Café Society in Prague

Prague is famous for many things, its opera house, its bridges, springtimes and astrological clock. It also has a wonderful café society, from lost-in-time fin de siècle relics to funky new arrivals. Here are three of my favourites.

Café Slavia - One of Prague’s best- loved institutions and renowned as a meeting place for intellectuals and literati since the late 19th century. The décor hasn’t changed much since then, and neither have the house specialties such as crepes, and thick and sinful hot chocolate. Smetanovo nábřeží 1012/2, www.cafeslavia.cz
Kavárna Obecní dům,

The glorious Municipal House Café is a sterling example of secessionist style and is located in the heart of the city’s historical centre. Open from day to night, it is equally as good for a coffee and pastry breakfast or a light lunch of a sandwich or salad. Ask to have a peek at the café’s private games rooms. Náměstí Republiky 5.

Cafe Wow - Café Wow is a one of the new breed of Prague cafes, mixing retro-inspired furniture and bright colors to a young crowd of locals and expats. You could pop in for a cocktail at night, or grab a bite of say tomato and mozzarella salad and pasta during the day. It is also one of the few places in Prague that does a decent brunch. Kozí 5, http://www.cafewow.cz/

You can learn about Prague Ruzyne airport online.

Best way to see Prague in 1 Day

Prague is a great city for a number of reasons but one of the key things to me is the fact that it is a capital city, yet still compact and easy to get around. Seeing the city in one day is very possible if you are well organised and there are ways to do this.

I always find that if you are in a city for a very short time, then going on the City Bus Tour (which many main cities have) is one excellent way to see a lot in a short time and which a guide. The best ones I find are the hop on, hop off bus tours. An organised city tour can also be a great way and if the city has a river through the heart of it, as Prague has, a boat trip combined with city tour can be good.

In Prague, companies who offer good tour include Viatour and GoldenTours. They are several companies in fact that you can choose from and often the tours use the same supplier. If you are unsure, then talking to your hotel concierge or to your Prague apartment agent can also sometimes help.

Best Youth Hostels in Prague for travellers

There are some excellent choices in Prague for accommodation and for all different prices levels and in a variety of areas within Prague. Even the higher-end hotels can be relatively cheap compared to some other European capitals, such as Paris, Rome and London.

One accommodation type which has proven to be very popular for years with backpackers BUT is also now attracting a variety of ages - now that many are being upgraded, are youth hostels. Below 3 of my favourite youth hostels:

Hostel Bridge Youth Hostel (Vašátkova 27) - This is an excellent double, 3 and 4 bedroom rooms and with a location which is very central and close to the historical attractions - is a good find. The rooms are also normally very clean and staff real friendly.

Pension Tara Youth Hostel - another great hostel with excellent cleanliness and cooperative staff. In some hostels on my travels around Europe, the staff can sometimes be rude, rooms unclean and location not great. Pension Tara though ticks all the boxes and is in a great location. Good facilities and not too far from the Hostel Bridge hostel.

Welcome Hostel - is another jewel and as they say, location, location, location. Also though with Internet access, lockers, good facilities, good staff and a decent price this is as good as any in Prague.

Where to stay in Prague

It can get confusing when planning to stay in Prague with several areas to the city. Below some thoughts on the main areas:

Nove Mesto - is one of the best areas to stay in the city as a tourist. This area is very central, has a number of decent holiday accommodation choices and is very central to the main attractions, bars and restaurants. You cannot go wrong with Move Mesto.

Stare Mesto - is equally as nice and also central, offers decent value and holiday rentals and is overall a very good location.

Smichov in Prague - also remains popular with many visitors to Prague, on the left bank of the river is another viable alternative. This area is filled with shops, restaurants and bars and is popular with locals and tourist.

Choose one of the areas above and you cannot go wrong when staying in Prague.

Why not join us at Prague Horn Festival

The Prague Horn Festival is an annual and non-profit event which will be held from the 8th of August to the 16th of August. This is the 18th edition of this festival and the aim is to develop the art of performances instrument boasting rich tradition of the Czech history.

This year, the event takes place at two locations, the Town Hall and Basic School of Arts. Everybody is welcome to this event, people from around the world are invited to this Horn Festival, amateurs as well as professionals, to participate the master classes. Students and teachers, keen amateurs and even beginners are welcome. Everybody who wants to learn and wants to get to know the instrument better, is welcome.

There are different sessions in the program. The morning program has sessions with individual lessons of 30 minutes. In the afternoon there are the open master classes and every night a concert will take place, starting on 7.30pm.

The fees for these courses vary from €320.00 for auditors to €440.00 for active participants. These prices includes the tuition and accommodation and the registration fee of €60.00. If there is a greater interest in participating the course, a student residential accommodation will be offered a reduced price. The official opening ceremony take place on the 8th of August at 3pm in the NKC Hall.

