5 Best Places to Shop in Czech Republic

You'll be drawn in by the amazing window display, which features anything and everything from puppets climbing trees to wooden airplanes. However, you'll stay to be a part of the sheer joy that bursts out of this two-floor toy shop. Packed with attractive wooden toys, stuffed animals, puzzles, and games, it harks back to a more innocent age. There's also a good selection of marionettes if you have your heart set on taking one of these traditional Czech items home.

This almost impossibly cute toy store was founded in the last few years by a parent-led team who wanted to bring traditional Czech toys back to Czech children. Its name means "Hugo goes barefoot," and it sells a range of lovely toys and gifts, many wooden, which hark back to a more innocent age.

Take a trip back in time to when toys were made from wood and model cars were cherished. Everything about this store will make you smile, from the friendly owner's greeting to the stock of cheerful wind-up music boxes and animal figurines. Look closely at those wood-carved rocking horses and three-headed dragons; many items are handmade by Czech craftsmen. The shop even sells kits with colored pencils and pastels for budding young artists. It's only open in the afternoons, but easily combined with a visit to the Loreta.

These cute enamelware products are a proper homegrown success story, from a sister-and-brother team who started off selling them on Charles Bridge. The look has now taken off, but these are the original and best, with their bright mugs, decorated with animals, now gracing a million homes worldwide, the team estimate.

This is Prague's preeminent toy store chain, with goodies for babies, toddlers, and older children. Let the little ones run wild among the Legos, puzzles, and games. Sparkys also stocks an adorable array of stuffed animals, including Krtek, the cute Czech cartoon character whose popularity spread across the communist world in the second half of the 20th century.