Prague, Czech Republic

A man in a yellow vest holding a sign that says “Info” outside the arrivals hall at Vaclav Havel Airport is not there to help you. He is there to walk you to an unmarked car and charge you triple the going rate for a ride into town. The real airport taxi service wears red, and everyone else, including plenty of drivers with legitimate-looking cars, is worth double-checking. That is Prague in one scene: gorgeous, cheap by Western European standards, and still perfectly happy to fleece anyone who looks lost.

Getting in from the airport

Skip the taxi rank entirely on your first trip. The Airport Express (AE) bus runs every 30 minutes between the airport and Hlavní nádraží, the main train station, and takes about 35 minutes. Prices jumped at the start of 2026, so budget roughly 200 CZK per person rather than the old 100 CZK figure you’ll still see quoted in outdated blog posts. If you’d rather go door to door, book Uber or Bolt from the terminal Wi-Fi before you walk outside; a legitimate ride to the center runs somewhere around 500-600 CZK, and if a driver quotes you 1,500 CZK or more, walk away. The regulated taxi tariff caps out around 36 CZK per kilometer, and the scam artists know most tourists have no idea what that number is.

Where to actually go

Charles Bridge is worth the hype at sunrise, before the tour groups and the portrait painters set up, and genuinely miserable at midday in July. Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in the world by area, and the standard “Circuit A” ticket covering St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica, and Golden Lane runs about 450 CZK for adults. Book the cathedral’s “Up Close” tour in advance through hrad.cz if you want access to the Royal Tomb and St. Wenceslas Chapel, since walk-up slots fill fast in summer. The cathedral itself keeps shorter hours in winter, closing at 4pm November through March versus 5pm the rest of the year, and it opens later on Sundays for services.

Old Town Square earns its crowds for the Astronomical Clock, but the hourly “show” is genuinely underwhelming, a few wooden apostles rotating past a window for under a minute. Don’t organize your day around it. Petřín Hill is the better use of an hour: climb or take the funicular up, then wander the Mirror Maze and the mini Eiffel Tower lookalike without the Old Town crush. Vyšehrad, south of the center, gets a fraction of the castle’s visitors despite similar views over the river, and it’s my pick for anyone who’s already “done” the castle on a previous trip.

Where to eat and drink

Skip the restaurants with photo menus and staff calling out to you in the street around Old Town Square; that’s the tourist-markup zone. Lokál has become the template for doing Czech pub food right in a central location, packed with locals having loud after-work conversations over Pilsner Urquell poured properly with a thick foam head. For something further off the circuit, U Černého vola near the castle is a genuine locals’ pub that somehow hasn’t been overrun despite its location, pouring Kozel to a room of regulars rather than tour groups. If you want quieter and further out, push into Žižkov, Vinohrady, or Karlín, where the pubs serve the same goulash and svíčková at lower prices without the queue.

For a proper sit-down meal, Czech tasting-menu restaurants like La Degustation Boheme Bourgeoise remain some of the best value fine dining in Central Europe, though you’ll want to book weeks ahead in high season.

Where to stay

Base yourself in Old Town or Malá Strana if you want to walk everywhere and don’t mind paying more for it. Vinohrady and Žižkov offer better value and a more local feel, with a tram ride of ten to fifteen minutes into the center. Avoid anywhere directly on Wenceslas Square unless you enjoy nightlife noise until 3am; that strip has more of the city’s stag-party bars than anywhere else.

Practical details

The currency is the Czech koruna (CZK), and while the Czech Republic uses the euro in name in a handful of tourist traps that quote prices in both, always pay in koruna since the posted euro exchange rate is usually terrible. Cards are accepted almost everywhere now, including trams, but carry some cash for small pubs. A 10% tip, rounded into the bill rather than left on the table, is standard and appreciated but not obligatory.

Public transport is the easiest system in Europe to use once you understand it: buy a 30-minute, 90-minute, 24-hour, or 72-hour ticket from machines at metro stations or via the PID Lítačka app, validate it, and it covers metro, tram, and bus. The Airport Express bus is the one exception, it runs on its own separate ticket and isn’t covered by a standard transit pass.

Watch your bag on Tram 22, the route that passes most of the major sights and is consequently the most popular pickpocketing line in the city. Keep valuables zipped away rather than in an open tote, especially when the tram is packed during peak tourist hours.

Day trips worth the effort include Kutná Hora for the Sedlec Ossuary (a chapel decorated with the bones of roughly 40,000 people) and Český Krumlov for a smaller, quieter medieval town two and a half hours south. Both are doable by train or organized bus in a single day if you start early.

If you only remember one thing: never get in a car with someone who approaches you first, whether at the airport, the train station, or Old Town Square. The ones who find you are never the honest ones.