Prague Public Transportation
 

Hello Forum:

My spouse and I will be visiting Prague in October for about a week.
We plan to visit the major tourist sites and was wondering if we can get by on foot (we are used to walking at least a few miles) or is public transportation (metro/bus) necessary to see the main sites?

Thanks for your help!

G.

What main sites do you plan to see? That would help to know.

You can get by on foot if you mainly only want to see things around Old Town Square, the bridge, Mala Strana right near the bridge, the Jewish Museum area (cemetery, things on that route) and the castle.

No problem whatsoever visiting most of Prague on foot, as it's very compact and the areas you walk in are very pleasant.

I quite liked the public transit in Prague, especially the trams. You can buy a week's transit pass if you're interested in taking advantage of them.

What Christina said and also it depends on where you will be staying. If you are stying in the center, you can cover most of the sites on foot if you are a good walker. Some people take hotels out of center (to save money e.g.), then you would need to take public transport till the point where you can start walking. Maybe you don't need to buy multi-day pass (I do buy myself. Even though I walk a lot, I'm also used to hop on a tram when I feel like it. For that a pass is convenient if that doesn't necessarily save money.) What you could do is to buy a few sigle ticekts that don't cost much. 1 ticket for short ride (20 - 30 min valid without transfer) is CZK18 and CZK26 for a transfer ticket 70 minutes.

There is no week pass since January 2008 any more.

Actually available :
24-hour pass: 100 Kè
3-day pass (72 hours): 330 Kè
5-day pass (120 hours): 500 Kè

That's a hefty increase. I used to buy a week pass for 280 I believe until last year. Also note : 3 day pass is more expensive than 24-hr pass x 3. Only the difference is, with a 3-day pass, you are entitled to take a child whihc is not the case with 24-pass.

Kè is actually K + c with an accent mark (CZK) but it doesn't show correctly.

Oh dear, bad news about the transit pass. I was there in December 2007, so just missed the change. I don't remember what I paid, but it was quite reasonable (and very convenient).

The Old Town and most of Mala Strana is certainly doable by foot.

To see the Castle/Cathedral precincts there is a tourist tram that leaves from Old Town Square that takes you all the way up the hill on the other sie and drops you near the Castle gates. From thee you can see everything esily and walk back down to the river.

Have been to Prague twice and never needed to use anything but that tram - and some cabs back to the hotel after dinner.

I believe Tram #23 runs frequently up by the castle (then again it might be #21) but no matter...the trams are frequent and reasonably priced.

I would advise you to take one UP to the castle and walk back down.

> a tourist tram that leaves from Old Town Square that takes you all the way up the hill on the other sie and drops you near the Castle gates..

I'm not sure what you mean by "tourist" tram. As Dukey says, those are 22 & 23 that go behind the castle so you can walk slightly down to the castle (So you don't have to hike up from Mala Strana if you prefer). These trams do not go anywhere near the Old Town Square and they are ordinary city trams. In any case there is no tram line going thru the Old Town Square. Just for the record.

You would need public transportation if you want to visit places such as Vysehrad with its Church Petr & Pavel, Vinohrady residencial area with its Art-Nouveau houses, or Troja Place & Zoo but they are all outside the Old Town/Mala Strana areas.

Troja Place > Troja PAlace

Just back from Prague. Tram system is efficient and still cheap.
We stayed in the Mala Strana area at a hotel name Mala Strana. It is just upstream from the Charles Bridge and two blocks from Vitezna where about 5 tram lines cross the Vlatava on Most Legli. The National Theater is on the east bank and near to the bridge.

The tram lines that go to the castle are 22 and 23. Both cross Legli Most.
Once across the bridge, they turn right - north - at Ujezd and wind up the hill to the entrance.

We decided to walk up the Petrin Hill to the Strahov Monastery and then walk to the Castle. Very pleasant stroll I might add. The paths are a spaghetti tangle, but we kept bearing to our right and turning up and arrived there with little trouble, if any.

Prague is walkable, but there are times when knowing which tram you need is vital, partiularly when a thunderstorm is threatening!!

In the middle of a downpour we even opted for a taxi. Better that than drowning. Yes, we had umbrellas, but the wind was blowing so hard and swirling that the rain was coming sideways from various angles.

The Metro for us was of some value, but it did not get us close to our hotel, hence we used the tram for most of our travel to and from some of the sites we visited which were on the edge of the old town.

Found Prague's metro system user friendly and very efficient. We stayed a bit out of old town (about a 20 minute metro ride away) and fortunately a brand new metro station had opened literally just days before our visit, which made it quite convenient to get to our destinations. Found the metro to be very clean, safe and the stations well marked. Definitely invest in a good city map!

Hope you enjoy your upcoming trip as much as we did ours.

Any transportation you can take UP to the castle is worth it - coming down is the much easier and leisurly part! ENJOY!!

> Legli Most

bob brown, I just noticed you called the bridge as above a few times (also on another thread) but the correct spelling seems Most Legii (the Bridge of Legions). Well just for the record.

By golly, I got the magnifying glass to my map. The print is small and my eyes are old. I failed to see that the next to last letter was an i and not an l. The dot over the eye blended in with the body of the i and I thought it was an l. The second i by being on the end of the word was a little more distinct to me.

Glad to know what it means in English.
At any rate, strolling across the bridge was most pleasant in the late afternoon.

I will not repeat the error.