Category

Beer

Feb 06
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Czech Republic beer tourism

Czech Republic is the Number One Country in the World for Beer Tourism

By Beer, Taste Vacations No Comments

Many people passionate about beer believe the Czech Republic is one of the best countries in the world for beer tourism. Here are just a few reasons why.

  1. Brewing Tradition: The Czech Republic has a rich history and deep-rooted tradition in brewing beer. In fact, historians uncovered evidence of a brewery being established in the year 933 (almost 1,500 years ago) at Břevnov Monastery in Prague, which still has a brewery to this day.
  2. Pilsner Beer: The Czech Republic is renowned for creating the Pilsner style of beer. Pilsner Urquell, brewed in the city of Plzeň (Pilsen), is considered the archetype of the pilsner style. This beer has influenced the brewing of beers globally and, according to TasteAtlas.com, is now the #2 most popular style of beer in the world.
  3. Variety and Quality: Czech beer culture is diverse, offering various styles beyond pilsners, such as dark lagers (tmavé pivo), wheat beers (psenicne pivo), and more. The country also boasts a wide range of breweries, from large-scale producers to smaller craft breweries, ensuring a vast selection of high-quality beers for tourists to explore.
  4. Beer Culture and Hospitality: The Czech Republic has a vibrant beer culture deeply ingrained in its society. Pubs and beer halls are plentiful, offering a cozy and inviting atmosphere for locals and tourists alike to enjoy a pint of fresh, flavorful beer. In fact, the Czech Republic is the top consumer of beer per capita in the world.
  5. Affordability: Beer in the Czech Republic is relatively affordable compared to many other countries. A decade ago the country’s health minister proposed a law requiring pubs and restaurants to offer at least one non-alcoholic drink on the menu priced lower than beer. That proposal failed and beer is still very reasonably priced in the country.
  6. Accessibility: If you want to talk beer tourism, it is important to include locations outside Prague. The Czech Republic is not a large country and thus distances to key points of interest are reasonable. From Prague it is only 1.5 hours drive to Plzeň, home of Pilsner Urquell, or one hour 45 minutes drive to České Budějovice, home of the original Budvar.

So if you are interested in traveling to a destination for the beer or at least incorporating beer and breweries into your travels,  the Czech Republic is, indeed, one of the top destinations in the world for beer tourism. Interested in experiencing this? Join our September 10 – 16, 2024 Czech Republic Beer Vacation or create your own Czech Republic beer tour.

Dec 04
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Czech beer guides

Our Czech Beer Guides Make our Tour Special

By Beer, Taste Vacations No Comments

We have hired two Czech beer guides that make our Czech Republic Beer & Walking Vacation the best beer vacation in the country. We work with Jakub Neužil and Martin Havlin to make sure we are visiting the best breweries in Czechia and get inside access when we do.

Industry Experience

Both Martin and Jakub work at (Budweiser Budvar), the famous state-owned brewery. Martin is a Business Development Manager and Jakob is a Export On-trade Development Manager. Before that, Martin worked at Pivovar Proud, the experimental craft brewery that is part of even-more-famous Pilsner Urquell, and at the Czech Brewmasters s.r.o., which provides technology consulting and construction services to breweries, and did contract work for , a Prague brewery.

Czech Beer Tours

All the above experience alone would make Martin and Jakob perfect as our beer tour guides, since they have worked in or known most of the top breweries in the country. In addition, however, Martin and Jakob together founded Prague Craft Beer Tours in June of 2019. They take locals and tourists to some of the best beer spots in Prague. The company started as a side business but has now grown to where they are hiring additional guides.

Personal Experiences

Martin has a family history in the beer industry, having worked in the family company that specializes in hops sales. His brother is a brewmaster and his mother has worked in the hops business for more than 20 years. Martin is also a certified beer sommelier and even worked for a year as a tour guide in Spain. He has degrees from universities in France and Spain and is fluent in English.

Jacob is an economist by training who has specialized in the beer industry. He is a homebrewer and so also has an excellent understanding of the production side of beer. He even has a wine sommelier certificate!

