Inspired by @HungarianBison , I´ve tried to create a similar thread for people who might consider visiting Prague or other Czech tourist spot for the first time. It is general advice, just basics, with covid-related remarks at the end.
Transport
Prague has a medium-sized airport with direct connections to larger European cities, Dubai, Doha and New York (the last one only during summer season). The airport is at city outskirts, public transport (bus/underground) takes 30 minutes to downtown.
Prague public transport is efficient, cheap, simple and reliable. Forget that cabs even exist here (unless it´s the middle of the night and you are late for a flight). A 3-days ticket costs €13 eur and includes all undeground lines (called "metro" here), trams, buses, trains and even river ferry. Single ride ticket is €1,60.
You can use both bus or train to travel into regions from Prague. Public transport net is wast, usually on time and cheap, not always quick. Just check timetables carefully, weekend/holiday traffic schedules are much lighter.
You can rent a car and drive into regions, we drive on the right side, the country is small and everywhere is doable in a day trip from Prague. The only inconveniences - aggressive local drivers and traffic jams on Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon when people travel to/from their weekend second houses in countryside. Don´t drive within Prague on weekdays unless you must to, you get stuck in heavy traffic and one-way streets with lack of parking spots. You NEVER park on light blue line painted on ground, that is residential area and the car will get fined or towed off within minutes.
If you come with your own car, buy highway vignette online beforehand.
Accomodation
Prague is very popular with tourists (10 mio annually pre-covid) thus price level is similar to hotels in Vienna or Germany.
Main season with corresponding prices is May till September plus Christmas/New Year/RussianNewYear. If you travel on student budget, go for hostels and Airbnb.
The whole city is accessible and has no obvious rough neighborhood so it doesn´t matter much where your hotel is located. Only the historical downtown gets lot of loud drunken Brits so maybe go little further if you have children with you.
Food and drinks
You can find here everything from fine dining to cheap fastfood chains, pizzerias, kebabs, chinese on every corner, genuine ethnic eateries, also good vegetarian restaurants. Almost zero halal or kosher options.
Local food is similar to German and Polish cousine. Signature dish is "svíčková" - beef with duplings in creamy sauce. Beer is popular, cheap and good quality. You can buy even some local wines (souvenirs).
Street food is inferior to anything you can find abroad. Use caution.
Good quality reasonably priced restaurants are full of locals at evening, do reservations or you wont get a table.
Meals and alcohol cost 1/2 compared to Germany/UK, unless you are in overpriced tourist spots.
Prague and the rest of the country has safe and drinkable tap watter. But restaurants never bring it on table unless you ask for it.
Safety
Prague is safe and the rest of the Czech republic is very very safe. Still, use streetsmart when you move within huge tourist crowds and don´t leave pricey items unsupervised.
Single female tourists can wander streets alone at night. Catcalling is unknown here.
The only danger is scams on tourists - overpriced taxis and fraudulent currency exchange boots charging hidden fees. NEVER exchange money outside of solid banks. Dont use ATM terminals with just huge "ATM" text without bank name, these will cheat you.
Payments
Practically all places accept cards. We love contactless debit cards.
Restaurants in tourist areas, all fuel stations, most hotels, supermarkets and even most zoos accept euro banknotes. US dollars are not used here.
Language
You will get around with just English. Town signs are bilingual. Random people in countryside might be a hit or miss but they will still try to help you. People working at tourist spots are close to 100% fluent.
Russian might be useful, half of economy runs on Ukrainian immigrant labour plus we get many Russian tourists (pre-covid).
What to visit
- Obviously the Prague zoo (10 minutes by Bus no. 117 from metro station Holešovice, 1 hour from airport). Plan a whole day and wear comfortable boots - 50 hectares, 10 km of paths, hilly terrain. Everything is accessible with wheelchair/pram, toilets are suitable for handicaped folk, signage is in English and Russian, luggage storage at entrance.
- Botanical garden in Troja just next to the zoo, but the large greenhouse is closed on Monday.
- Kings Road is a 2 hours hike that covers the historical center - starts at Prašná Brána (gothic tower, relict of city fortification), continue through Old Town Square, Karlův most (medieval bridge over river) and up to the Hrad (main castle) and into its gardens and down again by old stairs. This is my standard way I go when I show Prague to newbies.
