PRAGUE · CZECH REPUBLIC
Spires, cobblestones, and the river between.
Old Town walking tours and the Astronomical Clock, cruises on the Vltava, beer halls and classical concerts, and the castle towns a short train ride out: Kutná Hora, Český Krumlov and the sandstone country of Bohemian Switzerland.
Only here
The clock, the bridge, and a chapel of bones.
Astronomical clocks, stone bridges and old churches turn up all over Europe. The one that still runs after six centuries, the one lined with baroque saints, and the one built entirely from human bone belong to Prague alone.
Since 1410
The Astronomical Clock
On the hour a skeleton tips its glass and the twelve apostles parade behind two little doors above the Old Town Square. The Orloj has kept this up since 1410, which makes it the oldest astronomical clock still running anywhere in the world. The Old Town walks all build the hour into the route.
- 1 Prague: Old Town Hall Tower Entry Ticket
- 2 Prague: 3-Hour Walking Tour of Old Town & Prague Castle
- 3 Prague: 3-Hour Old Town and Prague Castle Tour in German
Begun 1357
Charles Bridge at Dawn
Thirty baroque saints line a 600-year-old stone bridge over the Vltava, the castle stacked on the hill behind. By mid-morning it is shoulder to shoulder; at first light it is nearly empty, the statues going gold as the sun comes up behind the Old Town towers. Early walks have it almost to themselves.
- 1 Prague’s TOP Sights – Old Town, Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge (Tip-based tour)
- 2 Iconic Prague Tour Old Town, Jewish Quarter and Charles Bridge
- 3 Prague: Charles Bridge Towers Combined Entry Ticket
An hour east
The Sedlec Bone Chapel
Under a small church in Kutná Hora, the bones of some 40,000 people are arranged into a chandelier, four great bell-shaped mounds and a coat of arms. The Sedlec Ossuary is unlike anything else in Europe, and it sits an easy hour by train from Prague, usually paired with the silver-mining old town above it.
- 1 From Prague: Kutna Hora UNESCO Site Tour with Bone Chapel
- 2 From Prague: Kutná Hora, St.Barbara’s Church, Sedlec Ossuary
- 3 Day Trip to Kutná Hora by train from Prague
Start here
The one most people book first.
Out of everything in Prague, this is the experience travellers reach for before any other.
The classics
Prague's Most Popular Tours
The Old Town walks, the river cruises, the beer halls and the climb to the castle. The handful most travellers book first.
Where to begin
The Prague a trip is built around.
The Old Town and the Clock, the river by boat, the beer halls, the castle, the bone-chapel day trip and a night of Mozart. The experiences most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Beyond the city
Which Prague day trip?
Three of the best sit within a couple of hours of the centre, and they could not be more different. Pick by what you want the day to feel like.
Na zdraví
The best beer city on earth.
Czechs drink more beer a head than anyone else alive, and have for thirty years running. Pilsner was invented an hour west of here; in Prague it is poured straight from the tank in cellar pubs that have been at it for centuries, under a thick wet collar of foam the locals order by name. Tasting tours and brewery visits are how you make sense of it.
Read the guide: the best beer & brewery tours →The view from the hill
The city of a hundred spires.
Climb the castle ramp, a bridge tower or a riverside hill and Prague opens out below in a sea of terracotta roofs broken by Gothic spires and baroque domes. The old nickname undersells it; on a clear evening the count runs well past a hundred.
Towers & viewpoints →A night at the concert
The city that loved Mozart.
Mozart premiered Don Giovanni here in 1787 and said the people of Prague understood him better than anyone. The city has run on music ever since: chamber concerts in baroque halls and churches, organ recitals, candlelit Vivaldi, the National Theatre that Smetana wrote for. An easy, glamorous way to spend an evening.
- 1 Prague: Entry Ticket Classical Concert at the Mirror Chapel
- 2 Prague: Concert at Reduta Jazz Club
- 3 Prague: A. Vivaldi Four Seasons at St. Salvator Church
By place
Pick a quarter, or get out of town.
Old Town for the squares and the Clock. The Castle District for St Vitus and the view. The Jewish Quarter for the synagogues and the old cemetery. Charles Bridge for the crossing. Then Kutná Hora and Český Krumlov when the city has done its work.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
On the water for the river. On foot for the lanes. A concert for the evening, a beer hall for the night, and a ghost walk for the hour after dark.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Prague? A long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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