Tourist guide to Prague gay nightlife

Arts and Culture

It would be foolish to attempt to describe every museum in Prague. Besides, there’s so many you won’t be able to visit each and every one anyway. The National Museum on Wenceslas Square is a good place to start.

For more information on great museums to visit please visit the Tourist office, just of Wenceslas Square on Na Mustku street. The people there will be able to tell you which current exhibitions are taking place while you visit. Most probably they’ll be able to sell you tickets at the same time helping you to avoid waiting in line.

When walking down any street, you can’t escape being mobbed by people trying to get you to visit one of the concerts going on. Every church or theatre has something to offer. If you are a connoisseur of classical music, you’ll feel right at home in Prague. You can visit an entire week and see a different opera or musical piece performed every night. Nowadays it’s even able to book your opera tickets upfront through the internet. The site featured below even has a handy agenda so you can plan a stay around the performance of your favourite opera.
Link: http://www.czechopera.cz/

If you find yourself truly interested in Prague History, check out the Opera Libuse. This opera tells you the story of how Prague was founded and is could be considered the Czech National Opera. It was performed on some very special occasions. Amongst others: The night Communism fell, The day the nazi’s entered Prague, The day when the Czech republic gained independence from the Austrohungarian Empire. All in all a powerful piece of music.

On every street corner you can find a so-called Blacklight Theatre. We never visited one of those as some of the performances seemed to tacky for words. If you do and like it, please send us word.

Woodcarving is a grand tradition in the Czech Republic. Therefore Prague is renowned for it’s puppet shows. If you can’t stand fat laddies screeching out their lungs in one of the opera houses, skip these as they mostly perform opera’s.

Getting there

Plane, train or car?

If you decide to go into town by public transport, be prepared to take an Auto bus as there is no direct link to the main station (Hlavni Nadrazi). This auto bus takes you to the nearest metro stop from which you have to fin your own way into town.

As the airport is quite a ways out of town, you’re better of taking a taxi. Be careful of the taxi drivers though as they tend to overcharge you. Either take a triple A taxi (AAA) or settle a price with the taxi driver before getting into his car.

By train

All international trains seem to stop at the main station (Hlavni Nadrazi). Yu’ll be amazed how central this station really is. From the station it is only a ten minute walk to Wenceslas Square. If you can’t be asked walking, you can take a metro or taxi from the station to where you need to go to.

Be careful of the taxi drivers though as they tend to overcharge you. Either take a triple A taxi (AAA) or settle a price with the taxidriver before getting into his car.

By car

The roads in and around Prague are in good condition. Stick to the ma inroads if you enter the city centre as there’s a one-way system used. We haven’t been able to work out how this works and found ourselves driving around aimlessly for hours on end. Parking your car in town will cost you dearly. We were amazed to discover that prices for parking exceeded those of Amsterdam. Therefore try to arrange parking together with your accommodation as some of the places named elsewhere on the site have their own parking facilities.

Getting around Prague

Find your way through the city

Never leave your hotel without a good travel guide. You will most definitely need one of those. We used the ‘Eyewitness Travel Guide’ and found that, not only tells it everything you need to know about the town itself, it’s got great easy to use city maps.

Prague is a very walk able, safe city. If you stick to the tourist centre of Prague, there’s no need whatsoever to take a taxi or use public transport. Unless off course you are either staggering home after a good night out, or you have a condition which prevents you from taking any physical exercise.

Prague has a great system off trams and metro’s. Using those is pretty much straightforward and reasonably cheap. You will find that you’ll barely need to use those unless you got yourself a hotel which is quite some way from the city centre.

Shopping

Prague is shopping paradise. Everything still very cheap!

Wenceslas square

There’s loads of shops along the square. Unfortunately all aimed at tourist. If you’re interested in trinckets this is where you can find them. Don’t be distracted by the crystal or porcelain either as most is made in factories. If you want stuff like that, you’re better of finding yourself an antique store where you can find the real deal. The only shops worth looking at are Marks and Spencer, Kenvello and the shops in the Koruna Palace.

Pariszka Street.