- Technické muzeum (museum of ingeneering, full of veteran cars, train wagons, planes and many more, cool and rare items)
- Národní muzeum - stuffed animals, minerals and other collections, huge but boring
- Vyšehrad - the second medieval castle, nice location, baroque fortifications, good for jogging
- Petřínská rozhledna - a copy of Eiffel tower that offers the best views over the city
- Náplavka - river bank full of trendy small cafes, crowded hang-out place for younger locals
- parník, a 75 minutes boat trip on the river from downtown to the zoo, cool experience for children
- Na Příkopě - high street with expensive fashion brand shops
- Žižkov - the most "trendy" neighborhood, full of cafes and pubs, nighlife, groud zero for expats (Brits and Americans)
- Jewish quarter with medieval synagogues and cemetary, for hardcore history buffs
- Krokodýlí zoo - very small collection of 10 crocodille and 30 tortoise species, in Holešovice
- University botanical garden in Albertov, greenhouses and a park, smaller but nice, with few large parrots and fish
- Spálená street no.14, in lobby of building of První Česká Vzájemná Pojišťovna (bank) lives an eel in a water tank
- Valdštejnská zahrada (city garden) or Františkánská zahrada in downtown, beautiful, no entrance fee
- pasáž - many street blocks in downtown old town have passages though them (similar to Paris), with shops, cinemas, small theaters and cafes. Just enter and wander around.
- tram line 22 - this regular line goes through significant part of historic center. If it rains or you are tired to walk, just hop on and do a city tour.
TOP5 Czech zoos
Prague, Zlin, Dvur Kralove, Plzen and Ostrava - all of them are worth a whole day trip, they have good collections and mostly good enclosures.
Honorary mentions - Chomutov (a tierpark) and Jihlava (half-day zoo).
COVID-related measures
Zoos are freely accessible by all, you don´t need covid passport.
You need a covid passport to enter restaurants, hotels, gyms, concerts etc.
Mask mandate in all enclosed spaces.
Curfew for entertainment/dining/drinking venues at 10pm.
Arrival of international tourists is allowed, but non-EU citizens must come vaccinated.
Is there a danger of a lock-down that would close zoos or forbid travel? This risk is pretty low currently, cases are trending down. We survived the last vawe without harsh lockdown and the new goverment is more conservative-right and unwilling to use this way.
Transport
Prague has a medium-sized airport with direct connections to larger European cities, Dubai, Doha and New York (the last one only during summer season). The airport is at city outskirts, public transport (bus/underground) takes 30 minutes to downtown.
Prague public transport is efficient, cheap, simple and reliable. Forget that cabs even exist here (unless it´s the middle of the night and you are late for a flight). A 3-days ticket costs €13 eur and includes all undeground lines (called "metro" here), trams, buses, trains and even river ferry. Single ride ticket is €1,60.
You can use both bus or train to travel into regions from Prague. Public transport net is wast, usually on time and cheap, not always quick. Just check timetables carefully, weekend/holiday traffic schedules are much lighter.
You can rent a car and drive into regions, we drive on the right side, the country is small and everywhere is doable in a day trip from Prague. The only inconveniences - aggressive local drivers and traffic jams on Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon when people travel to/from their weekend second houses in countryside. Don´t drive within Prague on weekdays unless you must to, you get stuck in heavy traffic and one-way streets with lack of parking spots. You NEVER park on light blue line painted on ground, that is residential area and the car will get fined or towed off within minutes.
If you come with your own car, buy highway vignette online beforehand.
Accomodation
Prague is very popular with tourists (10 mio annually pre-covid) thus price level is similar to hotels in Vienna or Germany.
Main season with corresponding prices is May till September plus Christmas/New Year/RussianNewYear. If you travel on student budget, go for hostels and Airbnb.
The whole city is accessible and has no obvious rough neighborhood so it doesn´t matter much where your hotel is located. Only the historical downtown gets lot of loud drunken Brits so maybe go little further if you have children with you.
Food and drinks
You can find here everything from fine dining to cheap fastfood chains, pizzerias, kebabs, chinese on every corner, genuine ethnic eateries, also good vegetarian restaurants. Almost zero halal or kosher options.
Local food is similar to German and Polish cousine. Signature dish is "svíčková" - beef with duplings in creamy sauce. Beer is popular, cheap and good quality. You can buy even some local wines (souvenirs).
Street food is inferior to anything you can find abroad. Use caution.
