One day in Brno: 24 hours in the Czech Republic’s superb second city

If you’re contemplating spending one day in Brno, good move. The Moravian capital, and second city of the Czech Republic is one of the relatively undiscovered gems of Europe.

We’ve had two extended stays in Brno in the last five years, and love the place.

Many visitors follow the Prague Vienna Budapest trail through Central Europe. But I think there’s a very strong case for trying to fit at least a day trip to Brno into your schedule.

It’s a superb city, with a wealth of fascinating sights. And if anything its relative lack of crowds make it a more enjoyable place to visit than its more widely-known neighbours.

I’ve devised this easy-to-follow itinerary covering the best things to see in Brno in one day. I also advise you on more things to do in Brno if you have additional time, and places to visit from Brno if you decide to stay there for a few days or more.

Brno is an outstanding city to visit, with a gorgeous Old Town and Cathedral and some amazing modernist architecture.

Brno draws visitors from around the world to visit Villa Tugendhat, a World Heritage-listed house built around 1930. At the time it was the most expensive private home built in the world.

It has some similarities with Prague – especially some of its architecture – but none of the crowds that spoil the Czech capital nowadays.

Brno has a huge student population, which means plenty of great cafes, bars and restaurants to choose from.

And if you’re visiting Brno with kids there are two great places to visit – the Vida Science Centre and Brno Zoo.

Brno also makes a great base for exploring the region of Moravia, with several of the best places to visit in the Czech Republic close by.

The biggest planning tip for your Brno visit is to plan well ahead if you plan to visit the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, Villa Tugendhat. Tours of the interior can sell out months in advance, and if you don’t book ahead, you’ll only be able to see the exterior of the house and the garden below.

You can see all of Brno city centre on foot – the only place you’re likely to need to use the Brno trams for is Villa Tugendhat.

The BRNOPAS is a great investment if you plan to see several Brno attractions. Entry to many of these is included, so you’ll make more savings the more places you visit.

Bring some comfortable walking shoes as you may be doing some climbing. There’s an uphill walk to the Cathedral and a couple of towers to ascend for the best views in Brno.

Morning – Old Town, Old Town Hall Tower and Brno Ossuary

Start the day with a walk around the Old Town, exploring the streets around Minoritska. The cafes are just opening, the sun shining on the Baroque steeples and the twin towers of the Cathedral on Petrov Hill.

One option is a guided walking tour of Brno Old Town, taking in the area around Zelny trh and the Cathedral on the hill above. Otherwise, follow my suggested route below.

The Old Town Hall Tower in Brno is a great place to get your bearings.  Before climbing up the stairs, take a minute or two to acquaint yourself with the ‘Brno Dragon’. It is of course a crocodile, stuffed and hanging in the passageway beneath the tower and next to the tourist office.

According to local lore this creature terrorized locals for a while before being killed eating a poisoned carcass full of lime. It also may have been a gift to the city. Nobody really knows.

The tower is one of several great viewpoints in Brno. It looks directly over Zelný trh, the Cabbage or Vegetable Market, one of the finest squares in Brno. If you’re there in the morning you’ll also enjoy the view of the Cathedral and Brno Špilberk Castle, home to the excellent Brno City Museum.

After all this fresh air and fine views, I suggest a complete change of scenery. Take a short walk via Náměstí Svobody – Freedom Square. On the right you’ll see the unusual black bullet (indeed phallus) shaped Brno Clock (Brněnský orloj).

This astronomical clock has an unusual party trick. No revolving Biblical figures here (like the Prague Astronomical Clock). Instead it deposits a glass marble from one of four openings at the base at 11 am daily. If you catch it, you can take it home with you. But expect some competition from the kids!

It’s a 5-minute walk from here to the Brno Ossuary, located next to St James’ Church (Kostel Sv Jakub) on Rašinovo.  This burial ground was only discovered by chance in 2001. It has since been restored, and its three chambers house the bones of around 50,000 people.

The Ossuary is a fascinating place to visit (half an hour is plenty of time). As well as the stacks of bones (nothing as artistic as the more famous Kutna Hora Bone Church) there are some other amazing burial artefacts. I was especially impressed by the 18th-century painted coffins.

