Czech Republic / Prague ideas?

[mykalberta]

In mid September I will be in the Czech republic for 8 days and Prague at least 4 of those days.

Just looking for any ideas people might have on hotels, what to do, what not to miss, what phrases I might need to learn etc etc.

Thanks.

[Knut]

Day trip to Kutna Hora is worth it. Buses leave early in the morning from the main square in the old town and returns early afternoon.

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Tourism-g2...Vacations.html

Kutna Hora is the place with the famous Bone Ossuary. There is also an awesome looking cathedral there.


http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction...e_Bohemia.html

^ Very interesting Museum here. Have all the Medieval torture devices in there.

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction...e_Bohemia.html

Another interesting Museum here if you like Cold- war stuff.

Prague Castle is pretty cool, but found better castles in other places.

The Astronomical Clock in the old town square is neat, but watch for pickpocketers there.

If you enjoy going out this is the place to go...

http://www.karlovylazne.cz/info.php?lang=en

It is right near the Charles Bridge and has four levels, all with different types of music. Open until 5 am.

I stayed at a hostel near the old town that was old and dirty, so I can't make a recommendation there.

[Regulator75]

Bring a digital recorder...
Lots of ghosts are waiting to talk to you.

[pepper24]

Play roller hockey with Dominik Hasek?

[Jimmy Stang]

I was there for a few days last March. Prague is a really cool city, and you'll find English to be very prevalent. Obviously, you'll want to know "hello" ("dobry den" is more like "good day" but seemed to be the common greeting), but most people speak English or are at least happy to try and help.

We stayed at a "funky" hotel (in Europe, these are cheaper but might be a little farther from the middle of things) called 987 Prague Hotel and it was adequate and modern. It was a bit of a stroll to the really touristy stuff, but it also very close to the train station if that's a consideration for you. Although they have street cars there, we found it easiest to just walk around.

There is so much to see in Prague. We did the usual stuff - saw the astronomical clock, walked up to the castle and basilica (now that's a hike at a good incline!), and we even took a ghost tour one night that was surprisingly good. Not in a spooky kind of way (my wife was the one who wanted to go because she likes stuff like that), but it was a great way to learn some of the local history and they even give you a tour of the old caves below the astronomical clock, which was neat.

Although the old town is a bit crowded and touristy, there was some good shopping in the Wenceslas Square area. Four days should be plenty I'd think, although it is a really cool city and ranks among the best that I have ever been to. There are many restaurants that offer all sorts of food (we had Spanish tapas one night), and there are a lot of little convenience stores around for snacks and quick stuff (and beer). There is also a modern mall in central Prague called "Palladium" with a full supermarket in the lower level. Depends on your own wants/needs, but having something like that nearby is handy and can save some coin on food, drinks, and snacks.

The only activity that we did outside of Prague was a side trip to Kutna Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary - better known as the "Church of Bones". Definitely a dark, macabre thing to do, but it was pretty interesting. I still don't think that I have wrapped my head around the bones of that many dead people being concentrated in one spot, but it was worth the trip.

After that we drove off to Berlin before returning a few days later to fly out.

If you do plan on renting a car, the Budget in the train station had a couple of nice, almost hippy guys working there. Small nicks weren't big enough to report on the walkaround, but because I was dead-ending it at the airport (no extra charge!), the guy who was checking the car there had a different philosophy. He marked off a bunch of small marks that the other guys said were too small and wanted me to sign for it. I refused, he got agitated and bitched at me in Czech and stormed off into the office. But cooler heads prevailed after I was able to talk to the guys at the counter, and they completely understood. Probably a rare occurrence, but something to keep in mind if you're renting a car from a couple of hippies and returning it to the rock chip nazi at the airport.

I'll end my rambling here, but let me know if you need to know anything specific and I'll do my best to help! No expert by any means, but you'll definitely love it there.

[MoneyGuy]

We just returned from Prague less than two weeks ago andnim a WWII nut. I recommend the Terazin concentration camp. It's an hour away and there are tours to go there.

Spend lots of time in the old city.

Prague Castle is nice. Watch for pickpockets everywhere.

I enjoyed walking the city and we'd go out to find a restaurant for dinner, never know where we'd end up. It's a cool city. I've seen it described as Paris-like.

[troutman]

Teplice (between Prague and Berlin) is a "spa" town; if "spa" is czech for 10 kms of whore-houses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teplice

[Aeneas]

Side trip to Cesky Krumlov. Very nice old town with a river curled all around and through it.

