WHATS THE BEST THING YOU BOUGHT IN PRAGUE?
 

Can anyone tell what some good buys are in Prague? I love to shop. Especially for bargains. If you do know of a great store please give me the name. Thanks.

Just got back from Prague last Sunday...I bought Bohemian Crystal martini glasses and wine glasses. I like the colored crystal...very nice! And the marionettes/puppets they sell at the open air market are a great deal for $10!

Prague is a great shopping town. Crystal, garnets and amber are for sale in great abundance. The crystal comes in beautiful colors(red, blue, green, purple and yellow) and patterns. A small item that I bought which was a popular gift was crystal grapes strung on gold wire which looked like a vine.<BR>The garnet and amber(green, brown and yellow) vary in price depending on setting: silver - 18K gold. We found this the best city to buy in of the 3 we visited last year: Prague, Vienna and Budapest.The prices are very good. We did a lot of window shopping and purchased in stores were we found styles we liked, so I can not give you any specific names. You can bargain and will get the best price for cash - US or Czech $. So be prepared with cash if you want a deal. <BR><BR>Have fun!<BR>Aileen<BR><BR><BR><BR>

oh yes! garnet jewelry...bought some of that! I wouldn't recommend buying amber jewelry in Prague...it is much cheaper(and better) to buy in my neck of the woods...in Latvia, Estonia, Russia. Amber comes from the Baltics not the Czech Republic..so buy things that come from Czech and you will get a better deal! Avoid the fancy crystal shops as they are quite pricey...instead go to the smaller less fancy looking shops. They still have the great variety of crystal but at a bit of a lower price...there are loads of crystal shops in Prague so it is hard to just recommend one! Pick up a "Prague in Your Pocket" guide when you get to Prague...it's great and should be helpful to you and your shopping excursions.

Garnet jewelry and a pooper scooper.

beer. lots of it.<BR>

Of course the garnets but from the Garnat Company and also go to Le Patio stores. They have some wonderful white pottery that is very unique. Trust me about this as I travel a lot and also own a store... I think you should go to Chesky Krumlov as it is very special and the prices are cheaper. Also I have heard that Slovakia the other part of Czech is amazing...

Beer and spirits. We got loads of cans of budvar in the airport vending machines for 35p!!!!!!<BR>But compared to England everything is cheap - travel, food, accommodation and they have great czech restaurants. Make sure you do the beer tour at night as well - astounding.

Art, if you care. I bought a couple of oil pintings that everybody adores for about $200 each. There are a lot of galleries which offer various types of paintings. Get away from the very center and shop around, you'll be able to find great paintings at bargain prices. Good luck.

I love our "Mozart" marionette. He is a good quality marionette about 2 feet tall, dressed in coat & tails with a violin. I am not skilled to make him actually "play" so he hangs from a wall. All of his features are very well chisled. This was one of those impulse buys that I am so glad I bought! I think we paid about $80 -$100 USD for him 5 years ago. <BR><BR><BR>They had lots of very nice marionettes at the shop (I believe on a side street heading towards Hradcany from the Charles Bridge), but Mozart seemed most appropriate.<BR><BR>

I bought my mother (whose birthday is January) a beautiful garnet ring at Vily on Wenceslas Square and yes we did haggle a little. Crystal and garnet shops are everywhere. An American studying there told me that the department stores were the best value for crystal. I bought several items from the big one near the Opera House. For fun, I bought friends some becherovka (spelling?)--very inexpensive liquor, which I got at another large department store out of tourist area.

Puppets are cute and a good buy.

Topping Leslie Strauss are you there?<BR>Ms.Strauss has been to Czech Republic and would have excellent insight with shopping.

A set of bohemian crystal candle holders, christmas ornaments and table linens. Great prices. Regret not buying garnet jewerly.

Things I came home with from Prague: a couple of bottles of Budvar (the original Budweiser), lots of garnet jewelry (but be careful, the cheaper stuff is gold plate and not 14 karat gold), some ceramics, enamel and brass jewelry, 2 contemporary steel statues that I bought at the castle, a lot of crystal stemware, atomizers and vases, many postcards, and some miscellaneous stuff. <BR><BR>The peddlers on the Charles Bridge have some very interesting crafts to sell, at reasonable prices. Some do negotiate, and the prices are always more favorable to the tourist at dusk and when it is raining. <BR><BR>Also, Tesco has excellent priced gift items -- especially crystal. Bring your receipts to the Tax Free Department for a form. <BR><BR>Here's a piece of advice, the prices are extremely reasonable so you tend to over buy. But, crystal becomes extremely bulky, and all of the boxes are different shapes. Either bring the largest piece of luggage that you own to pack away all of your bargains or else find yourself some shipping boxes. You can go to Tesco to get bubblewrap, packing tape, twine and cartons. All of this stuff is on the first floor in the Stationery Department.<BR><BR>Things I didn't buy: Marushka dolls, marionettes (although they were beautiful, I knew if I bought one it would hang in a corner and become a dust magnet), and amber jewelry. <BR><BR>Amber is plentiful and very inexpensive, and I did see some beautiful pieces, but the pieces were too big for me, but I was amazed at the range of colors from a creamy eggshell to different shades of yellow and orange all the way to a jade green.<BR><BR>If any of you are interested in crystal atomizers, I found the ones in Prague to be ornate and in the range of $6 - $15 each. Coincidentally, I found the same or similar ones in Neiman Marcus at Christmastime ranging in price from $75 to $125 (same boxes too).

Oops, forgot that the best bargain I got was on Swatch watches, at the Swatch shop on Karlova Street. Watches that I had initially priced ranging from $75 to $175 cost me $20 to $50 -- I came home with 5 watches. This shop has a promotion that for each watch you buy, you get a free t-shirt. I'm not a t-shirt person, but my friends really liked the t-shirts -- I wrapped each of their expensive gifts in a t-shirt -- I didn't want them saying "Leslie went to Prague and all she brought me back was this ________ t-shirt." Also, the t-shirts came in handy when I ran out of bubblewrap.<BR><BR>Pack your items securely. I brought home 6 sets of crystal stemware, along with all of the other things I mentioned. Everything arrived home in perfect condition.

If you do over buy and cannot foresee carting your purchases on the plane, you can go to the shipping company, DHL, and ship your items home. DHL is like FEDEX and UPS. You can also charge the shipping cost on your credit card. DHL charges quite a bit less than all of the shops in Prague that will ship overseas. I also suggest shipping your packages to your office if you don't have someone home during the day to accept delivery. I don't know what the delivery schedule is from Prague to the US, however, when I was in Delft, The Netherlands a few years ago, I shipped items to my office and it took about a week.

I thought amber was a good buy.

I second the garnets and crystal but I treasure an equisite water color in pastels that I purchased on the bridge showing the castle, bridge and even the town side (perhaps an artificial view). Framed well, it is a wonderful reminder of our trips to E. Europe. Haggle! Judy

I brought home some good cheap liquor.