What to do & where to stay: Praha (Prague)

Prague is now one of Brandon’s favorite cities in the world.  We arrived late at night (not intentionally but that’s what happens on an adventure!) at the Hlavni Nadrazi train station.  This is the central station in Prague.  Be sure not to get off at the first Prague station and wait for Hlavni if you’re staying in the heart of the city.

Since we arrived late (with bags in hand), I was opposed to walking all the way to the hotel.  Although it is only 2.3km away, Prague is full of hills and it is not busy enough at night to be safe, especially when rolling along our cumbersome luggage.  We asked the taxi driver how much it would be for a taxi rather than walk (I think it was about $20).   It was a weird atmosphere; we figured the city would be much more lively at 10:30pm.  We are pretty brave when it comes to taking walks in unknown places, even with baggage, but to get from the station to Hotel Louren (where we stayed) I would seriously discourage someone from taking that walk.  Too sketchy!

Hotel Louren

The hotel was great.  The lobby is clean and inviting; the attendant at the front desk, Roman I believe, was extremely nice.  Unfortunately, the elevator stopped working when we got in on the first floor and I panicked because it is the smallest elevator one could imagine for 2 people and 2 rolling suitcases and it would not let us OUT!  He did not know what to do but thankfully we got ourselves out.  After that, we had to carry our luggage up to the sixth floor.  I was so surprised that he didn’t offer to help us considering we were on the top floor but, again, he was very nice.   You’re probably wondering “wait, I thought you said this place was ‘great’?!”  They quickly made up for the elevator issue.

After burning way too many calories, we arrived at our pleasant room. The bathroom was even nicer.  There is a thermostat, phone, free wifi, hairdryer, TV (I don’t think there are any english channels but we don’t waste time TV while in EUROPE!  You can open to windows to adjust the temperature also which was nice; however, we ended up having to close them because there were some loud people screaming on the street.  These were likely some intoxicated people bickering; it was not a loud part of town by any means.  Other than that one time, the streets were very quiet in that area.  It is a decent location but not right in the center of the tourist sites.  It is right next to the TV Tower and a short tram or metro trip to the tourist sites.

Breakfast was spectacular!  This increased the value of the hotel greatly for me.  They had fresh delicious baguettes, cooked eggs and brats, an assortment of cut veggies and whole fruits, a muesli/granola/fruit/yogurt parfait bar, cheese, prosciutto and other meats that I guess are meant for breakfast sandwiches, and other condiments.  You can even order omelettes or another style of eggs if you’d like.  Coffee, tea, juice, milk, water, and iced tea is also available.  The servers were very kind.  Excellent coffee!  Best included hotel breakfast I’ve ever had.

To get to the tram, exit the hotel and turn right on the hotel’s street Slezska; turn left at the next street (Ripska) and right at the one after that.  The tram station is in the middle of the street a little down that road (Korunni).

To get to the metro, come out of the hotel and head right on Slezska; take a right at the next street Ripska and head over to that nice park with the church right and the station is right there; basically, you can head towards the TV Tower and you’ll find the metro stop Jiriho z Podebrad.

Lastly, there are often promo codes for this hotel so search for one before booking.

What to do in Praha:

This was our itinerary.  It was not intentional and it was not the perfect order but our first full day there was one of the best days of my life sooo I’d say it is worth trying this route if you are flexible and willing to walk long distances.

We walked from our hotel (off Slezska) down Narodni, stopped at the park with and the TV Tower.  We then walked to the museum and past that to the main road where vendors were selling paintings and some were making crepes and other goodies.  Then we walked via Vaclavske Namesti to Old Town Square.  The crepes there looked even better.  All of the sudden when you get to this square, you realize where all the tourists have been hiding.  It’s a little chaotic.  It reminded me of Piazza Navona if you’ve been to Rome.

    

Next we went winding through Old Town toward the Charles Bridge.  Charles Bridge is terrible in my opinion.  I much prefer the view from the land or the other bridges off the Vitava River next to Charles Bridge.  It is super crowded with tourists and vendors much like Ponte Vechhio in Florence and Rialto in Venice – I just don’t get the big whoop about these famous bridges.  Maybe they were beautiful before they became so popular.  Now they’re overwhelmed with people and pretty dirty.

After crossing the bridge, we made our way up to the Castle little by little.  We stopped at Cafe 22 to have lunch because we could not wait any longer after all the walking.  You can see my review elsewhere on the restaurant itself but there are plenty of places to eat in that one section.  I would go off a side street to find a better and cheaper place.  Most places serve traditional Italian or Czech food.  There is so much to see and we took our time wandering through side streets, stopped in St Nicholas Cathedral, and took a tour of the Wallenstein Palace Gardens off of Letenska.  These gardens are beautiful, filled with peacocks, and not crowded at all.

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It was surprising to me how few people were up at the top at Prague Castle; as if we left half of the crowd down at Old Town Square.  I was surprised most of the time, actually, by how small the crowd was in comparison with other popular tourist cities like Rome or NYC.  I should keep in mind that we were there on a Sunday which I believe has a lot to do with it.  However, there were WAY more tourists in Old Town Square in comparison with Prague Castle, which was bizarre considering it was the highlight of our experience of Prague.  It gets congested up by St. Vitus Cathedral because of the limited space and the queue to get in but the square by the Castle entrance was wide open.  There is actually a Starbucks at the most perfect, picturesque spot on top of all of Prague.  It cracked me up; of course Starbucks would snatch that spot.  The Starbucks is downstairs but they have seating up there and you are free to walk in there to take pictures without buying a drink or anything.

After exploring the castle, cathedral, and the palaces, we went down on the Lesser Quarter side down side streets and landed in the cutest little cafe (Doka).  We then went down to Narodni divadlo and got on tram #22 which takes you alll the way to the edge of the city.  Not the edge of Old Town or Lesser Town… the enddd of the city, including the residential quarter.  This was really cool for us because we are always curious about what it is REALLY like to live in some of these places.  For example, people often think if you live in Orlando that Mickey is your neighbor.  The residential part of Prague was UGGGLY.  Industrial. Filthy. Boring. Tacky.  Sad, honestly.  Because the beautiful part of Prague is overrun with tourists like us and those that live and work there live in a very different city.

One evening, ideally right before going to Hemingway since the location is perfect, go sit by the water off of Masarykovo nabrezi to look at the gorgeous view of Prague Castle.  You could also take a paddle boat ride by walking over to the mini island across the street from the Goethe Institut and heading to the end of the park where there is a popeye sign for paddleboat rentals.