Agriturisms in the Czech Republic

Czech farm stays from $9 per person

Farma Kuncluv Mlýn in Middle Bohemia
Farma Kunclův Mlýn in Middle Bohemia is a working mill and farm where rooms cost $15 per person per night (www.kuncluvmlyn.cz).A couple can stay a working Czech farm—a farma or agrituristika—and experience the rural lifestyle up close and personal for less than $20 a night—less if you want to camp there instead of getting a B&B room.

You can go horseback riding on an organic cattle farm in Southern Moravia where the rooms cost just $20 a night (hour-long horseback lessons cost $15 more; www.farmatrnka.webpark.cz).

Or—for just $15 per person—rent an apartment sleeping four in the restored Bohemian mill house (pictured above) powered by its own water wheel 45 miles south of Prague and spend your days exploring area castles, riding horses, biking, or even helping out with the farming activites (www.kuncluvmlyn.cz).

How to find Czech farm stays

Many local tourist offices have lists of local farm stays.

Sadly, few are listed in English-language guidebooks—but there are often agriturismo guides available in local bookshops—in Czech, perhaps, but the important bits are easy enough: addresses, prices, and phone numbers, photographs, and icons for private baths, swimming pools, etc.

You can always just look for signs on country roads, pointing down rutted dirt tracks toward a farmhouse set among the fields.

If you want to find and book a few before you leave, here are the best online resources for finding farm stays all across Austria. Not all sites are available in English, but the pertinent details are usually pretty easy to figure out:

Farm stay resources online

Holidays in the Countryside (www.prazdninynavenkove.cz/en) - Czech out these great Czech agritourism opportunities. There are about two dozen all told in Bohemia, another dozen farms in the Highlands, five around Prague, and a handful in the Moravian wine country. Click on the "details" button next to any of these properties, you get a plethora of information about it, including prices (which range from about $13 to $60). Note that some properties appear to be listed twice in a row; this is because they offer more than one type of accommodation (usually pension/B&B and camping, or cottage rental and camping). Click on all until you find the version that interest you—or search by region and it will divide them into campsites, summer homes (cottage rentals), B&Bs, and farms.

Green Holidays (www.greenholidays.travel) - Bills itself as an "environmentally conscious travelers can book an ecological and green holiday." About 20 listings in the Czech Republic of rustic B&Bs and hotels, farm stays, country cottages, green apartment rentals, and campgrounds (including eco-friendly hotels and organic B&Bs in town as well).

Become a farmhand; sleep for free - If you really want to get your hands dirty, sign up to become a temporary farmhand through one of two volunteer organizations: WWOOF (www.wwoof.org) and Helpx (www.helpx.net)...

What is a farm stay?

The concept behind agritourism (or farm stays, or guest ranches, or farmhouse B&Bs, or rural tourism, or whatever you want to call it) is simple: you spend the night as a guest on a working farm. From there, though, the concept flies off in many directions.

Sometimes you just hole up for the night in a B&B converted from a farmhouse.

Sometimes you actually stick around to do volunteer work for a few days (a week, two months, a year), as with the worldwide WWOOF or Helpx networks.

Sometimes, just renting a cottage in a rural area where sheep wander past your window is enough to count.

Ideally, the property's owners live on-site and are farmers who derive the bulk of their income from agriculture, using this newfangled form of tourism merely to help make ends meet.

In some countries, the practice of agritourism is highly regulated; in others, it’s a wild west of opportunities, and you have to pick carefully to avoid spending the night in a barn atop a pile of hay (unless that's what you want—I've done it in Switzerland, and it's great).

How much does a farm stay cost?

Double rooms at a farma run anywhere from $18 to $65, but usually around $26 to $36.

Rent a small cottage on a farm for $25–$50 per night, a large cottage or house for $300–$470 per week.

What is a farm stay like?

I've stayed at loads of agriturisms: vineyards and dairy farms, barns amid olive groves and frescoed villas next to horse stables. Each stay has offered me a different experience of farm life for a fraction the cost of a hotel.

Many agriturisms require a two- or three-night minimum stay (for some, a week).

Roughly half accept credit cards.

Sometimes you get four-star luxury and satellite TV. Sometimes you’re a straw's-width from sleeping in a stall.

Most, though, are just what you'd expect from a farmhouse B&B: simple comforts, solid country furnishings, and rural tranquility—barnyard noises excepted.

The hosts tend to be a sight friendlier than your average hotel desk clerk. Some invite guests to dine with them, family-style, in the farmhouse. One shepherd let me stir a bubbling pot of sheep's milk to help it on its way to becoming pecorino cheese. Vineyard owners love to crack open bottles of their best to guide you through the finer points of wine tasting.