[tete]

Prague is just so beautiful. I really enjoyed my time in the city. I went there with a friend in 2003, spent 8 or 9 days there. Granted, that was a bit too long to stay just in Prague, but we took our time wandering and did two day trips as well.

+3 for Sedlec/Kutna Hora. The town of Kutna Hora is neat as well - once the silver mines closed, the town kinda froze in time, so it's very quaint. They did offer tours of the mines when I went there in 2003, not sure if that's still the case now.

This is still one of my favourite pics of all time, taken at the bone ossuary:


I also did a trip out to Karlsteijn castle - about 45 minutes outside of Prague, I believe? The tour was okay, nothing outstanding, but the castle is a neat site.

[dissentowner]

If you are not single then you might want to be when you go. Prague chicks are awesome and once they find out you're a Canadian you are in for some awesome wild nights!

[Northendzone]

^ what happens in prague stays in prague

[Flames Draft Watcher]

There's a monastery kind of close to the castle that makes their own beer and has their own restaurant. You can order the beer in massive jugs too. Definitely recommend checking that out.

Pilsner Urquell is quite expensive in Prague compared to some of the other beers and to my taste Gambrinus was better and cheaper anyways. Kozel I remember being decent. Most pubs are sponsored by a particular brewery and thus only serve the one or two kinds of beers that brewery produces and maybe each one in a light and dark version. Dunkl I believe was dark beer. Velky was light maybe? Beer was as cheap as water/juice everywhere I went.

Definitely some funny clubs. There's a 4 or 5 story one near one of the bridges, quite a lot of tourists. We went to one called Mekka that had all sorts of old mechanical parts hung up all over it. They sold space brownies there lol.

If you love foosball they will have some tables at pubs/clubs. Czechs are quite good at from what I've seen.

There was another funny pub we went to where they had a scoreboard displayed on the wall of how much each table had drank and countrywide in other pubs owned by the same chain. You poured your own beer with 4 taps at every table and it kept track of it. You could even order food from the computer above the taps. They really cut down on serving staff there. Can't recall the name of it.

It is a bit tricky to find the really cheap and good food. Lots of the restaurants are tourist traps. If you ever see a pub that looks like only locals go to it, probably worth checking out. One strange thing is that in local pubs you ordered the side dishes separately. So you'd pick a meat component (I'd highly recommend the pork in Prague) and then you could order potatoes or fries on the side. Brambory was potatoes.

I was there a month and didn't find English to be that prevalent frankly. But I wasn't just hitting up the touristy spots, we went all over.

Its been a few years but I think these were the most useful words
djekuju - thank you? (j are like y). not sure I spelled it right
prosim - please
dobry denn - good day

If you like absinthe Czech Republic is one of the places that makes the real stuff I believe. The popular local spirits that one who likes to try such things might like are Becherovka (kind of herbal tasting somewhat like Jagermeisster) and Slivovice (plum brandy.)

One local specialty which is quite crazy is this deep fried cheese chunk in a bun. It's called Smazeny Syr. I only tried it at late night places where it was decidedly average. But I'm sure there must be somewhere good that makes it well.

I'd definitely check out the castle. Really nice gothic church there. I'd definitely walk around the old city.

We did go to Kutna Hora and Cesky Krumlov outside of Prague

[Aeneas]

No idea how to spell thank you, sounds kind of like: daquiem. Requiem with a Dack at the front. But I don't know Czech, just a bit of Slovak.

You left out "Pivo", beer. Most important word.

[Northendzone]

hopefully you meet "two wild and crazy" czech brothers who successfully cruise for, and swing with chicks......

my summer vacations plans include a trip to silverwood Amusement Park by cour Del elene (sp) - the only local phrase i'll likely need to answer is, yes, i would like fries with that......

[Flame Of Liberty]

If wild and crazy is your sort of thing, google "showpark" and "Holešovická tržnice, it's the biggest complex of "18+" establishments in all of Europe right across the river from the Old Town.

Thank me later.

[Bill Bumface]

Get drunk off of fresh Pilsner Urquell and eat a bunch of dumplings.

[Lil Pedro]

Go to Jaromir Jagr's sports bar in downtown Prague. They got good schnitzel there!

[The Goon]

Follow a local girl around with a camera and offer her money to have sex with you in a park.

[Kswiss]

I actually lived in Czech Repulic for a while....super awesome country! Like someone said before you must check out teplice, lednice (super amazing castle), ostrava (crazy party street called stodolni that makes the red mile look hilarious...60 bars in a few blocks, with of course gorgeous Czech Repulic girls) brno, olomouc......

[Kswiss]

Radegast is the beer of choice