Glass furnaces have been burning in northern Bohemia for centuries, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the Crystal Valley — Křišťálové údolí — a cluster of glassworks, studios and museums spread across the wooded hills of the Lusatian Mountains near Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov. This isn't one attraction but a whole region built around a single material, and it rewards two or three days of slow exploration.
Start with the real thing at Jílek Glassworks, which has been producing coloured and optically decorated glass for over 120 years. Guided visits take you onto a live production floor — fire, smoke, and glassmakers gathering molten blobs on blowpipes — and you can have a go at blowing yourself before hitting the shop.
Nový Bor, which claims around 100 glass companies and styles itself the glass capital of the world, is the natural base. Its glass museum holds more than 10,000 pieces across two floors, organised by decorating technique rather than chronology, and still collects work from living artists and local glass school students. Across town, Novotný Glass runs a working factory with 12 blowers, a gallery of over 300 works including a significant collection by designer Bořek Šípek, and the Huť restaurant, where a glass wall lets you watch production over lunch.
The most photogenic stop may be Pačinek Glass, master glassmaker Jiří Pačinek's complex with a working studio, gallery, an outdoor Glass Garden of monumental coloured sculptures among real plants, and a 19th-century Neoclassical church reborn as the Crystal Temple, its interior filled with glass installations.
For the modern end of the craft, LASVIT's Nový Bor headquarters pairs two restored 19th-century timbered houses with the translucent Glass House and the black metal-clad Black House. Kolektiv Ateliers gathers specialists in cutting, engraving, painting, fusing and stained glass under one roof — visits need booking in advance but suit anyone curious about technique.
Round off the trip in Prague at PRAGL – Prague Glass Experience near Old Town Square, where you can watch blowers at work, then try blowing, torchwork or sandblasting yourself. Nearby ARTĚL runs engraving sessions where you carve your own glass to take home — with champagne in crystal and chocolates as a reward.
Practically speaking: easyJet flies direct to Prague from London Gatwick, and the Valley is an easy few hours' drive north. Sleep at Hotel KLEIS in Cvikov (part of a brewery, so the beer is taken seriously), eat Bohemian classics at Na Stráži, and save an evening for Ještěd, a fine-dining restaurant inside a 1960s futurist mountain tower. For anyone who likes their holidays hands-on — crafts, workshops, things you can actually make — this corner of Czechia is hard to beat.
