First things first. The best thing of all to do in Prague is to avoid the daily tide of tourists that washes through its most famous streets and squares. In summer, the crowds are as thick as any you’ll find in Venice or Rome. If you get caught in them, you’ll spend hours shuffling at half-speed past the same kind of shops and attractions that serve coach parties and day-trippers all over Europe. Not only is it exhausting, it’s a terrible waste of an opportunity.
The historic core of Prague is one of the most atmospheric in Europe: a place where cobbled alleys seem to beckon you straight back into the 17th and 18th centuries. You won’t get any sense of that trying to squeeze between bored Italian teenagers and shops selling “Praha Drinking Team” T-shirts. So your first job is to make a list of all the places you don’t need to see. Wenceslas Square, Melantrichova Street, most of the Old Town Square (including the astronomical clock), and most of Prague Castle, including Golden Lane, should all feature on that. You should also reconcile yourself to one 6.30am start too. Follow these simple rules, and check out some of the ideas, below, and should find that Zlata Praha — golden Prague — has suddenly recaptured its sense of history and magic.
- Cross the Charles Bridge before breakfast
Slender, graceful and bookended by two fairytale towers, Charles Bridge is a magnificent survivor from Prague’s glory days — back in the 14th century when it stood at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. But most of the time all you can see when you cross it are other holidaymakers. So get up early and walk its cobbles while everyone else is still in bed. East to west is the way to go, and at that time of day you’ll have only the odd photographer for company. Above you, the spires of St Vitus Cathedral crown the view. Beside you, the Vltava river rushes over its city-centre weir. It feels like the opening scene of a movie.
- Climb to the castle
So you’ve crossed the Charles Bridge at daybreak. What next? Don’t be distracted by your rumbling tummy. Keep going: through the majestic Malostranske namesti (Lesser Town Square), up a steep alleyway called Zamecka, and round a corner towards the Zamecke schody — the Castle Steps that climb the hill beside the castle walls. At the top, the views of Prague are curtailed by the castle’s serried ranks of 18th-century apartments, on your left. But that hardly matters. The sight of the domes, spires and tiled rooftops that stretch south-eastwards is worth every one of the 220 steps.
- Sneak into the cathedral
Your early-morning experience isn’t over yet. The final act is to head into the castle, towards the inner courtyard that holds St Vitus Cathedral. At 7am, Monday-Saturday, a priest opens a door to allow worshippers in for the morning mass. Join them — quietly, respectfully — and you can get a taste of the cathedral’s soaring neo-gothic interior, two hours before it opens it paying visitors. Of course, you’ll have to come back again later: this is not the time to go walking around, taking photos. But it’s a treat to share that moment of quiet with just a smattering of locals, just as the day gets underway.
- Avoid the windows in the Bohemian Chancellery
Here’s another reason to go back to the castle once it’s open to paying visitors (9am-5pm): to see the ceiling of the Vladislav Hall. This marvel of late-medieval architecture, finished in 1502, looks more like the billowing canvas of a giant tent than a ribbed stone vault — and encloses a space big enough to host jousting knights. When you’re done, jump forward 116 years by climbing to the Bohemian Chancellery upstairs. It was here, in 1618, that three Catholic officials of the Holy Roman Empire were thrown out of a window by the representatives of overwhelmingly Protestant Bohemia. Prague’s history is peppered with political defenestrations, but this was by far the most calamitous. It helped spark the Thirty Years’ War.
- Master the tram system
The historic core of Prague is fairly compact: about two miles from east to west. But as anyone who’s paced its cobbled streets will tell you, it doesn’t feel like that when you tear your shoes off your throbbing feet at the end of the day. To lessen the pain, make use of the city’s tram system wherever possible. It reaches into many more parts of central Prague than the Metro and is easy to use thanks to the Directions function on your smartphone. In fact, the only bit of prep that’s needed is to stock up on tickets. Just be sure to pop into one of the Metro stations at the start of the day and buy a few of the inexpensive tickets. They’re charged by the duration of the journey (although you can also buy one or three-day passes). The clock starts running once you validate your ticket on board your first tram.
