Things to do in East Moravia: Milan Bez Mapy’s trip ideas and sights

To my mind, East Moravia is ideal for a few days: it’s just across the border, and from Slovakia it’s a quick drive. My picks are the Wallachian Open-Air Museum in Rožnov, Baťa’s skyscraper in Zlín, where his office was a lift, and the spa town of Luhačovice. I’d book a countryside stay with character and try the local beer.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

From Bratislava

3 hrs 30 mins by car, heading north on the motorway; before Žilina I turned off for Bytča and came in via Makov

Where I stayed

Statek U Rajmunda, an isolated family farm by the forest; the last stretch is a gravel track

Bečva cycle route

I hired a bike at the tourist information centre in Rožnov; the section from Horní Bečva to Valašské Meziříčí is 31 km

Baťa’s skyscraper

In Building 21, Baťa’s office is a lift, all of it original, and the lift still runs today

My tip

At Soláň, try the borůvkové knedlíky (blueberry dumplings) and order a half portion; I couldn’t finish a whole one

Rožnov brewery

A small brewery dating back to 1712; stop for the beer spa and the unpasteurised beer

What is there to see in East Moravia? It covers the whole of the Zlín Region, just across the border from Slovakia. What makes it special and so varied is the mix of tourist areas it brings together: Moravian Wallachia (Valašsko), the Kroměříž area, Moravian Slovakia (Slovácko), and the areas around Zlín and Luhačovice.

I spent three packed days here in collaboration with the regional tourist board, Východní Morava, and this article has all my tips for trips, good restaurants, cafés and viewpoints, and what to see and taste in East Moravia. Here goes.

East Moravia: trip ideas and what to see

Where is East Moravia?

East Moravia is a small region around Zlín, on the border with Slovakia. On the Slovak side, Bytča and Žilina are close by. Driving from Bratislava took me three and a half hours, heading north on the motorway. Before reaching Žilina I turned off for Bytča and came into East Moravia via Makov. The region also includes the well-known town of Kroměříž, which I wrote about on the blog some time ago. Towns in East Moravia you may already have heard of:

• Zlín
• Kroměříž
• Luhačovice

Where to stay in East Moravia: try Statek U Rajmunda

There’s no shortage of places to stay. If you want to be in the thick of things, I’d go for Zlín or the smaller town of Rožnov. I stayed at Statek U Rajmunda, which feels like the end of the world: a lone farmstead on the edge of a forest. Staying on this family farm has a character all of its own. A cockerel wakes you in the morning, and breakfast is usually made from their own produce.

• Tip from Milan If you’re exploring more of Czechia, South Bohemia is worth a visit too

The approach road alone told me I was heading somewhere special. Right up to the last minute I wasn’t sure I was going the right way, until three lovely alpacas greeted me in the middle of a meadow. You have to drive past a no-entry sign and crawl through the forest in first gear on an unpaved gravel track, hoping Statek U Rajmunda will be at the end of it. It was.

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What to see in East Moravia

1. The Soláň bell tower (Zvonice Soláň) and Soláň hill, 860 m
2. Kostel Panny Marie Sněžné (Church of Our Lady of the Snows), Velké Karlovice
3. Na Stanoch natural swimming lake, the local Balaton
4. The Rožnov brewery (Rožnovský pivovar)
5. The Wallachian Open-Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and the Jurkovič lookout tower
6. The Bečva cycle route
7. Baťa’s skyscraper in Zlín, the museum and the Tomáš Baťa Memorial
8. The spa town of Luhačovice
9. If you’re in the area, don’t forget my favourite, Kroměříž

Where to eat in East Moravia and where to go for coffee

• Horský hotel Čarták, Solanec pod Soláněm
• The restaurant at Wellness Hotel Horal, Léskové
• La Šiška, Velké Karlovice (I didn’t get to try it as it was closed, but a local recommended it)
• Kaféčko in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm
• Bistrotéka Valachy in Zlín

The Soláň bell tower and Soláň hill (860 m)

The Soláň bell tower (Zvonice Soláň) makes a pretty good starting point for hiking in the hills. When I parked, I saw groups of Czechs getting ready to set off on a walk. The bell tower itself is an information centre that hosts cultural events and concerts. It was the idea of the painter František Podešva, who wanted to draw attention to the life and roots of the Wallachians. Their home is right here in East Moravia, and they have a long history in the area.

