Mid-range · 12-hour walk · Prague
Prague in a day: bridge, castle and Old Town
Charles Bridge before breakfast, the castle while it is fresh, the Jewish Quarter and the Old Town square in the afternoon, communism in a museum, Letná at sunset and a boat under the bridge.
Prague's centre is a morning problem: by ten the bridge is a slow-moving crowd and the castle is a queue. So start on the bridge at dawn and climb to the castle as it opens, then come down to the Old Town for the afternoon, when the groups move across the river the other way. End on Letná, the park above the river with the best view of the bridges in the city and a beer garden to watch them from, and then go under them by boat.
The route, stop by stop
-
Charles Bridge
Six and a half centuries old and thirty statues long. At seven in the morning it is yours; at eleven it belongs to everybody.
-
Malostranské náměstí
Up the far side into the Lesser Town, where the green dome and bell tower of St Nicholas dominate the square. The baroque interior is the finest in the city.
30 min here Walk here → -
Prague Castle
Up Nerudova to the largest ancient castle complex in the world. St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace and Golden Lane are on one ticket; find the Mucha window in the cathedral.
-
Jewish Quarter (Josefov)
Down the Old Castle Steps and over Mánes Bridge. Six synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery, where some twelve thousand gravestones crowd a single walled plot. Closed on Saturdays.
-
Old Town Square & the Astronomical Clock
The clock performs on the hour — the apostles at the windows, Death ringing his bell — for under a minute. Climb the town hall tower instead of joining the crowd below it, then find lunch in the lanes off the square.
-
Museum of Communism
Forty years of Czechoslovak communism told through what it felt like: the shop with nothing on the shelves, the classroom, the interrogation room, and the footage of 1989.
-
Letná Park
Across the river and up the steps to the plinth of the old Stalin monument, now topped by a giant metronome, then along the terrace to the beer garden for the bridges stacked one behind another at sunset.
60 min here Walk here → -
Vltava River Cruise
Down to the embankment for an evening boat under Charles Bridge with the castle lit above it. The dinner cruises are overpriced; the hour-long sightseeing ones are not.
More in Prague
Every walking route in Prague, or the full Prague guide for where to stay and what a day costs.