A tram city with a castle on top. Validate your ticket.
Destinations › Europe › Prague
Prague's historic core is small enough to cross on foot, but the three metro lines and the tram network do the real work — up the hill to the Castle on tram 22, out to Vinohrady and Karlín where people actually live. It is also a city where the small stuff bites: an unvalidated ticket, a taxi flagged on the street, or an airport coach that your travel pass pointedly does not cover.
A nonstop from Toronto Pearson does exist, but Air Canada lists Prague as a SEASONAL summer route — outside that window you connect through a European hub (Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Zurich, Vienna, London), so a shoulder-season trip means a change of plane. Dublin and Keflavík are worth pricing as separate gateways, but a split ticket means you personally own the missed-connection and re-checked-bag risk. You arrive at Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), which has NO rail or metro link — a railway to the city centre is planned and under design, not built. The named airport-to-city link is bus-plus-metro within the PID network: trolleybus 59 from the terminals to Nádraží Veleslavín, then Metro line A into the centre; or bus 100 to Zličín on Metro line B. Night lines 907 (to Baně) and 910 (to Na Beránku) cover the small hours from Terminal 2. There is also the Airport Express (AE), a direct coach from Terminal 1 to Praha hlavní nádraží, the main railway station, on Metro line C — and it is the one service PID explicitly excludes from ordinary tickets and from 24-hour and 72-hour passes. It charges its own separate fare.
The operator is DPP (Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy); the wider integrated network, including the suburban trains and buses, is branded PID (Pražská integrovaná doprava). One PID ticket covers metro lines A, B and C, the trams — including tram 22, which climbs through Pohořelec to the Pražský hrad stop — the city buses, the Petřín funicular, the river ferries and trains within Prague. The stated exceptions are the heritage tram lines K, 41 and 42 and the Airport Express, which sit outside the ordinary tariff. Fares are time-based, with 24-hour and 72-hour passes aimed at visitors. VALIDATION IS THE WHOLE POINT: stamp the ticket the moment you first board a tram or bus, and at the station entrance before you descend to a metro platform. A 24- or 72-hour ticket is stamped once and simply runs from that moment. Buy from stop and platform machines, the PID Lítačka app or the DPP e-shop. Luggage: one piece travels free with a 24-hour or longer ticket; otherwise it needs its own luggage ticket, and unvalidated luggage carries a surcharge of its own. The surcharge for riding without a valid ticket is real and tiered — lowest if you pay the inspector on the spot, higher if you settle at DPP's additional-fare office inside the short grace period, highest after that.
The grounds are a walk-through; the headline interiors — the Old Royal Palace, the cathedral, St George's Basilica, Golden Lane — are ticketed, and the circuits and opening times change by season, so check hrad.cz before you climb the hill. Go at opening or late afternoon and you skip both the queue and the coach groups.
By mid-morning it is a shuffling scrum of tour groups and caricaturists. At dawn you get the baroque statues, the river mist and the Old Town skyline effectively to yourself.
The other fortress: ramparts above the Vltava, the neo-Gothic church of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Slavín cemetery where Dvořák, Smetana and Čapek are buried. A fraction of the crowd, and the walk back along the river is the best in the city.
Leave the little paper slip on your table alone — the staff pencil a mark on it for every beer, and that slip is your bill. Ask for the bill rather than getting up, and carry cash in koruna for the older places.
The leafy Art-Nouveau grid east of the centre, on Metro line A at Náměstí Míru and Jiřího z Poděbrad, with the Jiřák farmers' market at its heart. Suits repeat visitors, families and anyone who wants a normal neighbourhood with real restaurants and a short metro ride to the sights. NOT for first-timers who want to open the door onto Old Town Square, and not for anyone who cannot manage stairs — the handsome pre-war buildings frequently have no lift, and neither Náměstí Míru nor Jiřího z Poděbrad station has one either.
Baroque lanes, palace gardens and the Castle above them, across Charles Bridge from the Old Town. Suits short stays, photographers and anyone who will genuinely be out at dawn on the bridge. NOT for anyone hauling a suitcase, pushing a pram or nursing knees — it is all hill and rounded cobble, Malostranská station has no lift, and the bar-crawl noise carries across the river at night.
