A royal history, good food and beautiful architecture – it’s understandable why Prague has become one of the most popular places for a citytrip.
No one will deny that it’s a very beautiful city. Connected by impressive bridges, Prague’s city center lies along the river banks of the Moldau. The view of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge is postcard-worthy and the Jewish Quarter brings history alive via the graveyard and many synagogues.
I had heard though that, being cheaper than other European cities and still having so much charm, tourism had exploded in the last years.
When I visited the city in October, the weather was still nice and I have to be honest, there were so many tourists – comparable to Croatia and Barcelona in August.
If you are not ready to face this, Prague might disappoint you. Although I’m definitely not a big fan of the tourist crowds myself, I still really wanted to go and here are my tips to get an authentic experience at this beautiful city.
Timing: October
Duration: 4 days
Budget: EUR 300
Flight Brussels – Prague (return): EUR 40
Accomodation (incl breakfast): EUR 95,4 pp for 3 nights (190,80 EUR for 1 room for 2 people)
Restaurants (lunch + dinner): EUR 100
Attractions: 40
Transport: 10
Other: 15
Accomodation: We stayed at Hotel Taurus, which was about 25 euros per person per night, breakfast buffet included. There are many hostels at the city, so that’s definitely a budget option.
Public transport:
What to do in Prague
Do:
– visit the Stare Mesto (Old Town) and Charles Bridge. It’s true that it’s overcrowded, but it’s still impressively beautiful and you shouldn’t miss it.
– visit the Jewish Quarter. It’s important and impressive.
– find restaurants outside of the Stare Mesto. I’ve had the best food in Prague in a basement pizzeria in an area of the city we would have never come. TripAdvisor is very useful in this case/
– Think about what interests you and go looking for that. Prague is good for making normal things into a bit alternative. For example, I found a small “Museum of Alchemy” (see info below) with almost no visitors and it was the coolest thing I’d done during my whole stay. So find a topic that interests you (art, chocolate, biking) and look on google what’s going on in the city in regards to that.
– get out of the city. I didn’t have enough time, but apparently there are many great day trips that you can take from Prague to the surrounding area’s.
Don’t:
– expect to be wandering in a romantic, quiet atmosphere at the Prague Castle or basically any other tourist attraction. The crowds are huge.
– take out most of your time for the most famous tourist attractions.
They’re nice, but after 2 days we discovered that Prague (even more compared to other cities) has way more to offer in non-touristy things.
– do a boat tour unless you’re really super excited about it. It was expensive and not that impressive.
Day 1
Lunch: Pod Vyšehradem
Visit: Vysehrad castle, Stare Mesto (The Old Town), the Astronomical Clock & StaromEstske namEsti (Old Square).
From the airport to the city center, you have to take a bus. Depending on where your accommodation is located, you will probably also have to get a metro afterwards.
After having dropped of our luggage, we walked from the metro stop “Muzeum” to the Vysehrad Area (about 30min). There we had lunch at a local restaurant, called Pod Vyšehradem, that served typical Czech dishes. It was very cosy, cheap and the food was great. Czech cuisine is very meat-driven, so if you’re a vegetarian, I don’t recommend it.
After lunch, we visited the Vysehrad castle (free entrance, guided tours possible. Info here on the website). Don’t expect an actual castle – it’s only the remains of the wall and a church, but the view of Prague and the Moldau is amazing.
Then we took a metro to “Staroměstská” and visited Stare Mesto (The Old Town), which is definitely worth a stroll. From there you will reach the Astronomical Clock & StaromEstske namEsti (Old Square). On the hour, something happens with the astronomical clock and even though crowds were flocking around it, it was so not impressive that I can’t even remember what it was. If you happen to be there, it’s nice to watch, but don’t go making your whole agenda around it.
We had dinner at a restaurant between the metro stop Staroměstská and the Old Square, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name.
Day 2
On the second day we did the mandatory visit to the Charles Bridge. if you’re wondering which one of the many bridges it is once you get to the river: it’s the one packed with people – you can’t miss it 🙂
Get to the bridge by getting off the metro at “Staroměstská” and walk to the “Old Town Bridge Tower (Staroměstská mostecká věž)“. The entrance fee to get in and up the tower is CZK 100 (€ 4) (more info here on the website)and it’s definitely worth a visit for the best views over the Charles Bridge, the river, the old town and the Prague castle.