New Prague Dance Festival Tanec Praha

This New Prague Dance Festival called Tanec Praha is since the introduction, the largest dance festival of the capital city. Tanec Praha literally means Dance Prague and the New Prague Dance Festival was found in 1997. The New Prague Dance Festival is held from the 1st of July to the 7th of July in the Ponec Theatre.

This is an excellent organized festival for amateur dance groups that come from different dance genres. The aim was to enjoy people who love to dance where the nationality, language or religion doesn’t matter. This festival is also a competition that gives the opportunity to see the other lovers of dance and their interpretation of forms and styles.

Some types of dance are classic, hip hop, contemporary, jazz, folk, choreography and all forms of performance. The competition is accessible to all dance schools and studios and there is a jury that will judge all the performances.

The new Prague Dance Festival is cooperating with the National Theater of Prague and its ballet ensemble. This cooperation ensures, the participants of the festival, protection that everything will be on the highest level and professional quality during their stay in Prague. This is at the same time a good way to show the participants the ancient historic halls of the dance department which is situated in the centre of Prague, to improve the dance and to explore new trends in classic as well as the modern dance. You can find more dance events online.

Top 5 must see sights in Prague

Prague offers a lot of attractions and sight. People can spend many time in the city and still be surprised by all the beautiful buildings, museums, monuments and other attractive places. This is a list of ‘the top 5 must see sights’ in Prague.
1. The first sight is called the Charles Bridge. This is one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. It is the biggest attraction of Prague and it is called after Charles IV. One of the arches of the original bridge is incorporated into the new bridge. This bridge has its own permanent residents as jazz musicians and souvenir sellers.

2. Then there is the Prague Castle. This is one of the most popular sights of Prague. The original castle is found in 880 by the oldest known frost of Premslyden, Borovoj. The Prague Castle is now one of the largest palaces closed complexes in the world. Inside the castle you will find 7,5 acres with buildings, with Romanesque, Gothic and classical style.

3. On the third place is the ‘Old Town Square’. This square is the most important square of Prague. In the 10th century there was a market for farmers as well as merchants. Traces of Roman houses are still seen. The richest inhabitants built houses and the royal family and other nobles built palaces.

4. The fourth place is ‘The Golden Street’. This street is a narrow street inside the Prague Castle and it has small colored houses where alchemists, archers, poor people and poets lived. Many famous writers have lived here such as Jaroslav Seifert and Franz Kafka.

5. The last sight is the ‘Wenceslas square’. This square is the biggest square in Prague and it is situated in the Nove Mesto. It is also called the heart of Prague because of the lively atmosphere. The square look like a boulevard with the bars and terraces and there is always something to do.

Prague Spring International Music Festival

The festival was actually founded by the whole Czechoslovak Republic. At the end of WW II, the Czechoslovak Republic celebrated the first anniversary. Besides this day, they also celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding. From this moment, the Prague Spring Interntational Music Festival was born.Seventy years long, the people that were involved in the music industry in Prague, tried to organize annual music festivals including top soloists and orchestras from all over the world.

From the end of World War II, this music festival took place every year and this year is the 64th edition. Not only the leading composers joined this music event from the start. Also music and musicians of the four great powers of the victorious Anti-Hitler coalition participated from the start. Besides that, musicians from the USA, Great Britain and France, top soloists, singers and conductors from the Soviet Union participated.

This event takes place starting from the 12th of May till the 3rd of June and some of the acts on the program are Orchestra des Champs-Elysées, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Everybody, young and old, can visit this festival. The prices of the tickets vary from 14 euro to 82 euro.

Books of Prague for Xmas

Xmas is very close and it is time when you might want to suggest some stocking fillers which you would like to received, from family. There are some excellent books on Prague and a few I can personally recommend are:

Prague Top 10 Eyewitness Guide is an excellent guide and fits nicely into a backpack and provides very quick and easy to find information.

Another excellent guide is the Prague Lonely Planet City Guide. This book and the series for other cities also, is brilliant for things such as accommodation, restuarants and attractions.

What book scan you recommend for Prague. Send us your comments!
Qucik thank you to Jean from Swansea who wrote to us and yes, we'll consider your Barcelona airports idea. To the Healey's thank you for your Prague review which we'll add soon. Happy Xmas everyone!

Verdi Festival in Prague

The annual Verdi Festival in Prague is due to take place between August and September 2008 in the main Opera House. The Verdi is excellent and if you know or even if you are nnew to Verdi, this is certainy worth attending.

Everything Verdi is very much the nature of this annual festival and over the course of almost 4 weeks, several Verdi operas are performed to full audiences.

You can find out lots more information via the Opera website at http://www.opera.cz/.