Looking back on our Prague visit, I can still say that my feeling about the city has not changed much. I stand by my conclusion that Prague is very much like a chocolate Easter egg. One of those ones that look gorgeous on the outside and are completely hollow on the inside. Not the best, but certainly good. I just prefer the ones with even more chocolate on the inside. I realize that this isn’t a popular opinion and Prague lovers are probably cussing me out already :-). Here are some of our Prague highlights of the best things to see, eat and do in the Czech Republic’s capital city.
Prague Highlights (Best of Prague):
You might remember our postcard from Prague in which l mentioned that Federico and I had differing opinions. He liked the city a lot more than l did, he thought it was more cosmopolitan. The one thing we both agree on without question is that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities we had ever seen. Perhaps for that alone, it is worthy of a visit. Guaranteed that you wouldn’t get tired of the views.
Top things to do in Prague: The best things about Prague in my opinion:
In no particular order, here are some of the places we enjoyed visiting in Prague. This capital city is humongous!. Most of the sites are located in Praha (district) 1, so you can easily walk from one place to the next. Most of the Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Center.
Prague Castle:
The castle complex dates back to the 9th century. The views are simply stunning from every angle. We didn’t tour the castle though. We were content with checking out the buildings, admiring the architecture, and watching the changing of the guard ceremony. My tip? If you’re taking a taxi or Uber, have them drop you off at the National Gallery entrance side. Our Uber driver was Satan’s child and dropped us off on the other side, meaning we had to climb a gazillion steps to get up to the castle. Pretty, but tiring. Much easier to walk down than go up! We knew better the second time :-).
Charles Bridge:
Prague has a lot of bridges, but the Charles Bridge is the most famous one. The building of the bridge started when Charles IV reigned and was completed in the 15th century. I loved the statues that lined the bridge and it reminded me of the Castel Sant’ Angelo bridge in Rome. Charles Bridge was the only means of crossing the Vitara river until 1841. It, therefore, played a big part in making Prague a very desirable trade route. It is usually packed to the gills with tourists, but we got lucky for the most part, especially when you walk the full length, and not just for Instagram photos :-).
St. Vitus Cathedral:
Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral and the seat of the Archbishop in Prague. This Cathedral is part of Prague Castle too. It’s a pretty cool Gothic building.
Josefov:
The old Jewish ghetto. Lots of designer stores and cool but pricey-looking restaurants in the area. I liked the funky vibe. We had been looking forward to checking out the museum but felt the price of entry was too high at $15 (350 kč a person and were told by three people who were leaving saying it wasn’t worth it. We’ll never know 🙂 ). You can see some of the tombstones from outside though. We spent the money on nice cocktails at a bar close by.
National Technical Museum:
This was hands down, the best place l visited in Prague. I can’t tell you how much l enjoyed this museum, which I wrote about in a separate post. I have said if anything could persuade me to revisit Prague, it would be this museum. There are of course other great museums in Prague, such as the National Museum, Kafka Museum, and the National Gallery.
Old Town Square (Staromestske Namesti):
Dating back to the 10th century, it is nestled between the famous Wenceslas Square and the Charles Bridge. Pretty as a picture! The center of the square has a memorial to Jan Hus, a religious reformer who was burned at the stake for his beliefs. This again reminded me of one of my favorite areas, Campo de Fiori square in Rome, and the Bruno stature.
Vyšehrad (My second favorite place):
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An old historic fort. It’s about 2 miles away from the castle, on the right bank of the Vitara river. Most definitely worth visiting in my opinion. It has the awesome Vyšehrad Cemetery, the final resting place of people such as the composer Antonin Dvorak, poet Jan Neruda and even top-scoring football player Josef Bican ( a nice and special treat!). The headstones and vaults are so ornate and frescoes rival what you might see at the Vatican. The church is also insanely beautiful, as are the views from the fort. So worth it! Pack lunch and enjoy. The best thing is that it seems very few tourists make their way over there, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
Letna Park:
We stayed in District 4 for part of our stay in Prague and it was pretty close to this park. We really enjoyed the neighborhood. It was far enough away from the touristy part of town but was only a 15-20 minute walk cutting through the park to get to the center. Letna Park is a very popular area for kids to hang out and drink at the beer gardens. I liked the views from the top a lot.
