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Prague: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Prague came through the Second World War almost untouched, so what you see is genuinely old rather than rebuilt. This is the heart of it: the Old Town Square, the astronomical clock of 1410, the Jewish Quarter the Nazis deliberately left standing to house a museum of an extinct race, and Charles Bridge. Start at seven — by ten the bridge is impossible.

Prague

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A short history of Prague

Around 880 the Přemyslid princes built Prague Castle on a hill above the Vltava. In the 14th century the emperor Charles IV made it one of the largest cities in Europe: in 1348 he founded a university here, and in 1357 construction of the Charles Bridge began. In the Jewish Quarter stands the 13th-century Old-New Synagogue, one of the oldest active synagogues in Europe, where, according to legend, the Maharal's Golem is kept. In 1618 Protestant nobles threw the emperor's representatives out of a castle window, and the Thirty Years' War broke out. In 1918 it became the capital of Czechoslovakia, and in 1989 communist rule fell here in the "Velvet Revolution".

The ten best sights in Prague

  1. Old Town Square
    1
    Old Town Square

    Six hundred years of facades around one square

  2. Astronomical Clock
    2
    Astronomical Clock

    1410, and the oldest one still running

  3. Charles Bridge
    3
    Charles Bridge

    Cross it at seven in the morning or not at all

  4. Prague Castle
    4
    Prague Castle

    The largest castle complex in the world

  5. St Vitus Cathedral
    5
    St Vitus Cathedral

    Six hundred years to finish, inside the castle

  6. Old-New Synagogue
    6
    Old-New Synagogue

    1270 — the oldest active synagogue in Europe

  7. Old Jewish Cemetery
    7
    Old Jewish Cemetery

    Twelve layers of graves in one small plot

  8. Spanish Synagogue
    8
    Spanish Synagogue

    Moorish, gilded, and the most beautiful of the six

  9. Municipal House
    9
    Municipal House

    Art nouveau at its most complete

  10. Vyšehrad
    10
    Vyšehrad

    The other castle — older, emptier, free

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Prague →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Prague:

The Old Town

Free walking tours in Prague

The Old Town

Prague came through the Second World War almost untouched, so what you see is genuinely old rather than rebuilt. This is the heart of it: the Old Town Square, the astronomical clock of 1410, the Jewish Quarter the Nazis deliberately left standing to house a museum of an extinct race, and Charles Bridge. Start at seven — by ten the bridge is impossible.

  1. Old Town Square · Twenty-seven crosses are set in the paving by the town hall — one for each Czech noble executed here in 1621.
  2. Astronomical Clock · On the hour the apostles pass a window and a skeleton rings a bell. It takes forty-five seconds and everyone agrees it is underwhelming — go anyway.
  3. Old-New Synagogue · Built around 1270 and still in use every week. In the attic, the legend says, lie the remains of the Golem.
  4. Old Jewish Cemetery · The city allowed no more land, so the dead were buried in layers — twelve of them, twelve thousand stones, a hundred thousand people.
  5. Spanish Synagogue · Moorish, gilded from floor to dome, and the one most people miss because it stands a street away.
  6. Charles Bridge · Begun in 1357 at 5:31 on the ninth of July — a palindrome of odd numbers the king chose for luck. Thirty statues, all copies; the originals are indoors.

The castle side

Cross the river and climb. The castle complex is the largest in the world — a thousand years of building on one hill, holding a cathedral, a lane of tiny houses where Kafka wrote, and a monastery with two baroque libraries. The climb is steep: take tram 22 up and walk down. Three hours, mostly outdoors.

  1. Strahov Monastery · Two libraries, one philosophical and one theological, and a brewery in the courtyard that has been there since 1400.
  2. Nový Svět · The lane the castle staff lived in. Five minutes from the crowds and completely silent.
  3. St Vitus Cathedral · Started 1344, finished 1929. Mucha made the window in the third chapel on the left, and it is worth the queue.
  4. Golden Lane · Sixteen houses built into the castle wall for the guards. Kafka wrote at number 22 for two winters.
  5. Vrtba Garden · A terraced baroque garden on the way down, behind an ordinary door on Karmelitská. Almost nobody finds it.
  6. John Lennon Wall · Under communism the police painted it over and it was repainted every night. It still is.

The new town

"New" here means 1348. This is the half of Prague where people actually live and work: Wenceslas Square, which is really a boulevard, the art nouveau of the Municipal House, and Gehry's Dancing House. This is also where Jan Palach set himself alight in 1969 — there is a small marker in the pavement that is easy to miss.

  1. Municipal House · The most complete art nouveau building in the city. Czechoslovak independence was declared in the hall upstairs in 1918.
  2. Na Příkopě · The old moat, filled in and turned into the shopping street. The name still means "on the trench".
  3. Wenceslas Square · Not a square but a boulevard, 750 metres long. Half a million people stood here in 1989 and jingled their keys at the government.
  4. Lucerna Palace · A 1920s arcade built by Havel's grandfather, with a concert hall and a sculpture of St Wenceslas riding an upside-down dead horse.
  5. Dancing House · Gehry and Milunić, 1996, on a plot bombed by mistake in 1945. The city argued about it for a decade and then put it on a coin.
  6. Náplavka riverbank · The embankment below the road: a farmers market on Saturday mornings and bars in the old ice cellars the rest of the week.