Crossing the river via the Charles Bridge to the other part of the city center, it’s just a short walk (ca 15min) to the Prague Castle. You will have to walk up some stairs to get there though. You can go inside the gates of the castle for free. The walk around the castle and gardens is impressive and took us about an hour. If you want to visit the castle inside, you have to buy a ticket – which we didn’t do, because we didn’t want to. Ticket prices and opening hours can be found here on the website.
The most fun were actually the dress-up pictures you could take at the entrance of the palace. The tip is about 100 CZK
Later we had lunch at a very bad restaurant near the castle – avoid by all cost the restaurants in the tourist street down the castle road. It’s expensive and bad food.
After lunch we had a Trdelnik as dessert – a typical Czech cake-like things topped of with sugar, chocolate or whatever you like. My advice: have the normal one with just sugar or some chocolate – I took the one with whipped cream and that was a big mistake, I almost fainted of a sugar rush 🙂 You can find them everywhere on the streets between the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle.
After that we continued to the John Lennon Wall, which is absolutely not worth it. At some point is was a memory wall for John Lennon, but now so many people have painted and written over it, that it’s just a very ugly wall that happens to have some John Lennon references. Better to visit the surrounding area to get an idea of a Czech Neighborhood.
My friend really wanted to eat sushi that night, so we ended up at the restaurant Asian Temple – which was kinda expensive, but with the best Asian food I’ve ever had, the coolest interior and the nicest service. If you’re up for a fancy dinner night out, I can definitely recommend this place.
Visit: Charles Bridge, Old Town Bridge Tower (Staroměstská mostecká věž), Prague Castle (Lobkowicz Palace), John Lennon Wall
Lunch: close to the castle & to be avoided
Dinner: Asian Temple
Day 3
In the morning we visited the Jewish Quarter. At first I didn’t expect that much of it (I had seen Jewish Quarters in other cities as well), but it turned out to be a very interesting experience. If you know when you want to go, I recommend getting tickets upfront via the website here, since we had to wait in line for at least 30min. I also recommend getting the ticket “Jewish town of Prague (combining ticket 1&2)” to have the best experience. You get to visit the Jewish museum with a free audio guide and learn about the history. Then you can visit the Jewish Cemetery and all the synagogues, which are very interesting.
In front of the last stop of the tour, the Spanish Synagogue, is a small lunchplace called Little Break, which is also a little more expensive than the average cheap food places in Prague, but the food was amazing and the place was so cute – definitely worth it.
After lunch we did a boat tour with Prague Boats, which cost about 16 EUR (cheaper if you book online), and lasted 50min. I don’t recommend it – too expensive and a little boring. We then walked back to the Old Town where we discovered a cafe/shop called “Choco-Story“, where you can sit down and have a hot chocolate, chocolate fondue with strawberries etc. Everything was delicious! Apparently this branch is Belgian and also exists in Brussels, so if you’re a better Belgian than me, you might have tried this already in Belgium 🙂
There’s a museum attached to the store, but it was closed when we got there, and you can join workshops and tastings.
We had dinner at Pizzeria Kmotra, which was absolutely amazing and served the best pizza I’d ever tasted for cheap prices in a very cosy setting.
Visit: Jewish Quarter, Boat tour, Chocolate-Story
Lunch: Little Break
Dinner: Pizzeria Kmotra
Day 4
There are two Musea of Alchemy in Prague. The first one I found was Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague, which turned out to have mostly bad reviews on TripAdvisor, so I didn’t go there. I went to the second one I found – much smaller, but the coolest thing I did during the whole trip: Museum of Alchemy – Speculum Alchemiae.
Here you can visit actual underground laboratories from Alchemists. The tour takes about 30min: you get an explanation about the history and how the tunnels and rooms were discovered. They also found bottles and old recipes, based on which they still make the liquids, which you can buy at the shop. If you’re interested in this kind of things (or anything Harry Potter-like) I can definitely recommend it.