Vienna & Prague Travel Tips

some nice tips on this thread. any Prague updates? good restaurants / clubs / essential sights? we're going in mid-april ....

Make a dinner reservation at the U Modré kachničky (At the Blue Duckling). I have only been to the original in Staré Město; apparently there is a second one now.

See Kafka's house in Golden Lane

http://www.johnbowman.btinternet.co.uk/eastern_europe_photos/prague_8.JPG

Have a drink at the piano bar in the Hotel Pariz (Hotel Paris), U Obecniho domu 1, a stunning example of high Art Nouveau

http://www.heritage-trails.cz/images/internal/admin/stranky/art_nouveau.jpg

Dress warmly! It's cold. Maybe you'll even need a scarf.

thanks!! great photos

Go for the basic Prague castle tour, you don't need to see everything in the castle complex. There's a great museum of miniatures around there somewhere too.

going to mass at st. vitus cathedral is a great experience.

when i was there ages ago, we would go to a really fun 60s czech pop night. a quick google to see if anything similar exists today turned up this person's tribute to the music of that period:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=200310138

oh ha. i went to the 60s czech pop night a couple times when i was there too! lots of fun crazy dancing.

i remember the event was called pisnicka, but what was that nightclub called?? it was right off vaclavske namesti...

i can't remember the name either...i do vividly remember being dragged onto the dancefloor by a guy with a multi-colored rattail. i was the envy of all of my friends, obviously.

how do you people remember this stuff?! i was there two years ago and could not for the life of me tell you the name of a single place i went to! the place is so cheap that me and my friend would just walk into any nice looking restaurant and eat/drink like gods! some of the best french cuisine i've had was in prague - but again, can't give you a name, sorry.

if you've got a few days there go to the town of Kutna Hora (about 45 minute train ride east of prague) and see the Ossuary.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/106754372_24be22406f_o.jpg

xpost - ok, so i guess i'm not the only one with trouble remembering stuff.

i went in college and my memories of place names/language are very spotty. also a pint of wonderful beer costs a quarter which didn't help.

ya - i don't think i drank water the entire time i was there.
just pilsner.

and some absinthe.

in addition to kutna hora, cesky krumlov is worth visiting if you've got the time. among other things, the egon schiele center is there. podebrady is a beautiful spa town that's only about an hour from prague.

Things I remember:

The Café de Paris.
The American Bar in the Municipal House.
Pig knuckle at the above mentioned Olympia.
Le Château bar (w/pinball!)
Coming out of a synagogue and seeing a Chinese restaurant across the street. My Jewish gf saying, "Coincidence? I think not."

I just read in an Otto Preminger bio that the Danube is in fact GRAY, and you have to go out of your way in Vienna to see it.

when i was there ages ago, we would go to a really fun 60s czech pop night.

I was wondering if that was still going! sounded fun. and we'll be there on a Tuesday. the club is called Lucerna but the guidebook I have that lists it is from 2002 (someone lent it to me ... the newer guide I have doesn't mention it).

looks like the bar at least still exists

http://musicbar.iquest.cz/wwwroot/

thanks for all the tips everyone, really appreciate it

wow Caribou played there on March 3

ha ha! i just saw them a few days ago!

lol grime in the house

#
14.04. Po
WILEY (uk) + DJ Logan Sama

looks like the 60s pop thing might not be going anymore, Tuesdays are listed with shows just like any other night

right, lucerna!

if you happen to visit the bontonland megastore (or someplace similar), i would gladly reimburse you for czech 60s comps.

ok I'll keep an eye out! definitely will do some record shopping at some point.

You should definitely check this place out: http://www.baracnickarychta.cz/en
It's a bit hard to find, hidden away in tiny alleyway in Mala Strana but def. worth it

Check out also what's happening at Palac Akropolis. I wouldn't bother with Lucerna though.

I will be going back to Prague on thursday myself. Exciting!

cool we're staying in mala strana so there's a good chance we could try to hunt down that place you mentioned

any other tips for Vienna? i'm going in a few days.

in 1995, i went to the restaurant that dan selzer describes wayyyy upthread... i think i had exotic poultry though.

but i really liked the žižkov neighborhood in prague for drinking. at least at the time, it was much less overrun with american college students than old town. there is an amazing communist era tv tower around there.

