Have Bohemia's stone work all to yourself

I will have a spare week in which to get from Prague to Zagreb next September. Can you recommend a route using either a hire car or the train so as to see some interesting places along the way? Would it be best to go through Austria and Slovenia?

- J Rannard, Lawson, NSW.

Travelling through the Czech Republic and Austria is the way to go. Your first stop should be south, from Prague to Cesky Krumlov, which rises from the banks of the Vltava River in a jumble of red roofs, onion domes and mediaeval and Renaissance facades. This is one of Bohemia's loveliest towns. It's the ancestral home of the wealthy Rozmberk family, who left their home so richly embellished with architectural wonders that every last cobblestone now has a World Heritage listing.

There are plenty of tour companies that do day tours to Cesky Krumlov; however, if you stay the night, you can have the stone alleys, painted squares and the walk to the castle all to yourself. The easiest way to get to Cesky Krumlov from Prague is by bus. You'll need to backtrack a short distance from there to get to Ceske Budejovice, from where you can take a train to Vienna. In Vienna, you could then spend a couple of days hanging around in cafes scoffing Sachertorte, listening to Mozart and people-watching along the pedestrian-only Karntnerstrasse.

From Vienna, you could take an express train for the 2½-hour journey to Salzburg, a baroque beauty of a city and Mozart's birthplace. The city's location, on the banks of the Salzach River, with mountains on both sides, will have you humming hits from The Sound of Music, another of the linchpins of Salzburg's tourism. From Salzburg, you can return to Vienna and continue south to Zagreb by train.