4 Days in Prague

On the top of Petřín Hill in Prague you may notice an Effiel Tower like tower at the very top. This is the Petřín Hill Observation Tower. It's a 60 metre tower which is much smaller than the Eiffel Tower., however as it's on the top of Petřín Hill it does have almost the same altitude as it's French lookalike.

To get to this tower you can either climb up Petřín Hill, or take the Funicular Railway. Now I should point out climbing Petřín Hill is so easy task! Indeed we walked back down it and it's quite steep in parts, and it was tiring enough walking back down it nevermind up! The Funicular railway is easy to use, and will take you to the top of Petřín Hill in no time.

At the base of the tower there is a small gift shop and cafe, as well as the payment booth. I do believe there is a lift for disabled customers to go up the tower, otherwise it's a case of walking up the winding wooden stairs. The day I visited Prague it was a wet and windy day. The stairs are on the outside of the tower and to be honest I did start to feel quite sick as I was climbing, constantly going round and round this narrow staircase... Thankfully every now and then there was a wooden bench to rest on and catch your breath... but dont look down yet!

As you climb you come to the first level to look out of. The tower offers impressive 360' views of Prague, you can clearly make out the castle, Charles Bridge and the Church of Our Lady before Týn (my favourite building in Prague located in the Old Towen Square). Despite it being a miserable grey and cloudy day, we had a good view and could see buildings for miles. After having a good rest it was time to continue our climb up the tower.

I should point out now that there is a staircase to go down, and a staircase to go up. You should make sure you choose the correct staircase as they are quite narrow and you don't want to have to squeeze past disgruntled visitors if you choose the wrong one!

It's not long before I reached the top of the tower, however after all that climbing on this wet and windy day I was feeling quite sick! I really did feel as high as I was on the Eiffel Tower... but this didn't feel as 'study' a building with it's wooden winding staircase, making me feel rather queasy. It's certainly not something anyone who is scared of heights should visit!

After enjoying the amazing views and taking the obligatory photo's, it was time to climb all the way back down again. Looking down and going round and round and round... yes I was very glad to reach the bottom of this tower!

I would recommend giving this one a go, whether you climb up Petrin Hill or cheat and ride the Funicular Railway, you do get some amazing views of Prague. However if heights arent for you, then you can still enjoy some nice views from Prague from Prague Castle or various points on Petrin Hill.

Petrin Hill Observation Tower is open from 10am to 7-10pm every day from April to October and only at weekends from November to March, from 10am to 5pm.

Before I visited Prague I heard from a few people that Charles Bridge was certainly a 'must-see attraction' in Prague, but I should also be prepared for 'huge crowds' and being unable to move. I'm not too keen on crowds, but I did want to visit this famous bridge and decided I would just grin and bear it, whilst also securing all my belongings after hearing stories of pickpocketing.

Thankfully on my visit to Prague at the end of June 2009 I discovered a less-than-packed Charles Bridge. I put this down to the weather, the whole 4 days I was in Prague it was raining and miserable, whilst this didn't bother me, it obviously kept many of the tourists away!

Charles Bridge is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Vltava river. The construction of the bridge began in 1357 under the reign of Charles IV, and was not finished until the beginning of the 15th century.

During the day you'll find the bridge to be full of painters and kiosk owners selling everything from handmade jewellery to photos and paintings of Prague. It was nice to stroll along the bridge taking in the view of Prague Castle, and stopping to browse some of the artwork along the way. I wasn't 'hounded' by people, unlike Paris when I walked along one street and artists were standing infront of waving paper and pens frantically. I noticed each of the kiosks displayed a license stating that they are allowed to trade on the bridge.

The statues on the bridge are impressive to look at, despite them not being the original statues which are now stored in the National Museum. However they are certainly interesting to look at and rteally give the bridge it's gothic feel. On the Old Town side of the bridge you can see the wonderful gothic Old Town bridge tower, which is open for you to climb up (at a price) until quite late in the evening.

There was some work being done on the bridge during our visit, meaning some parts were cornered off, it appeared they were replaxing the stone floor. If it had been very busy this would have caused quite a crush, but we never had any problems with the bridge being busy, as it wasn't.

