Travel diaries: Travel guide to Prague- Things to know, Best places to visit, shop and eat delicious vegan food

Hello there! As you probably know, due to my last blog post on how to plan the trip of your dreams, I’ve visited Prague and Berlin about 5 weeks ago. I’ve been to Prague for 3 days and the temperature was SO freezing- minus 18 degrees Celsius! Never in my life, I’ve experienced such a cold, but it was definitely part of the adventure. Since it was super cold, I couldn’t do everything that I planned on doing and had to minimize the amount of time/places I wanted to see. In this blog post, I wanna share with you all the places I liked to visit, shop and eat! Should we start with my Travel guide to Prague?

Things you need to know before visiting Prague

+ Prague’s public transport is well developed and you can easily go from one place to another using it. I suggest you buy daily tickets for all of the days of your trip at once, and just stamp each one on the day of use. It doesn’t matter when you buy a ticket as long as you don’t stamp it

+ When you buy a ticket, you need to stamp it on a machine inside the bus or on the platform. There are red or yellow machines that will allow you to stamp your ticket. When you stamp a ticket, the date and time will appear on it.

+You only need to stamp your card once and it will be available for the amount of time you’ve paid for that card.

+The ticket will allow you to use all the public transport options available inside Prague- teams, busses, trains, everything!

+Make sure you place your card correctly inside the machine. There’s a special place in the card in which the stamp needs to be in

+ I suggest you purchase your tickets at the airport because buying a public transport ticket is only available on Metro stations. If you’re stuck in a place where you cannot find a close metro, search for a store with the word “traffica” – it means that they sell a 30 minutes ticket there. Use it to go to the closest metro and buy your tickets there.

+Your daily ticket isn’t a 24-hour ticket- it expires at midnight.

+buy an O2 SIM card at the airport- it’s a bit cheaper there and this card has 5GB of data for a very affordable price. But the best part is that you can reuse this card again and again while using almost all European Union – this card will work in all of E.U countries, which is amazing.

+ Prague’s airport is a bit far from the center of Prague- about 40 minutes by car. I suggest that you’ll pay for a private transportation service with a private driver that will take you from the airport to your hotel- I personally paid for this service, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It is super affordable, saves time and stress. The driver I hired is working for Prague2go, and the owner of this company is such a nice guy! He has helped me with all my questions regarding Prague.

Must see

1. Charles bridge

Charles bridge is the most popular place in Prague- it’s crowded with so many tourists there all day long- and I can definitely understand why. It’s the perfect place to start your day in! Enjoy the beautiful Vltava river and the historical statutes this place has to offer, and if you come here early you might also see some interesting souvenir booths.

Tip: I suggest you come to Charles bridge as early as possible, so you will be able to enjoy this place at a time when it isn’t very busy and crowded.

2. St. Vitus Cathedral

Oh, this Cathedral! This is such a stunning place to see when in Prague- this architectural magic is just stunning, breathtaking and Instagram friendly (just saying!)

Tip: if you want to take the perfect picture with this Cathedral- ask your travel partner to lay on the floor when taking the picture. Not kidding! This angle is just perfect (thank me later!)

3. Petrin Hill

Take the unique train to Petrin Hill- it’s such a fun experience and you also get to see the beautiful view of Prague. In this hill, you’ll see all the beauty nature has to offer and also a tower named “Petrin tower”, that in a way resembles the famous Parisian Eiffel Tower.

Tips: +You don’t need to pay for the Petrin Train. your daily ticket is valid for this train as well as the other trains in Prague.

+ The train goes to and from the hill every 30 minutes, so make sure you arrive on time. For example- if you took the 10:00 train, make sure you come back to the train station on 10:30 or 11:00, so you won’t need to wait too long.

4. Wenceslas Square

This was one of my favorite places to hang out and have fun in. It’s a lovely square filled with both local and international stores, restaurants and cafés.

Tip: don’t skip the “where to shop” part of this blog post, you’ll find tons of places that are located in Wenceslas square right there.