- Scoff some Czech cakes
We’ll get to Prague’s rapidly improving gastronomic scene later. For now, we’re talking cakes. In many Czech families, they’re eaten after lunch with an inky black coffee — but that shouldn’t stop you snacking on them whenever you’re hungry, provided they’re fresh. Babovka is your gateway drug — it’s a light, marbled sponge, often dusted with icing sugar. But the cakes that will really get you hooked are the yeasty, fluffy Kolace — topped with fruit or poppy seeds — or the rarer and even more delicious Vdolky, with their squishy, creamy hearts of cottage cheese. Seek them out in the likes of Home Kitchen in Holesovice.
- Sup on a Staropramen
Sure, the Czech Republic does craft beer. You can try around 100 examples at the Beer Spot on Plaska street in the Mala Strana. But what really strikes beer-drinking visitors — here, in the country with the world’s highest per-capita consumption — is the quality of the average pint in ordinary pubs. As long as you drink it from the tap, rather than the bottle, it’ll be lip-smackingly fresh. For a real treat, fall into one of the Potrefena Husa chain of pubs for a half-litre of Staropramen beer and a plate of traditional Svickova na Smetane — roast beef served with dumplings and smothered in a rich, creamy sauce. Then contrast the sweeter flavour of Staropramen with the hoppier, more bitter taste of Pilsner Urquell in Lokal Dlouhaaa. This extraordinarily long bar at the interesting, eastern edge of the Old Town (Stare Mesto) also serves up an extraordinarily good-natured social mix. You’ll find local Prazaci packed onto its benches alongside expats, students and tourists.
- Try the local wine, too
Lokal Dlouhaaa isn’t the only reason to take a stroll up Dlouha street in the Old Town as darkness falls. Two buildings beyond the pub, you’ll find an opening into a neglected Renaissance courtyard, which is home to Bokovka — a moody, candlelit wine bar that’s the perfect place to hatch a plot (or maybe just plan your next day’s sightseeing). It’s strong on the wines of southern Moravia, which lies at the eastern end of the Czech Republic — and serves plenty of wines by the glass as well as the bottle. Ask the staff for advice, and if in doubt drink something white: maybe a bone-dry Gruner Veltliner or a biscuity ryzlink vlassky. You might want to come back this way the following morning too: Onesip Coffee on quiet Hastalska street serves a smooth and powerful espresso.
- See Picasso in peace
It sounds counter-intuitive in capital city: but a surefire way to dodge the crowds in Prague is to take refuge in its best museums. The Veletrzni Palac — the Trade Fair Palace — is the most obvious example. Yes, it’s a rather gloomy modernist block, but it sits in the up-and-coming Holesovice district and houses the national collection of modern art. Even at the weekends it’s quiet: but come on a midweek afternoon and you’re likely to have the place to yourself. After all the jostling in London and Paris, it’s sheer bliss — never more so than when you happen upon its meaty collection of Picassos, most of which are from his cubist and pre-cubist period.
- Sharpen your knowledge of Czech cubism
Thanks to all the Picassos at the Trade Fair Palace (see above) you may be wondering if the Czechs had a particular affinity for cubism. At the House of the Black Madonna on Ovocny trh, you’ll get your answer. A delightful, forward-looking department store, it was built in 1911-12 and mimics, in three dimensions, many of the movement’s visual idioms. Everywhere, there’s a chunky Toblerone-like sense of depth to the facade, while upstairs, in a permanent exhibition devoted to Czech cubism, you can see how local designers eagerly embraced its shape-shifting modernism — creating many-faceted ashtrays, desks, chairs and ceramics. Beware of the gift shop. A century on, this stuff may look a bit kooky, but it’s covetable too. You may emerge back onto the street £30-£40 lighter.
