Backroads

At the surface, Tábor is a charming town filled with cobblestone streets, quaint houses and shops that are a delight to explore. Kids can let their feature: a subterranean maze of tunnels originally built as cellars for food storage, and sometimes used as shelter during fires or enemy invasions. Here they can also test their skill in the traditional Czech craft of hand-painting eggs.

Feel your spine tingle in Kutná Hora's 16th-century Roman Catholic chapel, with its macabre interior embellished by nearly 40,000 human skeletons. Walk to the romantic remains of Divci Kamen castle perched on a windswept Bohemian bluff. High above the Danube, explore the resplendent Melk Abbey, where black-robed monks still stroll the marbled hallways. Twist through the ruins above Dürnstein, where King Richard the Lionheart was secretly imprisoned and - as one legend claims - aided in rescue by his faithful minstrel Blondel.

We just can't get enough of enchanting Ceský Krumlov - the entire town is a World Heritage site, with 82 percent of its buildings registered as cultural monuments. Looming above, while you and your gang stroll, is Krumlov Hrad, the second-largest castle in the Czech Republic, whose ornately painted tower points skyward like a pastel-colored rocket. Take time to explore this living gallery on your own before we meet up with Czech historian Dr. Helena Nechlebova, who presents an informal Q&A on her country's history and culture.

A traditional wooden Zille boat takes you back in time along one of the Danube's most beautiful stretches, past a medley of historic towns, magnificent cultural treasures and glorious landscapes that have captured the imaginations of artists, composers and awestruck travelers for centuries. Europe's second longest river, it flows from the mountains of the Black Forest, linking 10 nations and inspiring millennia's worth of legends and myths on its journey to the Black Sea.

Adults, raise a glass to the wines of Austria's famous Wachau Valley: The unusual convergence of warm and cold weather patterns from neighboring valleys gives the grapes an added complexity that comes through in wines as a cool fruitiness with a glimmer of the exotic. Prefer a pint of ale to a glass of Grüner Veltliner? Then you'll love the Czech Republic, where exceptional beers have been brewed for a thousand years. Indeed, in 1088 the first Czech king even decreed that a tithe of hops be paid to the church.