We arrived in Prague around noon on a Saturday. After checking into the hotel we headed down to see the Old Town area and the Charles Bridge.
As we moved through the Mala Strana area and towards the Charles Bridge the people increased and the width of the pathways decreased.
I honestly don’t think I have ever seen so many tourists in my life. I would highly advise not visiting this area on a Saturday afternoon.
I know Prague always has a lot of visitors, but Sunday and Monday were much more pleasant in this area. I think all the weekenders were there on Saturday.
Honestly it really killed the beauty for me. The streets leading to Old Town were filled with tourist stores. One right after the other. They seemed to alternate a pattern of postcards and trinkets, marionettes and Bohemian crystal.
It was so disappointing. After visiting all the cities on our list and looking back, no other city was quite like this. Yes, there are tourist shops sprinkled around Budapest and Vienna, but the volume and concentration in the Old Town area of Prague was overwhelming.
Things did improve though. We had a wonderful evening sitting in the Letna beer garden overlooking the city. Beer gardens are the ultimate relaxation experience for us. We seek them out in every city we visit. So far Munich has the best, but anything outdoors where you can sit and sip an inexpensive local beer and soak up the atmosphere will do.
The Prague Castle was truly amazing, especially St. Vitus Cathedral. We also enjoyed walking up and down Wenceslas Square. It was much more wide open and easy to get around.
On Sunday we took a train to the city of Plzen to tour the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. This place was so great, like a small city on its own. The brewery has so much history including 9km of underground cellars that took 3 generations to create which are not used anymore due to more modern techniques. Crazy!
We’d wanted to go to Prague for a while and we spent the most time there – 3 nights. We really felt like we were able to see all it had to offer in that time.
I know that its popularity for tourism has really taken off in the past few years. I find myself wishing we had visited it sooner, it feels almost too popular now. We enjoyed the other parts of the city and although Old Town was really beautiful it is just way to touristy for my tastes.
Overall, I think we feel that Prague is a must-see city, but maybe not necessarily a must-return.
2 comments:
It looks beautiful. I guess tourists are the price you pay for such scenery.
Question...was it really expensive?
Prague is really affordable. The exchange was about 16 czk to 1 usd while we were there. We were paying about 30 USD for a nice (and huge) meal with a couple beers each. That is even less than what we pay in Brazil for a similar meal.
You could easily spend less. The key is to stay out of the Old Town tourist area. I did a lot of research to find places that offered the menu in English, but didn't have the prices to match.
For example, most beers were about 35czk, but we stopped and had some in Old Town one night and they were 89czk!
Hotels are tricky. We chose one in Praha 7 right off of a tram stop, really easy access into town and paid about 78 euro. There was also a huge hostel in the area.
Everyone says that prices have increased there recently due to tourists, but I still think it is an affordable city, especially compared Dublin. Dublin is expensive!
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