Comments on Tours in Prague
 

We are going to be in Prague for 4 days at the beginning of September and would like to do a day trip to Cesky Krumlov. Any comments on the different on the different tout companies ? We would like to be comfortable on the ride and have an informative and enthusiastic guide. Also, should we spend 3 days in Prague or 2 in Prague with another day trip (Kutna Hora, Terezin or Karlsteijn ?) Lastly, any comments on organized walking tours of the different parts of the city ? All comments will be greatly appreciated.<BR><BR>thanks<BR>Mark M., <BR>Kingston,ON,Canada<BR>

Mark, <BR>I was in Prague for 3 days and felt that we more than covered the city. The main areas are just not that big. We took a 4 hour bus tour to orient ourselves with the city. You don't stay on the bus the whole time, part of it was a walking tour. We stayed at the Renaissance hotel and I believe that it was the tour they recommended. I am sure you could walk in and ask. I am pretty sure there was a ticket booth for it at a corner near the hotel. You won't be able to miss it. It seemed to be where all the tours started. <BR><BR>One thing I would highly recommend is finding out what the primary language of your bus will be. It seemed that in Prague and Budapest that English was always paired with German. When English was the secondary language, they talked about the sites in German first and then in English. We were frequently hearing our version when the site was already passing. We did not enjoy that. Overall, however, it was an excellent way to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. I would highly recommend it. <BR><BR>I think you can do Prague in 2 days if you move pretty swiftly. If you like to take your time in museums, than stick with 3. It was the most overcrowded city (with tourists) of the 8 I visited on my trip, which caused me to think that 3 days was definitely the max for me. <BR><BR>Save more time for Budapest. It was incredible. <BR><BR>Have fun!

I took Martin Tours for that day trip a couple years ago. There are 3 main tour companies that do general day trips from Prague that I know of: Martin, Premiant and Prague Sightseeing. There are some others that do specialized tours (like of Terezin). <BR><BR>The guide we had visiting Cesky Krumlov and the itinerary were very good. The guide was knowledgeable and very fluent in English (I think he only spoke in English and I kind of felt sorry for a few folks who probably didn't understand him). My only complaint was that the bus they used was not what I expected, it was a VERY small minivan essentially, not a bus (there were only about 10 folks) with completely hard seats (not as comfortable as a real minivan). Because that is a rather long ride, I would choose a company with nicer vans for comfort. That tour did have a specialized arranged personal tour for our group of the castle, which was very good; that may be normal for those tours, but it would be important to get that (I could be remembering wrong, but I think you cannot tour all or at least parts of it on your own without a guide). We also had an extra added attraction of a short visit in a nearby cathedral which was quite interesting (not in Cesky Krumlov), and there were several hours for us to be on our own to do whatever you wanted.<BR><BR>A few months ago I was there and used Prague Sightseeing for a diff. city and they were better than Martin. The buses were much nicer, and more comfortable and the guide was extremely fluent in several languages. The guide was very knowledgeable about history and art and architecture.<BR><BR>I did not take a walking tour. I can't say about your last question, it depends what things in Prague you really want to see. I would not find 2 days sufficient, but I like museums a lot and enjoy the kind of shopping I could do in Prague (crafts, jewelry, crystal, pottery, etc.) so I reserve one day just for shopping (the day museums are closed).

I used Premiant Tours for a side trip to the spa town of Karlovy Vary. I had wanted to go to Cesky Krumlov, but they do not have that tour every day and the days it ran conflicted with my other plans. It was comfortable, but I thought the tour guide was a little uptight.<BR><BR>I'll top another post regarding Sabina and Martina, two tour guides who give walking tours. I enjoyed it very much--they were very informative and showed me places & things to shop. Just email one of them and they will send you a price list and tour "menu." <BR><BR>Or you can do a search. There were numerous threads on tour guides and eating in Prague for a while, so if you do a search you will hit a lot of good ones.

Mark, we stayed in Prague 4 nights, 3 days, and I believe 3 full days is enough to see the "must sees" in the city in a liesurely manner, which would leave you one day for a day trip. We used Cedok Travel www.cedok.cz for our 3.5 hour bus (with some walking) city tour, and we were very glad we did. It allowed us to prioritize what we wanted to spend more time on later.<BR>Our guide, Vera, spoke English very well, and was fun. The touring groups are divided by language, and we were in the English only bus/group.<BR>My trip report here does not come up on a search, but here is the URL address for it:<BR>www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsjp?fid=2&tid=1392981<BR>or I can email it direct to you if you want. Just let me know here.<BR>We were very happy with Cedok, and made our reservations by Email. The vouchers were waiting for us at our hotel upon our arrival. By arrangement, they picked us up for our tour at our hotel about 1/2 hour before the tour started. The bus was very comfortable. They have several day tours on their web site.<BR>Be glad to answer any other q's. We loved Prague, perhaps the prettiest city in Europe. (I said perhaps!)

Thank you everyone for all of your great comments regarding the tours in and around Prague. 4 weeks and counting - we can hardly wait.<BR>Mark

We were in Prague this past April. Premiant gave us tours to Czesky Krumlov, Kunta Hora, and a Jewish quarter tour of Prague. All were very good. I was not that interested in Kutna Hora. WE also had Sabina give us a tour of the castle in Prague. She is wonderful! Her e-mail is [email protected]<BR>the site for Premiant is http://www.premiant.cz/

Bill J-interested in your travelogue in Prague, please email it to me. I tried the link provided and alas broken link.<BR><BR>Traveling to prague from London in Oct for a week, so any tips would be lovely!!<BR><BR>Cheers, <BR><BR>Ian<BR>[email protected]

A few tips. Tours to Karlstejn, Terezin, Ceske Budejovice and Cesky Krumlov have been disrupted due to the floods. In Prague, consider the transport that the company uses i.e. Martin tours generally go for the multi-lingual headsets and opensided bus. This has the advantage of being able to take pics from your seat but, can be exposed to the weather. Premiant use "air conditioned" vans (i.e. air conditioned when the engine is on) and there can be a lot of waiting around if you join a tour at the Premiant office. Their vans all have smoked glass which makes pics look a little blue. One language per bus. Some tour companies offer hotel pick ups but, not all. A useful link can be found at http://www.jasoncholt.com/prague/index.html<BR><BR>Jason