Sometimes you travel, everything falls into place and the trip goes wonderfully. Then you can write a great guide on your blog so others can have a great experience and save some money. Other times you get to a new country and your budget gets knocked sideways and split wide open. Well the Czech Republic was one of those other times and the MVP riffling through my pocket was undoubtedly Prague.

Prague's prices are substantially higher than the rest of the country since its the primary tourist hub of the Czech Republic. Most people who visit the country will only stop by Prague before moving on to Berlin, Vienna or Budapest.Its easy to see why. Historic Prague has been untouched by war (with the exception of one accidental bombing by us Americans when we were trying to bomb Dresden, a rather large 120 km mistake), and simply has one of the most beautiful skylines I have ever seen. Its placement on the river with a dozen bridges certainly helps. Now every family, solo traveler, or bachelor party (stag parties for our friends across the pond) will zip by for a few days.

Its decidedly less pretty when a pimp, tout, a prostitute and a pickpocket accost you after taking this picture

 

Prague may be a very touristy city but that's not a bad thing. In fact, being an international city is part of Prague's identity. As of 2015, there are nearly 160,000 expats living in Prague alone. A visit to Prague is to embrace not only Czech culture, but a small mix of other cultures as well. Its a lovely mix to their open and fairly liberal society but all these foreign visitors or residents does drive up the prices.

With all these travelers, there's a lot of tourist traps or avoidable elevated prices. Many of these mistakes I may or may not had made. But hey, I'm learning some of these lessons the hard way. So for the Czech Republic, I'm not going to have an in-depth report of my budget. It doesn't even seem appropriate to write a budget guide for Prague.  It seems most fitting to give you tips on what not to do in Prague.

 

1. Don't wait for the last minute to book your accommodations

There are countless ways to get accommodation in Prague and you'll never be left on the streets if you don't plan. The real tragedy is missing out on the great budget hostels. The cheap hostels with the best facilities fill up staggeringly fast, especially during the high season and the weekends. This mantra can be applied to any large tourist city and Prague is certainly one of them.

Delaying your planning means you'll be left with an overpriced hostel or a hostel with beds less comfortable than a layer of gravel.

Actual artwork for the bathroom door at Hostel Elf

 

While we're talking about accommodations...

 

2. Don't stay at a party hostel

I may have succumbed to temptation for this one.

Unlike other cities, party hostels are often far from the cheapest hostels. They primarily cater to, well, partiers. Being around a party atmosphere will definitely tempt you into going out on the town more and spending more money. Not only that, but the pub crawls or drinking events the hostel takes you on are often overpriced with ridiculous deals like free drinks for the first hour. Even if you decided to take full advantage of that first hour and end your night by 8 PM, you're still not likely to get your money back.

If you're like me and haven't stayed at a party hostel, it may well be worth the experience to see what the other side of traveling is like. They're certainly a lot of fun but don't stay for long. As a long term traveler, it's nicer to stay at cheaper hostels and meet more like minded people. These people are more likely to be fellow long term travelers who are here to casually explore the world and most certainly won't drive you out in the evening costing you money.

It was a pub race and yes, we won

 

3. Don't use tourist ATMs

When you're in need of cash, it's easy to stop by the nearest ATM. Unfortunately, grabbing cash is not as straight forward as back at home. ATMs can have terrible exchange rates, high ATM fees, high minimum withdrawal amount or a wretched combination of all three. In the busy tourist areas, it's hard to know which ATM to use.

This is the most common way ATMs pray on tourists. Someone arrives in town, hasn't had time to check what the exchange rate is and simply heads over to the nearest ATM. The ATM shows the lowest denomination is 5000 Czech Koruna and increments up every thousand to 15000 Czech Koruna. If 5000 is the lowest, it must not be a lot of money, so a person might be inclined to withdraw say, 8000 Czech Koruna.

Well 8000 Czech Koruna is roughly $360. Throw that in with a terrible exchange rate, and maybe some ATM feels and someone just took advantage of you.