Rebuilt after the 2002 flood into the best independent eating in the city, on Metro line B at Křižíkova and Invalidovna, with Vítkov hill behind it. Its underrated feature is that it is genuinely FLAT, which almost nowhere else worth staying in Prague is. NOT for a sightseeing-first first trip — there is nothing historic here — and note that neither of its metro stations has a lift.
The Old Town and the Wenceslas Square end of the New Town: everything on your doorstep, and that is the whole pitch. Suits a two-night trip where walking distance beats everything. NOT for light sleepers, and not for value — the restaurants facing the square are the worst eating in Prague at the highest prices, the lower end of Wenceslas Square keeps a seedy fringe late at night, and this corridor is where the pickpockets and the street money-changers work.
Svíčková na smetaně is marinated beef in a root-vegetable cream sauce with bread dumplings, cranberry and a curl of whipped cream; guláš and roast duck with red cabbage are the other pillars. The format matters more than the address: a hospoda is a pub-restaurant, you sit where there is room, and the small paper slip left on your table is your running tab — the staff pencil a mark on it for each round. Leave it alone and ask for the bill rather than getting up. Vinohrady and Žižkov have the versions locals actually eat.
Tankové pivo is unpasteurised lager delivered to the pub in tanks rather than kegs, and pubs that have it advertise it on the door — it is a different drink from the bottled export version sold in Ontario. Ask for malé or velké for size. In a traditional pub a fresh glass simply keeps arriving until you put a beer mat on top of yours, which is the signal to stop.
Chlebíčky are open-faced sandwiches sold by the piece at delicatessen counters — potato salad, ham, egg, roast beef — and they make the cheapest decent standing lunch in the city. Havelské tržiště in the Old Town is the tourist-facing market; the farmers' market on Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad in Vinohrady, right by the Metro A station, is where the city genuinely shops. One honest note: trdelník, the sugared chimney cake sold on every corner of the tourist corridor as an old Bohemian speciality, is neither old nor Bohemian.
Czechia has a large, long-settled Vietnamese community and the pho, bún bò and bánh mì here are excellent and cheap — this is a real Prague cuisine, not a novelty. Sapa in Libuš, out in the far south, is the wholesale market with the food courts attached; closer in, Holešovice, Nové Město and the streets around Anděl in Smíchov all have good ones.
Start on the Malá Strana bank and walk east across the bridge on foot. At dawn you get the baroque statues, river mist and an empty Old Town Square; by mid-morning the same walk is a shuffling scrum. Continue to the Astronomical Clock and get it over with before the crowd forms.
Walk to Malostranská and take tram 22 UP the hill to Pohořelec, then walk down through Loreta, the Castle complex and St Vitus. Doing the hill by tram and the complex downhill is the single best mobility decision in Prague. Castle circuits and interior opening arrangements shift by season, so check hrad.cz the night before.
From the Castle's lower gate the descent runs down Nerudova street into Malá Strana; carry on to Kampa island, the mill wheel and the Lennon Wall. Eat here, or cross back over Most Legií on tram 22 to Národní divadlo.
One stop on Metro A from Malostranská to Staroměstská. The Jewish Museum sells a combined ticket covering the synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery; the Old-New Synagogue is handled separately depending on which ticket you buy. Critically, the whole complex closes on Saturdays and Jewish holidays — build the week around that, not the day.
Metro C from Muzeum or Hlavní nádraží to Vyšehrad station. Ramparts above the Vltava, the church of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Slavín cemetery where Dvořák and Smetana are buried, at a fraction of the Castle's crowd. Walk down off the rock and north along the embankment — the best hour of the day.
Metro A to Náměstí Míru or Jiřího z Poděbrad, or Metro B to Křižíkova. Both are ten minutes from the centre and neither has a menu in six languages outside. Carry some koruna: the older pubs are still cash-first.
Direct České dráhy trains from Praha hlavní nádraží reach Kutná Hora hlavní nádraží in about an hour — check for a přímý spoj on idos.cz, because some services make you change at Kolín. The Sedlec Ossuary, the bone chapel, is a short walk from that station; the little local shuttle train then carries you on to Kutná Hora město for St Barbara's Cathedral and the medieval silver town. The Ossuary sells timed slots through sedlec.info and you should book before you travel; its photography rules have been tightened repeatedly, so ask at the door rather than assuming.
