Our Most Popular Tour

A typical tour would include 1 or 2 nights in Prague and 3 or 4 nights in Jablonec.

You will be picked up from Prague airport by Keith (an english man living in Czech), and whisked away to either your Prague hotel or Jablonec. Whichever you decide to visit first.

Prague centre is just 15 min from the airport.

Jablonec is 1,5 hour drive away from the airport.

Arriving at the hotel in Jablonec

Jablonec is a very old and beautiful  town and most importantly full of beads. If you know were to look.

First thing is to settle into our hotel, a base for the rest of the week. A nice family run hotel with a restaurant and function room. Ideal for spending afternoons beading or chatting.

Beading afternoons

Having a lesson is a great way of resting our legs and also a great fun. Taking place in a room at the back of a fantastic shop. You will be spoilt for choice with colors and shapes to pick from for your creative tutorial.

Bead museum

One of the finest places to visit is The Museum of Glass and Jewelery in Jablonec. It is a great place to start our journey of finding out about the history of czech bead and glass making, which dates back to the 18th century.

Antique bead shop

There are treasures to be found in these places, if you don't mind getting your hands a bit dirty. Some of it was really hidden in the back of chimney breasts during times of crises.

Shopping

Loads of brilliant shops to be found if you know where to look. Of course with great prices !

We try to spread the shopping over the week so it’s not to overwhelming. We normally get asked to go back to places towards the end of the week, which is not a problem.

Production/Factories

We will visit at least one factory to see production of beads from the start. Pressing, polishing, cutting and fire polishing at first hand. You will be able to get very close to all the magic. We will also visit a glass waxed pearl factory, which is really interesting. Including factory outlet shop. Anyone interested in ordering large quantity can have beads made to order.

Lamp-work bead factory/workshop

We will visit a lamp-work bead factory. You will be able to see them being made by a group of very experienced ladies, who make it look so easy. You can have a go yourself. Then you realize that even making a colorful blob of glass is not easy :-)

They have a beautiful collection of lamp-work beads that you can choose from and a fantastic collection of jewelry.

Christmas decorations

Czech Republic also has a long history of making christmas decorations dating back to 1800 .There is a really interesting place where we can see the small glass pearls  still being made the same way as there were 100 years ago. This also includes a workshop where you can try to make your own decorations out of the hollow glass pearls.

Glass factory

A glass factory that dates back to 1712. You will be able to get close to the glass production on a tour around the factory, and see glass cutting how it used to be done before China started to mass produce it.

Glass button pressing

We also visit a small and very old still working glass button press and then get a chance to buy fantastic glass hand painted buttons. Some old, some new.

This is one of the last button pressing masters still working.

Great places to eat

There are lots of great place to eat out and it is really good value. We eat together every evening, either in the hotel restaurant or one of our favorite restaurants. Czech food is really rich and full of taste. The menus aren’t usually suited to vegetarians but staff can be very helpful and might prepare something according to your taste.

There are so many things to see on our tour. That 4/5 days sometimes isn't enough. We have ladies that are coming now for the third, four and fifth time. One lady even managed to visit twice in one year.

By the end of our tour you will look at your beloved beads with a new found passion and appreciation of all the work that goes into making them.

During the entire duration of your holiday in Jablonec we will be with you during the day, and also spending evenings with you, having great meals out together.

Holidays are completely flexible. This page is meant to give you an idea of what are the possibilities.