Feel like you own the place! and other Prague, Czech Republic Hotel/Accommodation Reviews

There's no two ways about it - when you first get dropped off outside these apartments, the street looks a bit - well, dodgy.

Once inside, however, you have three great apartments to choose from. The largest has a small kitchen, two double rooms, leather sofas in the lounge, and even two toilets.

Right outside is a tram stop. One tram will drop you off at the top of Wenceslas Square, the other will take you through the centre and all the way across to the other side of the river. There are also a few local pubs, which are light years away from the tourist oriented places in the centre!

Unique Qualities: What's great about these Belehradska apartments is they look and feel like the kind of place you might want to rent if you lived in the city.

They have parquet flooring, central heating, huge windows, high ceilings and double doors. You can live in a cool apartment for not very much at all. Superb.

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Theme: Pension/Guesthouse
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$20  » Currency Converter
Address: www.b35.cz
Directions: Vinorady. The 11 tram will take you all the way to Belehradska, and drop you a few feet from the door.
Website: www.b35.cz

Let's face it, some budget hostels are pretty shocking, and when we pitched up in Prague with nowhere to stay and only a couple of options, I feared the worst.

However, Klub Habitat is a neat, efficiently run little hostel in a great Nove Mesto location (two minutes from the river, five from Narodni Trida) with new, clean beds and sparkling facilties. The friendliness from reception depends how far they are into their shift, and although the non-smoking dining area is smart, it could do with more booze, cigarettes and music to give it a bit more atmosphere.

Unique Qualities: It's reasonably cheap, and included in the price is breakfast and free twenty minutes on the net each day. However, late at night and early in the morning, this twenty minute rule is happily ignored, so you can tap away until your heart's content.

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Theme: Hostel
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 654 12 052
Address: Na Zderaze 10, NovÈ Mesto, Prague, Hlavni Mesto P
Directions: Take the yellow line to Karlovo Namesti and walk down the hill to the river. Soon you'll see Na Zderaze on your right.

It's extremely rare - if not unique - that checking into a hostel actually IMPROVES your standard of living, but that's what seems to happen when you stay at Sir Toby's.

Situated in a newly refurbished house in Holesovice, Toby's looks and feels so gorgeous that you're almost tempted to make yourself a permanent resident. And something's wrong when a hostel has a kitchen better than my parent's back home, but the plus side of that is you're really encouraged to get down to some decent home cooking and save your Korunny for more important things like beer.

There's fast internet connection, a cellar bar and chapel, a beautiful garden and sweet little touches like vases of fresh daisies on the stairs. The receptionists are on the whole genuinely friendly, and their laid-back and kindly attitude seems to rub off on the guests.

It's a bit of a hike from the centre, but it's in a peaceful neighbourhood and the tram connections are good, so it hardly matters.

In all, Sir Toby's makes up for all the crappy, decrepit and downright creepy hostels you may have stayed in in the past.

Unique Qualities: There is, however, a downside. Rules. Rules, rules everywhere. Everytime you visit a new section of the hostel, or open a kitchen drawer, there's a new list of rules to read before you proceed. You almost can't go to the bathroom without reading a ten point list of Sir Toby's etiquette on how to use it.

The rules proliferate the hostel from top to bottom, from the cellar bar where you can drink but can't smoke (In Czech Republic? Are you joking?) to the several categories of lockers, to my favourite, the balconies.

The rule for the balconies is after ten pm, only one person is allowed on the balcony at one time - and when they're out there, they're not allowed to talk, presumably to themselves.

It's a shame. The otherwise perfect hostel is marred slightly by this incessant goody-goody nitpicking. There's no rough edges, and I hate to say it, paradise is a little boring!

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Theme: Hostel
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$20  » Currency Converter
Address: Delnicka 24, , Prague, Hlavni Mesto Praha 4
Directions: If you can make your way to Karlovo Namesti (Yellow Line), a number 3 tram runs straight through to Delnicka stop.