Fun in Prague Walks
Dec 9th, 2007, 04:13 PM
#2
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Can't comment on that one. We just went to the tourist office in the town hall and they had a list of walks that were incredibly inexpensive. We did 2 - both only 6/7 people - and each lasted about 2 hours. Both were detailed and fascinating. (One was an architectural tour of the old town. The other was of Mala Strana.)
Dec 24th, 2007, 04:48 AM
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From my excessively long CZ trip report;
"The next morning at 9 o’ clock sharp our guide Jana arrived at our apartment. Both Rick Steves and this forum recommended a guide by the name of Sarka. Of course with that much publicity Sarka was booked solid. She has since started a small tour guide business of sorts and she suggested we try Jana. We arranged in advance to spend two consecutive mornings with her. I liked the idea of two four hour morning sessions as opposed to one long day with her as my brain can hold only so much information. At a certain point you can process only so much and after that no matter how beautiful, how historic or how unique something is you just don’t appreciate it like you should. She met us at our apartment and we took the tram into town where she took us to a cute little café. There we sat down and she gave us a brief history of Prague as well as an interesting lesson on the architecture we would be seeing. Then she listened to what our interests were and what it was that we really wanted to see. We decided on a brief overview of two town sections each morning. Jana (pronounced Yana) was awesome. Some guides are very knowledgeable and some are very personable, Jana was both. She was entertaining and was able to answer all our questions, of which we asked quite a few. I’m not sure how to explain it, but with some guides it’s like you’re on a ride at Disney World. It’s enjoyable but you always have that feeling that you’re on a fixed narrow path with no deviation allowed. With Jana you could tell she wasn’t reading through some preplanned script in her mind but rather she just enjoyed talking about her beautiful city. We didn’t feel like we were just “that day’s clients” but felt more like we were her friends that she was showing around while we were in town. After we finished with each morning’s tour she then gave us hints for what to do that afternoon, including places to eat and where to shop. I believe we gave her the US equivalent of $100 total for the four of us for what was supposed to be eight hours of touring. In reality it was closer to nine or ten I would think. All four of us gave Jana two thumbs way up!
www.prague-guide.info [email protected] 420-777-225-205"
Cheers, the turnip
"The next morning at 9 o’ clock sharp our guide Jana arrived at our apartment. Both Rick Steves and this forum recommended a guide by the name of Sarka. Of course with that much publicity Sarka was booked solid. She has since started a small tour guide business of sorts and she suggested we try Jana. We arranged in advance to spend two consecutive mornings with her. I liked the idea of two four hour morning sessions as opposed to one long day with her as my brain can hold only so much information. At a certain point you can process only so much and after that no matter how beautiful, how historic or how unique something is you just don’t appreciate it like you should. She met us at our apartment and we took the tram into town where she took us to a cute little café. There we sat down and she gave us a brief history of Prague as well as an interesting lesson on the architecture we would be seeing. Then she listened to what our interests were and what it was that we really wanted to see. We decided on a brief overview of two town sections each morning. Jana (pronounced Yana) was awesome. Some guides are very knowledgeable and some are very personable, Jana was both. She was entertaining and was able to answer all our questions, of which we asked quite a few. I’m not sure how to explain it, but with some guides it’s like you’re on a ride at Disney World. It’s enjoyable but you always have that feeling that you’re on a fixed narrow path with no deviation allowed. With Jana you could tell she wasn’t reading through some preplanned script in her mind but rather she just enjoyed talking about her beautiful city. We didn’t feel like we were just “that day’s clients” but felt more like we were her friends that she was showing around while we were in town. After we finished with each morning’s tour she then gave us hints for what to do that afternoon, including places to eat and where to shop. I believe we gave her the US equivalent of $100 total for the four of us for what was supposed to be eight hours of touring. In reality it was closer to nine or ten I would think. All four of us gave Jana two thumbs way up!
www.prague-guide.info [email protected] 420-777-225-205"
Cheers, the turnip
Dec 24th, 2007, 07:01 AM
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Yes, have used them. There are tons of choices for tours, and it all depends on who you get as the guide. For the kind where you meet at the clock at a certain time, the guide people change around. I would say if you don't want to spend tons of $$ on tours, just browse the brochures, pick the tour that is at a convenient time, and just use a book to supplement anything that is of great interest. I've been to the city 11 times, and learn totally new things every time. The BEST way is to make friends at a local pub & just talk to them. They will spit out tons of interesting info & stories! 
Dec 24th, 2007, 04:30 PM
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On my first trip to Prague we used the services of Dana Chaloupka as a tour guide. She is extremely nice, helpful and knowledgeable, and speaks excellent English. She has a website http://sweb.cz/travelcz On my second trip we had two guided tours provided by General Tours, and our knowledgeable and English-fluent guide, Jana Lukesova was excellent, and she freelances. It may be the Jana that turnip met. Her email address was [email protected] She took my travel companion on a 3-hour general orientation tour of Prague’s highlights (I skipped that one, but my TC said it was excellent) and the following day we went with her on what turned out to be a private tour of Mala Strana.
For the freelance tours, we were asked to pay in cash, which was fine with us.
For the freelance tours, we were asked to pay in cash, which was fine with us.
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