PID line S7, the Praha hlavní nádraží to Beroun stopping service, calls at Karlštejn — the trains show Beroun on the board. From the station it is a twenty to thirty minute walk uphill through the village with the castle growing above you, which is half the pleasure and also the reason to think twice with a pram. Interiors are guided, timed and sold in separate circuits; the Chapel of the Holy Cross books out weeks ahead in summer. Half a day, easily.
The Nazi ghetto and Small Fortress north of Prague, and the more difficult of the two memorial day trips you can do from here. The usual approach is a bus from Prague towards Litoměřice, but the Prague departure terminal for these services has changed in recent years, so plan the exact stop and departure on idos.cz rather than trusting an older guidebook or blog. By rail, the station serving Terezín is Bohušovice nad Ohří, a couple of kilometres south of the town. The Ghetto Museum sits in the town itself; the Small Fortress is a walk east of it, across the Ohře.
Be honest with yourself: Prague is steep and it is cobbled, and the cobbles are the rounded setts locals call kočičí hlavy, cat's heads, which rattle a pram, catch a cane and turn an ankle. Malá Strana, Hradčany and the whole Castle approach are a sustained hill. If you are bringing parents who tire, the one manoeuvre that saves the day is tram 22 up to Pohořelec and the entire Castle walked DOWNHILL from there. The Petřín funicular runs on an ordinary PID ticket and does Petřín hill for you. The metro is better than its reputation but not where you want it. Most stations across the network are reachable by lift, yet several of the central ones you will actually use are the exceptions: Staroměstská, Malostranská, Náměstí Republiky, Hradčanská, Náměstí Míru, Jiřího z Poděbrad, Křižíkova and Invalidovna have no lift, meaning long escalators or stairs. Coverage is expanding, so check your specific station on dpp.cz rather than assuming either way. Trams are increasingly low-floor but not uniformly, and many older stops are just a painted strip in the road with a step up into the car. DPP carries prams free and boards them at the marked door; on a crowded tram 22 that is still a fight. Charles Bridge with a pram through the middle of the day is genuinely miserable — no room, no way past, and the pickpockets work exactly that crush. Go at dawn or not at all. Summer is hot and humid with almost no shade in the Castle courtyards. Older apartment buildings in Vinohrady and Malá Strana often have a tiny cage lift with a manual outer door, or none, so ask before you book with a stroller or a suitcase. On the good side: Czech pubs are entirely normal places to take children at dinner, nobody will blink, Stromovka and Letná parks are excellent, and Vyšehrad is flat on top with grass, ramparts and space to run.
Czechia uses the Czech koruna, written Kč or CZK. It is in the EU but NOT in the eurozone and has no target date to join, so anywhere quoting you euros is inventing its own rate and it will not favour you. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including ticket machines and on-board tram readers, but carry koruna for old pubs, market stalls and public toilets. Withdraw from ATMs belonging to Czech banks — ČSOB, Česká spořitelna, Komerční banka, Moneta — rather than the standalone machines clustered in the tourist streets. Whenever a terminal or ATM offers to bill you in Canadian dollars, refuse: that is dynamic currency conversion, the rate is set by the machine's operator rather than your bank, and it is always the worse of the two.
Modest and not automatic. Rounding up is the everyday baseline; around a tenth of the bill is generous for good sit-down service. The mechanic matters more than the amount — say the total you want as you hand over cash or before the card goes in, because most places will not prompt you and will not add it themselves. Check for a service line on the bill first in the heavily touristed restaurants, where one is sometimes added.
Type E sockets — two round holes plus a protruding earth pin that sticks out of the wall — which also accept the two-pin Type C europlug. Two hundred and thirty volts at fifty hertz. Phone, tablet and laptop chargers are dual-voltage and need nothing but the adapter. A Canadian appliance rated only for one hundred and twenty volts, which is most older hair dryers and curling irons, needs a converter, not an adapter, or it will die loudly.
Safe throughout Prague and Czechia, and good — bring a refillable bottle. The catch is in restaurants: free tap water is not the convention, you will be brought bottled unless you specifically ask, and some places will decline to serve tap at all. Ask for kohoutková if you want to try.
Czech. English is spoken confidently by most younger people in hotels, restaurants and shops in the centre, and much less in the outer districts and by older staff. Say dobrý den on entering a shop or a pub and na shledanou leaving — it is expected here rather than optional, and it is noticed when you skip it.
