Luke Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 Doing my duty as best man next year and have organised a trip for the lads to Prague. So far there are 9 of us going, I've booked up the flights with easyjet (£50 return inc tax!) but now looking at hotels. Anybody know of any that are pretty decent in the right area of the city? Dont want cheap and cheerful though, thanks Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 If you want fancy, and possibly one of the best places in town, go to Hotel U Prince ***** (follow the linky below). Here's an excerpt from my writeup about our roadtrip to Prague last year. Enjoy your stay! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ View at the Castle and the Carls Bridge Prague was great by the way, and I'd recommend it to anyone remotely interested in architecture and culture. A stunningly beautiful city, which deserves the name 'Golden City' fully. In most cities you see a few nice buildings between plain or ugly ones, in Prague they are ALL beautiful! It's really amazing! You'd have to go to the suburbs to see ugly '70s apartment buildings and stuff, but all the older buildings are great. Luckily they kept them intact (though a bit run down occasionally). Only a few of those hideous 'International Hotels' managed to push their ‘standardized ugliness’ into (or close to) the historic centre. Shame on them. The famous 'Orloj" Food and drinks are cheap: a delicious three course dinner for three, including drinks, in the best spot in town for about 1600 KR (+/- €50) is a hoot. You can choose to sit at the (heated) terrace at the 6th floor with a stunning panorama over Prague (magnificent at any time, but esp. great at night!), or at the main square next to the famous astronomical clock. Just marvellous, and the food was fantastic. For anyone who's going there: Hotel U Prince at Starometske nam. (main square at the old town). Highly recommended for dinner, and you can stay there as well of course, the rooms look stunning as well. Check out this link for pics and info! We stayed at a lovely old villa, a bit outside of the centre, which was great as well. Nice atmosphere, and more quiet. A taxi-ride to the centre is about 150Kr, so not really a problem there either. The traffic in Prague is a horror, and so is parking. The owners of the villa recommended a taxi or public transport instead, which turned out to be good advice. Of course I was pig headed enough to try taking the car at some point (in a silly attempt to make the purchase of the navi CD worthwhile, combined with a serious S8 addiction playing up) but it took me the whole afternoon ploughing through a continuous traffic jam to get to just ONE place, so that was NOT a very good idea... I HATE public transport, and with these taxi prices, who'd bother? Make sure you call a company like AAA Taxi or Citycab, otherwise you get ripped off! If you get a cab in the street make sure you get a quote upfront and state you want a receipt! We heard stories of people paying 1000 KR instead of 150-200 KR, and some cabdrivers tried to get like 600 KR out of me for the same trip I paid 150 KR for earlier. No way Jose, not me. But if you tell them the price you usually pay they tend to drop the price quickly. Just something you have to know... You can find some good art for a decent price (though not that cheap anymore) if you look for it between all the dozens of crystal shops and tourist crap. The 'Golden Lane' at the Castle View at the Castle from the Carls Bridge The Prague castle is beautiful, a definite must see. You can climb a 287 step tower to get a magnificent view over the city. My girlfriend 'just HAD to do it', so this poor sod was almost killed by a heart attack - several times - climbing those narrow winding stairs, so BE WARNED! 287 is A LOT!! A boat trip on the Moldau / Vltava is great too. Try to find a smaller boat which makes a good trip! Some of the bigger ones take you for a (ridiculously small) ride. Better pay a little extra for a longer ride. We took the 'Regent', a 15 meter yacht like vessel, which we had for ourselves. The skipper took us along for over an hour for 900 Kr (300Kr pp). A good time to do this is at sundown, you get to see the city at daylight as well as by night, when it's all beautifully lit. All in all a great trip. I'd do it again anytime. The watermill seen from underneath the Carls Bridge If you feel like going, do it soon I'd say, it's bound to get spoiled and more expensive in the years to come, especially now they'll join the EU soon. I've seen it happen before, and now it still has that unique charm. People who have been there before say it's already in progress, and it was nicer and cheaper before. So you'd better hurry... Anyone who wants a few pointers, just ask for it here or send me a PM. Photos kindly borrowed from this web page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted August 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 Hi Sven, thanks very much for the info. Ive sent them an e-mail for availability. Not too bad a price either. Good to have the lowdown on the taxi drivers too Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GCab Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 I organised my brother's stag in Prague last June. You really, REALLY want to use these folks: Link - I don't work for them, I'm just a customer but a very happy one: reaction from the boys was uniformly positive (and a half). It's a small outfit run by Brit expats who went there for similar reasons and stayed on: just ring them up and get them to book as little or as much of it as you want. They do everything from organising airport pickup to sorting out an evening's entertainment with some local knowledge - they got one paintballing booking wrong but replaced it with an indoor pistol range (bit of a relief actually as it was far too hot to go running around in overalls anyway; and the pistol range came with a bar!) and threw in a free "lesbian lapdance show" as compensation (the performers were sent to see us in a beer garden in a pub of our choosing and were, er, very convincing - much to the appreciation of the mixed-sex locals sharing the beer garden who were crowding in to see the whole thing - especially the girls, as we couldn't help but notice - you don't get that sort of thing in Covent