Peggy

I received a lot of good information about airport to city transportation. That should get me to the city. Now I have another question. You didn't think you'd get rid of me that easy, did you?
I have always taken Gray Line day tours in Europe. I have just discovered that there are discoverprague.com tours which appear to be identical and are much cheaper. Has anyone taken them and were you satisfied?
Thanks, Peggy

Andrew

Prague is a compact city and is best seen by walking if you are up to it. The highlights aren't easily seen by tour bus as in London or Paris. You'll want to spend time on the Charles Bridge (no cars) and the old town square (most cars not allowed). The city has a good public transit system besides the airport bus. There are above-ground trams running all over the city. The #22 and #23 are good trams to get a good overview of the city.

Andrew

payant

Prague is the best preserved large old european city. It suffered more archiatectural damage from the communist construction than from wwII.
It must be walked to be appreciated since much of the charm is not available from a large bus.
The tour you should take if you can get tickets is the guided tour to the inside of the Obneci Dum-sort of a town hall of marvelous architectural interiors. You cannot go thru the building on your own.
Take the 22 tram to above the castle and save your legs for the hike downhill.
Enjoy my favorite walking city.

WallyKringen

We used the subway quite a bit and liked it a lot. It looks more like a high-tech shopping arcade when you're waiting on the platforms, they did quite a job decorating it! Walk at first, then you'll soon get a sense of distances and of when it might be making sense to go underground.

WK

Christina

there are a lot of excellent tour companies in Prague -- city tours and day trips. I've used a couple and think a good city overview tour is enjoyable and you can get some nice views. There are a few places you might not visit or spend time, like the bridge, but you will be visiting them later during your stay, I'm sure. Much of the central Old Town area is pedestrian only. At least one of those companies has very small buses that are allowed in some areas, not the big tour buses.

I can recommend Prague Sightseeing Tours company highly, and I think they are wellknown (I believe they are affiliated or used to be with Cedok, the former state agency). They are www.pstours.cz I took a different tour with them, but they were excellent and had a very good guide. I've seen their small buses around the city.

I have heard of several others, like Cityrama, Premiant, etc. but have never heard of a tour company called Discoverprague. That website appears to be a shell or portal, I can't make anything of it. I think the standard city overview tour is about 3.5 hrs and costs 660 czk, which isn't very expensive for 3.5 hrs (about US$25).

Perhaps if you were more explicit as to the name of the company and what the cost is, as well as the timeline (although that may tell you something as to cost). At least, I can see no information about a company called Discoverprague giving city tours.

KathyErdo

I, too, have found the Grayline tours of Prague. My friend and I are going over there in June/July and plan to take the brewery/glass factory tour using Grayline. I don't plan on taking any bus tours within Prague itself mainly because of the advice I've found here in the forums (thanks everyone!).

Now, I've pretty much figured out the metro system in Prague but not the tram system. Is the best idea for getting around Prague, and not having to carry around a pocket of unfamiliar coinage, a travel pass? I've read that you can purchase these at the info centers. Are they worth it for someone like me who will be there for 4 days?

KathyErdo

I guess the main thing that confuses me in regards to the tram/bus system is the time limit on the tickets. I've read in Rick Steves book on Prague about the #22 tram. If you get on at one stop can you ride all you want or do you have to eventually pay more?

Andrew

There are two types of tickets (besides day and multi-day passes which are unlimited for the day). The Single Ticket is good for 20 minutes from the time you validate it, and the Transfer Ticket is good for 75 minutes (or 90 minutes evenings and weekends) from the time you validate it.

So if you buy the Transfer Ticket and validate it at 10:00 on a Thursday, you can ride until 11:15 until you need another ticket. You validate your ticket when you get on the tram in a little ticket punch machine.

Andrew

KathyErdo

Thank you Andrew. From what I can see the cost of these tickets are very cheap. I've figured out the metro system in Prague and now I'm going to do my research on public transport in Budapest. Thank you again.

Andrew

My philosophy for using public transit in Europe is to buy day passes or multi-day passes and not bother with tickets. I guess you could in some cases save money by fiddling with the tickets, but in my experience, it's just not worth it.

Prague is one city where you don't necessarily need to ride trains, trams, or buses, because it is so compact and walkable, but I still found it nice to hop on a tram and not worry about a ticket. I also happen to enjoy riding public transit in strange cities, so for me it's part of the adventure.

Budapest is a lot bigger than Prague, much more spread out, and you will probably use the trains more than in Prague. Also, the ticketing is a bit more complicated there, as regular tickets are NOT automatically good for transfers as they are in other cities (there are different types of tickets). You need to validate your ticket each time you transfer, unlike in Prague. This is definitely a case where it's not worth fiddling with tickets and a pass or the Budapest Card is well worth getting.

Andrew