So what to do about this? One way is to ask your hotel or hostel receptionist, they can often point you towards a good ATM. A simpler way to to just find an ATM at a bank. Banks usually have lower fees and better rates.

Street ATM in Cesky Krumlov as an example. Be careful around all of these

 

4. Don't pay in Euros

Since it's such a popular destination for tourists, many shops are happy to take Euros.... for an abysmal rate. Exchange your money at a good rate to pay in Czech Koruna or pay in card to avoid this.

I don't have a relevant picture so here's a picture of two Avengers at Hamley's, the biggest toy store in central Europe, in Prague

 

5. Don't eat at a tourist restaurant

If you're in the Czech Republic, there's little reason a restaurant has to advertise on their window "Authentic Czech Cuisine!" I would be just as skeptical walking into a joint in Texas that scrawled"Authentic Texas BBQ!" over their window. There's nothing wrong with eating at a solid tourist restaurant, but it's just not going to be friendly on the budget since prices are almost always hiked up.

If you're walking around the Old Town, and they have a patio in front of Wrenclas Square or the like, it's going to be expensive and without guarantee of quality. Leaving Old Town will certainly make it easier to find a more local restaurant or bar. Prague 2 and 3 is just east of Old Town and hosts the much of the expat population. It's a very relaxed and hip atmosphere that will give some welcome breaks from the crowds and higher prices.

If that's too far and would just like to stay in Old Town, I advise walking a couple of blocks down some backstreets from the square and that will greatly bring prices down. But there is one quick way that will help you identify if the restaurant is either touristy or higher class. Look at their menu and check the beer prices. If it's more than 40 Koruna ($1.75) a beer, it's going to be a bit touristy.

Once again, beer saves the day.

Some hearty Prague styled Goulash

 

6. Don't shop on Na Prikope

Na Prikope is a lovely walking street lined with high class boutiques, street performers and restaurants. It's worth the visit and a walk but you can probably guess why I recommend not spending anything here.

The food on this street was surprisingly meh

 

7. Don't use a train travel pass in the Czech Republic

This technically applies most for the country but I felt this needs to be mentioned. Train passes are a common thing people purchase before a large Eurotrip. These train passes vary greatly with some providing unlimited uses in all of the European Union and others only providing a set number of uses. Some passes will only be valid in a select set of countries. The savings from these train passes is quite an in-depth subject that will warrant a full article.

The simple conclusion is to avoid buying any train pass specifically for the Czech Republic. If you already have an unlimited pass, then absolutely you should use the pass while you're in Prague. The main issue is that buses and trains in the Czech Republic are already very cheap so the train passes won't pay themselves off.

Buses and trains run from $10-15 for 3-4 hour long trips that can be booked online whereas train passes start in the hundreds of dollars. And if that's not enough, some of the trips have compulsory reservations to use your train pain where you have to sign up at the train station. Then they have reservation fees that can be worth half the price of a regular ticket. That's definitely money lost on the train pass. Save those train passes for Germany and westward.

While we're here, there are three major carriers in the Czech Republic; Leo Express Ceske Drahy and Regiojet.  Leo Express and Regiojet seem to be pretty competitive in quality but operate on the bigger routes. Government owned Ceske Drahy operates tracks off the beaten path but places in a very distant third in the quality department. How governmental.

 

Other Generally Helpful Tips

• Ahoy means hello in Czech. Its easy to say but harder to resist saying ahoy in a pirate voice.
• Czech Republic is part of central Europe even though their culture may more similar to Eastern Europe. Czechs are very proud of their central European heritage. They get very offended if you mix this up.
• Prosim (pronounced pro-seem) or please, seems to be used for everything. When in doubt, throw a couple prosims in your sentence.
• If the waiter is being overly friendly, you're probably in a touristy restaurant.
• Have a few beers before you watch the historic Astronomical Clock strike on the hour. Its the biggest letdown I have ever seen.

I know its old, but you've been warned.