Beer and gardens

Czechs drink more beer per head than any other nation, and it is not close. But this route is not about drinking — it is about where: beer gardens in the parks, with a view over the city and at half the price of the centre. Half a litre in a garden costs less than bottled water on the square. An afternoon route.

  1. Letná Park · The terrace above the river with every bridge in one view. A giant statue of Stalin stood here until 1962, when they blew it up.
  2. Letná beer garden · Plastic cups, wooden benches, and the best view in Prague. Open from April to October and full by five.
  3. Petřín Hill · A funicular up, orchards on the slope, and a tower built for the 1891 exhibition as a sixth-scale Eiffel. On the hill it ends up higher.
  4. Kampa island · Cut off by a narrow canal the locals call the Devil's Stream. A working mill wheel, a lawn, and the bridge crowds somehow do not come down here.
  5. Riegrovy sady · The Vinohrady park, where Prague watches football on a screen under the trees and the castle sits on the horizon.
  6. Vyšehrad · The older castle, on the other hill, with the cemetery where Dvořák and Čapek lie. Free, empty, and the walls look straight down the river.
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How we choose

Getting to Prague and getting around

  • Václav Havel Airport · 35 min by bus 119 and the metro
  • Praha hlavní nádraží · Trains to Vienna, Berlin, Budapest
  • Můstek metro · Where lines A and B cross, under Wenceslas Square
  • Staroměstská metro · The stop for the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter

Museums in Prague

  • Lobkowicz Palace · Beethoven manuscripts, in a family home
  • Veletržní Palace · Modern art, and Mucha's Slav Epic
  • Kampa Museum · Central European modernism, on the river
  • National Technical Museum · A hall of aircraft, trains and cars
  • National Museum · The building is the exhibit; go for the staircase

Parks and gardens in Prague

  • Letná Park · The best view of the bridges
  • Vyšehrad · The other castle, with almost nobody in it
  • Stromovka · A royal hunting park, flat and green
  • Riegrovy sady · Where Prague drinks on the grass at sunset
  • Vrtba Garden · A baroque terrace garden, hidden behind a door

Things to do in Prague with kids

  • Prague Zoo · Rated among the best in the world
  • Petřín Tower · A fifth of the Eiffel, on a hill — so just as high
  • Mirror Maze · Next to the tower, and takes ten minutes
  • Petřín funicular · A tram ticket takes you up

Cheap eats in Prague

Eight places where you stand at a counter, pay in coins and eat on your feet — a butcher who grills what he sells, a pastry window that sells out by eleven, a brewery tap in a courtyard. None of them is on a ranking list; they were chosen one by one.

  • Naše maso · Sausage and burgers from the butcher himself, 150 Kč
  • Kantýna · Same owners, a canteen in an old bank, 200 Kč
  • Sisters · Open sandwiches, the Czech snack, 40 Kč each
  • Café Savoy bakery window · Buy the pastry at the window, skip the queue inside
  • Angelato · Ice cream made that morning, 70 Kč
  • Vinohradský pivovar · A brewery with its own tap, out where people live
  • Náplavka riverbank · Hatches in the wall, each one a counter
  • Bistro 8 · Breakfast in Letná, where the locals have it

Live music in Prague

  • Lucerna Music Bar · Eighties nights that locals actually go to
  • Jazz Dock · On the water, glass wall, two sets a night
  • Palác Akropolis · A 1920s theatre in Žižkov, anything plays here
  • Roxy · A gutted cinema, concrete and loud
  • Rock Café · On Národní, where 1989 started

Nightlife in Prague

  • Hemingway Bar · Absinthe done properly. Book, it is tiny
  • Cross Club · Moving scrap metal, three floors down
  • Letná beer garden · Plastic cups, wooden benches, the whole valley below

Holy places in Prague

  • Strahov Monastery · The library, and beer in the courtyard
  • Loreta · A carillon of 27 bells, on the hour
  • St Nicholas, Malá Strana · Mozart played this organ. The dome is the point

Nature and day trips near Prague

  • Divoká Šárka · A gorge inside the city, with a swimming pool in it
  • Prokop Valley · Limestone cliffs and old quarries, half an hour out
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Frequently asked questions about Prague

What is there to see in Prague?

The top sights in Prague are Old Town Square, Astronomical Clock and Charles Bridge. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Prague?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Prague without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Prague?

Yes. sleepntrip has 4 free audio walks in Prague, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Old Town.

How do you get to Prague and get around?

The main ways are Václav Havel Airport, Praha hlavní nádraží and Můstek metro. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Prague, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Prague that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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