At night the bridge lights up in a rather romantic fashion, and I took a lovely photos of the bridge at night. With the impressive lit up Prague Castle in the background it makes for a lovely evening stroll. The crowds also die down on an evening and there's more room as the traders have long packed up for the night. One evening of our stay we walked along the bridge and saw a woman put a pie out on her window sil to cool, we found this quite amusing! Then we heard wonderful singing and music. At first we couldn't figure out where this was coming from, until we realised it was coming from under the bridge. We quickly walked round to come under the bridge, and a large choir had set up drawing in quite a small crowd under one of the arches of the bridge. It was a lovely evening standing there watching this choir, and certainly sticks in my head.

You may notice people stroking one of the statues on the bridge. This is a superstition, where if you stroke the Saint falling from the bridge you will have good luck. Just next to it is a small dog, and if you stroke that you also have good luck, though the dog is a more recent one! We watched a tour guide convincing his group to stroke the statue, it was quite funny to watch!

Also near the end of the bridge there's a house which has a picture of the Virgin Mary and a small lampost infront of it. Apparently if you see the light go out on the lampost then a death is imminent.... thankfully the lamp didn't go out for us ;)

I highly recommend visiting Charles Bridge, especially in the evening when it makes for a romantic stroll.

I was flying out from Leeds Bradford airport last month to Prague and I needed a hotel for 1 night that was close to the airport. I ran a search on Expedia and came across the Britannia Leeds Bradford Airport hotel, situated only 2 miles away from the airport. It's situated 8 miles away from Leeds city centre but we weren't here to visit Leeds itself. It cost £50 for a superior room and decided to go for this one.

Now I know that mostly Britannia hotels don't get very good reviews. The reviews for this hotel were quite sparse on TripAdvisor however I found this hotel to be good for what we needed it for, that being somewhere comfortable to sleep for the night close to the airport!

We were greeted by a smiling lady at reception and the check in was quick. The reception area is right next to the bar which was very busy with kids running around, apparently there had been a christening. We were given our room number and key card and set off for our room. The room was quite small and had a plain white and blue decor to it and the basics such as a desk, small CRT TV, a kettle with tea/coffee, and a small bathroom with shower over bath. The window was large and overlooked the grass area outside which had rabbits all over it! I did feel like I was at a holiday camp or something though as the kids kept running right past the window.
I had the feeling that this wasn't a 'superior' room at all and dug out my booking confirmation (I always print these out and take these with me) and my boyfriend went back off to reception to enquire about this. He came back not long later and informed us we had been given the standard room 'by mistake' and we were to move to our new, superior room. I was annoyed at this, after a car journey the last thing you want to be doing is moving your suitcase around the hotel because they got it wrong!

The superior room was much better. It was much more spacious and had a nicer decor to it. There were large wooden panels to slide across infront of the windows and 2 chairs and a small table. There was a large desk but the same small CRT TV as the previous room. The bathroom was slightly bigger, but still very small, and included the basic toiletries and 2 glasses.
One problem I did have was after we had made a cuppa, there were no teaspoons! One small thing which made all the difference as we couldn't stir in the sugar or handle the tea bags, why they don't have them is beyond me!

We went down to the bar to have some food, however the barman advised us the chef had just gone home (so who does the '24 hour' room service?!) however he could get us some sandwiches. We were hungry and after enquiring as to any possible nearby places to eat (to which we got an "erm..... well... erm.... you can get a bus...." I gave up) so decided to accept this offer.
Not long after a family came in and also asked for food, they got the response that the chef had gone home ill, but they could have sandwiches.
We waited quite a while for our sandwiches which were really awful. The bread was stale it was barely edible and the salad looked slightly brown and it was very plain! As we were eating our sandwiches we seen a chef (clearly dressed in chef's clothing) walk by and into the kitchen! I don't know what that was all about....

We decided not to go for breakfast the next morning, fearing it would be just as overpriced and rubbish as the previous night's sandwiches. Check out was instant, simply handing in the keycard. The cark park for the hotel is very large as I believe this hotel also overs parking for people going to the airport, however we had arranged airport parking elsewhere.