Havličkovy Sady:
The second biggest park in Prague is famous for its vineyard and is very popular with locals. It is located in Praha 2. A visit is a great way to spend an afternoon away from the crowds. Fountains and water cascade with Italian Renaissance inspiration. Great views from Grebovka as the locals call it from the hilltop eatery where we had some lovely wine and food. There is also wine tasting at the vineyard.
There are of course other things to do in Prague, but these were our favorites. You would think with all the things l mentioned here, I would have no reason to whine about not loving the place :-). I wish l had an answer. All l know is that it didn’t really move me. I felt everything was “forced”. No connection, not like l felt with Budapest (another touristy place, but one l felt lived up to the hype) and Krakow (another place l loved deeply). Just goes to show you. It might just be that l am getting so jaded from traveling so much. Maybe concentrating more on Spain for this coming year might be a good thing.
Another reason might also be that my scheduling three-plus weeks for us there was just too long. I think a 4-5 day visit to Prague is best. Enough to enjoy the sights, and not get jaded. We wanted to see if it was a place that we could live in, that was the reason for the allotted time. The answer by the way is nope. Not my cup of tea, and impossible as it may sound, I think it is more expensive than Valencia. It’s probably more on par with Barcelona and Madrid. Being bored, we did leave to spend a week in Vienna. Prague is very good as a base from which to do day trips. We had a fantastic day out to Cesky Krumlov, a tiny city that just simply rocks! We also did a day trip to Dresden, Germany, another place l absolutely want to revisit.
The myth of cheap beer in Prague:
We didn’t find that true. We found the prices the same, or slightly higher than here in Spain, at least in Valencia, Seville, and definitely Malaga, places we have lived in. Pretty sure at some point, it was true, but thanks to mass tourism, it is higher. I suppose if you’re visiting from the U.S. for instance, it is much cheaper compared to how much it costs back home. Coming from some European countries, it’s a wash.
Trdelnik:
This supposedly Czech treat is a chimney-looking donut pastry that is roasted on a metal grill. So many stands and so many people waiting in line to get one. We discovered that it has absolutely nothing to do with the Czech Republic and is something that only started being sold about 6 years ago 🙂 as street food. It is actually Slovakian in origin.
Food in Prague:
We had amazing food in Prague. I loved the fact that we had so many choices, from kebabs to Asian to Mexican to Czech food. Loved them all! We found the grocery prices a tad more expensive than here, which was surprising (we cooked a bit at the Airbnb we stayed at).
Our hotel in Prague:
In addition to our week at the AirBnB lodging, we also stayed a week at La Boutique Hotel. It’s a great little boutique hotel and we can definitely recommend it as one of the best places to stay in Prague. We loved La Boutique because:
- Free WiFi
- Neighborhood feel
- Close proximity to restaurants, pubs, metro, shopping, and a major bus station
- Free breakfast
- Great price
- Really spacious rooms
Our travel insurance for our Prague trip was World Nomads and you can get your own free quote.
Should you visit Prague?
This a tough one for me to answer. Federico says yes without hesitation. I say “it is pretty”. For sure if you’re young and love partying, it’s a great place to be, and it is pretty! 🙂 🙂 :-). The only other place that has made me feel like this was Amsterdam, another not-too-popular opinion post that people still write me about to tear me a new one! Damn it though, it’s my experience!!! Go write yours! :-).
Have you been to Prague? If yes, what was your overall impression? Did you love it, or hate it? or just can’t decide like me?
Looks beyond beautiful Kemkem. I will visit but appreciate too how I am not young and never partied, so the place is not a long term spot for me. I like chill and my wife enjoys chill too. One reason why we are flying from New Jersey to Oman in 2 days. No parties there LOL.
