We were standing at the first spring at the end of the park, absolutely certain we’d found something special. A queue like a bakery on Saturday morning. The woman ahead of us was calmly filling up three big bottles. Three! Daniel and I looked at each other with that look that means “this one’s gonna be good – a queue means quality.”
Well, honestly. It was the worst spring water I’ve ever tasted. Even Daniel, who genuinely loves the springs, admitted it wasn’t up to much. It wasn’t. 🙂 And it all started an hour earlier, with something far more boring – parking in Karlovy Vary is the one thing you need to sort out here before anything else.
We keep coming back to Karlovy Vary, and every time we end up at the same car park, because it’s the only one where we’ve always been sure we’d find a space. In this article I’ll give you three specific car parks with their prices, and we’ll walk the route together from Hotel Thermal to Grandhotel Pupp the way we walk it, and at the end I’ll add eight hotels with their own parking. If you’re more concerned with which neighbourhood to stay in, we have a separate guide to where to stay in Karlovy Vary – this article is about the car, and what’s within walking distance of it.
For me, this is hands down the best parking in Karlovy Vary, and it’s the only place where, across all our visits, we’ve never had to worry about whether we’d find a space. Its official name is Underground garage, náměstí Milady Horákové (nám. Dr. Milady Horákové 2039) – Open in Google Maps. From outside you’d barely notice it, but underground there’s 15,000 m² and 550 parking spaces across six floors, with three lifts and four entrances.
The main advantage is that it’s underground. When we came here in July, we appreciated it twice over – once while parking in the shade, and again in the evening, when the car didn’t greet us like a hot oven. You pay at a machine, and we’ve always been able to pay by card there, which isn’t a given at car parks in spa towns.
We photographed the prices straight off the board by the machine and verified them by phone with the operator (5 September 2026):
| Duration | Price |
|---|---|
| up to 1 hour | 60 CZK (about €2.5) |
| up to 2 hours | 120 CZK (about €5) |
| up to 3 hours | 180 CZK (about €7.4) |
| up to 4 hours | 240 CZK (about €10) |
| up to 5 hours | 300 CZK (about €12) |
| up to 6 hours | 360 CZK (about €15) |
| up to 7 hours | 420 CZK (about €17) |
| up to 8 hours | 480 CZK (about €20) |
| 8-24 hours | 500 CZK (about €21) |
As soon as you go past the eighth hour, you pay 500 CZK (about €21) – and after that it makes no difference whether you stay ten hours or the whole day.
From here it’s literally a few minutes to the centre – exactly 493 metres, so seven minutes’ walk to třída T. G. Masaryka. But watch out for one thing people mix up: the centre and the colonnade are not the same thing. It’s 1.5 km to the colonnades, which takes us fifteen to twenty minutes – the maps say twenty. And it’s one of the nicest parts of the whole visit, because you walk along the river Teplá and pass those colourful spa houses that you’ll end up photographing anyway.
Our tip: you can’t book ahead here, but across both our visits we’ve never once found the barrier closed. If you’re bringing a roof box or driving a van, though, this car park isn’t for you – the maximum vehicle height is 2.1 metres.
Heading to the other end of the spa district – to the Pupp, Galerie umění (the art gallery), or Goethova stezka? Then there’s no point parking by the square and walking across the whole town. The safest choice is the Galerie car park on Goethova stezka, right next to the art gallery.
The all-day rate of 250 CZK (about €10) is half of the 500 CZK (about €21) at the underground garage, so if you’re planning to spend the day mainly in the upper spa district, this works out significantly better for you.
Can you park completely free in Karlovy Vary? Yes – just don’t expect miracles from it.
You’ll find the free car park at Areál Rolava (Čankovská, in the Rybáře district) – Open in Google Maps. It’s officially free, has reserved disabled parking spaces, and has no time limit. The catch is the distance: it’s 2.3 km to the centre, so about 31 minutes on foot. That’s not a stroll any more, that’s a trek.
For me it makes sense in two situations. Either you’re combining Karlovy Vary with Rolava itself – there’s an outdoor pool there (open from 1 June to 15 September) and it’s a nice spot for half a day with kids or a dog – or you simply want to save money and don’t mind taking the bus into the centre from the Koupaliště Rolava stop (a 60-minute ticket costs 30 CZK / €1.2, reduced 15 CZK / €0.6).
