Prague is one of my favourite cities. It’s so easy to get around, everything is so cheap and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I stayed in Prague in a 4* hotel for three nights for under £120. Below I have listed my favourite things to do in Prague, how to get around and where to stay (if you’re not on a cruise of course!) The tips below on what to do in Prague definitely still apply if you’re visiting on a cruise, it’s a relatively small city and easy to explore.
Flights: EasyJet £62 return pp
Hotel: Barcelo Praha Five £54 per night
Total Cost (£62+£162)/2 = £112 pp {2 sharing}
A little bit about Prague:
Prague is the capital city of the Czech Republic.The city lies on the banks of the Vltava River and has a 9th century castle that dominates the skyline. Prague is split into a number of different districts, Praha 1 – Praha 10 but many places are referred to by district names instead, for example the Old Town, Josefov district and Castle and lesser town district.
Sandemans provides free tours throughout the day in various languages. There is no upfront cost for the tour (although it is expected to leave a tip). I remember the guide describing this as ‘you get to taste the cake before you decide how much it is worth’. As the guides aren’t paid upfront they really go the extra mile to make sure you have a fabulous tour, our guide was funny and went out of his way to talk to all of us about where we were from and what life is like in Prague.
All in all, the tour took about 3 hours, we learnt about the history of the city and managed to get our bearings a little bit. I would recommend taking this tour as early as possible in your trip as it provides a brilliant insight into Prague. After this you can decide what you’d like to go back and visit in more detail. There was a little break in the middle where we went to a pub/cafe for beer/food, I didn’t have anything and didn’t feel any pressure to make a purchase. We tipped around £10 each. (Sorry for the photo Karel!)
Charles Bridge.
No trip to Prague would be complete without taking some photos of Charles bridge! It is best to visit the bridge in the morning or evening as it can get pretty busy in the middle of the day. The bridge is right in the centre of the city and it bussling with people selling souvenirs and drawing caricatures. You can take some amazing photos of Prague from the bridge and the bridge itself doesn’t look too shabby!
Find the weird barcode faced babies?!
This one is a little strange but I like to find the quirky. For some reason in Prague there are statues of babies with barcodes for faces. They are absolutely huge, here’s a photo of me for scale (I’m aware that my face is terrifying!) I never did find out what these statues are meant to mean, but I thought that they are pretty cool.
Petrin hill and tower.
If you buy a 24/72 hour travel card this also entitles you to a ride on the scenic cable car up to the Petrin tower. There are tons of steps to the top but it is totally worth it for the views of Prague. If you have any problems with heights you may want to give this one a miss, the steps aren’t enclosed and it can be a little scary to look down. When you get to the top you definitely will deserve a drink which brings me on nicely to my next point…
Have a beer!
Alcohol is extremely cheap in Prague, it would be rude not to have a pint when it can cost as little as £1.50!
John Lennon wall.
I feel like you have to do this one when in Prague although I was generally underwhelmed. It’s a cute idea but in reality, there is so much other graffiti on the wall that it just looks a mess. I’m sure it looked better before it got to so popular and people started graffitiing over and over other peoples art work on the wall. It’s really busy too.
Old town square and astronomical clock.
The square and astronomical clock really are the centre of Prague. On every side, there are amazing grand buildings filled with interesting quirks. There are tons of stalls in the square selling traditional Czech cuisine which is not to be missed! It’s also a great place to grab a pint and watch the world go by.
Night time walk.
Be sure to walk along the river front at night time. The city is beautiful in the day time but is even more so at night. Prague felt to me like an incredibly safe city, I had no issues walking around at night.
How to get around:
Travel is really cheap in Prague. When we arrived at the airport we brought 3 day travel passes which cost us, I believe, around £6. This ticket allowed us to go on all trains trams and buses. That’s a damn sight better than the 2 stops I can get on a UK train for £6!
From the airport it was easy to get into the centre of Prague, we had to get a bus to the nearest train station but this was easy and all covered under the ticket. The trains were really easy to understand, if you can master the London underground you’ll be more than fine on the trains in Prague.
Note: Do not forget to validate your ticket! There are little yellow machines on the buses and at the stations, at the start of your 24/72 hours you must validate your ticket. This means putting your ticket into the machine and it stamps onto it the current time and date.
Where to stay:
We stayed at the Barcelo Praha Five hotel, it was in district five and I believe more of a ‘business’ style hotel. This suited us just fine! The hotel was clean, very close to a metro station and cheap. I would without a doubt stay here again if I was to travel back to Prague.
How to get to Prague:
If you’re not cruising then you’ll more than likely be taking a flight. My flights from the UK were only £62 return. That is cheaper than it is for me to take the 1 hour journey into London from where I live in the UK! Always makes me laugh that its cheaper to take a flight to the Czech Republic than take a train into London.
I would recommend using sky scanner to find the cheapest flights. The fact that I travelled in March which no doubt made the prices cheaper.
I would 100% recommend Prague to anybody! Prague is a really interesting city with a colourful history and beautiful architecture. Make sure you visit if you get the chance!
Check out my Prague gallery for more photos and hopefully a little inspiration: Prague.
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