The TV Tower is awesome. I saw it only from a distance but my understanding is you can actually go up into it and have lunch at some sort of restaurant? I imagine it's pricy but hey, it's vacation.

Not very far away at all is a really really nice Jože Plečnik church with a see-through clock tower and really nice brickwork:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1398/1036139048_9187dbcdeb.jpg

The can't-miss thing in town for me as an architecture student was the Villa Muller by Adolf Loos, which has one of the most astonishing interiors you'll ever experience. Unfortunately it's a no-photos place so I don't have any shots of the good rooms, and apparently neither does Google Image Search.

In general I found Prague to be congested, hot, and airless, but I was there in the Summer. The old city fabric is really cool to experience, but after a while being cooped up in it, breathing Diesel fumes and American hamburger vapors, you can start to sympathize with the modernist wish to bulldoze everything and start over. Ugh.

Vienna is pretty damn nice in my opinion. GREAT museums, whether you like the Old Masters or 20th century stuff. See what's on exhibit at the various museums of the Museumquartiere (mostly newer stuff), and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Old Masters GALORE, although generally badly-lit), the Albertina, and the Upper Belvedere. Really, if you love easel painting you can't be disappointed.

If you are, like me, an architecture person, there's just tons to see. The Steinhof Church is a bit of a commute, and be sure to arrange your visit in advance, but it's recently restored and a just GORGEOUS piece of Jugendstil (the Germanic Art Nouveau - more or less).

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1377/1072841699_f993893804.jpg

The exuberant hippie goofiness of the Hundertwasser House is not for everybody - but I believe it's actually the most-visited building in Vienna? Supposedly? I love it, much to the mockery of my classmates and teachers:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1078/1074205574_c3237f9200.jpg

If you are architecturally-minded you might also enjoy the rest of my photos and commentary from this trip...shameless plug, I know.

i might be going ot czech in july as the guest of a film fest!!! SOOOOOO hope it works out

Ah you're going to the Karlovy Vary festival then? I'm thinking of going.

yes!!

I in Vienna next week. Tell me things.

what do you want to know? food? sights? record shopping?

i'll tell you to watch your wallet like a hawk on the underground. aside from that i found vienna pretty great just to walk around without much of a plan.

Yeah, be on your guard, it's a bit seedy round the edges. I wasn't a huge fan of Vienna actually, though Darragh's suggestion is a good one. I spent a day getting totally lost vaguely looking for the Third Man ferris wheel, which was the most fun I had there I think.

exactly my experience, went looking for the irish embassy after wallet was lifted, got lost and had a lovely day wandering into small squares and around the monuments without any real plans.

I think sights. I am going for the Viennale, which I think takes places mostly around the Ring and won't have an excess of free time, but I'd like to see the city. I have never been to Vienna before.

vienna rox

make sure you spend some time hanging out in cafes and drinking a keine schwarze, an espresso that comes on a silver tray with a glass of water and a biscuit.

PS adam do you still want me to make that connection 4 u?

kleiner

'keine schwarze' = daaamn

Yes s1ocki! - hook me up if the dates work out. I'm only there from the 21st through 24th.

i have this idea to go from heidelberg to prague, i.e. retracing the steps of frederick v's ill-fated trip to become the winter king of bohemia in 1619

does anyone have any experience of the trains in germany that would work to do this? heidelberg --> frankfurt --> nurnberg --> prague? (i doubt this was his route but it may need to be mine)

or i may rent a car actually

ok prague! after a short flight filled with drunken stag bros in in ya area

I'M in

(and writing on my phone)

Tangentially related to the thread title, we will be traveling from Berlin to Prague close to the new year (like, literally, very end of December of something). Have any of you made that trip? Did you take a train? I think we're trying to decide between train (as a family) or hiring a private car/guide, which I've had recommended, since you could stop at sights along the way. But given it's a 4+ hour train ride by itself, I'm not sure how interested I am in adding hours to the trip just to squeeze in a few more detours.

without being smart: how badly dyou want to see any of the relevant sights between the two places?

personally if i wanted to see the parts in between id drive myself and maybe pick an overnight spot to stay but the drive itself probably wouldnt be much longer than five hours anyway, but start by thinking about what you want to see

generally if the priority is just getting point to point, hard to beat trains in mainland europe. book early for best prices.

"and this marks the spot where the Imperial general Tilly was defeated by the combined forces of Gustavus Adolphus and John George of Saxony in 1631"

"that... lump of metal?"