Karlovy Vary has an app for tickets called Vary Virtual. You can buy single and longer-term tickets in it, up to ten at once with delayed activation – handy if you’re travelling as a group or know you’ll be coming back. It also replaces the plastic Karlovy Vary card, so you don’t need to worry about that separately. It’s free to download for iPhone from the App Store and for Android on Google Play. And if you’d rather not download anything, you can also pay in every vehicle with a contactless card directly at the card reader.
| Ticket | Standard | Reduced |
|---|---|---|
| 20 minutes | 25 CZK (about €1) | 12 CZK (about €0.5) |
| 60 minutes | 30 CZK (about €1.2) | 15 CZK (about €0.6) |
| 24 hours | 130 CZK (about €5.4) | – |
| 7 days | 300 CZK (about €12) | – |
| 60 minutes, bought from the driver | 50 CZK (about €2.1) | 30 CZK (about €1.2) |
| Luggage or a dog | 20 CZK (about €0.8) | – |
The reduced fare applies to children aged 6-10 (no proof of age required), children aged 10-15 with a pupil’s travel card, students aged 15-26, and seniors over 65 who can show proof of eligibility. (DPKV price list, verified 1 September 2026.)
Our tip: a ticket bought from the driver costs 50 CZK (about €2.1) instead of 30 CZK (about €1.2) – for two journeys that’s an extra 40 CZK (about €1.7) just for not reaching for your phone.
Watch out: in early July, when the festival is on, a festival tent village takes over the Rolava site, and you won’t find Rolava among the recommended car parks during that time – KVIFF (the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival) points people on its own website to Tržnice, Varšavská, the underground garage at náměstí Dr. M. Horákové, and the car parks by both stations. Expect Rolava to be a lot less of a sure thing that week.
A new rule worth knowing: as of 1 September 2026, in the area around náměstí Dr. Milady Horákové, the first hour of parking is free – specifically on Moskevská, on Dr. Engla street, and in the lower part of the square in front of the polyclinic. It’s practically right next door to “our” underground garage. But there’s one crucial condition: you have to enter your number plate into the machine, into the EasyPark app, or into Vary Virtual – otherwise the free hour won’t be registered, and you’ll be asking for a fine.
Did you know you can’t just drive into the spa part of Karlovy Vary? This is something that’s easy to get caught out on. Entry to the spa district costs 100 CZK (about €4.1) per vehicle per day, and a part-day counts as a full one. The permit can be bought for one to seven consecutive days. You get it from Municipal Police machines – for example on Moskevská – or through the Vary Virtual app. You can pay by cash or card. Watch out for one crucial thing: a permit to enter the spa district does not entitle you to park. It’s only a permit to drive in – you still have to park in a public car park or a garage (source: Karlovy Vary Municipal Police).
If you’re staying right in the spa district, you’re entitled to one free entry to load and unload your luggage on the day you arrive and the day you leave, provided you can show proof of your booking. Always follow your hotel’s instructions though, not the map on your phone.
Street parking outside the spa district is divided into zones and charged every day all year round, mostly from 8:00 to 18:00 (in some zones from 7:00). The most expensive zone is on Zahradní street, where an hour costs 80 CZK (about €3.3). In the zone around Moskevská and Dr. Davida Bechera you’ll pay 40 CZK (about €1.7) an hour, and in the cheapest zones it’s 10 CZK (about €0.4). The maximum stay is usually three hours, so it’s no use for a full day in the centre anyway. (Rates: the City of Karlovy Vary tariff valid from 1 February 2026, verified 4 October 2026.)
| Underground garage, M. Horákové | Galerie car park | Areál Rolava | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price / hour | 60 CZK (about €2.5) | 40 CZK (about €1.7) | free |
| Full day | 500 CZK (about €21) | 250 CZK (about €10) | free |
| Walk to the centre | 7 min (493 m) | – | 31 min (2.3 km) |
| To Grandhotel Pupp | – | 8 min (636 m) | – |
| Covered | yes, underground | no | no |
| Best for | a full day in town, guaranteed space | the upper spa district, the Pupp | saving money, a longer stay, Rolava |
Our recommendation: going into the centre for the day and want peace of mind? The underground garage. Mainly heading to the Pupp and Goethova stezka? Galerie – you’ll save half. Counting every crown and don’t mind the bus? Rolava.
If you’re arriving by car, choosing a hotel comes with one extra criterion: whether it has its own parking. Because 500 CZK (about €21) a day in the garage adds up over three nights to what you’d spend on dinner. I’ve picked eight places to stay where the parking is verified from the details on Booking.com (verified 5 September 2026), and for each one I note whether it’s free, and if not, how much.