Oh..it sounds like a nice trip! Yeah. for sure my partying days are over. I like to chill as well and just simply enjoy the good things in life. Prague is definitely beautiful, on that l have no problem agreeing. Safe journey to you two and Happy Holidays!
The very best indeed! I do believe you that the city might feel hollow once you’re there, but it surely looks amazing. And, as always, you have the best, most mouth-watering food pics ever. 🙂 What was the breakfast, though? I can’t identify the yummy looking things in the brown plate…
It definitely looks amazing, one of the most beautiful places l have ever been. So glad you enjoyed the food pics almost as much as we enjoyed eating them :-). The brown thing was some Czech dessert recommended by the waiter. Some sort of dough thing and cream and it was really, really good. We actually did go back to the restaurant another night and had it again :-). Breakfast for us is usually a coffee and croissant. Boring l know :-), but l have lost my taste for American breakfasts.
I think we’ve spent a total of 7 months in Prague and needless to say we totally disagree with you 🙂 Of course if one is to spend most of his/her whole time in the Old Town you’d get jaded pretty quickly by the Asian tour groups, the Brits there on drinking binges, and other tourists walking the well trodden path between the Powder tower and the Castle. But we’ve discovered lots of pretty neighborhoods with markets, cool cafes and international restaurants (our new favorite district is Vinohrady). And honestly you shouldn’t be taking UBer in Prague unless coming in from the airport – the tram/metro network is one of the best in the world and (at least for us) it’s a joy taking a tram through the different neighborhoods. It’s a cheap way of seeing the city. I personally feel that comparing Prague to a hollow Easter egg is unfair. And as I think I’ve written on the blog – the more time we’ve spent there more we’ve enjoyed the city. The thing about Prague is that almost everywhere you go you’ll see beauty. It’s still the most beautiful city we’ve seen anywhere.
I’m not sure why you say Prague is humungous. It’s really not, it’s a manageable city and about 1 third smaller than Budapest (which is also more spread out than Prague. Prague’s older neighborhoods quite compact). Krakow compared to both is a town and honestly, there’s nothing to see outside the center. It’s neighborhoods are unattractive and boring. We spent a month in Krakow and were not at all impressed.
Funny enough, we’ve been to Prague 7 times (because we use it as a base and also get our medical/dental done there) and we’ve never done 1) the castle tours 2) the Jewish museum tours. Too expensive as you say. Also too many tourists. They need to re-market those 2 sites.
Beer. Depends where you go. Anywhere outside the center beer costs less than water. But of course it’s all relative and I can’t tell you off the top of my head the cost of a pint in Prague…or Valencia. Either way it’s cheap. Compared to Canada (where I just spent a week) where you can easily spend $7 on a pint of beer. Love Europe.
In the end what we love is subjective and it’s a good thing we don’t all love the same places. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with you though 🙂
Of course t would suck if we all agreed about the same things Frank :-). I know you guys love Prague and have been there tons of times and will probably live there at some point because it connected with you deeply. It just didn’t have that effect on me. I felt more like an observer than a participant, something l rarely feel when l visit places. I also know that no matter how long l stayed there, the feeling wouldn’t change and so it made no sense to try and force an emotion that doesn’t exist naturally. I can only report back on what l saw and felt, my experience. Federico doesn’t understand it either, he liked it way better, but l can not explain it any better. I felt it was all superficial and no substance (like the Easter egg), probably the same way you felt about Krakow. Yes, the center is about all there is, but l enjoyed the 3-4 neighborhoods that we stayed/went through. Same for Vienna and Bucharest etc.. We did take the tram just a couple of times in Prague just to experience it, easy to use..and the rest of the time, we walked (a lot) or used Uber which l felt was cheap enough to indulge in. In my view, 1/3 less still makes it humongous l guess, especially when seen from atop the castle. It looked never ending.