5. Old town square (Staromestska square)

This square is filled with historical building and features various different architectural styles. From the magnificent Gothic church to the astronomical clock. Keep in mind that the astronomical clock is under renovation until this summer. St. Nicholas church and more. It’s also very close to PAŘÍŽSKÁ street. You can walk around and enjoy the people, beautiful architectures, and street performances.

Shopping time- best places for shopping

1.Nový Smíchov mall

I’ve been to the famous Palladium mall, but I must say I didn’t like it as much as this one. Novy Smichov mall is less crowded and has plenty of great stores (and even two vegan restaurants!). This mall is huge and inside you will find stores like DM, Stradivarius, Zara, New Yorker, Lush and many more. Since that mall is big, You’ll probably spend some time there so be prepared 🙂

2.Wenceslas Square

I have already mentioned this lovely square as a must-visit in this blog post, but apart from being a beautiful place, this square is filled with many incredible stores like Marks and Pencer, Sephora, Zara, H&M and other local stores.

3. DM (Drugstore)

DM, oh DM. this place is an actual heaven for vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics lovers! DM’s home brand is completely cruelty-free and offers a huge variety of vegan products, that are marked as vegan so it’s super easy to find them! Everything in DM is super affordable and the quality of their products is unbelievable. I highly recommend trying out products from Alvede and Lavera, they are, of course, cruelty-free, have tons of vegan options AND they are completely natural, a high plus for non-toxic beauty lovers like myself. Other amazing cruelty brands you can find there: Catrice, Essence, Trend It Up, Balea, and NYX.

Let me know in the comments if you’d want me to review makeup and skincare products that I love from DM 🙂

Tips:

+ Make a list of the things you want to buy in DM before you visit there. Their website is super helpful and the vegan products are marked as ones on their website as well! you can find the list of vegan products here

+ I highly recommend you to try out DM’s vegan food and snacks. I really like the vegan bounty and the Aubergine spread.

Where to eat- vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants in Prague

Since the weather was so cold, I didn’t have the chance to explore and go to many vegan places. But- I’ve been to one vegan restaurant and one vegan-friendly places, and here they are

1) Loving Hut

Loving Hut is a large restaurant chain in Prague, and it’s so good! I’ve eaten there twice and really enjoyed both the buffet and the menu. I highly recommend trying the burger and fries dish- it’s very delicious.

2) Dhaba Beas, Old town Square

there’s an amazing, Indian and vegan-friendly restaurant in the old town square named Dhaba Beas– you should definitively visit there. It’s an Indian style buffet so the price is super affordable and the food is special and delicious. The vegan options are marked as with a vegan logo. The food there is so good and unique. Sometimes Indian restaurants can be a bit lacking, but when it comes to this place- it’s the opposite!

3) Country life

This is the first place I visited on my trip to Prague.  the Country Life is a health food shop located in Wenceslas Square area, that offers a vegan buffet.The food there is changing daily, but when I visited there the food was very nice and reasonably priced. They offer tons of vegan groceries there as well so you might want to check it out if you’re around this area.

Where to stay- Super affordable, vegan-friendly hotel in Prague

Ostrůvek hotel

I didn’t know what to expect from a hotel at this price, but my mind was blown when I arrived. I entered my room which was super nice and contained everything that I needed and more. Comfy bed, two tables, clean bathroom and a nice bath, tiny refrigerator, and a closet- At 15$ a night (30$/2 people) including vegan breakfast (they offer two yummy jam spreads and bread, tea and fruits that are all-vegan) this hotel was so worth it. There is always someone in the lobby, the hotel is super quiet and is located near a beautiful river and there’s a bus station nearby named Otakarova. I really enjoyed it and cannot recommend it more. I placed my order for this hotel via Booking.com

Interested in booking a hotel in Prague or any other place in the world?   I highly recommend you to book your hotel with Booking.com by clicking here

want to learn how to plan the best trip ever? >> click here

For my ultimate packing guide (+packing list) click here

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and learned new things regarding Prague.

Let me know if you plan on going there anytime soon and if you have any tips to share!

See you next time,

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Warmest,

Noa