Prague - prices

joho

Has anyone been to Prague recently? What sort of prices are things like beer, food, trains/trams etc? I know tourist areas are dearer but just want to try to work out how much spending money to take.

pattycake

Prague is no longer the bargain basement destination it once was. However, if you are prepared to stray away from the normal tourist areas you can still eat and drink quite cheaply. My husband lives and works in Prague and we reckon to spend around £15-£20 total per night for dinner with a couple of drinks each. Lunch can be had at restaurants who do an offer of the day. Usually around £4 for a 2 or 3 course set menu. However, often the menus are only in Czech but are terrific value for money.

The public transport is still excellent value but has increased in price quite dramatically. Probably better to buy a sheaf of tickets and use them as and when than to get a 3 day pass which is now not such a good value for money as it used to be.

Hope this helps.

MrSmartprice

I have been a couple of times and transport is really easy. I have looked at the website and it's true prices have increased. A 3-day used to be 220k but is now 330k. Strangely a 24hr is only 100k.

http://www.dpp.cz/en/fares-in-prague/

There are plenty of places to eat well and cheaply in Prague. We always ate in traditional Czech pubs at lunchtime, good hearty food washed down with excellent beer. (Try the dark beer, tmavy, it's wonderful!) Prices are good value if you avoid the obvious tourist traps.

http://www.praguepubs.co.uk/

In the evening we usually found restaurants of varying nationalities. We ate good Mexican, Greek and especially Italian. We found plenty around the Andel tramstop area and were never disappointed. Prague is on our list for a revisit in 2009.:)

CCFC_80

Just to reiterate above, be very wary when eating and drinking in the tourist trap especially around wenscleses square. We sat outside of a cafe bought 3 cappucinhos and 1 slice of cake and was charged the equivalent of £18.00. Also be wary of exchanging money at some of these tourist exchange booths,one in particular at Prague castle, some will throw in a so called free map but will rip you off with a low exchange rate and commission charges. Always ask beforehand how many czech koruna they will give you for your transaction. (currently around 30 to a pound). prague is still good value to eat and drink if you do so outside the main tourist areas.

joho

Thank you for your answers peeps. Looking forward to it next week now!

pattycake

Be sure to pack your warm clothes. My husband says it is very cold at the moment and was snowing yesterday. You will need a hat. Everyone wears them - they are not as daft as we are in this country. If you do not actually own one, virtually every shop sells them cheaply. You will also need good shoes. You will do a lot of walking and there are tons of cobbles to contend with.

You will find the pashminas are a really good buy. They come in every colour and pattern imaginable and make great gifts when you get home. I have a drawer full of them and find them so useful, winter or summer. If you buy one for yourself when you get there, you can use it to keep warm. I am thinking you are female! Shop around first though before you part with your cash. There is a big variation in the prices depending on the location of the shop. The shops by the little market in between Old Town Square and Wenscelas are usually pretty good. Even though they are on the tourist trail, there is stiff competition.

I would normally be off to Prague myself next week but other commitments mean I am missing my pre-Christmas fix this year. I will really miss it.

Have fun!

amarg

It was -20 degrees C when I went, but it was good.


Watch out for the gipsie pick pockets and be wary of the taxi drivers- agree a price first. One night we got a minibus and it was about a quid each, the next night we got a taxi and it was £10 each :mad:

This is a good bar and has some good advice-

http://www.urlink.eu/l

pattycake

The coldest I have know it during the seven years my husband has been living in Prague, was one New Year. It never got above -8degrees C even during the day. My husband was working near the Polish border in his first winter there and they regularly got the -20 there. That would be very unusual for Prague though. As a city, the temperature is always higher than out in the sticks.

The weather can be very variable though. During the New Year break I referred to, by the 4 January it was raining and up to about 10degrees C. Go prepared for the cold and then you can always shed layers.

Summer can be very hot indeed but it can also be very wet. Remember the terrible floods experienced during August 2002? We were evacuated out of the city centre. We were fine as we had somewhere else to go but it was dreadful time for the city and for the population. The city centre is now completely restored but if you venture out into some the suburbs, say around Karlin, you can still see the devastation which was caused.

joho

Oh pattycake and amarg! Wish I had seen your answers before I went, especially the advice about the pashminas! It wasn't too cold - -1deg was the worst. No snow, disappointingly!

Loved the place - it is very beautiful - but the people are dour! Would go back though. Found a nice little bar/restaurant near bottom of Wenceslas Square, called U Providence or somat like that, which served cheap enough beer, good food )especially the ribs - OMG! to die for!) and the staff were friendly, spoke good English and smiled occasionally!

My warning to add to the list is to get your transport ticket validated and make sure it is valid until you get OUT of the station at the end of your journey.

Two of our group had tickets that ran out 10 minutes before the end of their journey i.e. they were valid at the start of the journey. They got stopped by the inspectors (they can spot a tourist from a mile off!), fined 700K each (ish, I think) and had to produce their passports which we had been told NOT to carry around. If they hadn't had i.d. the police would have to have been involved. Not a nice way to spend your time!

Oh, another warning is that a lot of bars/restaurants etc still allow smoking.