Lunch

We stopped by at a couple of great Brno cafes during our recent stay. Café Placzek, on MInoritska, serves breakfasts and light lunches, and is a great place to sit outside on a warm day.

And Cafe Spolek is hidden away off Orli, near the Meninska Gate on the edge of the Old Town. They serve light snacks and have a wonderful garden open at the back during the warmer months.

Afternoon – Villa Tugendhat

If you’re going to visit it, this is probably the best time of day to see Villa Tugendhat. The tram stop for services taking you close to the Villa are around the corner. Trams 3, 5 and 9 take you to Dětská nemocnice (Children’s Hospital) from where it’s a 7-8 minute walk up Černopolní to the Villa.

If you haven’t booked a Villa Tugendhat tour in advance, you can still visit the exhibition in the basement and the Garden for free. I’d recommend doing this even if you haven’t booked a Villa Tugendhat ticket. The view of the house is superb, and the exhibition informative.

Late Afternoon – Brno Cathedral

The exterior of the church is Gothic, and the spires were added in the 19^th century. The interior underwent something of a Baroque era remodelling, and is full of ornamentation from that period (17^th and 18^th centuries).  My son perceptively noticed the similarity with the interior of the famous Tyn Church in Prague, which was also rebuilt around the same period.

I also recommend the view form the towers of the Cathedral. You climb stairs to one, then cross a small bridge to the other. And there’s a viewpoint from each.   

There are plenty of great places to eat in Brno. For traditional Czech food – hearty meat and dumplings – we recommend Pivnice Pegas on Jakubska. They serve all the classic Czech dishes including svíčková, guláš, duck with red cabbage and dumplings and smoked pork knee.

Just around the corner from there, Pivnice Na Solnici is the only place I found in Brno serving Moravian Sparrow. This is a delicious pork and sauerkraut dish, and they also serve soups, steaks and much more.

Afternoon – 1300 to 1500

Villa Tugendhat

Late Afternoon – 1500 to 1700

Petrov Hill and Brno Cathedral

Evening

Dinner and a drink

If you have a second day in Brno, I strongly recommend a walk up to the Špilberk and spend at least a couple of hours exploring the fortress and Museum.

The Castle is formidable, and you can just walk up to admire the city views from there. The inner ward of the Castle houses the excellent Brno City Museum.

It covers the history of the fort, its time as a prison under the Habsburg Empire and the history of Brno. I spent two hours there and didn’t do it justice – you could easily spend three hours there, which is why I left it off the Brno one-day itinerary.

There are also more Brno underground attractions to explore. There’s a labyrinth under Zelny trh and the 10-Z Bunker built during the Cold War.

And the Capuchin Crypt – just off Zelny trh – makes for an unsettling short visit. Donors to the Convent were rewarded with having their bodies preserved and kept in glass cases.  Around 300 years later they lie in various states of decay. I wouldn’t describe it as eternal rest, more eternal writhing in agony.

Brno is very close to the vineyards of South Moravia, a glorious part of the world.  We stayed in Mikulov, an hour south of Brno on the Austrian border.  It’s the ‘capital’ of the Mikulovska wine region, and one of the most beautiful small towns in Europe.

Mikulov’s dramatic Castle dominates the surrounding landscape, and the town below has some magnificent medieval, Renaissance and Baroque architecture. It was also home to a vibrant Jewish community, and there’s plenty of its heritage to explore including a Synagogue and Cemetery.

Lednice Castle is part of the Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site a few miles from Mikulov.  The area was owned by the powerful Liechtenstein dynasty, who built two lavish chateaux close to the border with Austria. These are surrounded by parkland and a unique series of monuments. Ideally you’d need a car or join a guide tour to see all of it on a day trip from Brno.

The name Slavkov u Brna may not mean much to many readers, but its German name – Austerlitz – will be more familiar.

The famous Battle of Austerlitz – also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors – was one of the major battles of the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon Bonaparte emerged victorious, and the peace treaty was concluded afterwards in the French-style Baroque zamek (chateau). There is also a memorial on the battlefield site.

