonely planet was extremely skint on ideas and we actually met an Aussie couple who had given up finding anything cheap and were back at the bus station leaving! Never one to fret, Shane & I hit the streets and very soon found a hotel that was full, but the delightful owner directed us to her friend at the Hotel Zatkuv Dum. It's located to the North of the main square about a 5 minute walk, and right next to the canal that wraps around the north of the city - on Krajinska street and the corner of Hradebni street. This makes it a great location as it's also only a 10minute walk back to the train and bus station. We actually had a full 2 bedroom apartment. This included a comfortable loungeroom with TV and internet. Two full separate bedrooms with 2 beds each, and a very nice bathroom. The hotel was also above a terrific restaurant that was churning out great pizzas and other meals. We paid 900Kr for the HOtel (17Euro each) for this luxury! The advertised price is higher but we got a discount cos the lady at the other hotel had phoned ahead... Highly recommend it!

We were looking for a slightly classy evening in Ceske Budejovice and were pleasantly surprised to find this very nice, quite large bar. We had walked around for a while and found mostly smokey pubs filled with young and/or arty type locals. But this place was a bit more upmarket with interesting, friendly, and of course good looking guests. It's hidden away a little bit, located one block directly west of the main square. The service was great and they had a very wide and interesting menu of drinks and I think some people were also eating. The prices were also quite good - we paid 0.90Euro for a pint of local beer. And of course the Czech beer is the best in the world!

Ok, so here is a review on the ORIGINAL Budweiser Brewery. Actually in Czech the beer is called: Budějovický Budvar. For those that dont know, the American's actually stole the name of this superb Czech beer and put the label on what can only be described as fermented cats urine. 'Budweiser' is just the German translation of the town name 'Budějovice' and Budvar just means 'Brewery'. The Brewery is a small hop north of the main town of Ceske Budějovice. You can get Bus No.2 from the road across from the main Bus station and it's about 8 stops away taking about 10minutes. The Brewery does tours in Czech for 50Kr or in German or English for 100Kr. Tours have to be organised, however individuals can simply turn up for a visit Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm. The Brewery is also open on Saturday. The tour was typically Czech: fun, friendly, very informal, and the guide was very knowledgeable. We walked right through the grounds, drank straight from the tanks, and walked through the bottling process. I was surprised at how 'hands on' we were allowed to be and it was great to see the process. I highly recommend it.