I would say this hotel is good for a night's stay before going to the airport, but that's all it's good for. There's nothing nearby so this is a basic airport hotel, which apparently does functions as well.

Prague Castle is in a prominent position, based on a very high hill, and is one of the biggest castles in the world. Looking at this very building it certainly was a nice sight, and can be seen from Charles Bridge. At night it is lit up, and is a wonderful sight to see!

We walked up to the Castle, despite the rain, and it was quite a walk up the hill so it's not for the faint hearted. We walked through St. Wenceslas´ Vineyard on the east, following through the Royal Gardens to the castle's large courtyard. I would recommend walking this way, as the vine yard was lovely, and half way up there was a little hole in the wall serving coffee and pastries, as well as some warm mulled wine. The views from the vineyard and the gardens was amazing, you could see all over Prague and take some nice photos.

Once you enter the Castle courtyard you may wonder where to go first, you do have to pay to enter various parts of the Castle, and there's different priced ticketing so it's best to decide which areas you want to visit and buy the appropriate ticket from the ticket office. You will notice a queue to get into St Vitus Cathedral, however it is completely free to enter the Cathedral and walk around, and I would highly recommend it as the building is amazing on the inside, not just on the outside! Whilst queuing you can look upwards at the many gargoyles on the outside of the building.

We also bought a ticket to go in various places of the Castle, however it was slightly disappointing. There wasn't much information to read, certainly not in English, and a lot of it was quite bare and empty! Everyone enjoyed the torture equipment, this being one of the only places which had a plague where you could read about the Tower in English, however I was rather disappointed with the rest of it, considering how nice the Cathedral was.

I certainly recommend visiting St Vitus Cathedral and going inside, but to be honest you may not find it worthwhile buying a ticket to go into the few areas of the Castle as they are rather lacking. We did notice some work going on, with various areas cornered off so I can only hope they are improving these areas!

I visited Prague for the first time in June 2009 and I did some good research into finding a nice hotel for my holiday there. I wanted a hotel in a good location that wasn't too expensive and provided breakfast.

I didn't book directly with the hotel, but through Expedia.co.uk. The deal we had was a saving when booking 3 nights or more. Usually the cost per night for a standard double non-smoking room is £113.22 (prices correct when booking in Spring 2009) however as we were staying for 3 nights this price came down to £79.25 per night. This great price included breakfast and for a 4 star hotel in a city this was a good deal! So the total cost of our stay of 3 nights came to £259.14, much cheaper for us than our previous stays in Paris and London.

The hotel is situated down a street very near the Powder Tower and the outside of the hotel looked very pleasant and gave off great first impressions. As you go in through the glass doors you will enter a large lobby with high ceilings and a lovely decor. I'm not too sure of the check-in time as I believe we arrived after 3pm anyway. A lady greeted us at Reception and confirmed our booking and I had to present a credit or debit card (incase you use anything from the mini bar!) and fill in a short form with my details including my passport number and the names of the people staying in my room with me. We were handed a small card which detailed my name (although rather amusingly on this I was a MR. Gemma) my room number and my arrival and departure date and of course the room key. The room key itself is a large chunk of plastic with a green circle on it and I was told to hand this key into reception each time we left the hotel. The staff at this hotel do speak English and this was very helpful considering we weren't very good at speaking Czech!
As I turned around a man was already picking up our 2 suitcases and leading us towards the lifts, he stopped and pointed out the 2 computers in the lobby with internet access which are free to use. I should point out these are often in use by guests and following advise on Tripadvisor we found 2 other computers tucked away which weren't often being used! To find these simply go down the steps towards the big glass conference room, walk left around the conference room and you will see a sign on the wall pointing towards a room at the back saying 'Business Centre/Internet Corner.' In this quiet room there were 2 computers and a printer, people obviously weren't aware of these and there was only once we went down to find people already on the computers, compared to the 2 in the lobby which were always taken. The man then showed us the bar area, where the breakfast area was and pointed out where to go for the gym/spa. We used the normal lifts to go to our room but I did notice the ornate lift which looked really nice.