Here you should expect roughly 350 CZK (about €14) extra a night, and that you’ll often be parking not right under the building but somewhere nearby. There’s one exception on the list, though.
Chosen from our own experience
Our tip: Hotel Ontario is the only one here with free parking. If you work out the total cost of your stay, it can easily come out cheaper than a hotel with a lower room rate but 350 CZK (about €14) a night for parking – over a three-night stay that’s a difference of more than 1,000 CZK (about €41).
Villa Leopold is, for me, the best value in the whole selection – parking for 200 CZK (about €8.3) a night and seven minutes to the colonnade.
If you’re going even lower on price, or want a pool, these two hotels work well:
We’ve been to Karlovy Vary twice, once in summer and once in spring, and this is the route we walked both times. In my view, it’s the best way to see Karlovy Vary. From Hotel Thermal to Grandhotel Pupp it’s 1.5 km and about twenty minutes of pure walking along the river – but plan for more like an hour and a half, because you’ll be stopping at every spring. The route runs practically flat along the valley, so you don’t need to worry about any climbing.
Right at the end of Dvořákovy sady, the first spring greets you, and it’s exactly the one where Daniel and I embarrassed ourselves so beautifully. It was Sadový pramen (the Sadová Spring, no. 12) in the Sadová Colonnade. At 39.1°C it’s among the coolest of Karlovy Vary’s springs, which run roughly 39 to 73°C. And most importantly, it has a high carbon dioxide content, 750 mg/l, which according to the city is why it tastes slightly sour. It’s open daily from 6:00 to 18:30.
Which might explain the taste. I’m personally not a fan of the springs – I go into it more for the experience than the enjoyment – but this one was in a category of its own.
Lesson learned: a queue at a spring means absolutely nothing. People stand there because it’s the first spring on the route, not because it’s the best one.
To drink the springs sensibly, you need a spa cup – the porcelain one with the spout built into the handle, you know the type. They’re sold right at the start of the colonnade, and we bought one of the bigger ones for 180 CZK (about €7.4).
And now for the important part: no shop would take our card. We tried, and everywhere it was CASH ONLY. It’s not a rule I found written down anywhere – it’s just our experience on the ground – but it was clear-cut enough that I want to warn you.
Finding a cash machine is the second trap. Right by the colonnade there are only independent ATMs – a Euronet at Vřídelní 86/15 in Hotel Petr, and there’s another withdrawal point at Tržiště 2107/17. Expect these to add a fee of their own and give you a worse exchange rate. Bank ATMs are only on třída T. G. Masaryka, which is seven minutes from the underground garage.
Withdraw cash right by your car, not once you reach the colonnade. You’ll save yourself twenty minutes of hunting for a cash machine.
The other springs were noticeably better. Going by the description at each one, I had a rough idea what to expect, and in the end we tasted all of them – across the colonnades and pavilions you’ll find fifteen named springs (source: karlovyvary.cz) – most are freely accessible, but some have set opening hours.
If you want to hear what all those buildings and springs around you actually mean, it’s worth walking the town with a guide – the tour is run directly by the city’s information centre.
Guided tour of Karlovy Vary with a certified guide – 45-60 minutes, from 360 CZK (about €15).
Vřídlo is the only stop on the route I don’t have a single word of reservation about. It’s the hottest mineral spring in Czechia – 73.4°C – and shoots up to twelve metres high. It produces roughly 2,000 litres a minute (source: karlovyvary.cz), and the water rises from a depth of about two kilometres.
The tasting was pretty good, but the best part is simply to stand there and watch it. I reckoned we’d spend five minutes there, and it turned into a quarter of an hour.
You can taste it at five stands in three temperatures – 73.4°C, 50°C and 30°C. If you’re like me and hot mineral water doesn’t appeal, go straight for the thirty-degree one.
Practical info: The Vřídelní Colonnade is open daily from 6:30, until 19:00 in summer and until 18:00 in winter. Admission and tasting are both free.
And now for the tip you might have been reading this far to get. A short walk from the Vřídelní Colonnade, in the passage between Vřídelní street and Tržiště, there’s a hidden lift up to Zámecký vrch (Castle Hill). You’ll recognise the entrance by the sign “Výtah na Zámeckou věž / Castle Tower Elevator”. It’s an unassuming corridor that you could walk past a hundred times and never notice.
And yet that lift was built back in 1911 to a design by the Viennese architect Friedrich Ohmann and the ride is free. It takes you up to Zámecká věž (the Castle Tower), where there’s a café and a viewing terrace.
