Trams on wet cobbles, and the hour the square belongs to nobody
The city is smaller than its reputation and built of stone, so sound carries: trams, heels, a delivery trolley clattering two streets away. By seven on a September evening the air is wood smoke and wet stone.
The old town runs on shifts — tour groups until six, stag parties from eleven. Between them you can stand on the bridge without being photographed by accident.
2,300 Kč for a bath, and a fifty-minute hour
The beer spa I would skip. 2,300 Kč for one tub, one person, one hour; 3,400 Kč with the sauna — roughly dinner and beer for two at a tank pub. The tradition framing is marketing; the price is a city-centre wellness price.
The second is quieter. The river cruise sold as an hour is 50 minutes on the operator's own page, and priced in euros, "from 18 €", in a country whose currency is the koruna. Tram 17 runs the same water on a 150 Kč day ticket.
Hall 22, Holešovice, before the wholesalers finish
The Pražská tržnice on the Holešovice riverbank is a working market, not a restored one. Hall 22 alone has more than eighty stallholders, and the grounds hold an optician and a hardware shop, which tells you who shops there.
Monday to Friday 07:30 to 17:00, Saturday until 14:00. I go on a weekday morning, while it is still people buying the week's food. Metro C to Vltavská; no ticket, no English menu board.
Three hours to undo a bad exchange
This is the rule I give everyone, because it is written down and almost nobody uses it. Under Czech National Bank rules you may withdraw from a currency exchange within three hours, free, without giving a reason, up to about a thousand euros. Keep the receipt: the booth must give you one, and the right is useless without it.
Two more from the same list. Charging commission on an exchange is prohibited, so a "0% commission" sign advertises a legal duty. And the rate on the board must be the worst rate the booth offers — the big number in the window is a floor, not a promise.
A clock with the wrong man's name on it
The Astronomical Clock was built in 1410 by Mikuláš of Kadaň — the blinded Master Hanuš of the legend had nothing to do with it. Watching from the square is free; the tower is 350 Kč, half price in the first hour after opening.
Prague Castle grounds are free, 06:00–22:00, with the guard changing at noon; the buildings are 450 Kč on a two-day ticket, and the gardens shut from 1 November to 28 February.
My pick is the Clementinum, 380 Kč, guided only: someone has recorded the weather in that building every day since 1775, so every "hottest day on record" headline in Prague is measured against it.
Charles Bridge is free at any hour: 515.76 m, thirty statues, foundation stone 9 July 1357. So are the park and ramparts at Vyšehrad, where six original bridge statues sit in the casemates.
Check the calendar for the Jewish Museum: 600 Kč, closed every Saturday and on Jewish holidays. A Saturday-only weekend means Josefov is shut.
The foam is not the barman cheating you
Svíčková is beef larded with bacon, braised under a cream sauce with dumplings, cranberries and lemon — an occasion dish. Vepřo-knedlo-zelo is roast pork, dumpling and cabbage. Ovocné knedlíky, fruit dumplings with butter and curd, are a main course here, not a pudding.
Now the beer, where visitors get it wrong. A correct pour has three fingers of dense wet foam on top — a hladinka — and asking for it to be topped up gets you a worse beer. A šnyt is two parts beer to three parts foam. A mlíko is almost all foam, and it goes with dessert.
Tanková means unpasteurised beer delivered from the brewery within 48 hours, with about a week of life in the tank. A quiet tank pub is a worse tank pub. Lokál Dlouhááá pours from twelve tanks, 11:00–24:00. U Fleků has brewed its dark 13° on site for more than five hundred years, daily 10:00–23:00.
Four nights of light, then the markets
Signal Festival, 15–18 October 2026, hangs light art across the centre and Dejvice, mostly free — four nights of very large evening crowds.
The Christmas markets run 28 November 2026 to 6 January 2027. The Prague Marathon crosses the historic centre on 2 May 2027 from 08:00, about 17,000 runners; the half marathon is 3 April 2027. Closures are published close to the date.
What's on
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 15–18 October 2026 | Signal Festival, light art across the centre and Dejvice, mostly free — very large evening crowds |
| 28 Nov 2026 – 6 Jan 2027 | Christmas markets on Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square |
| 13 February 2027 | Prague Valentine's 7K Run, Praha 7 — local road closures |
| 3 April 2027 | Generali Prague Half Marathon — closures not yet published |
| 2 May 2027, from 08:00 | Vodafone Prague Marathon through the historic centre, about 17,000 runners — closures published close to the date |