Our Czech Beer Guides

Our Czech Republic Beer & Walking Vacations are designed around … the breweries and the beer. We have worked with Martin and Jakob to create what we believe is the best beer vacation on offer in the country. Make no mistake – we also visit fantastic cities, tour the Prague Castle, visit a monastery, and more fun. This is still a vacation. But if you are into beer, look no further than this tour.

In 2024 we are offering a Czech Republic Beer & Walking Vacation from September 10 – 16 that is open to everyone and a perfect way to meet other beer enthusiasts. Jakob and Martin will combine to guide on this tour along with one of our professional tour guides. It is also possible to book this tour as a private group with as few as six people on your own chosen date. In this case, the local guide might be Jakob, Martin, or one of their other professional guides.

Czech Beer Guides

Martin Havlin

Czech Beer Guides

Jakub Neužil

Oct 30
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food wine and beer tour

Food, Wine and Beer Tours in 2024

By Beer, Food, Taste Vacations, Wine No Comments

Taste Vacations designs multi-day food, wine and beer tours to provide you with an amazing vacation to the best destinations in the world. Our tours offer you an opportunity to explore a variety of cultures and flavors. You don’t need to be an expert to enjoy our tours – all you need is enthusiasm and a willingness to try new things.

Our focus is mostly on small group private tours, but we do offer a number of “public” tours each year that are open to everyone. A small group vacation is perfect if you don’t have a large enough traveling party to meet the minimum or simply because you enjoy meeting new people who share the same love of food, wine, or beer that you do. In 2024 we’re excited to be offering three fabulous public tours:

Tuscany Food & Wine Tour

Tuscany is a spectacular region for a vacation and there is no better way to visit than to focus on the local food and wine. It is hard to say whether Tuscany is better known for its food or its wine and this toss-up is what makes this region perfect for a combination Food & Wine Vacation.

South Africa Wine & Safari Tour

We’ve paired delectable South African wine with an exhilarating safari, creating one of the most exciting wine vacations in the world! On the South Africa Wine & Safari tour you’ll not only learn about a variety of incredible wines but of South Africa’s history and culture as they are intrinsically intertwined. The country is truly one of the most amazing lands on the earth and you will be inspired by its music, its people, and its culture.

Czech Republic Beer & Walking Vacation

Join us on this exclusive moderately active Czech Republic Beer Vacation. With amazing beer, welcoming brewers, an intriguing culture, enchanting towns, and the modern fantasy land of Prague, the Czech Republic has everything a beer lover could want.

New Private Food, Wine & Beer Vacations

Most of our travelers choose to form their own small private group of family members, friends, couples, or even work groups, and they get to choose their own destination and trip dates. 2024 brings a few new culinary vacation options to our roster.

In addition to the new Czech Republic beer tour above which can also be organized for a private group, you can now vacation in the undisputed world capital of wine with our Bordeaux Food & Wine tour. Or, experience first hand the big contributions to worldwide beer culture that Ireland has made, including the current craft beer boom that is developing there, on our exclusive Ireland Brewery and Distillery Vacation. With a minimum of only six travelers needed for a private tour, these are easy and ideal culinary adventures to organize.

Often people are nervous about signing up for a group tour but we find the group camaraderie becomes the highlight of the tour. The unique experiences we instill into each food, wine, and beer tour ensures your vacation is interesting, educational, inspiring, and fun. Don’t miss the full roster of available tours for 2024.

Mar 04
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Belgium Travel Tips

Belgium Travel Tips: Know Before You Go

By Beer, Food, Travel Tips No Comments

What Belgium lacks in size (its about the size of the state of Maryland), it makes up for it in beautiful architecture, intriguing culture, complex history, legendary beers, and delectable cuisine.   To give you a little background and to help you have the most enjoyable trip possible, check out a few factors that are useful to know before you go:

Belgium Travel Tips:
LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN BELGIUM

Due to Belgium’s complex history, it has three official languages. If you are in the northern Flanders region, the top language is Flemish Dutch.  In the southern region of Wallonia, most people speak French. In a smaller region in the east, German is the main language. Even though English isn’t an official language of Belgium, it is still spoken by 55% of its people. The city of Brussels is considered bilingual as many languages are spoken there – and it’s home to the European Union headquarters and NATO. Check out our additional tips on how to travel to a country where you don’t know the language.

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