Prague: where to stay, when to go, and how to get around

Overview

Prague is a compact, spectacular city that has learned to live with mass tourism, and the main skill it asks of a visitor is knowing when to step away from the crowd. The Vltava runs through the middle, splitting the city into two halves that feel quite different: the flat east bank holds the Old Town, the New Town and most of the daily life, while the steeper west bank climbs to the castle through the Lesser Town. The historic core is small and walkable, but it is also the most heavily touristed part of Central Europe, and the few blocks around the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical Clock are where prices, crowds and outright tourist traps concentrate. The trick to enjoying Prague is basing yourself close enough to walk into the sights but far enough out — a tram stop or two — that you eat and drink where locals do. It’s cheaper than Western Europe, though the centre no longer is, and it runs on the Czech koruna, not the euro.

Where to stay

The river and the hills make this a city where your base genuinely changes your day. The east bank is flat and dense; the west bank is beautiful but steep and quieter after dark. The tram and metro network is excellent and cheap, so staying slightly out of the core costs you little and saves you money and noise. Decide first which bank, then how central.

Staré Město (Old Town) & Josefov

The medieval core on the east bank — Old Town Square, the winding lanes down to the Charles Bridge, and Josefov, the former Jewish quarter with its synagogues and old cemetery. Stay here on a first, short visit if being able to walk out into the postcard matters more than anything else. The trade-off is real and steep: this is the most saturated, most expensive and most touristed part of the city, the restaurants on the main routes are mostly to be avoided, and the lanes carry stag-party and late-crowd noise on weekends. Fine for two or three nights; wearing over a week.

Nové Město (New Town) & Wenceslas Square

Just south and east of the Old Town, built on a grander nineteenth-century scale around Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square). This is the practical, well-connected base: on top of the metro, walkable to everything, close to the main train station. Stay here if you want central without the medieval-lane premium. The trade-off is that the lower end of Wenceslas Square and a few surrounding blocks are the city’s seedy strip after dark — casinos, clubs, pushy touts — so choose the streets toward the National Museum or the river, not the ones running down to the station.

Malá Strana & Hradčany

The west bank below and around the castle: baroque palaces, gardens, cobbled hills and the climb up to Pražský hrad and Petřín. The prettiest place to sleep in the city, and the quietest central one. Stay here for atmosphere and calm evenings, ideal for couples. The trade-offs are three: it’s pricey, it’s genuinely hilly (that view has stairs under it), and it goes quiet and a little dead at night, so you’ll cross the river for a wider choice of food and bars.

Vinohrady

A leafy, residential nineteenth-century district southeast of the centre, a short metro or tram ride from the core. This is where a lot of Praguers and long-term residents actually want to live: handsome apartment blocks, tree-lined streets around Náměstí Míru, and the city’s best concentration of genuinely good, fairly priced restaurants and wine bars. Stay here for a longer trip, or if eating well matters more than a five-minute walk to the bridge. The trade-off is simply that you’re 10–15 minutes out and will use the tram daily — no hardship, but not step-out-into-the-sights.

Žižkov & Karlín

East of the centre, two contrasting neighbours. Žižkov is the old pub district, famous for the density of its bars and a scruffy, unpretentious character; Karlín, down by the river, was flooded in 2002, rebuilt, and is now polished and full of cafés and offices. Stay in Žižkov if cheap beer and nightlife are the point and you don’t mind rough edges and noise; stay in Karlín for a calmer, modern base with good transport. The shared trade-off is distance and a lack of headline sights — this is where you sleep and drink, not where you sightsee.

When to go

Late spring (May–June) and early autumn (September) are the best windows: warm enough to sit outside, the gardens are open, and the summer peak has either not arrived or just left. July and August are hot, busy and at their most expensive, with the Charles Bridge shoulder-to-shoulder by mid-morning — go early or late in the day if you visit then. Winter is cold, often grey and can dip well below freezing, but December brings the Christmas markets on the Old Town and Wenceslas squares and is genuinely worth the chill; January and February are the quietest and cheapest months. Whenever you come, the castle and Charles Bridge are calmest early in the morning, before the day-trip coaches land.

Getting there & around

Václav Havel Airport sits west of the city and, notably, has no rail or metro link — the single biggest thing to know on arrival. The cheapest route in is city trolleybus 59 to Nádraží Veleslavín on metro line A (green), which runs straight to the centre; the Airport Express (AE) bus goes instead to the main train station, Praha hlavní nádraží. A taxi is quick but far dearer, and the airport no longer keeps a rank of metered cars to flag down: its ground transport runs through a single contracted ride-hailing partner, booked in the app or at the airport’s own counters. Book it, and ignore anyone who offers you a ride in the arrivals hall.

In the city, don’t bother with a car: the network of three metro lines (A green, B yellow, C red) and an extensive tram system covers everything, tickets are cheap and timed by duration, and the same ticket works across metro, tram and bus. Buy and validate before you board. Trams are the nicest way to travel — the 22 climbs to the castle and is a sightseeing ride in itself, which also makes it a favourite of pickpockets, so mind your bag. Praha hlavní nádraží connects fast to Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Bratislava, making Prague a solid base for onward rail.

Practicalities

Prague is a safe city; the real hazards are to your wallet, not your person. Watch for pickpockets on the crowded trams and around the Charles Bridge, and treat street currency exchange with suspicion — use bank ATMs and ignore the exchange booths advertising “no commission”, which give dreadful rates. The currency is the Czech koruna (CZK); plenty of tourist-facing places quote or accept euros, but always at a poor rate, so pay in koruna. Cards are accepted almost everywhere.

The city runs on beer, and it is a point of local pride: Czech lager (pivo) is excellent, cheap, and in many pubs cheaper than soft drinks — order světlé, a pale lager, and expect it poured with a thick head. The dishes to know are svíčková (beef in a creamy root-vegetable sauce with bread dumplings), guláš with dumplings, and roast pork with sauerkraut and dumplings (vepřo knedlo zelo). The sugar-dusted trdelník sold from every tourist stall is not a Czech speciality at all — it’s a fairground snack aimed squarely at visitors, so don’t mistake it for local food. Tipping is modest: round up or add around ten per cent in a sit-down restaurant. A last habit worth adopting — Czechs say dobrý den on entering a small shop or pub, and it’s noticed when you do.