INFORMATION!!! Old Town Hall Tourist Office and other Prague, Czech Republic General Tips

Favorite Thing: Painted pink so you can find it easier... ;-)

This is the official tourist mecca for all things Prague! By official I mean watch out for all those other 'tourist offices' preying on unsuspecting tourists and their bulging wallets!

Come here for your Prague Card, your tickets, last minute accommodation, sightseeing tours and trips, guided walks, guidebooks, maps, car rental (bad idea unless you're leaving Prague!), travel passes - Um, basically the usual stuff you'd expect to find... ;-)

This building is also the gateway to the Old Town Hall Tower, a diorama of the city and a gallery that exhibits an interesting array of temporary art installations - no matter how much you try to avoid this place you'll keep coming back here! ;-)

Fondest Memory: Tourist Information Centre
Celetna 14, Prague 1
(The Town Square!)

+420-2-2449-1764

Open Daily 9am-8pm

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Favorite Thing: This card is a 3-day admission card to 40 attractions throughout Prague and the outlying areas with an optional 3-day public transport pass which gives you access to the underground, tram and bus system in the city area.

All the prices are very good value for money, though it really depends on how much you think you are going to use the transport system to justify the extra 200 crowns for the transport pass as the individual tickets are so cheap that in the five days I was there I spent only 40 crowns INCLUDING transport to and from the Airport.

The only other problem about the card is that it makes you feel like you have to visit every attraction on it to make maximum use of it, but really you should use it as a way to help you to see the sights you want and save money at the same time...

One great thing about the card was the fact that it was through this that I found out about the Vysehrad Casemates as they weren't mentioned in my guidebooks.

CLICK HERE for a full list of prices and attractions that you can visit using Prague Card and where to buy it.


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Favorite Thing: The Czech Republic's current currency (!) of Crowns and Hellers has been in circulation since 1993 when the Czech and Slovak Republics went their separate ways.

It is an attractive currency whose days may ultimately be numbered as both the Czech and Slovak republics are vying for entry into the European Union - so spend it while you can! ;-)

As an indication of how cheap it is to visit Prague, my visit to Prague cost about 8,000 Crowns including everything while I was in Prague...

Try to use common sense when breaking large notes and remember that change is good to have for public transport tickets etc...


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Favorite Thing: The famous East German Trabant is a symbol of the old East Bloc order of things for Central Europe in much the same way as the Lada is synonymous with the Soviet Union...

To buy one, families had to join a waiting list and had to wait an average of nine years before finally getting them (in many cases the Communist State had fallen before they had been received!!!).

They were noisy, unreliable and heavy polluters but they were easy to maintain and fix and even made of plastic!

I remember hearing a rumour that there were some amphibious models produced as well... ;-)

Fondest Memory: A Trabi joke:

A Texas oil man heard that there were cars in East Germany so popular that buyers had to wait years to take delivery of one. He immediately sent a check to the Trabi factory.

The directors, sensing a propaganda coup in the making, arranged to send him the very next car off the line.

Two weeks later the oil man was in a bar, speaking with some friends.

"Ah ordered me one o' them Trabis them folks over there in East Germany wait 12 years to get", he drawled.

"And you know what? Them East Germans are so efficient. Whah, just last week they sent me over a little plastic model so I can know what to expect!"

:-D

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Favorite Thing: OK, a somewhat strange tip but then I was so taken aback by the condition of public toilets in Prague that I simpy had to post this tip!!! Indeed, I am so moved (so to speak!) to write this tip that I may make commentaries of the state of public toilets for all my pages... ;-)

Now, I'm not sure what I was expecting being that I was visiting a former East Bloc state that is relatively poorer than rich western countries - but Prague was a relieving revelation, shall we say... ;-)

Public toilets or WC's are everywhere in Prague - I mean you can't walk more than a few hundred metres before yet another one!

They are also almost always free even in the major tourist areas - the noteable exception is by the Kinsky Palace in the Old Square charging 7 crowns.

But, above all, they are almost uniformly clean and well maintained with plenty of loo paper and lockable doors, which is important when I consider some of the places I have visited in the world where none of the above is routine like - shockingly - Italy for example, where many of whose public toilets are little better than the worst that the 3rd World has to offer!

10/10 Prague!


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Favorite Thing: Although Prague is a former Communist state still suffering terribly from the effects of pollution from that era, Prague is still making impressive efforts in turning tha legacy around...

In fact one could say that this former East Bloc environmental bad boy is putting countries like the US and UK to shame.

Fondest Memory: It felt good throwing my plastic bottle away to be recycled. :-)

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