Since I get so much wonderful information from this forum I thought I%26#39;d give my own experience in Prague.
My boyfriend and I spent a week in Prague. We rented an apartment in Nove Mesto. It was a wonderful area for us- 2 blocks from the river and plenty of pubs nearby and a Tesco in walking distance. We took 3 day trips: Kunta Hora, Dresden, Germany and Plzen. We took the train to each of the destinations- found it very easy and inexpensive to use.
Some highlights of the trip for me were Prague Castle, Stare Mesto (the neighborhood just over the Charles Bridge) and the town of Plzen where Pilsner Urquell is brewed. You can take a tour in English of the brewery which is fantastic- and you get to try traditionally made unfiltered, unpasteurized Pilsner down in the original underground tunnels! Highly recommended.
We are beer lovers, so hitting lots of traditional pubs was a must for us. One of our favorites was U Bubenicku which is one of the places that serves unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell. Great atmosphere. The food prices are a little high but the beer is incredible!
We also found Pivovarsky Dum, which is a wonderful microbrewery. They have a wonderful lager and also make a wheat beer and flavored beers. We tried the sour cherry. Not bad. The food was not great- just get some fried bread and enjoy the brews. The front is non-smoking!
Probably the most amazing, traditional pub we visited was U Cerneho Vola (the Black Ox) near Prague castle. Serving beer since the 1500%26#39;s and located near the Strahov Monastery, it doesn%26#39;t get much more traditional than this. Make sure to sit down in the back room (front is locals only) and enjoy a dark Kozel and some sausage. What an awesome experience.
My advice- please, please, please learn some Czech. Yeah, its hard. But a little effort will go a long way, especially if you want to venture into the real traditional places. Most people spoke English but I know it was appreciated when we greeted and thanked them in their language.
Metro was easy to use once we got the hang of it, but be aware- the machines only take coins! And only the main stops have people to buy tickets from.
We felt very safe in Prague. Of course we took all precautions and didn%26#39;t stray too far from home late at night, but we never had an issue.
I%26#39;d love to answer any questions! We had a great time and thank you for all of the information provided on this site!
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Thanks Stargirl, great information on a very important topic, looking forward to trying out the breweries you have recommended, will be there for 5 nights in April.
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Sounds like you had a great trip.
I to love Plzen,have a look at my Avatar,recognise anything?
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stargirl23, I will take your advice on
visiting some of the pubs you mention.
How long is the train trip to plzen ?
Also is the brewery far from the train station once you reach plzen?
Thanks for taking the time to write a great, and informative trip report.
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prazdroj.cz/en/…brewery-tour
this will give you details on the tours.
when I was last there in may they were in the process of opening up an older part of the brewery to the tour.
If you take the train to Plzen turn right as you get out of the train staion,walk for about 100 meters and you will see the entrance to un underpass ,DO NOT take this rout but follow the path to the right ,this will take you over a small rise and up onto a path that will take you over a foot bridge,the end of the footbridge is the enterance to the brewery.once through the gates of the brewery (take some photos of it) the visitor center is about 50 meters or so to the left.There is a good resturant there as well as a very good shop.
http://www.classiccitybrew.com/pilsen.html
this link will give you some interesting pubs to visit as well,all within easy walking distance of the brewery,town cetner and railway station.
BTW my avatar is a picture of me being poured a beer from the great barrels in the Plzen cellars,you will never taste it%26#39;s like ,quite superb.
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Train journey time is about 90 minutes and run every hour at about 15 minutes poast the hour.
www.Idos.cz for details.
don%26#39;t worry about cost ,Czech trains are very cheap.
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Thanks for giving that info unclegus! Love the avatar! I%26#39;ll never forget that beer! And thanks for giving the directions to the brewery from the train station. We had to run frantically from the station to the brewery to make it in time for the last English tour and had to stop and ask some locals along the way.
Also- I read your Go List about Prague right before we left and it gave us a lot of great ideas for things to do! Thanks so much for that information.
If I were to do it over again though, I%26#39;d take the earliest tour of the brewery (12:30pm). The tour took about 90 mins and then we ate at Na Splice- the restaurant on the premises- very good, inexpensive food. But by the time we got into the town square most shops had closed for the evening. The town of Plzen is beautiful itself and would highly recommend spending the entire day there.
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I have visited the brewery 3 times and always go for an early train,the 10.15 still gives you plenty of time for a tour a meal a visit to the Brewery museum and a couple beers in one of the many pubs.
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Great trip report. Thanks for sharing. Out of your three day trips, which was your favorite?
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My favorite day trip was Plzen, but my boyfriend would say Dresden. Dresden was a lot better than I thought it would be, actually. Once you get to the city center (about a 20 min walk from the train station) there are some preserved buildings and churches and some fantastic museums. The art museum was one of the best I%26#39;ve ever been to....rivals Paris really. And we got to see Rafael%26#39;s Sistine Madonna there. The food and language were also a nice change of pace when spending a full week in Prague. The downtown has some great little shops and restaurants...but it was expensive.
Kunta Hora was great- don%26#39;t get me wrong. But being there in the off season caused some issues for us- we ended up missing out on the bone church because of the odd hours :( That was one of my biggest regrets of the trip. But it was a lovely little town with pretty architecture.
Also, you can buy the same wonderful crystal in Plzen for about 30% less than shops in Prague.
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stargirl23 thanks again for honest reporting.
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