Advice on Prague Tours
 

Hi everyone,

I will be in Prague for 3 days. The history and culture of the Czech Republic is something I am not as familiar with as other European countries; thus, I have been doing some reading.

There seems to be SO much to see and do in such a beautiful city, and for the first time, I am contemplating group walking tours to get a better experience of the city.

Do y'all have any advice?

I usually like to walk around cities and follow walking guides from books such as foodor's, Rick steves or National Geographic.

Suggestions?

I'd recommend you look at the walking tours offered by Cedok (a travel agency -- it used to be the official state one during Communism, I guess, but they do a good job at the things I know about, I've used them for rail tickets) and Prague Sightseeing Tours. I did take a tour by the latter company and their guide was excellent. They have multilingual guides. The tours you can see on Cedok don't mention languages, I guess they must have multilingual or they are English if the website is in that language www.cedok.com That is probably their most common need.

http://www.pstours.cz/
PS tours partners with Cedok, maybe the walking tours offered by Cedok are really them, not sure. I know Cedok has a couple walking tours listed.

There are companies that specialize in tours of the Jewish section, I think this one has a good repuation http://www.wittmann-tours.com/

That company Viator has lots of tours in many cities.

Finally, look at Prague Walks. This company has lots of cheap walking tours in several major cities. I think this one is definitely affiliated with the others (like Paris or London). They have lots of specialized tours and are cheap. The only problem from what I've heard is that they can get crowded. http://www.praguewalks.com/

Anyone of the tours mentioned by Christina will be good.

Unless you have done a lot of homework, having a guide on a walking tour point out sites to you and explain them is good.

There are many boat/cruise rides down the Vltava River that runs right thorugh Prague.

Just do not take an evening dinner cruise ( as some of my friends did). You do not get to see that much and there is no commentary on the boat.
They rather you eat and drink a lot !!

However you can take your own private small boat tour from Kampa Island ( under the Charles Bridge ) .

I would recommend taking a river (if you decide on one )tour
that takes you to Vysehrad and then turns around and goes all the way to Troja Palace.
The boat operator will give you good commentary and it really is a nice ride.

In 2008, we took a private tour through Prague Guide (it might now be called Personal Prague Guide). At that time, it was 600Czk/hour, so about $80 for a two-hour tour. I had done a lot of reading up on the history of the Czech Republic, but was still less familiar with that than other areas of Europe. We were most interested in history from the time around 1989, and so chose a tour called "Revolutions in Prague." It covered earlier revolutions (Jan Hus, etc.) as well as 1989 and the Prague Spring. We found it fascinating.

You can also take a free walking tour of Prague:
http://www.newpraguetours.com/

Thank you everyone. It seems I will take separate tours for the old town and castle separately. I am excited to learn about the czech culture and history!

We just got back from Prague. One of our best experiences was taking a guided tour with Katka Svobodova at www.praguewalker.com. $120 for 4-hrs for a personal tour. Highly recommended.