If you’re looking for some designer names, try this road. Not only does it feature some stunning buildings, you’ll be able to snap up that Louis Vuitton suitcase you’ve been dying for here.

Department Stores

Tesco

Not only Brittains most popular supermarket, but also a full fledged department store. If you can’t find it here, you might as well forget it. If you are staying in an apartment, this is the best place to do your shopping from. You will find the supermarket in the cellar. The only drawback of shopping here is that you have to wait in line for a basket or a cart as the number of these is limited. Somehow this has to do with fire regulations and the amount of people in the supermarket. The staff tends to be very helpful and are willing to walk you all over the store to help you find what you are looking for. If you are looking for the local alcoholic specialities, try ground floor. Our advice is to try Becherovka and Slivovice. The Becherovka is best drunk with tonic or water as it is very strong.

Adres: Narodni 26 (close by the national theatre (Narodni Divadlo)

Bila Labut

Your basic department store. You can’t miss the revolving swan on top of the building. Features a great coffee shop and the first elevator in Prague (or so i’m told). Mind the architecture. Address: Na Porici 23

Kotva

Want to see what it was like to shop back in the sixties? Yeah, that says about enough of this place. Some good bargains though and the staff is very helpful. Address: Namesti Republiky 8

Tourist Stuff

What to do during the day? You’ve seen all the gay bars, probably have met your first proper Czech, now what? Prague has an abundance of museums to choose from and there’s a different opera on every night. But what if you don’t happen to be the type who is into stuff like that? The answer to that is simply. Just pick up your travel guide and head for a walk.

Old Town Square

Ok there’s bus loads of tourists here, but then you are one yourself. Enjoy the fine architecture of the buildings around. If you happen to be there around Christmas time, there’s a Christmas market going on. They really do their best to make it something special. They build up an ice castle with skating-rink and the entire day there’s performances going on of Czech Folklore groups.

On this square you’ll find the world-famous clock. Don’t bother standing there to wait till the hour strikes as it ill be very disappointing. You’re better of watching the reactions of the people watching the disappointing display.
Just behind the Old Town Hall, there’s a little market selling Czech wares. If you go for the the very muscular type, check out the Blacksmith.

Charles Bridge

Just follow the signs from the old town square towards the bridge, alternately just follow the tourist hordes. The bridge itself is stunning. Unfortunately the people visiting tend not to be. There’s some major fashion no-no’s walking around. Just before you enter the bridge, try and climb the gate tower as it offers a great view over the river and the town.

Somewhere in the middle of the crossing there’s a pair of blind ladies performing their arts. They sing and play musical instruments to keep themselves alive. Listen to them for a while and enjoy the view over the Vltava/Molday river.

Not too far from these two daring ladies you’ll find the Saint John Nepomuk memorial. Stroking his image is said to bring good luck and bring you back to Prague in the future. You can’t miss it as you have to fight your way through the tourist hordes again.
While walking down the bridge ignore the stands selling artwork as this is available anywhere in Prague.

Prague Castle

Of the bridge you can walk up to the castle. Not only does it offer a great view of the town, the cathedral and castle themselves are absolutely stunning.

Across the entrance to the cathedral itself there’s a little shop where you can get entrance tickets to all the castle has to offer. Forget about about the changing of the guards as this has only been around for the past ten years or so. Even uniform lover will be disappointed but the looks of it.
If you leave the castle by the back passage, immediately to your right in the castle gardens you’ll find yourself a great place to cool down and enjoy a good glass of Budvar beer.
In the castle gardens you will also find the Belvedere. Behind there after a five to ten minute walk you’ll find a cruising area.

The Jewish Cemetery

This place never ceases to impress us. The cemetery itself is very peaceful and impressive in it’s simplicity. It’s the little synagogue on the left just after entering which always brings tears to my eyes.

Inscribed on the walls are all the names of the Jews taken away from the Czech Republic during WWII. The names are being read aloud 24/7 to keep the memory alive. Even more impressing is the collection of children writings and drawings on exhibition. All these were made by Jewish Children in the Theressienstadt Concentration camp.

Jewish quarter. The architecture here is absolutely amazing.

Nighttours travel goes Prague! This guide is written by our friend Rijkent. Feel free to add your comments!