Traveling to Prague is always a good idea. If you’ll be deciding on it last minute, this Prague travel guide will for sure be handy to start with.
Table of Contents
Best Prague travel guide and tips
Best time to visit Prague
Prague will always be crowded, but if you want to avoid huge crowds be there off-season. January, February, March and November are the best months to travel to Prague. There is only one month you cannot avoid – if you want to see the Christmas market in Prague, your only month to be there is December. You will also have less crowded streets and sights on week-days.
How to reach Prague?
If you enjoy road trips and don’t live too far from Czech, you might want to drive there by car. But most of the people either don’t have the time or they live far away, so flying is actually your best choice. Prague has an international airport, so most international airlines fly to Prague. There is even a good choice of low-budget airlines in Europe, so check them out too.
After landing at the Prague international airport you have several options to reach the old city center – taxi, shuttle bus, Uber or public transport. If you decide for public transport, you will find a bus stop just outside of the airport building. Buy the 90 minutes ticket (32CZK) and wait for the bus number 119. Don’t forget to confirm the tickets before the ride starts. The bus will take you to its end station (Nadraži Veleslavin). You can then use the metro (Green A line) or use the tram – it depends what is your final destination in the city.
How to explore Prague?
If you don’t mind walking, exploring Prague on foot is definitely your best choice. The old city center is not enormous, so it could be done by walking easily with a bit of shape. But if you are not up for it, you can always help yourself with the public transport, as it is cheap and can take you all around the city.
Things to do and see in Prague
There are many things to do and see in Prague, but I guess Prague is mostly known for its history and old architecture – Prague castle, Astronomical clock and Charles Bridge. But Prague has many other, modern sights too. Prague has been developing on culinary field and is fast becoming popular as a good foodies destination.
One recommendation to avoid the crowds is to get up early and visit the most popular tourist attractions in Prague when most of the visitors are still asleep. The best time would be around 6-7 am, before breakfast.
Food in Prague
You will find all kinds of food in Prague, but you for sure cannot avoid trying some of the typical dishes out – goulash, bread dumplings, svickova, duck with red cabbage. The locals say the place for tasty Czech food is the Lokal. Prague also offers some good Vietnamese restaurants, if you are into Asian food. What we noticed and were happy about it is, that Prague is developing tremendously on culinary field, but if you like meat, you for sure came to the right city. We visited one of several butcher shops, where you can choose the meat, which is then prepared for you right at the spot. We went for the beef tartar and the steak in butcher shop Naše Maso. It was delicious! If you have not got the budget to indulge yourself with steaks, the place is also popular for its burgers.
You should definitely visit a farmer’s market too. We visited the Naplavka, which takes place at Vltava riverside every Saturday and can easily be reached by foot from the city center. A must buy at Naplavka are the kolači – traditional and really delicious Czech pastry. In fact, forget about the fake trdelnik, which was imported to Czech few years back and became »traditional pastry« only because of the good marketing. It actually has nothing to do with Czech.
Accommodation in Prague
Prague is one of the most visited European cities, so it has lots of different accommodation options. You can choose among location, budget and type. We spend 2 nights at the Hotel Kampa, right in the city center and near the Vltava River. Its location was perfect and the breakfast, included in the price, was diverse too. If you have an average budget and want to stay in the city center, hotel Kampa is a good choice. It also has a private parking if you are traveling to Prague by car, but have in mind it is not free of charge.
Safety in Prague
Prague is like every big city when it comes to safety. I guess the most dangerous thing are pickpockets. You should always have an eye on your belongings in the middle of the crowds.
Hygiene in Prague
I have to admit, I did not imagine, that Prague will be so clean and tidy. Not to mention you can drink tap water without any problems at all. How cool is that?
Payment methods in Prague
Even though Prague is a country in European Union, it still uses Czech Koruna and not Euros. That is why we have only taken our debit Mastercard with us, as we did not want to change money and deal with changing it back again. We had no problems using the debit card and we could use it everywhere – except at the farmer’s market though.
Prices in Prague
Prague is very touristic, but if you are coming from the Western European countries or USA, Australia, New Zealand, you will find Prague cheap. But the city center is not really cheap for locals, except for some places, which you can find too – if they offer a mug of beer for less than 60 CZK, you know you are at the right place.
You can read more tips and tricks to do Prague on a budget here.
Prague with kids
Unfortunately we have not noticed many playgrounds for kids in the old city center. We found one bellow the Charles Bridge and some at the two islands in the middle of Vltava River, which you can find right in the city center.
If you need changing room for your little ones, you will find them in shopping malls (for example Palladium) and also in public toilet underneath the Leggi bridge, where the stairs leads you to the Strelecky Ostrov island.
Communication
You will be surprised how many young people speak really good English – especially the ones working with tourists. So using English for sure is not a problem in Prague.
Traveling to Prague does not really need precise organization, so it is perfect also for everyone who don’t enjoy planning. But to still reach Prague more comfortable, we hope that this Prague travel guide helps you a little bit too.