Moravian Wallachia has always been thinly populated, partly because of its poor soil. People lived mainly in the valleys, where monastic orders had settled. The so-called Wallachian colonisation began around 1500, when the first shepherds arrived. These were the Wallachians, and they settled even the less fertile land. In fact, East Moravia was settled by two groups: the Wallachians, who were shepherds, and the Moravians, who were farmers. Over time they merged into one.

Tip from Milan Close to the bell tower is Horský hotel Soláň, and I recommend trying the traditional borůvkové knedlíky (blueberry dumplings), typical of this region. Everyone here eats them, and people pack them for hikes too. If the waitress asks whether you’d like just a half portion, say yes. I couldn’t manage a whole one.

Kostel Panny Marie Sněžné (Church of Our Lady of the Snows), Velké Karlovice

This church was built without a single nail, using only beech wedges. It’s the most precious historic building in Velké Karlovice. The floor plan is a cross, and the outer walls are broken into 24 angles. Inside there are two bells, the heavier of which weighs 120 kg.

Tip from Milan If you fancy something sweet, pop into the nearby La Šiška cake shop. Its opening hours are fairly limited, so check them before you go. If you do catch it open, sit out on the terrace with one of their creative drinks and some great coffee.

Na Stanoch natural swimming lake, known locally as Balaton

In Nový Hrozenkov there’s a lovely stretch of water that the locals call Balaton, after the big lake in Hungary. People come here to swim in the clean water, which turns beautiful shades of turquoise on sunny days. It’s actually a man-made lake, with both grassy and sandy beaches, and you can play beach volleyball here too.

Around the lake there are several snack bars and an artificial slope for acrobatic jumps, and I can imagine it’s great fun here in summer. Unfortunately the weather was miserable when I visited, but I met a group of cyclists who had come to cool their legs off. Fishing is allowed too, so as far as I’m concerned, the only thing missing is a nudist beach.

Tip from Milan In summer you’ll sometimes find a wagon called BAR-IN-GOTKA parked here (a play on maringotka, the Czech word for a showman’s wagon). It serves some very original refreshments, and you sit on loungers or straw bales. It belongs to a mother and daughter who had the turquoise wagon custom-built in England and turned it into a quirky stand selling snacks and traditional Czech food.

Visiting the Rožnov brewery

It wouldn’t be my kind of trip to Czechia if beer didn’t come into it somewhere. I’d definitely recommend a visit to the tiny local Rožnov brewery (Rožnovský pivovar). A local guide, Libor Cabák, gave me some of his time and told me the brewery opened as early as 1712. Its original owner liked to say:

‘Not a day went by without local healers from the mountains turning up in the brewery yard and carrying off jugs of brewer’s yeast.’

Stop here for a beer spa, much like the beer spa in Poprad, and try their unpasteurised beer. The beers are named after the brewery’s various historical owners, and they aren’t brewed anywhere else in the world. Rožnovský pivovar is a small brewery that produces only 50,000 litres of beer. I looked up how much beer the average Czech drinks in a year and found 135 litres per person (newer figures for 2025 put it at 121 litres). For comparison, the average Slovak drinks just 70 litres. So 50,000 litres is enough for exactly 370 Czechs or 714 Slovaks.

They also use the beer in a range of their own products, such as beer shampoo, various soaps and cosmetics.

The Wallachian Open-Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and the Jurkovič lookout tower

I’m not leaving Rožnov just yet. The nearby Wallachian Open-Air Museum (Valašské muzeum v přírodě) and the Jurkovič lookout tower (Jurkovičova rozhledna) are well worth a visit. The Wallachian Village (Valašská dědina) is one of the museum’s three sections and shows how the original inhabitants, the Wallachians I mentioned earlier, used to live. They often lived together in one small room, brothers, parents and grandparents alike, so these log cottages offered no privacy at all. They ate mostly potatoes, cabbage, porridge, bread and milk.

Whatever they grew, they prepared and ate. Cooking took up a large part of the day, and so did grinding grain. How did they work? From spring to autumn, with only their livestock to help. They spent Sundays in church, dressed in their best clothes.

Walking through the Wallachian Village reminded me how our ancestors lived, and let’s be honest, I couldn’t live like that. City life has probably made me soft. Do call in, and don’t miss the school building or the Jurkovič lookout tower, named after the Slovak architect Dušan Jurkovič. The tower stands outside the museum grounds, and most of its parts were made by hand using traditional techniques. It was built to the original designs from 1896 and is 32 metres high.