Half an hour to the north of Brno, the Moravian Karst (Moravsky kras) is one of the most beautiful Czech landscapes. Like many other places around the country, it’s very popular with Czechs but hasn’t really been discovered by visitors from outside the country. The highlight is the Punkva Caves, a couple of miles outside the town of Blansko.  

The Moravia region is home to four other UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We particularly recommend the gorgeous country town of Telč, which is dominated by one of the most beautiful squares in Europe.

The historic town of Třebíč is an hour west of Brno, and is renowned for St Procopius Basilica, one of the best surviving Romanesque churches in the Czech Republic. Its Jewish Quarter is another remarkable survival, and is also inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

If you intend to head east from Brno, it’s a 40-mile (65 km) trip to the Archbishop’s Palace in Kroměříž. The 18^th  century Palace is spectacular, but the main reason to visit is its phenomenal formal Baroque garden.

And while we’re on the subject of Baroque, the gorgeous small city of Olomouc, to the north of Brno, is one of the most underrated cities in Europe. The ornate Holy Trinity Column in the main square – which contains a tiny chapel – is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Brno is in the Czech region of Moravia, in the south-east of the country. It’s also only an hour north of the border with Austria, and very much in the heart of Central Europe.

Here are some sample distances from other Central European cities:

Prague to Brno: 205 km (127 miles) by road, 252 km (157 miles) by train

Vienna to Brno: 111 km (69 miles) by train

Bratislava to Brno: 130 km (75 miles)

Budapest to Brno: 259 km (161 miles) by train

You can fly to Brno from the UK, with daily Ryanair flights to London Stansted throughout the year. You can also fly there from Amsterdam and Barcelona in spring and summer.  Bus E76 runs from Brno Tuřany Airport to Brno main train station (Brno hl n on timetables), taking 20 minutes and costing 25 CZK ($1.20).

Brno is very well connected by train and bus. Trains from Prague to Brno take between 2 hours 30 minutes and 3 hours 30 minutes, depending on the operator and route taken.  

Vienna to Brno is a shorter journey, with buses (Flixbus or Regiojet) operating from Sudtirolerplatz and taking around two hours and trains around the same amount of time.

Bratislava is a similar distance away, with frequent trains.

I walked everywhere in Brno except for taking the tram to Villa Tugendhat, Vida Science Centre and Brno Zoo.

You can buy tram tickets from coin or card machines at the main tram stops, or on board using contactless card. You can do the same with the local buses.

If you invest in the excellent Brnopas, then your public transport is included in your ticket.

We stayed at the Hotel Avion, a restored Functionalist architectural masterpiece from the late 1920s. It’s beautifully designed, and the rooms are very comfortable. We loved the little signature quirks from the bedside lamps to the unusual stairwell windows with views over the city. Check out our Hotel Avion Brno Review here.

I also recommend the splendid Grandhotel Brno, across the street from the train and bus stations. It has hosted many visiting dignitaries, including the last Habsburg Emperor, Franz Josef I.

And Hotel Grandezza Luxury Palace is a magnificent 5-star option on Zelny trh, the finest square in Brno. Rooms at the front to the Hotel have superb views of the square and Cathedral on the hill above.

Brno is a great year-round destination. We have visited several times in winter, and also spent a few days there in late summer.

Winter is cold and grey, but in November and December the Brno Christmas Market is held in a couple of squares in the city centre. We found them more enjoyable than the Prague Christmas Markets, with much smaller crowds. And considerably lower prices.

Late summer – and early autumn – is a wonderful time to visit Brno. You can sit outside in the cafes on the streets, or relax at one of the deckchairs on the squares. And if you’re visiting Brno with kids, they can cool off with a run in the new fountain on Moravske náměstí.

A Brno day trip gives you a great introduction to the Moravian capital, but you really need a minimum of two days to do it justice. Three days is enough to see the main Brno sights and explore one or two things to see in Brno around the outskirts of the city.

One Day In Brno – Final Thoughts

Brno is a brilliant city. We’ve had two extended visits to Brno and also travelled extensively around South Moravia. It deserves far more attention than it gets, and makes for one of the longest, but most rewarding, day trips from Prague. One day in Brno will enhance your Central Europe itinerary a lot.