Alternatives

SKODA auto

The oldest car manufacturer in the Volkswagen group and the biggest in the Czech Republic, Skoda Auto is undoubtedly the most powerful engine of the Czech national economy. Last year alone, Skoda Auto produced more than 1 million cars for the first time and is geared up to become one of the 5 most sold cars by 2030 worldwide. Founded in 1895 by Laurin and Klement and 5 employees as a bicycle workshop, Skoda is today the nation’s biggest exporter, and with more than 20 thousand employees, also the country’s second biggest and most favoured employer. Skoda today ranks in the super-league of the automotive industry thanks to its association with the VW group since 1991.

Excursion to Skoda auto

An hour bus journey will get us to Mlada Boleslav, a medieval town founded in the 10^th century, now synonymous with SKODA works. We’ll start with a tour through the newly reconstructed Skoda museum where historic models of Skoda cars are exhibited in their full splendour. We continue the tour with a factory visit. You get to see the cars being assembled as well as motor and gear case production. We can also organize the access to the welding hall, upon request from you.
Mlada Boleslav, the headquarters of Skoda today, is a well to do town of about 45 thousand inhabitants. We chose however to leave to city buzz for a small brewery restaurant dug up in a cliff some 15km further away from Prague. You will have lunch in what used to be a wine cellar monks once escavated into the rock. This unique restaurant with the local brewery beer will make you forget the factory hussle and let you enjoy the well prepared local dish in a countryside environment. Buy some beer to take away from the Brewery sellout.

Did you know…

• Laurin and Klement produced one of the most successful rally cars before WWI, winning 5 consecutive trophies between 1910 – 1914 in the prestigious 3000km long Alpine Ride.
• In the company’s first race in 1901, Narcis Podsedníček, a worker, designer, foreman and car racer, left an unforgettable mark in the history of the race – he was even faster than the timekeepers! When he arrived at the finish line at 3am, nobody was waiting for him, and so he decided to have his time registered by a police constable, and not by authorized race officials, for which he was then disqualified.
•In the aftermath of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, all development was frozen in Skoda factories so as not to threaten the slightly backwards LADA and Moskvich production in Russia.