We had booked a double, non-smoking room and I have heard of people getting a room with 2 singles pushed together however I was glad to notice our room did have an actual double bed in it, which proved to be very comfortable. The room itself was very spacious, more noticeable then the hotel room we once had in Paris which was very small! The windows stretch across one whole side of the room so there was plenty of light in the room. Unfortunately our view was of the inside courtyard side of the hotel and so you could only see hotel rooms opposite but this didn't bother us at all. There is an LCD TV half way down the wall facing the TV and it had the usual Sky News, BBC News World and a couple of HBO channels in English, and other channels from other countries were listed on the TV channels card.
There was a small table and chair, and then a large desk which had a chair, mirror, phone etc. There was a lamp and a kettle on this desk and we used these sockets as our own when we needed them. There was a mini bar, of course the prices were expensive, however there was complimentary tea, coffee and milk which was replenished daily.
There was a very small hallway just inside the door and here was a large, sliding mirrored door wardrobe with a safe and a few drawers in and some hangers. On the top shelf there was a spare pillow. Next to the wardrobe was the door to the bathroom. The bathroom itself was quite small but was quite the average size for a hotel really. It had a bath with shower over it and a large sink and counter area. There was also a few shelves so there was plenty of storage space. It was very clean and modern, and of course you had the standard complimentary toiletries, replenished daily and lots of clean towels. When we used the shower there was always plenty of hot water and we never had a problem in that area.
We recieved maid serivice each day when we were out, and we always came back to a nicely made bed and clean bathroom with fresh towels. Each time we encountered any of the staff in the halls they were always had a smile on their face and said hello.
On an evening we often had a drink in the bar area before going to bed and the staff here were always polite and friendly too. There was usually only one man attending the bar as it's not very busy, but the bar area had comfy chairs and served food until 10pm. Prices were a litle expensive but we didn't mind too much as it was nice to relax in this area.

If you turn left when you leave the hotel you will immediately see the Powder Tower. The Old Town Square is only a 5-10 minute walk from here and there's lots of shop and restaurants nearby. Charles Bridge is another 10-15 minute walk from Old Town Square (it can take longer as you will inevitably get lost finding the bridge from the Square!) so this hotel is in a very good location. Our whole trip we didn't use any transport (minus the Funicular railway up Petrin Hill!) as we liked to walk everywhere, despite the rain, even right up to the castle! This was quite a walk away so people might prefer to get a tram, but we never found a need for this. I do highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes around Prague though as there's lots of cobbled streets, and it was quite funny to watch women in high heels trying to stumble around the streets!

Breakfast is servied from 6am till 11am Monday-Thursday and I believe 7am till 12pm on Friday-Sunday. Breakfast was the best I have ever had in a hotel to date! The breakfast area was lovely, it was above the conference room suspended in the big grand room at the back of the hotel (you could read more information on what this room was on some information panels on the wall) and there was plenty of tables and a buffet stand in the centre of the room. Staff were on hand to pour coffee or bring you tea, and I was pleased to have my Earl Grey tea each morning. Breakfast had everything you could imagine, from the typical cooked breakfast to pastries, a selection of cheese and meats, cereals with fresh cold milk and fresh fruit (including gorgeous pieces of pineapple and fruit cocktails), dried fruit and yogurt, and a wide selection of spreads. Lastly, you could even have a glass of champagne fresh from a bottle in an ice bucket! This was always replaced with another bottle once it was empty too, a nice touch. I was very impressed with the breakfast as it was a great way to start your day, and it was a lovely atmosphere, it certainly makes a lovely change from the basements you can eat in in other hotels.

You don't have to check out from the hotel until 12pm which was perfect timing for us as we were being picked up then! It was very easy to do, we simply handed in our key and confirmed we hadn't taken anything from the mini bar since room service the day before. There was plenty of comfy sofa's and chairs to sit on whilst waiting on the lobby area.

I certainly recommend this hotel if you are going to visit Prague, which by the way, is a beautiful city which I also recommend visiting!