Pretty Prague

If you thought Prague was all about stag and hen do's then think again. What a beautiful and historic city it is. It is much bigger than I had expected and there are so many shops, bars, restaurants and museums.

We stayed at the four star Century hotel in the old town which was in a great location for catching a tram or a short walk to the old town square where the Astronomical Clock Tower is. There are plenty of shops and eating places and a great place to stroll around. There were some market stalls near the hotel and a large shopping mall was just a couple of steps from the hotel entrance.

We stayed in a standard double room and it was on the small side, not much room around the bed itself but how much room do you need? It had tea and coffee facilities, TV (only news channels for the English market) and quite a small bathroom. Having said that it was clean, comfortable and set in a very nice building. The staff were friendly and accommodating and inside the hotel was a restaurant and a bar. We didn’t eat in the hotel but chose to go outside and eat in the local restaurants.

In the Old Town and on the hour the Astronomical Clock chimes and a short show starts, the crowd gathers early so get your spot and wait for it to begin. As well as telling the time, it shows the position of the sun and the stars and has many other symbolic statues.

We had pre-booked a ‘One Day in Prague’ tour which consisted of a coach tour of the city, then a walking tour and a boat ride. The guide was really good and told us all about the history of the city, including the troubles of the Nazi regime. It included a three course lunch in a charming location with spectacular views and very good quality food.

I didn’t realise how beautiful Prague was, the buildings are quite colourful, and a lot of the streets are cobbled which adds to its charm and the buildings date back to the 14th century so the architecture ranges from old to modern. Prague has a historic bridge called Charles Bridge, finished in the 15th century. It is like an outdoor museum with 30 statues mounted on it. The bridge is always bustling with people, they have stalls selling all sorts of wares, my tip would be to visit very early in the morning or late at night when it is lit up to avoid the crowds.

The food and drink is cheaper in Prague than the UK but not overly so. I was expecting it to be a lot cheaper and perhaps it is away from the centre where you will find these prices but of course you spend most of your time in the centre. There were some restaurants which charged a lot for the amount of food you received so it wasn’t always good value for money. Just pick your restaurants wisely as you would in any tourist town centre.

We did see large organised pub crawls for the youngsters but we never experienced any rowdiness or drunken behaviour, it would seem to me that they kept this away from the tourists. But then again we were never out until the early hours of the morning so perhaps we just didn’t see it.

They still have trams that connect you to the main sites and coupled with a metro system you can travel easily anywhere. We bought a 24 hour ticket for 110 Koruna (approximately £3.50) and you hop on and off the metro and tram for this. It even gives you free travel on the funicular train to the top of the Petrin Hill.

The Petrin has different gardens you can walk around, it has an observation deck (approximately £3) where you can walk up a spiral staircase of 300 steps to see some stunning views of the city with its red roof tops, river and bridges. There is a lift option too so you don’t have to walk.

We went to Prague in mid-July and for the most part the weather was glorious. Shorts and t-shirts was enough but we did have one day of full on rain and a few spots of rain on other days.

The city has a lovely vibe, you can just meander the streets, from one coffee shop to another, do a bit of tourist shopping or shop in the large malls.

You can hop on and off trams, buses or trains or sit and watch the world go by. I would say three nights/four days is a good duration to cover most things to do. One thing we didn’t have to time to do was to visit the Terezin Concentration camp which is approximately a six hour tour, so we should have thought about that earlier.

It is only a 1hr 40min flight from London so a great city break destination. I would highly recommend it.