Ahh, Prague. There is a reason why it’s one of the most romantic city break destinations in Europe. The stunning architecture, narrow cobblestone streets, delicious food (and beer), and a quirky photo opportunity on every corner! All that and more makes Prague such a wonderful destination for a weekend trip.
Read on to learn what you can expect on your weekend trip to Prague, what the prices are like and, of course, the seven things to do and places you can’t miss when you are here!
Setting expectations for the weekend trip in Prague
The saying goes: “The lower your expectations, the better the chance of avoiding disappointment”. Despite receiving multiple recommendations about how amazing Prague was, we tried to remain as sceptical as we could and politely ignore them. We remember what happened in Milan when we set ourselves up for a bit of downer! 😅
Overall, Oskar and I tend to put quite a critical eye on every place we travel to, but this time, keeping expectations low must have added to the magic. We had two full days to explore most touristic places and spend some time living like the locals by shopping at a supermarket and eating in.
Where is Prague? 📍
Before we dive into all the wonderful things to do in Prague and tell you more about our visit, let’s start with putting Prague on the map!
image source: Google Maps
Also known as Czechia, the country is located in Europe and has borders with Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia. Prague is situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river and is home to about 1.3 million people. The country itself has just over 10 million people.
Prague flight time from London (United Kingdom), Horsens (Denmark) and Riga (Latvia) ✈️
We picked these three European cities as they are the closest to our hearts and we have lived in each at some point in our lives! The flight times to Prague are as follows:
- London to Prague: ~1h 50m flight time
- Copenhagen to Prague: ~1h 20m flight time
- Riga to Prague: ~2h 05m flight time
Will you feel like a tourist in the city of Prague? 🤔
The fact that Prague is much loved by tourists is an unmissable fact. The Old Town is full to the brim with different attractions for tourists – from tasty snacks to try like trdelník to restaurants offering the best goulash soups in town (more on these later).
So, you will certainly not be alone. Most likely, you will be in a queue for a photo opportunity and take a slow stroll when crossing the Charles Bridge. However, the atmosphere is very welcoming, even though we didn’t speak any Czech.
Travel hack: If you travel often, check with your mobile phone provider if you can get free data roaming in the EU countries. This helps us a lot to navigate the city we are in and make sure we don’t miss what’s important to us at the time.
Prague weather in September – what is it like? 🍂
That’s a great question! We were slightly apprehensive about what the weather will be like in Prague in September, but we are glad we just went with it. As it was the start of autumn, it was quite wonderful.
The leaves were just starting to turn golden and the weather during the day was warm enough to venture outside for hours despite the rain. At night, we had huge thunderstorms and wind, but that only added to the diversity of our weekend trip!
I’m sure Prague is beautiful in every season, but it seems that we couldn’t have picked a better time to visit!
Costs and prices in Prague – Is Prague expensive? 💰
Not at all. Even for such a popular travel destination, the prices in Prague were quite reasonable for tourists, especially the cost of draft beer and traditional food. And the prices were especially reasonable compared to Nordic countries like Norway (boy, we had to pay €11 for a beer at some point in Oslo 😅).
Of course, locals would most likely tell a slightly different story, however, according to Trading Economics, the average wage in the Czech Republic is now 31851 CZK which translates into 1241 EUR or 1086 GBP. That’s almost double of what Latvia is currently at, so we are guessing they are doing well.
Here are some examples of prices in Prague to give you a better idea of the prices in Prague:
- Main dish with duck in a restaurant in the Old Town: ~180 CZK (7.01 EUR or 6.14 GBP)
- Goulash soup: ~230 CZK (8.96 EUR or 7.85 GBP)
- Beer: ~60-90 CZK (2-3 EUR or 2-3 GBP)
- Tips: 10%-15%
What’s the currency in Prague and the Czech Republic?
Even though the Czech Republic is part of the European Union, they still have their own currency. Some places may accept Euros but there will be a pretty bad exchange rate there so you will want to withdraw some Czech money for your city break.
The currency in Prague (and the Czech Republic) is Czech Crowns or CZK for short. The currency runs in large bills of 100/200/500/1000/2000/5000 CZK and it will feel like you have a lot of money, even if you withdraw 50 Euros!
Image source: rter.info
The easiest way to calculate prices, we found, was to divide what we saw in Czech Korunas by 30 to get an understanding of the value in Pound Sterling or Euros. This method is not ideal and only works on small purchases, but it gave us a quick insight into whether something was expensive or not.
- 100 CZK = 3.90 EUR or 3.41 GBP
- 250 CZK = 9.74 EUR or 8.53 GBP
- 500 CZK = 19.48 EUR or 17.06 GBP
The 7 places and things to do in Prague
Personally, the atmosphere of the city was second to none. In most European cities, there are a few dozen beautiful buildings like Prague has, but we hadn’t seen so many in the same city, scattered across both banks of the river. There is an outstanding mix of Northern and Eastern Europe in Prague, making it a vibrant city to visit for those who appreciate cultural history and great food.
