Of course, this year I learned that guidebooks can take you only so far, and that it’s much, much better to go and see the place for yourself before you let someone else tell you if it’s worthwhile. But most of the time, I find guidebooks so helpful, and they’ve introduced so many places that would have remained under my radar.

Such is the case with the tiny town of Loket, Czech Republic. Loket is so tiny it doesn’t even have its own section in my giant Lonely Planet Europe book–just a little blurb in the section of Karlovy Vary. We attempted to visit Loket on our first trip from Karlovy Vary, as it’s just near there (hence being a blurb in that section), but we happened to be visiting on Easter and all of the buses were shut down.

So, I added Loket to our travel itinerary when my parents’ visited. It was more ideal because we had a car, and I’m so glad we stopped (although by that time we were all tired and ready to be back in Prague). It was about twenty minutes away from Karlovy Vary, but so peaceful, and like many Czech towns, on a windy river. Loket had a beautiful view of green hills, a tiny, perfectly preserved medieval center, baby goats (I mean, baby goats!) and of course, the requisite castle.

Not only is Loket one of the more gorgeous castles of my beloved CZ, but a James Bond movie (Casino Royale) was actually filmed here, and some in nearby Karlovy Vary.

While we only made a very quick stop here, I would have loved to come back for a full day and even a night to soak up the atmosphere of the little village…and to keep playing with the baby goats, of course.

Question:

What do you think of guidebooks? Love ’em or hate ’em or a little bit of both? Have you discovered any great places from a guidebook?

Linking up with Travel Tuesday. 

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