Garden... ) I've also been with the wife and it's great as a romantic place, but the places we went to were, er, a little different. PS great pics, Sven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted August 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Hi GCab, this is the website i've been looking for!! Thanks for posting it up for me . Can you remember which hotel you stayed in? Sven has given me the hotel details of the one he stayed in but some of my friends are a bit concerned it is too nice a hotel for 9 drunken lads to stay in and we could end up paying for a lot of broken antiques I might try and take the Mrs on a trip there in the next month for her birthday and pretned to be all romantic whilst checking out a few details, etc Thanks again, Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GCab Posted September 1, 2004 Report Share Posted September 1, 2004 Sorry, can't remember offhand but I'll see if I can dig up a photo or something. I think I booked it through the Prague website I gave, though - it was in good repair, clean and central, but good value and a stag night sort of place (shared rooms were OK because they were just for sleeping off the beer in, etc.) rather than expensive and unnecessarily posh. If I find the name I'll let you know but ring the Praguepissup people up, they did Ok for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eolair Posted September 2, 2004 Report Share Posted September 2, 2004 everything Sven suggested is good advice.. I've been there twice. Some general advice... Prague is a small city, slightly hilly in places. Walking is definitely possible and the best way to see the place. Use the trams to get around for slightly longer trips, or when you have a definite destination - e.g. going back to the hotel. Trams run at least every 15 mins during the day, and every 30 mins at night. Buy daily or weekly tram passes from your hotel, and get a routemap from them. Cheaper and easier that way. You stamp the tram tickets yourself when you get on. Don't be tempted not to have a ticket or not to stmp it. There are regular 'undercover' ticket checkers - the first thing you will know about it is when they flash a small brass badge in your face. Don't be cheeky or not have a stamped ticket. You will get put in jail for a few hours, and/or fined heavily. Try and find 'locals' pubs, and avoid the tourist traps. Better beer, cheaper beer, more atmosphere. Keep a v close eye on belongings both in hotel and outside. Children are often used either as a distraction or as the culprits - wallets cameras etc. With crowded tourist areas, you can often see a gang of them walking up through crowds, and the poor johns not being any the wiser until they go to pay for something. If anyone's tempted by some of the working girls, caution is advised. Many are in white slavery, and this is not their career choice. Ugly ugly ugly. The local police also regulary raid brothels, and it is shown on the 6 o'clock news. I am not joking. Lapdancing clubs (so I am told) are standard tourist fare, just watch out for the price of the drinks (even water) and don't accept invitations for private extras. Use telephone cards for phoning home. Cheap to use, and every small newspaper/tobacco stand has them. Learn a couple of phrases in the local lingo. It's not hard, and it makes a real difference. You'll probably want to start with Pivo, prosim (Beer, please). De-koo-eh is thank-you. Food. It's brown, there are dumplings in every course. Stay there more than a week, and you will get scurvy. I'm only half joking. Fruit and vegetables are not common, either in meals or to buy on the street/shop. If the hotel you stay in offers 'continental buffet' style breakfasts, stock up on fruit and juice every morning. Taxis. Basically criminals sitting in cars smoking all days. There's precious little reason to use them, except to/from airport. Always agree a price before getting into the car. If there's a dispute, insist on Polizi (plod). If any of you are culturally inclined, there are museums galore to choose from. The opera house has to be seen (on the inside) to be believed. Theatres are relatively cheap, and always plenty of choice. Bars and clubs in the evening/night are good craic. Not as many hyper trendy ones as you'd find in london or manchester, but still enough choice. Even in these though you'll find them playing the occasional eastern european folk tune every so often. There's a very big cafe culture. Sit back, drink beer/coffee watch the world go by. Bring something for the sore neck you'll get staring at all the beautful women. If men are you scene, be prepared for disappointment, they are some of the ugliest in the world. If you have time/inclination, well worth going to one of the spa towns outside the city. Hope this helps. Great place to visit. Budapest is well worth considering too for the year after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted September 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2004 Cheers eolair, great info. Taxi drivers, they are the same everywhere! Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eolair Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 glad i can help. Re the taxi ppl - my general impression is that for the parts of eastern europe I've visited, they are worse generally - Prague, Vienna and Budapest last year were all experiences. oh top tip, when you land at the airport, you have to go through customs. Usually the queues are massive. Ignore the main queues, and use the one on the far right hand side marked "Diplomats/ Flight crew". There's no waiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eolair Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 and another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted September 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Sven I've just booked the U Prince for March, 2 twin rooms and 1 junior suite. Thanks for the info, cant wait for the trip. May post some of the pics after the event Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 Ah, sorry for the late response... I overlook this bit of the forum sometimes... Glad you got it sorted, I'm sure you'll have a great time there! Looking forward to the pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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