Prague
1-day tourist route
One-day route of ‘main’ tourist attractions: mapy.cz, GPX
On that route:
- by the entrance to Prague castle, there’s a restaurant called “Kuchyň”, it has a terrace with a great view of the city and the beer prices are okay for the location
- at the Prague castle, take a look in the cathedral, it’s really cool. there’s also a street there called “Zlatá ulička” (Golden street) with a lot of old houses furnished like they were historically. entrances to both these are paid I think, though outside of opening hours the Golden street is free. you can also see different areas in the castle itself but that’s not a ‘must’
- in Lucerna passage, you can go to the rooftop, open on friday & weekends from 4pm. there’s a cool elevator.
- Valdštejnská zahrada has peacocks
- on “Staroměstské náměstí” (Old Town square), there’s the tower with the large astronomical clock, and you can actually enter this tower and climb to the top (paid entrance iirc), where you also get to see the clock mechanism from the inside. Parts of the clock animate every hour, on the hour, and you can also see that from the main square.
Other things to see
- the area “Josefov”, the old Jewish quarter in Prague. Also has the “Staronová” synagogue. It’s famous in the legend of the Golem, a being created from mud - it’s said that its remains are in the attic of that synagogue (nobody knows for sure, it’s forbidden to go to the attic there). But you can visit the synagogue itself afaik, and other ones in the area too.
- the lookout tower on Petřín hill, it’s similar to the Eiffel tower. you can walk up the hill or take a cable car from the station “Újezd”. there’s also a mirror maze next to the tower.
- Vyšehrad castle, a historic fort from like the 10th century, there’s a really nice view from there too. it also has a legend (many places in Prague do) – that it was the first settlement that later became Prague, and that a prince who was jailed there managed to escape by jumping over the castle walls and into the river below on his horse.
- if you want to visit a park, Letná park is nice and close to the center, plus it has the metronome
GPX file
This website has thematic routes around Prague to showcase architectonic/cultural places (in Czech)
Boat cruise
For a boat ride, I really enjoyed the cruise by “Pražské Benátky” (Prague Venice): https://www.prazskebenatky.cz/en/cruise/cruise-info It starts from underneath the Charles bridge, where you can see the last remains of the previous Judith’s bridge (built in 1170). Then you go across the river and into “Čertovka” (Devil’s canal) which resembles Venice.
Bars, clubs, lounges, restaurants
Hidden (not anymore) cafes: https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mid=1MHNStVOwm9bAAA-5FdGONQspELuQCl8p&hl=de
For unique music clubs, I like:
- Steampunk: more ‘mainstream’ tourist club, cool decor
- Cross Club: oriented more towards techno, underground electronic music. Also cool decor.
- Ankali: much more of an ‘authentic’ feel, bit hard to find, more electronic music. Using phones inside is not tolerated.
- Stalin: under the Prague metronome, outdoor.
- Fashion: definitely very mainstream, only made this list because it’s on the roof of a shopping mall in the center.
GPX file with clubs
A pretty popular thing here is shisha (water pipe with tobacco, sometimes called ‘hookah’ or ‘narghile’), there’s many places that have them. Some good ones are Smokehouse, Cartel, Foggy.
GPX file with shisha places
Bars/cafes/restaurants: Havelská koruna, Lokál, Jídelna Světozor, Mincovna, Skautský institut Rybárna, Mlýnská kavárna, Cafedu, Popocafepetl, Kuchyň, beer garden on Letná, Vnitroblock, Alfredo cafe, LAb, Grand Cafe Orient, Pivnice U Kata, Joystick arcade bar
GPX file with bars/cafes/restaurants
Practical things
Finance
For practical matters, you probably know we use Czech crowns (“koruny”, in short it’s “kč”):
- most of the time you’ll be fine with a card, make sure when you pay to pay in crowns and not euros (so that you get the exchange rate from your bank, not from whatever place you’re paying, sometimes it’s phrased as “paying without conversion”)
- same with taking money out of the ATM, a lot of the ones by Euronet rip off tourists by giving you a terrible exchange rate (like 1 euro to 16 kc, when the real rate is different - check https://xe.com). They also ask you to withdraw huge amounts, like 10,000 kc and up – that’s way too much money, I usually don’t have more than 1,000 in cash.
- if you go to a physical money exchange place, also confirm the commision and exchange rate and keep the receipt, then if you don’t like their deal you by law have 3 hours in which you can get your money back. I’m just emphasizing this because it’s been a huge problem in Prague in recent years.
- there’s also sometimes scammers that wait for you to take money out of the ATM, offer to ‘break’ your large bills into smaller ones and give you expired Belarussian money instead, so don’t exchange money on the street. I know you wouldn’t fall for this but just figured I’d mention it.
- as a side note, I usually use Wise (used to be called TransferWise) when travelling, they have the best exchange rates imo. they also offer a physical card
Transport
In terms of transport in the city, it’s best to use public transport, you can get basically everywhere and tickets are cheap (30 kc for 30 min, 40 kc for 90 min). You can buy tickets in machines at metro stations (card or cash) or in machines inside trams (card only). When you buy a ticket, you also have to validate it by getting it stamped in a small yellow box-shaped machine (you’ll know what I mean when you see it). There’s also tickets for multiple days if you want. See here for info https://www.dpp.cz/en/fares/fare-pricelist#1-1 The city is also very easy to walk around.
From the airport, use a bus, unless you have so much luggage it would be hard to carry. If you have large luggage you might need to also buy a ticket for that. You can buy tickets at machines at the bus stop. By far the cheapest option.
Trams with a yellow nose have AC inside.
For planning, you can use https://dpp.cz, https://idos.cz, or one of the mobile apps like Pubtran (also called “Jízdní řády”). For maps, https://en.mapy.cz is best. You can track positions of public transport vehicles with https://mapa.pid.cz/
Outside of Prague
For places outside of Prague, most of these are full-day trips: