Dog-Friendly Moravia

Wandering through

Czech Wine Country

Alice and I had the most amazing three days in South Moravia, the wine region in southeastern Czech Republic. Before this trip I knew absolutely nothing about Czech wine, but my incredible experience here has made South Moravia my favorite wine region I’ve visited! In Croatia last year, we met two lovely Czech women and they convinced me I needed to come here. Most of this three-day road trip was planned based on Tereza’s recommendations, and I am eternally grateful for all of the information she shared with me!

Vineyards in Moravia are extremely affordable! Wine is served by the deciliter, which is less than a standard pour in the US. So if you are wanting to taste a few different wines, I would get one deciliter (which will run you as little at $1.50 at some of these vineyards). If you want a glass, ask for two deciliters, which is the equivalent of a very generous pour in the US (and will only cost you a few dollars). I tipped at least 10% everywhere (which is the expectation for foreigners in Czech Republic), but often tipped between 15% and 20% when people were especially friendly.

There was at least one person who spoke English at each vineyard and restaurant I visited. I didn’t encounter a single American tourist (or any native English speakers, actually) throughout this entire trip, and people were very surprised when they learned I was American! It was so nice to hear people speaking Czech around me wherever I went, it made the experience more special in a way.

Instead of listing out restaurants, activities, and accommodations like I usually do, I’m going to write this blog post according to our itinerary for each day. The area we stayed in is very near the Austrian border, quite close to Vienna. So I rented a car in Vienna and drove north! The largest nearby city is Brno, which would also be a logical starting place for this road trip. Beware that Moravia is a popular area for bike tours! I encountered cyclists on the roads constantly.

DAY ONE

After picking up my rental car from Vienna airport and driving back into the city to get Alice and load the car… we were headed north at around 11:00am. Our first stop was at Kreuzenstein Castle in Leobendorf, about a half hour drive from Vienna. Dogs are allowed on the castle tour if they are in a bag or held by their humans the whole time. The tour lasted about 40 minutes, and was entirely in German. Even though I couldn’t understand 99% of what the tour guide said, I still really enjoyed this tour! I’m so glad I had Alice’s K9 Sports Sack, it made it so easy to do this tour with her. After the tour, I had a delicious käsekrainer (cheesy sausage) and radler at the biergarten next to the castle entrance.

Next, we drove about an hour to the small city of Znojmo. Znojmo is beautiful, and I loved walking through the small, winding streets of the city center. I started with an iced latte at an adorable coffee shop called Káva na Knopp. We walked through this park, along the walls of the old city. Then we headed over to Lahofer Vineyard, which had one of the coolest vineyards views I’ve ever seen! The family working here was so friendly, and the wine was very good (and inexpensive). After three glasses of wine, we went to Maxwilliam for ribs.

We drove to our hotel in Pouzdrany, about 45 minutes from Znojmo. This hotel, Ambrožuv dvur, is an old manor with three apartments. Alice and I stayed on the top floor, which is a large two-bedroom suite! The price is amazing, considering the space. The booking itself was slightly above my usual goal of under $100/night. I paid $208 for two nights, plus about $50 in additional fees (breakfast, dog, wine). I highly recommend this place, but beware of the bugs!!! I kept the windows open the first evening while I was watching Netflix and painting my nails, and ended up with thousands (not an exaggeration) of tiny bugs all over the bed, walls, and tables near the lamps that were turned on.

Day Two

We started our second day walking around Lednice Castle. Although dogs aren’t allowed inside the castle, they can walk through the beautiful grounds and gardens with you! I had a loaded hot dog and apricot lemonade for lunch from Pedro’s Foodtruck.

After narrowly avoiding getting caught in a thunderstorm, we headed to Sonberk Vineyard. We arrived as the rain was slowing down and had a lovely time drinking wine on their deck once the sun came out again.

It was time for an afternoon coffee, so we stopped at the adorable Café Auspitz for an iced latte and pastry - loved both, and their outdoor seating area.

We headed to Penzión André for dinner! Although this was listed/described as a very nice dinner spot, it was still reasonably priced (at least to a New Yorker ha). The surrounding vineyard was really beautiful, so I’m sure wine tastings would be great here too.

Final stop of the night was at Gurdau Vineyard for sunset. This was my favorite vineyard of the trip! The view is absolutely stunning, particularly at sunset, and the staff was so friendly. They created a tasting of three different white wines for me, which were all lovely. Gurdau is only open Friday and Saturday - I do think it’s worth planning your trip around these days so you can go here!

Day Three

After the impressive/thorough breakfast at the hotel, day three began at a little coffee shop (and also restaurant, hotel, and winery, I think?) called Krivák. It was another rainy morning, so I read here for a bit before we headed to Kolby Winery, which is about a ten-minute walk from my hotel. I had a glass of very good rosé here, and then the clouds finally started to clear. Next, we spent a few hours drinking and reading at Gotberg Vineyard, with a beautiful view of the vines and Table Mountain.

It was time to check into our next hotel, Marhulka. This was quite a departure from our first hotel of the trip. Marhulka is a series of very small rooms with a shared yard and kitchen. It was quite cheap, about $60 for one night, but I would not recommend it if you are afraid of spiders. There were so many spiders! A huge spider was building its web on the light directly above my door when I came back at the end of the day, and there were a few spiders inside of my room. I barely slept, with the lights on, because I was so concerned about the spiders. The next morning, there was a huge web in the top corner of my doorway too.

After dropping off my bags, we drove to Café Fara in Klentnice for coffee and food - such a cute place! Then we did a very short, easy hike up to the castle ruins, Sirotčí Hrádek. What an incredible place!! I parked the car here, at the trailhead. AllTrails doesn’t have an entry for this trail, but if you search “Klentnice” and look at the map, you can see where the trail is that leads to the ruins. We arrived at the perfect time to catch sunset. What a view!!! This is one of my favorite travel sunsets I’ve seen. Alice was a very good model for the many photos I took here.

Finally, we went to Mikulov for a glass of wine at Kuk Bistro to end the night! We also walked through the gardens of Zámecky Park next to Mikulov Castle. I wish we had more time to explore Mikulov more, it was really beautiful! We did return the next morning to get a coffee at 4816 Café, before driving back to Vienna.