Street money-changers near Charles Bridge and Wenceslas Square who approach you with a good rate and hand back worthless notes: never change money with anyone who approaches you. Exchange booths advertising zero per cent commission in large type while running a punishing spread, sometimes with the Koupit and Prodat columns swapped — Czech law gives you a right to cancel a bureau-de-change transaction and get your money back within three hours, up to a capped amount, and the receipt is required to tell you so. Keep the receipt and go straight back if what you got is not what was on the board. Taxis flagged on the street near the tourist spots overcharge routinely — use an app or have the venue call one. And pickpockets work the doors of crowded trams 22 and 9 and Metro line A at the moment of boarding.
May to mid-June and September into early October are the shoulder seasons and they are the right answer: long days, working beer gardens, and the Castle without the summer crush. July and August are hot, humid and extremely busy. December means Christmas markets on Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, which are lovely and also draw enormous day-trip crowds. January and February are cold, grey and quiet — genuinely the best time to see the Castle interiors and the Jewish Museum sites properly. Over-tourism here is intensely concentrated: the corridor from Náměstí Republiky through Old Town Square, across Charles Bridge and up to the Castle is saturated most of the year, while Vinohrady, Karlín, Holešovice and Žižkov stay ordinary and pleasant. There are no ocean cruise ships in Prague — the pressure comes from coach tours and cheap weekend flights. One practical wrinkle: because the Toronto nonstop is summer-only, a shoulder-season trip means a connection, so price that in before you fix your dates.
Compare the ways to get there, then build a day-by-day plan.
A nonstop from Toronto Pearson does exist, but Air Canada lists Prague as a SEASONAL summer route — outside that window you connect through a European hub (Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Zurich, Vienna, London), so a shoulder-season trip means a change of plane. Dublin and Keflavík are worth pricing as separate gateways, but a split ticket means you personally own the missed-connection and re-checked-bag risk. You arrive at Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), which has NO rail or metro link — a railway to the city centre is planned and under design, not built. The named airport-to-city link is bus-plus-metro within the PID network: trolleybus 59 from the terminals to Nádraží Veleslavín, then Metro line A into the centre; or bus 100 to Zličín on Metro line B. Night lines 907 (to Baně) and 910 (to Na Beránku) cover the small hours from Terminal 2. There is also the Airport Express (AE), a direct coach from Terminal 1 to Praha hlavní nádraží, the main railway station, on Metro line C — and it is the one service PID explicitly excludes from ordinary tickets and from 24-hour and 72-hour passes. It charges its own separate fare.
The operator is DPP (Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy); the wider integrated network, including the suburban trains and buses, is branded PID (Pražská integrovaná doprava). One PID ticket covers metro lines A, B and C, the trams — including tram 22, which climbs through Pohořelec to the Pražský hrad stop — the city buses, the Petřín funicular, the river ferries and trains within Prague. The stated exceptions are the heritage tram lines K, 41 and 42 and the Airport Express, which sit outside the ordinary tariff. Fares are time-based, with 24-hour and 72-hour passes aimed at visitors. VALIDATION IS THE WHOLE POINT: stamp the ticket the moment you first board a tram or bus, and at the station entrance before you descend to a metro platform. A 24- or 72-hour ticket is stamped once and simply runs from that moment. Buy from stop and platform machines, the PID Lítačka app or the DPP e-shop. Luggage: one piece travels free with a 24-hour or longer ticket; otherwise it needs its own luggage ticket, and unvalidated luggage carries a surcharge of its own. The surcharge for riding without a valid ticket is real and tiered — lowest if you pay the inspector on the spot, higher if you settle at DPP's additional-fare office inside the short grace period, highest after that.
May to mid-June and September into early October are the shoulder seasons and they are the right answer: long days, working beer gardens, and the Castle without the summer crush. July and August are hot, humid and extremely busy. December means Christmas markets on Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, which are lovely and also draw enormous day-trip crowds. January and February are cold, grey and quiet — genuinely the best time to see the Castle interiors and the Jewish Museum sites properly. Over-tourism here is intensely concentrated: the corridor from Náměstí Republiky through Old Town Square, across Charles Bridge and up to the Castle is saturated most of the year, while Vinohrady, Karlín, Holešovice and Žižkov stay ordinary and pleasant. There are no ocean cruise ships in Prague — the pressure comes from coach tours and cheap weekend flights. One practical wrinkle: because the Toronto nonstop is summer-only, a shoulder-season trip means a connection, so price that in before you fix your dates.