Yeah.. I’m guessing beer would be a lot cheaper on the outskirts, but like l mentioned, when coming from the U.S, U.k, Canada it does look like quite the bargain, but for us where a liter of German beer at the store costs 70 cents, €1.50 at the bar,or 70 cents for a cana, it’s no biggie.
I’m so glad you love the city and it’s great that you love it even more every time you visit, but l don’t care enough to want to give it another chance. I’d rather go back to someplace that l haven’t been or revisit another place. It’s how l feel about London that you feel about Prague. Tons of people hate it for so many different reasons. I’ve been there at least 25 times and l would go back in a second. It just connects. People hate Paris, but at least 5 times and counting I’ve gone and l like it more and more. Quantity means squat to me..quality does.
See you in Prague at some point? or shall we make it Krakow? Hahaaa! 🙂 🙂 :-).
I thought the museum was worth it- but It has more kinship with me than with others…And, while I don’t drink beer, my son does- and found the beer to be pretty good and cheaper than that of MOST of Europe (not Spain, as you indicated).
I can understand your kinship to the museum of course and why it would be worth it to you :-). The beer is good and yeah..probably cheaper than most of Western Europe. I remember in Stockholm and Copenhagen, beer was pretty pricey. I just think at this point in the game, Prague is very much like Dubrovnik where it has become the “it” place and quickly learned how to price like the big guys :-). Good thing beer is not a priority for me. I like a glass of wine and/or sparkling water (which always turns out to be more expensive! )
Well Kemkem, I am in Prague now and 100% agree with you… Sorry Frank 😉 I am actually staying in Melnik, 40 mins away. I have been here 3 weeks, 5 days to go. 4 days I wandered and 4 days were enough. The buildings are beautiful and I was highly impressed with the inside of churches, which is hard to do anymore… but I felt disappointed over-all. The Easter egg analogy is perfect. Where’s the cream filling?!? I referred to Charles Bridge as the bridge from hell, ugh, So Many People.
With reading it’s cheap to eat and drink here and finding out it’s equivalent to London added a sour taste. Even the grocery store prices are high. And I am paying with converted GBP, so not as bad as someone from EU and fantastic over an American. As I mentioned, I am 40 minutes away and I have 4 days open to tour. I have NO desire to return. If I do, it will be to kill time before my afternoon flight. I didn’t go into the castle nor anything Jewish. Paying a Kings ransom to see things that I know I’ve seen better at other places kept my hand off my wallet. I also want to note, as a videographer this is the first time in a year and half living as a nomad that I did not film. No pizzazz here.
My beau flew in and stayed a week. Our favorite place, which is gorgeous, is Karlovy Vary. It’s a spa town, 2 hours from Prague, and is not cheap, but no different than Prague. Now I will return to KV, but not during a festival when the whole town is elbow to elbow 😉 The movie Last Holiday was filmed there at Grandhotel Pupp. We stayed at the 5* hotel (£130 per night winter price – my monthly stay is only £200, but it was my 50th, so he spoiled me)… anyway, if you don’t eat there we found it affordable. We had cocktails and even though we found them priced okay, many people left after a round.
BTW, I decided to stop blogging. Yes, I am still traveling full time. Blogging is not my focus… I have appreciated your following and will, of course, keep in touch with you through commenting 🙂
Thanks for chiming in Paula. I know it sucks to love a place and not be able to figure out why it doesn’t connect with others. Frank clearly loves Prague, but like you, I think 4 days or so would be enough to enjoy it and move on. We were having a discussion on a Reddit post and l mentioned not loving the city. Some guy finally said he had fallen prey to the good looks and moved with his wife, but he was finding after 7 months that after peeling back the layers, it was all fluff and he was loking into them moving. The wife felt the same and he suspected several of his friends felt it but would never admit it because everyone says you should love Prague. I don’t understand that kind of thinking. Our journey has been an ongoing trial and error and l am not afraid to admit that a place doesn’t fit and work on an exit plan :-). Life is too short. The prices we found in the grocery store Billa were slightly more than here in Spain which was surprising. It is definitely a gorgeous place, but otherwise, I don’t get it. I really enjoyed the movie Last Holiday and l totally forgot it was filmed in Karlovy Vary. I wouldn’t mind staying at that hotel either 🙂 and a belated Happy Birthday to you. Awesome treat :-).