Tip from Milan While you’re at the museum, stop by the Wooden Town (Dřevěné městečko) and the Mill Valley (Mlýnská dolina) too.

The Bečva cycle route

The tourist information centre in Rožnov has mountain bikes and road bikes for hire. I picked one up there and set off on the Bečva cycle route. It’s a modern cycling ‘motorway’ that runs, quite literally, from mountain springs down to the valleys. The route follows the river Bečva, which gives it its name, and passes through several regions. I’d recommend the section from Horní Bečva to Valašské Meziříčí: it’s 31 km long with a very gentle climb of 229 m. The whole route covers 160 km. Have a look at the video I found below.

Tip from Milan Before you set off on the cycle route, stop at the Kaféčko café in Rožnov for a great cappuccino and a curd cheese pastry. I sat here for quite a while, watching the world go by.

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Baťa’s skyscraper in Zlín: the lift office, museum and Tomáš Baťa Memorial

You’ve surely heard of Baťa, the shoe company, but I think you should also stop at the Zlín skyscraper, Building 21. It was the original headquarters of the Baťa company and has 16 floors. Every floor is ordinary office space except the 8th, with the directors’ offices, and the 15th, with a conference hall.

Another thing that caught my eye is the fountain on the 16th floor. For its time, this was an ultra-modern, American-style building. It has four fast lifts, and one of them is Baťa’s own office. Yes, you read that right: his office was a lift. Everything in it is original. The office travelled up and down the full height of the building, and the lift still works today. If you look out of a window, you’ll see rails running around the outside of the building. They were used for cleaning the windows, which couldn’t be opened back then.

So who worked here? As well as regular employees, Baťa gave jobs to students, whom he wanted to mould himself. Their working day ran from 7am to 5pm, and then they had two hours of school. Lights out was at 9.15pm, when they had to go to bed. Pretty harsh, don’t you think? They earned 150 crowns a week, and even those who came from Zlín had to live in student hostels to keep up the discipline.

Baťa’s architecture in Zlín

The Baťa houses

From the skyscraper you can also see the Baťa houses, which were home to families. Single men had to live in hostels known as slobodárny. In the houses you weren’t allowed to keep animals or grow vegetables in the garden. Why? The houses were meant purely for rest. Tomáš Baťa died in a plane crash in 1932, on a business flight to Zurich. His plane went down in fog seven minutes after take-off, and neither he nor the pilot survived. You’ll find a faithful replica of the plane in the original Tomáš Baťa Memorial. Baťa is buried in the nearby Forest Cemetery.

Tip from Milan Right opposite the skyscraper is the popular Bistrotéka Valachy, where I had an excellent meal. The coffee is good too, and the whole place feels ultra-modern.

The spa town of Luhačovice, its colonnade and the architect Dušan Jurkovič

Charming buildings by one of the leading figures of Art Nouveau architecture, mineral springs open to everyone that have been bubbling up for centuries, and the heady smell of freshly baked spa wafers. That’s Luhačovice, the largest spa town in Moravia, not far from Zlín: a place to rest properly and recharge.

Dušan S. Jurkovič was a Slovak architect whose signature style was folk Art Nouveau. Among his most important works is the group of buildings at the Luhačovice spa, where he worked for three years. The finest building in Luhačovice is said to be Jurkovič House (Jurkovičův dům), which he rebuilt in 1902, with a colourfully painted interior and facade. The mid-20th-century colonnade by the architect Oskar Poříska continues Jurkovič’s style and links his buildings into a compact spa centre.

The Vincentka spring

Luhačovice’s main draw is its natural healing springs. The salty water here is rich in minerals and considered among the most effective in Europe. Treatments help with respiratory and musculoskeletal conditions, diabetes and other illnesses. Some springs are for drinking, others are used for inhalation and baths. The best known is Vincentka, popular since the late 17th century. Every so often the spa calls in a hydrologist to find a new spring, which is then drilled and ceremonially opened.

Is a trip to East Moravia worth it?

You might also like my article 3 less touristy places in Prague that stole my heart.

For Slovaks, East Moravia has one big advantage: it’s right by the border. Just come off the motorway after Trenčín and you’re there. I’d recommend staying somewhere with character in the countryside, trying the local specialities and beer, getting to know Wallachian customs and seeing Baťa’s fascinating lift, which doubled as his office.

Happy travels!

Milan Bez Mapy