"thats right"

xpost I think my answer is "not badly," but at the same time we're kinda humoring a "well, we're in the neighborhood ..." mindset. I'm leaning toward train, though, since if we wanted to see more of Germany this trip we would have just taken a trip to Germany.

Got a recommendation for a reliable train booking site/service? I've come across several, and the prices (and online interfaces) are all over the place. I read somewhere that booking via a Czech site is cheaper than booking via a German site, but don't know if that's true.

honestly id go through deutsche ban and not complicate it if it were me

I always took trains there, not sure how much there is of note on the route TBH. There's a castle on a hill at Ústí nad Labem, and then of course there's Dresden.

It was always easy to book tickets on the day from the station.

Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), the old fancy Imperial baths, is on the way. Dresden is amazing, you need a couple days for it at least so if you are pressed for time put it on a list for for the future. There's nice scenery along the Elbe south of Dresden too.

Karlovy Vary is a bit out of the way and the train doesn't stop there

https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/berlin-to-prague-by-train.htm

loads to see in northern Bohemia though, if you're driving.

I think Dresden was fore of mind, but yeah, seems like something better saved for a future trip.

Because we'll be traveling as a family, I'm not comfortable waiting to book day-of train tickets. I'm leaning toward four first class seats, so that we're all guaranteed a spot together. I do hear the views from the train are lovely, which I assume will still be true in winter.

xpost That site is great, thanks!

to note im not sure first class would be at all required to get seats together

I think you may be right, depends on the train.

here to save you money and time

fwiw I didn’t think too much of the “old town” in Prague. largely filled with Thai massage parlours and semi-precious gemstone merchants.

the Palace is totally worth seeing imo.

I had a lot of fun just wandering around this long park that looks over the city. it’s called Letna Park. when it’s nice out people meet each other there with blankets and picnics. There’s also a place to buy beer and sausages, with long tables to sit at, if you haven’t brought any of that stuff. very chill vibes.

Barely went to the old town in my three+ years living in Prague, we called it "disneyland" - the roads off wenceslas square with the sports bars full of stag parties are much worse though.

Letna is nice, anywhere out of the centre with a beer garden is my paradise, guess Riegrovy Sady is my favourite as it's next to Zizkov.

We'll be there as a family (high school and college-aged kids) for I think just two nights. We got a dirt cheap flight from Chicago to Amsterdam, returning via Prague. So we spend three nights in Amsterdam (where we've never been), three in Berlin (where my wife lived as a teen back before the wall came down; she's never been back), and two in Prague. We're pretty much playing full-on tourist, given our limited time, but we're open to suggestions! This is around Christmas until the very beginning of January.

I went to Prague in January 2005 and and avoided the crowds. Old Town then didn't look too tourist trappy to me. My parents-in-law went in early 1990 and I'm envious, though they had a hard time finding restaurants--soe were kind of semi-legal with unmarked doors.

Also it was cold and snowy so it added to the atmosphere.

Yeah it's magic when it snows. To be fair to the old town there are plenty of very nice cafes, though many are hidden away down side streets.

Do any of you have a recommendation for where we should stay? Assume we'll be taking the train in from Berlin, then spending two nights in Prague. No car, older teens, just going because none of us have been. All we really know at this point is "castles" and "bridge."

(I used to have this mildly amusing Dave Barry travel book that reused the same generic city map with a river running through it for every city in Europe.)

all I know are the best party hostels, and even that information is nearly 20 years out of date.

But bearing that in mind, Žiżkov is the place to be, and if Ü Houdku on Bořivojova is still open, that's the best place to eat.

OK, 'nother question. We'll be there New Year's Eve, the four of us. Recommendations? I imagine it will be nuts, but not sure I/we (as a family) want nuts. There are restaurants, party boats (of various bents) ...

the historic central part near the bridge and wenceslaus square will be a BLOODBATH. unfortunately i don’t have great recommendations apart from avoiding those places on nye.

Every NYE I spent in Prague was messy/chaotic, not really a kid-friendly experience.

Ha, um, well ... we'll be there ! (Kids are teens, fwiw.)

Well to be honest there have been three phases in my NYE experience

Aged 0-18 = dull nights in with family
Aged 19-30 = chaotic, messy, generally horrible nights out
Aged 30-43 = dull nights in with family

If going out with teens is an option then I will consider it for future years