I'm planning to go to Prague in the new year and wonder if anyone can recommend any local tours, either walking or bus tours of the area.<BR>Thanks for any help.

We took a half-day tour of city that gave a nice overview of some of the main attractions. We paid at the bus stop across from the Opera House.

I used a wonderful guide in January 2001, Nina Jelinkova. Her life story is <BR>something out of &quot;The Unbearable Lightness of Being&quot;; her grandmother was Jewish and lived in England during the war, became a Communist party member, then left in 1968 and returned to find her job gone. Nina had great difficulty getting into university because of her mother's &quot;suspicous&quot; past. Later, Nina was trained as a civil engineer, which is why <BR>she knows the architecture of Prague so well. <BR><BR>Several of my friends have used her as well and were quite satisfied with <BR>their tours. <BR><BR>Her contact information is <BR><BR>Nina Jelinkova <BR>[email protected] <BR><BR>You can also try &quot;Prague Walks&quot; for group tours.

Prague Sightseeing Tours are very good and have a lot of intineraries from local to day trips. I took one to Kutna Hora and thought it was excellent; some other guy on here posted once about using them for a city tour and how good they were, also. I believe they are owned by Cedok, the official travel agency, and you can read about them through their web site www.cedok.cz

Thanks very much for the great ideas. I appreciate them.<BR>Marc, are Nina's tours private tours or with a group. ...and are the prices reasonable? Sounds like just the thing to do.

Next week we leave for 8 nights in Prague so I have similar interests. On a previous thread I read about the following tour: <BR><BR>Ghost Walk, which meets nightly at 8:15, under the astronomical Clock in Old Town Square (Stare Maestro).<BR><BR>I only hope that they keep this going in the winter.

Last June, we used the services of Cedok Travel, www.cedok.cz which I would recommend most enthusiastically. They have several different tours available, and you can see them with schedules and prices on their web site. We took the half day bus tour of Prague. We made arrangements by email and fax, and arranged for the vouchers to be at our hotel. Upon arrival, the vouchers were there. The next morning, we were picked up at 9am at our hotel, which stopped at several other hotels picking up others. Near the Opera house, we were sorted out by language, and off we went. Our tour guide, Vera, was full of information. We drove around the city in a comfortable air conditioned bus, and she pointed out the high points. The orientation was very helpful, and we made notes on what we wanted to come back and spend more time on.<BR>At the Hradcany Castle, we entered the church, but did not have access to the rest of the facility. We went back the next day for that. She walked us through much of the garden area, so we did not have to go back to see that part. All in all, we found it extremely worth while for orientation purposes. The tour ended at the astronomical clock at one o'clock. We then had lunch at one of the many cafe's on the square.<BR>Hope this helps.

For Crusty, if you are planning to take bus day tours to other cities, they stop on Oct. 31.

Nina's tours are private, so you can see what you want to see.

Many thanks to all of you for the additional information.<BR>I'm really looking forward to my trip.

One of the better tour guides in Prague, is Sabina Stredova ([email protected]). Sabina is a graduate student at Charles University, and speaks fluent English. She is about 27 years old, very knowledgeable and very friendly. I've recommended Sabina's services to many on this forum, that have been pleased with the tours. Her rates are about $8.00 per hour for a group. She can also customize a tour based on your interests. If you are specifically interested in a tour of the Jewish Ghetto, book with Sabina, as she is a member of the Spanish Synagogue.<BR><BR>I've also had Nina Jelinkova give me a tour of Prague. Nina is older and more reserved. She does not answer email on a timely basis, and I've had problems with her, so I don't find her to be reliable. After booking her services months in advance, the day before I was to take a tour with her, she attempted to reschedule because she had the opportunity to lead a larger tour group, instead of taking me on a tour. By the way, Nina charges per person, per hour, while Sabina charges per hour for a group. With both guides, you will need to pay their entrance fees into the venues.

There are bus tours to other cities in winter. They may have reduced departures, but there are some because I've seen schedules. Premiant Tours for one has them in winter, as does Prague Sightseeing (the one partly owned by Cedok).

I was in Prague at the end of October. I will say a personal guide is the way to go when in Prague - it's affordable and adds a certain intimacy. I did a tour with Sabina - which was informative and broad, a great introduction. I saw numerous tour groups with a leader barking out information - it struck me as impersonal and cattle herding. Defintely go for a personal guide.

My family of five–including kids ages 16, 13, 11–was in Prague in November and we had a personal tour with Sabina. She was fabulous and really connected with all of us. My kids loved her and her personal touch. Thanks to all from this forum who recommended her. The tour was one of the major highlights of our trip.

Can someone post the email address of Sabina? I tried emailing her at [email protected] and my message is bouncing back.

The address is [email protected] -- you left out the letter &quot;L&quot;.

in the email i had sent I typed delphinium but it still bounced back.