HostelRoom OnlyPrague Holidays
HostelRoom Only
Room Only£109pp
City HotelRoom OnlyHostivar, Prague
£119pp
Room OnlyNove Mesto, Prague0m from the city centre
£119pp
Room OnlyZizkov, Prague1.5km from the city centre
£119pp
City HotelRoom OnlyStare Mesto, Prague1.2km from the city centre
£119pp
City HotelRoom OnlyVysocany, Prague7.0km from the city centre
£119pp
Bed And BreakfastStrasnice, Prague7.0km from the city centre
£119pp
The centre escaped the wartime destruction that levelled so much of Europe, so Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau streets still stand shoulder to shoulder exactly as they were built.
Old Town Square, Charles Bridge and the castle gates sit within a twenty-five-minute walk of one another, so the sightseeing needs comfortable shoes rather than a coach seat.
Restaurant meals, concert tickets and a half-litre of world-class lager all cost noticeably less than their equivalents in Paris, Rome or Amsterdam.
Snow over the Christmas markets, blossom across the orchards of Petřín in April, beer gardens through summer and golden light on the bridges in autumn give every month its own argument.
Churches, palaces and two historic opera houses stage classical performances all year round, and decent seats often cost less than a cinema ticket at home.
Islands, hill parks, river quarters and a castle complex the size of a small town mean a full week here never runs out of new corners.
Six areas and landmarks anchor nearly every first visit, and each one repays more time than the tour groups allow it.
Old Town Square: The medieval heart holds the twin-spired Týn Church and the Orloj, the astronomical clock installed in 1410 and still the oldest one operating anywhere; most city breaks to Prague begin right here, and the hourly procession of apostle figures explains the permanent crowd below the tower.
Prague Castle & St Vitus: Crowning the west bank, the hilltop citadel wraps palaces, gardens and the tiny painted cottages of Golden Lane around a cathedral that took nearly six hundred years to finish, and the whole complex holds the record as the largest ancient fortress-and-palace grounds anywhere in the world.
Charles Bridge: Begun in 1357 by the emperor who gave it his name, the stone crossing carries thirty statues of saints between its Gothic gate towers; walk it before seven in the morning and you will share it with photographers, swans and almost nobody else.
Malá Strana & Kampa Island: The Lesser Town tumbles downhill from the castle in a knot of embassies, courtyard pubs and cobbled lanes, ending at Kampa, a riverside park with a working mill wheel and the ever-repainted Lennon Wall on its edge.
Josefov: The former Jewish quarter preserves the Old-New Synagogue, in use since around 1270 and the oldest active synagogue in Europe, alongside a cemetery where twelve thousand headstones lean together in layers built up over three centuries.
The New Town: Wenceslas Square anchors it, less a square than a grand boulevard where modern Czech history happened, watched over by the National Museum, which reopened in 2018 after a seven-year restoration; Frank Gehry's 1996 Dancing House stands a short walk away on the riverbank, still dividing local opinion three decades on.
The famous sights are only the opening chapter, and the city repays anyone who plans one thing beyond them each day.
Old Town Hall tower: Ride the lift or take the stairs for the best rooftop view in the centre, ideally timed so you look down on the crowd gathering for the clock's hourly show rather than standing in the middle of it; late afternoon gives the kindest light on the spires.
Petřín funicular: Rattle up the orchard-covered hill to the 1891 lookout tower, a 63.5-metre tribute to Paris built for the Jubilee Exhibition, with rose gardens and long lawns waiting at the top.
An evening of Dvořák: Book a concert at the Rudolfinum, home of the Czech Philharmonic, or under the Art Nouveau dome of the Municipal House, because live music here costs a fraction of what most city breaks charge for the same standard.
Strahov Monastery: Climb the lanes past the castle to the two Baroque library halls, where frescoed ceilings from the 1720s and 1790s arch over tens of thousands of ancient volumes and a genuinely odd cabinet of curiosities; the monastery brewery next door handles the reward.
Tank-pub lager: Drink unpasteurised Pilsner served from copper tanks in the pubs the locals argue over, where the pour matters as much as the beer and a wet-foam mlíko is a legitimate order.
Náplavka embankment: Join the Saturday farmers market on the riverbank below Vyšehrad, then come back on a summer evening when the moored boats open their hatches as bars.
Winter markets: Visit between late November and early January and the squares fill with wooden stalls, carp sellers, mulled wine and one enormous tree lit against the Týn spires.
May, June and September offer the strongest balance of warm weather and manageable visitor numbers, with long light evenings made for the beer gardens and the riverbank. December is unforgettable for the markets, though cold and busy, while January and February bring the lowest prices and a quiet, frost-bright city to the travellers who pack properly. High summer is warm and lively but the bridge gets crowded by mid-morning.
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