On the morning of our first full day in Prague, we shake off our jet lag and hustle by foot to the city center to meet up with our tour guide. Sandeman’s New Europe tours take place in many cities across Europe and are completely free. The tour lasts three hours and, in my experience, the tour guides are friendly, knowledgeable, and engaging.

We missed the start of the tour, but after running up to another guide, she was able to point us in the right direction for us to catch up. The tour took us through major landmarks of the Old City: the Astronomical Clock and the Old Towne Square; Church of Our Lady Before Tyn; view of Prague Castle; the old Jewish Quarter and Jewish Cemetery and more. Prague has a fascinating history, the the guide covers the Bohemian history, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nazi occupation and WWII, the Velvet Revolution and fall of communism and Soviet influence. The tour was incredibly interesting, and a great introduction to both the history of Prague and beautiful sites around the City. A great day one activity!

Petřín Gardens

The area of Petrin Hill is basically a massive park full of gardens. You’ve got the Seminary Garden, the Rose Garden, Kinksy Garden, and more. An outdoorsy nature-lover could spend a whole day wandering here (and we about did). To top it off, there is the Strahov Monastery and BREWERY. Beautiful park, and I also get to drink delicious beer outside? Am I in Heaven?

After enjoying your beer, you can also walk around the grounds and inside of Strahov Monastery, which is also pretty incredible. You’ll have to snag one of the handouts to read about the artwork and displays in English, as the signs in side are in Czech.

In addition to enjoying the nature throughout these many gardens, you’ll also be heading up a steep hillside, so don’t forget to look around to get the occasional stunning view of the whole city (and wear comfy shoes).

I couldn’t choose just one picture of this area, so… here are several.

Speaking of the beautiful outdoors and beer, this brings me to Letna Park and the beer garden.  Overlooking the river and the city, this outdoor beer garden is lively with tourists and locals alike. The whole park is worth enjoying, too; you’ll see other tourists but mostly locals with their dogs.

Prague Castle

In the evenings, admission into the Prague Castle grounds is discounted, and definitely the way to go. For my wife and I though, we spent most of our time exploring the Royal Gardens. There are tram routes, but if you want to walk to the castle, prepare to get a good workout and enjoy some spectacular views! Here is one from the walk up to the castle.

Better than Prague Castle is Vyšehrad, Prague’s “other” castle.

Vyšehrad has large grounds that are lovely to explore, especially in the fall. If you luck out with good weather like we did, you may spent all day in the area! From the top of the fortress wall, we enjoyed breathtaking views of the city, and it is totally free to explore the grounds.

We did pay a small fee to explore the hidden passageways and underground corridors, complete with a huge underground hall with monuments (how did they get those in there?!) – I believe it was about $3 per person, and the tour lasted around 45 minutes. Pretty cool to see, as this fortress dates back to the 10th century.

The Food

One of Prague’s signature dishes, Svíčková was the most incredible meal… one which I probably had, in some version, nearly each day. The vegetable cream sauce was always a little different, and the quality of the beef and bread dumplings (knedlíky) varied slightly, but from the large, crowded restaurants to the small, dark pubs- it was always damn delicious. The creamy vegetable sauce was always the best part, and as I’m writing this I’m drooling and determined to find some in the States as soon as possible.

Prague Lez-Travel Rating:

As I wrote in “Color of Prague”: Two rainbows. Though, our experience did vary based on location we were in. We did a beer crawl in the Vinohrady neighborhood, a younger, hip, and not too touristy area, which probably would have earned three rainbows. In general, we’ll go with two. The only funny looks we got were, I believe, from other tourists (of course from the guy in the Bama hoodie), but we didn’t see much example of gay pride or gay culture.