You can obviously walk up as well. But if you have a health condition – or simply, like us, don’t feel like trudging uphill in the heat – it’s a great solution. We used it for exactly that second reason, and I don’t regret it at all – the view was worth it.
Our tip: the lift runs from 7:00 to 22:00 and is free. The café at Zámecká věž, though, doesn’t open until 10:00 (12:00 on Mondays), so if you want a coffee up there too, check its opening hours at zameckavez.cz.
If you have time left over, here’s a classic that’s just a short way from the route:
Becherovka – a tour of the visitor centre – 50 minutes, from 290 CZK (about €12). This is a classic!
Karlovy Vary sits about 130 km west of Prague, an hour and three quarters by car, so if you happen not to be driving it also works as a day trip from Prague by bus – just like Karlštejn or Kutná Hora, which we’ve written about separately.
Day trip from Prague to Karlovy Vary and Loket – 10 hours, from 1,186 CZK (about €49)
Karlovy Vary from Prague with a lookout tower and cable car – 9.5 hours, from 1,428 CZK (about €59), transport by bus from Prague 🙂
I won’t pretend everything is rosy, so let’s be straight about it:
Karlovy Vary isn’t cheap for parking. 500 CZK (about €21) a day in the garages is comparable to central Prague. If you’re going for three nights and parking isn’t included in your accommodation, budget 1,500 CZK (about €62) just for leaving your car somewhere.
You don’t need a car here for anything. The whole spa district can be walked in a morning. A car is good for getting to Karlovy Vary and, if you want, moving on from here – to Loket, say. In the town itself, it’s just a line item in your budget.
Free parking is a compromise, not a win. Thirty minutes’ walk there and thirty back is an hour a day. If you’re going for just one day, it’s better to pay.
Who this isn’t for: if you’re travelling with someone who has trouble walking, the option of “parking at Rolava and walking” is off the table. The same goes if you have a tall car with a roof box – you won’t fit into the underground garage, and you’ll have to look at surface car parks.
And one more small thing: don’t blindly follow your sat nav in Karlovy Vary. The spa district has its own entry rules, and your sat nav will happily send you into it without having any idea you need a 100 CZK (about €4.1) permit.
In our view, at the underground garage on náměstí Dr. Milady Horákové. It has 550 spaces across six floors, so you’ll always find a space, it’s open 24 hours, covered, and an hour costs 60 CZK (about €2.5). It’s a seven-minute walk to the centre, and fifteen to twenty to the colonnade.
At the underground garage, 500 CZK (about €21) for 8 to 24 hours. At the Galerie car park by Goethova stezka, 250 CZK (about €10) for 6 to 24 hours – and from there it’s 636 metres to Grandhotel Pupp, or an 8-minute walk. On-street parking in the centre usually doesn’t work for a full day, because the maximum stay is three hours. The exception is Nákladní street by Horní nádraží station and part of Slovenská street towards the KOME car park, where all-day parking comes to 80 CZK (about €3.3).
Yes, at Areál Rolava on Čankovská street. There’s no time limit, but it’s 2.3 km to the centre and about a 31-minute walk. Since 1 September 2026, the city has also been offering the first hour free around náměstí Dr. M. Horákové, but you have to enter your number plate into the machine or the app.
Yes, driving into the spa district costs 100 CZK (about €4.1) per vehicle per day. You can buy the permit from a Municipal Police machine or through the Vary Virtual app. Guests staying overnight get one free entry to drop off their luggage.
In the shops selling spa cups, they never once took our card – we paid cash everywhere. Right by the colonnade there are also only independent ATMs (a Euronet at Vřídelní 86/15), with bank ATMs only on třída T. G. Masaryka. Withdraw cash before you head to the colonnade.
Karlovy Vary is a town where there are two ways to deal with a car. Either you spend the whole day driving around looking for a free space – or you park it in one place as soon as you arrive and spend the rest of the day just walking. We do the second, and it works.
Park at the underground garage on náměstí Dr. M. Horákové, walk to the Thermal, and from there make your way slowly along the river to the Pupp. Taste every spring, even the first bad one. Buy a spa cup – with cash. Stop at Vřídlo, and then find that lift almost nobody knows about.
And if you’re still choosing where to stay, carry on with our guide to accommodation in Karlovy Vary. Working through the same question elsewhere in Czechia? We’ve written up parking in Prague, Český Krumlov by car, where the rules for driving into the centre are even stricter, and Adršpach with parking at the entrance. And if you want to make a whole weekend out of Karlovy Vary, it’s one of our spring stops for a weekend for two.
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