I’ll be honest. It has been quite hard to capture our immensely positive experience in written words—the photos and the videos we took tell a much better story—so this part of our travel blog looks more like a gallery which we hope you will enjoy!
#1 Walk along the Prague River and Charles Bridge
Charles Bridge is easily one of the most beautiful pedestrian-only bridges in the whole world. Crossing it felt like a privilege! The only downside was the sea of people doing it with us. The bridge gets very busy, even in the morning hours and especially on the weekends.
Charles Bridge connects the city’s Old Town and the other bank of the river where the Prague Castle sits on a hill.
The construction of Charles Bridge (also known as Karlův Most) started in 1357 – that’s over 7 centuries ago. The 30+ statues of Saints were added much later – between 1683-1714. These statues were of great interest to a lot of people – queues were forming to have the chance to come closer and rub them. We didn’t quite understand what that was about but I did make a wish. Will see if it comes true! 😉
#2 Visit Prague’s Old Town Square
The Old Town in Prague was absolutely magical. We loved how big the Old Square was and the atmosphere surrounding it. There were a lot of people, despite the rain, so there are no amazing solo photos, but hey. We are here to show you how it is and what to expect from your city break in Prague!
The St. Vitus Cathedral was also quite beautiful. Looking at how majestic it stood against the pavement was quite something. It’s worth coming to the square on every day of your visit and soaking it all in.
#3 Explore Prague Castle – the castle on the hill
The fact that the Prague Castle is raised on a hill made this city so special to me. We really do love a good viewing point and the castle is an amazing place to finish your trip because you can see all of the places you have walked to from there.
#4 Treat yourself at Prague’s restaurants
Prague has great food and delicious beer at comparably low prices. The Czech cuisine is much closer to Central and Eastern Europe which is why we enjoy enjoyed it so much. We tried some traditional dishes like potato fritters, sausages and sauerkraut, goulash and even some duck!
The beer, of course, was amazing! The Czech Republic is known for its beers so you absolutely must give draft beers a try. They even have different ways of having it based on the amount of beer foam. 😱🍻
We did consider getting the trdelník – it’s a sweet pastry filled with either whipped cream or ice-cream, but we gave it a miss since we saw a lot of people not finishing theirs. Actually, we had a sample of the pastry on our last day and didn’t regret our decision. Now excuse me while I think back about the amazing sausages we had 😀 #priorities
#5 Remember to take photos and soak it all in
Sure, we haven’t travelled the world or seen all of the capital cities in Europe, but damn! Prague is such a photogenic city. There’s a photo opportunity on every street corner, and we are not exaggerating.
There are so many beautiful streets and buildings to fill up your camera roll. If you are planning a day out, don’t forget to take the extra battery packs because you will need them!
By simply wandering about we found the Wallenstein Palace (Valdštejnský palác), its park and the Dripstone Wall. It’s the perfect place where you can take a moment to relax as there weren’t that many people here. You can learn a lot about Prague’s history by strolling through the gardens.
#6 Don’t get too excited about the Prague Dancing House
Yes, we did see the Dancing House in Prague. No, it didn’t dance and we honestly didn’t get it! Let us know in the comments if you have some thoughts on why this building is important (besides being an achievement in architecture and structure).
To make the best of the situation, we walked past the Dancing House to explore what Prague was like outside of the old town. Most buildings were closed since it was the weekend, but it area seemed quite lovely.
#7 Take a glimpse of the Prague astronomical clock
Unfortunately, the astronomical clock in the Old Town Square was closed for renovation during our stay, so the best we saw was a photo on the renovation site. It’s a pity really since I personally thought that was the thing to see in Prague. It’s a slightly bigger pity it opened literally two weeks later, but the weather would have been a bit too cold by then. Anyhow, it’s definitely something to add to your must-see list in Prague.
What would we do for our next Prague visit?
If you are wondering if Prague is a city where travellers would want to come back to, then our answer is “Yes, absolutely”. We are finding that taking three-night trips are perfect to properly explore a city, with two-night stays being the absolute minimum.
That said, we didn’t feel we had enough time to explore some parts of the city, especially since we had an early flight to catch on our last day, but no matter. This is what we’d love to do when we come back to Prague!
We’d definitely explore Prague’s food scene further. For example, just a 10-minute walk from the busy Old Town Square is an amazing steak place called the BEEF BAR. It’s a place you’d go to before an evening at the opera or another special occasion.
There are multiple parks in Prague, too, so we’d love to explore the greener areas and get a feel of the pulse of the city. Maybe by visiting on a weekday instead? It would be cool to have a feel of how it is to work in the city, surrounded by so many beautiful buildings every single day.
Over to you
Prague is best enjoyed slowly – you should take the time to walk its streets, venture away from tourist spots but also explore the outstanding gothic architecture that is so hard to miss.
All in all, Prague is a brilliant European city break destination and we can’t recommend it enough. We hope our blog and photos inspired you about this destination. If you’d like a closer glimpse at what Prague was like for us that September, check out our video on YouTube!
Please do let us know if so or if you know of similar cities to Prague—we are all ears. 👂