Monday, April 23, 2012

Disappointing visit.........

I love city trips and have been rarely disappointed in the past and usually leave with a feeling of %26quot;When can I visit again??!%26quot;





However, my husband and I spent 3 days in Prague in Novemeber 07 and I can say I won%26#39;t be returning. Whilst our hotel (the Savic) was perfect and the staff there fantastic, the whole experience left a rather nasty taste in my mouth. Before we even reached our destination we had got into a taxi at the airport we believed the hotel had booked for us and whose driver was holding a card bearing my name, when in actual fact he had COPIED my name from the actual driver booked and we ended up driving round and round the old town with a driver who didn%26#39;t have a clue where he was going and didn%26#39;t speak much English! Eventually we ended up getting out and walking to our hotel.





But we laughed this off as there was no harm done and such things happen.



What doesn%26#39;t always happen however is being followed by rude staff in every shop to the point that I was actually being chased out. Also felt many attractions not worth seeing - in particular the National Museum of Prague - overpriced entry fee and nothing to see!





It is a complete myth that Prague is such a cheap place to visit - yes it is definitely cheaper for accomodation and may be more reasonable to eat/drink in than some other European cities but I was in New York earlier in 2007 and found the levels of service and prices paid for food/drink far bettered anything found in Prague. Having said that the food was decent enough in the various resturants/bars we tried - just wasn%26#39;t all that cheap! Plus coffee was a good deal more expensive than at home.





Although I did enjoy some of the walks (Jewish Quarter and up at the castle) I really did not like Wenceleses Square and had a few negative experiences there also.





Overall I wish that I had visited Prague years ago. I feel that the growth in tourism has led to greed and thus tourists are constantly being ripped off in a blatant and obvious way. Not nice when tourists contribute so much to an economy.





Would definitely recommend the Savic for accomodation though - fantastically priced hotel with great staff in a good location. But as for Prague - I would not return.




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Maybe you should have checked with us here where to go and not do the touristy stuff, you would have had a better trip. As for many attractions not worth seeing - I agree that the museum is nothing much, but I don%26#39;t think that that is on the must see list for anyone here. If Prague has not impressed you on the sights side, you did not open your eyes.




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I can%26#39;t argue with your assessments, except that you found so many of Prague%26#39;s weakest points -- rogue taxis, spotty customer service, Wenceslas Square, the National Museum --- instead of its strengths like the great metro system or the castle complex or some of my favorite restaurants here.





In all the time I%26#39;ve lived here, I have never set foot inside the National Museum. Ask anyone. I%26#39;ve never had the urge to see for myself, and I walk by it every day.





I%26#39;ll repeat again -- I%26#39;m not against negative posts about Prague. Just ones that have no balance. The things that Kerry liked -- the hotel and the Jewish Quarter -- can help others when they are doing their planning. And perhaps she helped others avoid some pitfalls.




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Meant to say, ask anyone and they%26#39;ll tell you to avoid that museum.




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Sorry that you had a bad experience. Perhaps more research would have helped. We know when going to Prague that it has some drawbacks (i.e. rip-offs) but are not surprised by it. Keep an open mind. There is no point in comparing cities in the U.S. to Prague! Some things that happened are not specific to Prague - they can happen in Rome, London, Paris, New York, whatever. I%26#39;ve been all over Europe and Prague is still one of my favourite cities. Just love it. If you get off the beaten path it is truly magical and a gem.





I would definitely recommend touring the countryside as well. The CR has so much to offer in addition to Prague. It is just gorgeous and steeped in history. I%26#39;ve noticed service is better (generally speaking) outside of Prague as well.




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Another overall negative report with rather vague statements.





%26quot;What doesn%26#39;t always happen however is being followed by rude staff in every shop to the point that I was actually being chased out. Also felt many attractions not worth seeing - in particular the National Museum of Prague - overpriced entry fee and nothing to see!%26quot;





This paragraph is absolutely amazing! I couldn%26#39;t stop laughing.





%26quot;I really did not like Wenceleses Square and had a few negative experiences there also.%26quot;





What kind of bad experiences did you have there?



For every Praguer Its almost bound to have an ordeal a day in this square - just kidding.




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sheesh, I have been here over 15 years and never set foot in that museum, I have heard that it is much nicer on the outside than the inside. IMO Prague is a museum, the buildings are amazing, the only place on the square I even suggest to visit is the Europa hotel where the restaurant was the model for the dinning room of the Titanic ship.




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I went there once many years ago and I was given a severe telling-off by one of the old ladies who patrolled the place for looking too closely at one of the exhibits. I think the entry fee then was 2 Crowns, so it was no great shakes, but it did put me off recommending it to anyone else...



Lucerna is quite fun on Wenceslas Square, I suppose, with the upside-down version of King Wenceslas on his horse.



Otherwise the only way to appreciate the square is forget the buildings and realise its history - just stand under the Melantrich building and imagine the speeches made to the 250000 people from its balcony in November 1989 at the beginning of the Velvety Revolution, all shaking their keys (check out the scenes in Kolja). Or the Jan Palach memorial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Palach where a young student set himself on fire in protest at the communist regime in 1969, followed by his fellow protester, Jan Zajic. There are plenty more places like this - the site of the so-called %26#39;masakr%26#39; on Narodni Trida, the %26#39;defenestrations%26#39; from the foreign ministry, the place where St Jan Nepomuk was thrown into the Vltava from Charles Bridge and the story surrounding it, the story behind the astronomical clock - don%26#39;t just look at the clock and think %26#39;big deal%26#39; - do some reading about it and you might find it interesting, etc, etc, etc



Prague isn%26#39;t all about shopping and cheap beer and cheap women - it is stuffed to the gills with history and if people don%26#39;t appreciate that then maybe they ought to choose an alternative choice of holiday. Majorca or Blackpool, perhaps.



There - that%26#39;s my rant for today :)






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I love National Museum. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with the interiors of the building?



I have been there countlessly and always enjoyed almost all expositions.




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I thought the entry price to the Museum worth every penny just to see the beautiful staircase,the rest of the museum was no great shakes.



I do think you are right in saying you wish you had visited Prague years ago.My first visit nealy 15 years ago was so different to my last visit 7 months ago,but I can honestly say I enjoyed both visits.




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In response to all the messages received so far:





The National Museum had been recommended by a friend to me - obviously her opinion was different to mine. Yes, the building is beautiful to look at with an interesting history, but the actual museum aspect of it is woefully disappointing.





Jirikoo - I had several bad experiences on Wencelas Square - the 2 main ones that spring to mind are being approached in a threatening manner to see if i wanted to purchase drugs and having to insist on receiving change back from a seller when it wasn%26#39;t automatically received.





Yes Prague is stuffed with history, I wouldn%26#39;t argue with that, but when you have as many negative experiences as we had over a mere 72 hour period, I defy anyone not to let it taint your overall view of a city!



I have no desire whatsoever to visit Majorca or Blackpool. Thanks for the tip but I find it incredibly narrow minded to have such responses purely because I gave my honest opinion!





I laugh at how many suggestions are made to venture into the countryside - practically impossible when you only have 2 full days! Tourists on a 2/3/4 day break are nearly always going to remain in the main/central areas - it%26#39;s just a shame that you can be penalised so much for doing so!

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