Let's get the boring bit out of the way first, before going on to the gift buying. The easiest way to shop for essentials - if you have a car - is to go the supermarkets on the road to Ceske Budejovice. There you will find Lidl, Terno and Tescos- all will supply most of your daily needs and if one doesn't the other probably will. Lidl doesn't take cards, Terno and Lidl do. If you are without a car, you can shop quite easily in Cesky Krumlov. There is a small supermarket opposite the entrance into the Castle and another on the way up to the bus station; there are two drogeries on Latran (the main street coming down from the Castle) these sell cosmetics, soap, shampoo and household stuff; the chemist is on the main square (another is near to Lidl); and for bread there is a good bakery next to the river on Kajovska.
Now for presents: as usual this is down to personal taste, and in this site you get ours. Typical gifts from the Czech Republic are wooden toys - these will be found in abundance in the many gift shops in Cesky Krumlov. You will also find in these shops various examples of Czech ceramics, traditional gingerbread moulded in to all sorts of figures from little devils to chickens, and painted blown Easter eggs. The Czechs are famous for their puppets, as evidenced by the two puppet museums in Cesky Krumlov, and you can buy a puppet or two to take home.
Bohemian glass has a well-earned reputation - there are various shops selling it, but our favourites are the shop on the Castle steps selling reproduction antique glasswear (incredibly good value) and the Favor shop just off the town square, which sells modern handcrafted glass. Another traditional present is jewellery, in particular local garnets, again there are several jewellers in the town. Our teenage nieces came back with some good contemporary jewellery.
All around Cesky Krumlov are graphite mines, so it isn't exactly a surprise that art materials especially pencils make a good present. Check out the Koh-i-Noor shop on Kajovska for high quality good value art materials. We regularly come back with supplies for our artist friends.
Just along from the Koh-i-Noor Shop is Botanicus - this sells
soaps, shampoos, and essential oils.
If you are fan of classical music, check out the shop on Latran
near the bridge, just follow the sound of the music. The lady there
speaks English and is very good at finding out your likes. Records on
Czech labels are very reasonable.
A couple of clothes shops have appeared, one in Soukenicka and
the other next the Architecture Museum, these feature work by Czech
designers, which is both lovely and different.
As for what food to buy - well we cover that in the food page.