Good quality reasonably priced restaurants are full of locals at evening, do reservations or you wont get a table.
Meals and alcohol cost 1/2 compared to Germany/UK, unless you are in overpriced tourist spots.
Prague and the rest of the country has safe and drinkable tap watter. But restaurants never bring it on table unless you ask for it.
Safety
Prague is safe and the rest of the Czech republic is very very safe. Still, use streetsmart when you move within huge tourist crowds and don´t leave pricey items unsupervised.
Single female tourists can wander streets alone at night. Catcalling is unknown here.
The only danger is scams on tourists - overpriced taxis and fraudulent currency exchange boots charging hidden fees. NEVER exchange money outside of solid banks. Dont use ATM terminals with just huge "ATM" text without bank name, these will cheat you.
Payments
Practically all places accept cards. We love contactless debit cards.
Restaurants in tourist areas, all fuel stations, most hotels, supermarkets and even most zoos accept euro banknotes. US dollars are not used here.
Language
You will get around with just English. Town signs are bilingual. Random people in countryside might be a hit or miss but they will still try to help you. People working at tourist spots are close to 100% fluent.
Russian might be useful, half of economy runs on Ukrainian immigrant labour plus we get many Russian tourists (pre-covid).
What to visit
- Obviously the Prague zoo (10 minutes by Bus no. 117 from metro station Holešovice, 1 hour from airport). Plan a whole day and wear comfortable boots - 50 hectares, 10 km of paths, hilly terrain. Everything is accessible with wheelchair/pram, toilets are suitable for handicaped folk, signage is in English and Russian, luggage storage at entrance.
- Botanical garden in Troja just next to the zoo, but the large greenhouse is closed on Monday.
- Kings Road is a 2 hours hike that covers the historical center - starts at Prašná Brána (gothic tower, relict of city fortification), continue through Old Town Square, Karlův most (medieval bridge over river) and up to the Hrad (main castle) and into its gardens and down again by old stairs. This is my standard way I go when I show Prague to newbies.
- Technické muzeum (museum of ingeneering, full of veteran cars, train wagons, planes and many more, cool and rare items)
- Národní muzeum - stuffed animals, minerals and other collections, huge but boring
- Vyšehrad - the second medieval castle, nice location, baroque fortifications, good for jogging
- Petřínská rozhledna - a copy of Eiffel tower that offers the best views over the city
- Náplavka - river bank full of trendy small cafes, crowded hang-out place for younger locals
- parník, a 75 minutes boat trip on the river from downtown to the zoo, cool experience for children
- Na Příkopě - high street with expensive fashion brand shops
- Žižkov - the most "trendy" neighborhood, full of cafes and pubs, nighlife, groud zero for expats (Brits and Americans)
- Jewish quarter with medieval synagogues and cemetary, for hardcore history buffs
- Krokodýlí zoo - very small collection of 10 crocodille and 30 tortoise species, in Holešovice
- University botanical garden in Albertov, greenhouses and a park, smaller but nice, with few large parrots and fish
- Spálená street no.14, in lobby of building of První Česká Vzájemná Pojišťovna (bank) lives an eel in a water tank
- Valdštejnská zahrada (city garden) or Františkánská zahrada in downtown, beautiful, no entrance fee
- pasáž - many street blocks in downtown old town have passages though them (similar to Paris), with shops, cinemas, small theaters and cafes. Just enter and wander around.
- tram line 22 - this regular line goes through significant part of historic center. If it rains or you are tired to walk, just hop on and do a city tour.
TOP5 Czech zoos
Prague, Zlin, Dvur Kralove, Plzen and Ostrava - all of them are worth a whole day trip, they have good collections and mostly good enclosures.
Honorary mentions - Chomutov (a tierpark) and Jihlava (half-day zoo).
COVID-related measures
Zoos are freely accessible by all, you don´t need covid passport.
You need a covid passport to enter restaurants, hotels, gyms, concerts etc.
Mask mandate in all enclosed spaces.
Curfew for entertainment/dining/drinking venues at 10pm.
Arrival of international tourists is allowed, but non-EU citizens must come vaccinated.
Is there a danger of a lock-down that would close zoos or forbid travel? This risk is pretty low currently, cases are trending down. We survived the last vawe without harsh lockdown and the new goverment is more conservative-right and unwilling to use this way.
