Get up early: The best way to see central Prague is on foot, and alone. If you’re there on a weekday morning, set your alarm for 6.30am and start your walk on Staromestske Namesti (Old Town Square). At this hour, it will be just you and the pigeons. It’s a magical time of day, and every view is uninterrupted: of Ladislav Saloun’s heroic statue of the preacher and protonationalist Jan Hus; of the medieval proportions of the streets that wind towards the Charles Bridge; of Prague Castle, looming over the mighty Vltava River.
Keep going over the bridge and into Mala Strana (the Little Quarter), on the opposite bank, packed with exquisite baroque palaces. Prague Castle should be your goal, and in particular the cathedral of St Vitus within its precincts. On weekdays, there is a Mass at 7am in one of the side chapels, but the main door into the cathedral is left open for the duration. Creep in and enjoy the soaring gothic splendour of the nave entirely on your own — a miracle if you know how busy it can get after the official opening. (At weekends, start your walk an hour later and aim to be the first visitor inside the cathedral at 9am.)
Visit unfashionable museums: Prague is full of museums, and some of the best are also the least visited. The Museum of Decorative Arts (Listopadu 17, admission £1.60), for example, is home to a small but eye-popping collection of artefacts, including diamond-encrusted crosses and exquisite Czech and Venetian glass, as well as a room full of graphic art and photography from the art deco and modernist periods. Also worth a visit is the Museum of Communism (Na Prikope 10, admission £3.70), with its chilling reconstruction of a secret-policeman’s office.
A visit to the national collection of 19th- and 20th-century art, just north of the city centre in Holesovice (Dukelsych Hrdinu 47, admission £5.50), is a must. It’s housed in the modernist Trade Fair Palace, and though dreary from the outside, it’s a delight within. There’s a dazzling array of work on show: from the vast Judgment of Paris, by Vojtech Hynais, a bewitching masterpiece of touch-it, feel-it naturalism, to the coldly eloquent canvases of Vaclav Bartovsky — brilliantly capturing the moral half-light of Czech life under the Nazis.
Drink lots of coffee: There’s no better place to warm up than in a good cafe. No Stress Cafe (Dusni 10) is one of the classiest, while Le Patio (Narodni Trida 22) is a big, buzzy, high-ceilinged space, perfect for people-watching. If you drink only one cup of coffee in Prague, however, it should be at Slavia (Narodni Trida 1), a cavernous room that was the gathering place of the city’s dissidents under communism.
()Buy a copy of The Prague Post: The Night and Day section of this English-language newspaper has up-to-the-minute information on restaurants, exhibitions, clubs, theatres, cinemas and concerts. Pick it up for about £1 from one of the many press booths on Wenceslas Square, and don’t plan your path through Prague without it.
Get drunk: Try some of Prague’s world-beating beer. For a truly authentic night out, you’ll have to try the occasional shot of Fernet, Becherovka or slivovice as well. Be warned: all three will knock your evening completely off course.
Most of the best pubs are on the outskirts of the city centre, but U Vejvodu, on Jilska street, is an exception: a cavernous beer cellar, a hop, skip and a stagger south of the Old Town Square, it still manages to be a stronghold of local life after dark. Fashionistas will be happier in the streets on the opposite side of the square. Every tier of society seems to have its own watering hole round here: the Marquis de Sade (Templova 8), housed in a former brothel, is big with the goatee-beard brigade, while their better-dressed brethren congregate at M1 Secret Lounge, the brand-new home of hip at Masna 1. For the biggest buzz of all, head for Tretter’s cocktail bar (Kolkovne 3).
Eat Czech: At first sight, Czech food is scary. Thick sauces, full-fat flavours and impenetrable names — and if you make the wrong choice, there’s the danger that you could end up with a bowl of pig’s-blood soup. But once you get the hang of it, eating Czech is a delight. It’s cheap, richly nourishing and — best of all — served in places that most tourists never get to.
Here are some names to conjure with. Svickova (pronounced “sveechkovar”) is a dish of beef and dumplings, covered in a thick gravy and served with a dash of cranberry jelly, a dab of double cream and a slice of lemon: heaven on a plate after a morning’s pavement-pounding. Smazeny syr (“smajernee sear”) with tatarka is a beer-drinker’s delight, deep-fried cheese served with chips and a tartare mayonnaise. And don’t forget the soup: lunch is the big meal in the Czech day, and it nearly always starts with a bowl of steaming broth. Look out for bramborova polevka (potato), kureci vyvar (chicken) or zeleninova polevka (vegetable).
()PRAGUE ON THE CHEAP
Sleep: For the low-budget traveller, heaven is a place called the Hotel Malekon-Garni (Na Zahonech 34, 00 420 2-4148 3450; doubles about £35, including breakfast): it may be 15 minutes by metro from Wenceslas Square (this part of the line is still open), but it offers cleanliness and comfort that would cost three times as much in the city centre.
Eat: Pick up a tray and join the queue at U Rozvarilu (Na Porici 26), an old-style workers’ cafeteria where hearty helpings of Czech standards cost less than £1 a plate. This is a place where the menu is definitely not available in English, so you’ll have to point at whatever takes your fancy.
Out: The changing of the guard at Prague Castle takes place on Hradcanske Namesti at noon daily, and is free. This “solemn” ceremony was devised — at the request of the president, Vaclav Havel — by a rock musician and a theatrical-costume designer, and the end product is as camp as a row of tents.
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
Sleep: The Hotel Anna (Budecska 17, 00 420 2-2251 3111, www.hotelanna.cz; doubles from £66, including breakfast), on a leafy side street in Vinohrady, is straightforward, clean and furnished in conservative style. But its combination of price and location — five minutes’ walk from Wenceslas Square — is unbeatable.
Eat: It’s actually quite hard to spend more than £3.50 on a plate of good, traditional Czech food, provided you pick a pub rather than a tourist-trap restaurant. For the best svickova in town, head for U Suteru (Palackeho 4), a pub-cum-restaurant, a block away from Wenceslas Square, which opened last year.
Out: Get tickets for a proper classical concert at the Rudolfinum or Smetana Hall. Not one of the weary renditions of Mozart and Vivaldi that are reheated every night around the city, but the serious stuff, played with skill and passion by one of Prague’s first-rate orchestras. You can often buy tickets (about £5 a head for the stalls) at the box office on the morning.
NO EXPENSE SPARED
Sleep: The best hotel in Prague is the Josef (Rybna 20, 00 420 2-2170 0111, www.hoteljosef.com; doubles from £115, including breakfast). Five minutes’ walk from the Old Town Square, it is sleek, beautiful and bang up to date. Go for a superior room — they have glass-walled bathrooms you’ll never want to leave.
Eat: Square, in the Malostranske Namesti (5753 2109), is a slick, serious-minded new venture serving Italian-and Spanish-inspired food (main courses from £6). The vaulted cellar is wonderfully snug on a chilly autumn evening. For upmarket Czech food, try U Modre Kachnicky (Michalska 16, 5732 0308), which specialises in game.
Out: At the Prague art market, you can pick up a really good painting for far less than you would at home. Earmark at least £500, then settle into a day of delicious decision-making in the city’s commercial galleries. Try the Zlata Debnar gallery (Liliova 4) and the Ceska Galerie (Malostranske Namesti 7).
