I was in Prague this week, you can see tons of pictures and videos on my Instagram account from the city, some I will add here too. The first thought I had: AMAZING city. Second thought: amazing city with always something to watch. Either it is art students, singing, dancing, or some creative guys doing extraordinary things. I loved the vibe of the Old Town, and the contrast of the shopping malls and business districts. However my absolute favorite was the Old Town. Not surprising.
Below, just let me give you some ideas where you can stay, what you can do, how you can get around the city.
Accommodation
I stayed at the Pentahotel, which is a nice hotel, however… it is rather a hostel if you look
at the rooms, but it’s way too expensive for just being a hostel (I saw pictures on the web how rooms look, but those are the very expensive rooms, and I found the lower level also expensive compared to what it offers. My bathroom door was impossible to close, no f
ridge, and no wardrobe).
The advantage is that it had a gym free of charge, billiard, bar, nice breakfast service, and a cozy lounge, but I found it expensive for how the city is generally. It is rather close to the Old Town district, like 1.5Km of walking which is not boring, so one can do easily, but next time I probably would look for apartments. I think they are quite good, I’ve been to other apartments before in Prague, and they are better located, cheaper, and nicer than hotels I’ve been to. So look for apartments really! Disadvantage with them is the lack of parking if you are taking car, and they might not accept credit cards, but overall, I vote for apartments.
I think the city overall has good offers, check for special deals, if you use booking.com by any chance, or ask from the taxi services, or the airliners.
Travelling
I got warnings for taking a regular taxi from the airport because they might try to scam you, so I pre-booked a shuttle, which was easy, cheap and took me straight to the hotel.
Inside the city I truly don’t recommend to take taxi. Public transport is not only ridiculously cheap (I bought 24 CZK tickets to the underground, which is good enough for a 30 minutes travel, which means basically anywhere in the city centre and even a bit outside).
24 CZK is roughly 1 EUR, so you can imagine, if you stay for a week, this will still be quite cheaper than taking a taxi for a day.
I also found the metro system easy to comprehend, the stations are in very convenient places, and they have trams too. The couches have displays for the station upcoming, so you are safe, and they were also not overly crowded. In Japan I never had a chance to sit, or even stand comfortably, but here I almost always had a sitting place, and I traveled in high peak traffic, morning and afternoon hours. Otherwise, walking is amazingly convenient, since the city offers a lot to see, so whenever I could, I walked. I walked roughly 15 kms a day, but I could hardly feel it, it is amazing, and the main sightseeing attractions are not far.
I suggest you take a major point, like Florenc station and just travel around. Florenc is good connection to almost anything, and it has also a bus station for outside of Prague travels.
Prague is in the middle of Europe, so from that station with a 4-5 hours of travel you can get to Budapest, Wien, Bratislava, Wroclaw, all those beautiful cities which worth looking at, and here comes the amazing thing, all these bus liners you can book a ticket for 15 EUR, or sometimes in last minutes deals for 2 (!!!) EUR. I took Flixbus for example to Wroclaw, I pre-booked a pretty good seat and paid 15 EUR. Amazing.
Prices
The city, for being basically in the cheaper block of Europe is not that cheap. I found that food, drinks, while they are cheaper than Western Europe, are not exactly on the cheap side compared to other cities nearby. Although the travelling really compensate for it. Buying food in a convenience store can be easy and cheap though, but try not to go to the small stores, I got a bit tricked there when they understood I am not local. If you go to Lidl, or any other bigger marketplaces, you should be fine.
Coffee, general food, etc, they are okay, when it comes to pricing, and they also accept credit cards, which you cannot tell for many other small stores. I didn’t want to keep cash on me, so I was in trouble sometimes.
I didn’t drink beer, although I recommend you do so, since Prague is known for it, so I cannot tell what the price is, but locals drank, so I guess it’s not bad.
What to see
The WHOLE city. I am not joking, it is incredibly fascinating, from the historical views to the Old Town, the new city part, the business district, the shopping malls, and the hip / new / artsy places mixing below the historical houses and buildings. It is such a bland of everything that you just have to see it once in your lifetime, not to mention the good food and the vibe of the whole city buzzing.
I loved it, and tried to catch on my photos and videos, it is really a central city in Europe, not to mention the history that surrounds it, and is written in the buildings.
I was simply walking around, so I didn’t have much of a plan what to see, but since I dared to walk until I didn’t feel my legs, I saw a lot of things. The Charles Bridge is one of my favorites still, but all the other buildings, squares, they are relatively close too, so it is always a good idea to walk instead of taking taxi.
Get some good shoes on, and just walk, breath the city in, let the flow take you where you please, and keep your nose up from your phone 🙂
Below you will find some useful links to what to aim for, what to see, the maps and traffic of the city.
Verdict
Must do. Definitely.
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