🇨🇿 Prague
Pilsner Urquell Brewery (Plzeň day trip)
Nearly every pale lager on earth descends from the first batch poured here on 5 October 1842. The brewery's lagering cellars run about 9 km under Plzeň.
This is where pale beer was born. In 1842 the brewers of Plzeň hired a Bavarian and produced the first pale lager, the style that now dominates the planet. The brewery's tour was voted Europe's best in 2024: the 1892 jubilee gate, historic copper kettles, a new immersive ingredients exhibit, and the famous 9 km of cellars where adults can taste unfiltered, unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell straight from an oak barrel.
The catch: it is a day trip. Plzeň is about an hour from Prague by train, so this costs roughly half of one of your two Prague days. A workable rhythm: leave Prague around 8:00, tour late morning, lunch at the brewery's Na Spilce restaurant, wander Plzeň's old town in the afternoon, and roll back into Prague by early evening.
Worth knowing for the group: the Na Spilce beer hall serves full Czech meals and soft drinks, the cellar tasting is optional, and Plzeň's old town (with the third-tallest church tower in the country) is a pleasant stroll on its own, so the trip stands up even for non-drinkers.