Sorry to hear you’re no longer blogging. It does take a fair bit of work and money, way more than l envisioned. I hope you do keep in touch. I love hearing from you, and welcome to the best time of your life :-).
I forget to mention in my mini-novel comment, we went to Dresden Germany and Loved it!
Now Dresden is a place l really enjoyed and would love to go back to. A Christmas market would be so much fun there l think. Glad you loved it too :-).
Kemkem, I love how you are always very honest in all your posts and tell exactly how you feel about a place without sugar coating it. I have not been to Prague, but it is on my wish list. I hope to visit it in the near future, but will try ro avoid the busier summer time. I love all your photos and the food looks yummy 😄
Thanks Gilda. One reason that l read a much less number of blogs is because l can’t find honest reviews. The desire for sponsorship from tourism boards and hotels etc. cloud peoples judgements it seems. I am positive it is a major reason for the blog not growing in leaps and bounds but l will continue to call it as l see it :-). Prague is so pretty and a few days should make you like it. Good decision on avoiding the busier times. We loved the food very much too :-).
What a fantastic experience you must have had in Prague. The architecture is amazing, even if the statuary can be imposing. We love how your photos bring out the history found at every turn in the region. Thanks for sharing.
It was definitely an experience for sure. It’s a gorgeous place and thanks for the compliment :-).
Prague just left our bucket list based on this post! We are running out of time(i’m 70 and he’s 74 1/2). So being pretty picky now.
Haha! Love how decisive you are, but you’re right, life is too short and you do have to be picky. 🙂
You’ve certainly given me a lot of reasons to visit Prague. Love your photos! Any place that is this beautiful and has great food gets bonus points from me.
Thanks Doreen, Yep.. Prague definitely has those two things :-).
I’m intrigued about your take on Prague – not because I disagree but because I understand the feeling – I have it about Budapest. But back to Prague… I think I need to revisit and make up my own mind. The last time I visited was in the mid-1980s, and I can’t recognize that city in your photos (especially your food pics!) When I was there, the Iron Curtain was robust and seemed impregnable, and the food was scarce and awful. Many foodstuffs couldn’t be bought, and street food meant disgusting sausages on grills that hadn’t seen soap in a decade. I remember telling myself that if I ever returned I’d bring cans of tuna – mind you that same decade I visited the UK and said the same thing!! But yes… I do think I need to revisit. Thank you for the nudge!
Oh wow! I can’t even imagine what Prague must have looked like back then. Truthfully, I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to go then :-). I think you will indeed be surprised at how much it has changed and how international the cuisine is. I had a good laugh at the description of street food. To tell the truth, I am still terrified of having street food in popular places like India and Thailand. I was more than happy to pay higher prices for decent food, especially after seeing the vermin in the streets. Haha! The U.K has changed also. I hope you get to return soon, I would love your new take.
Aw Kemi – I’m in the group that disagrees completely as we fell in love with the fairy-tale city of Prague and loved the month we spent in the Czech Republic. However, as always, I so enjoy your no BS writing which keeps your writing fresh and funny! Anita
HAAAAHHHAAAA! I thought of you as l wrote this because l know how much you enjoyed it!!! If you go back, go with Fede while l take off to someplace with substance..HHHAAAAAAAA!!!! I agree with you on Cesky Krumlov which l liked so much more and l am definitely open to going to spa towns or other parts of Czechia. The city just failed to impress me apart from its prettiness.
So impressed by all the beautiful architecture—and the food doesn’t look bad either:-)
The food was definitely tops. You’re right, the architecture is simply stunning :-).
“kemkem” I really enjoy your post. As a musician I want to visit Charles Bridge in old Town
Thanks a lot. I bet it would be nice to play on such a historic bridge :-).