For a few years, Prague had been high on my list of must-visit cities, and when we got there it did not disappoint – I absolutely loved Prague!

Prague was part 1 of our 3 city European trip in early 2020. We managed to get the trip done just before the pandemic really took hold!

Day 1 – Arriving, checking in & seeing Old Town Square

We arrived at Prague Airport in the pouring rain, and found our way in to the city.

There isn’t a Metro station at the airport, so getting to the city by public transport involves taking a bus to the end of the Metro line and joining it there in to the centre, which sounds more of a faff than it is, it’s actually very easy (and really just a case of following the crowd!)

We stayed at the Ametyst Hotel, which is South-East of the city, a 10 minute walk from the I.P. Pavlova Metro station, and a tram stop just down the road. (We had some capers with this tram stop later, but we’ll come to that!)

After checking in at the hotel, we continued our tradition of visiting the Hard Rock Cafe on the first night of a city trip, then afterwards headed outside and around the corner to check out the Old Town Square at night.

I’d read online that the square was beautiful at night – but wow, what an amazing place it is, especially when it’s all lit up!

Very impressed with Prague so far, we headed back to the hotel in the rain to go and dry off and get some sleep before properly exploring the next day.

Day 2 – Exploring the City

The next morning we woke up to a bit of sunshine, and after breakfast headed back in to the centre, starting at the Old Town Square to see the sights in daylight, get some coffee and watch the Astronomical Clock hit the hour.

Being February, it was absolutely freezing, so we made straight for a coffee shop and found a seat in the window looking over the square – if we weren’t on such a tight schedule, we could have sat here for hours!

Just around that corner to the right, this is the incredible Old Town Square with the famous Astronomical Clock!

There are quite a lot of outdoor cafes and restaraunts which I imagine would be great in the summer, but not so much during February!

As the Astronomical clock started nearing the hour, crowds began gathering in front of it to watch its bizzare hourly display.

From the square we to the short walk down to the Charles Bridge and walked over the Vltava River to the Lesser Town on the other side.

The Lesser Town is beautiful, and much more peaceful than the bustling Old Town on the other side of the river.

This is the view from the coffee shop we found in the Lesser Town (Yes, another coffee shop.. That’s how we travel!)

Before we headed back across the bridge, we explored the riverside which runs underneath the Charles Bridge.
It’s unusually peaceful along that path, as the thousands of tourists seem to stick to the route over the bridge, and don’t stray down to the riverside area underneath.

We headed back up through the winding streets of Old Town, over to Wenceslas Square for a bit of shopping in Sephora (which we don’t have in the UK, so it’s a bit of a pilgrimage), and for a walk around the square (which is more of a boulevard than a square).

We found somewhere for dinner, and after some more exploring the weather started closing in, so we called it a night.

On the way back to the hotel, we decided to take the tram instead of the Metro as this would avoid the 10 minute walk in the rain.
Trundling around the streets on a tram is so much better than the Metro, and you see so much more of the city that you would otherwise miss.
The tram stopped at a station close to our hotel, but in a moment of genius I announced that the next stop would be closer to our hotel, and as the rain was really coming down by now, this would be a much better option…. The tram then proceeded to go down an extremely steep hill, past our hotel, finally dropping us off at the bottom leaving us to climb the hill for 15 minutes in the pouring rain back to the hotel!
Who let me navigate anyway?

To be fair, the Metro and Trams are extremely easy to navigate in Prague, and Google Maps even fully integrates with them to help guide you step-by-step, and even let you know when the next tram/metro will arrive!

Day 3 – Traveling East

On the final morning, it was unfortunately time to leave Prague and head to the station to go to our next (and most anticipated) city on the trip, Vienna, with the promise that we would book to come back to Prague before too long!

We walked out of the hotel and found some breakfast and bought ourselves some lunch for the train journey, before making our way by Metro to Wenceslas Square for some coffee, and made the short walk up to Praha hlavní nádraží, the main train station in Prague.

Navigating the station and finding the correct platform is very easy at Prague train station, there are some large information boards above the tunnel from the shopping area to the platforms, and everything is clearly marked.
We had a slight fiasco when we made it to our platform however, as there were several trains ‘stacked’ on each side of the platform.. After a bit of guesswork wen worked out which train was ours, and off we went to Vienna!