Czech Republic

Top destinations in Czech Republic

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Currency and money

The Czech currency is the Koruna, which means crown and is usually abbreviated to Kc. Each Koruna is divided into 100 haleru, although in Prague particularly you will rarely see anything smaller than a Koruna. As a rule of thumb the exchange rates as at December 2005 are as follows:

• 1 Euro = 30Kc
• 1 Pound Sterling = 40Kc
• 1 US Dollar = 25Kc
• 1 Canadian Dollar = 20Kc
• 1 Australian Dollar = 20Kc

Notes and coins come in a wide variety of denominations, with quite large notes in popular use. This is worth bearing in mind when getting cash from a cash machine, as if you ask for 2000Kc they will happily issue a single 2000Kc note. 2000Kc will pay for rather a lot of stuff in the Czech Republic, and if you try and use this note to pay for anything costing less than about 200Kc you will be very unpopular indeed. It is a good idea to ask for slightly less than what you want - for example 1800Kc. The machine will then be forced to issue you with a range of smaller notes.

Exchanging money.

Prague, and other major towns have a large number of currency exchanges located around main streets and stations which tend to offer a better exchange rate and lower charges than banks - feel free to shop around for the best rate. It is quite common for people to offer to exchange money in the street in Prague. Needless to say, this is an obvious con and you will end up penniless and possibly arrested.

ATMs

. Cash machines are located almost exclusively at banks, of which there will be several in a town of any size. They do not make a charge for withdrawals in addition to the charge made by your card issuer. The usual range of Mastercard, Visa, Maestro and Plus cards are accepted.

Travellers Cheques

. There is little point in getting travellers cheques in Koruna, as they are not generally accepted for payment. Cheques in other currencies can be exchanged at banks and exchange offices, though the comission is usually much higher than for cash, and the rate may be worse as well.

Credit Cards

. Credit cards are widely accepted for reasonably large sums at restaurants, shops and hotels. They are not usually accepted at hostels, and can only be used to pay for international train travel.

Arriving by Plane.

The main airport in the Czech Republic is Prague. This is situated approximately 10km from the City Centre, and is accessible via a regular bus service and short metro ride (see the section on public transport in Prague for details of this). This airport has both normal and economy flights from all over Europe, and to a limited extent the rest of the world. The national airline CSA offer suprisingly reasonable flights to many capitals and regional airports in Europe. In addition Smartwings is a budget airline based at Prague airport which flies to a dozen European capitals. A number of budget airlines based in other countries run flights to Prague, particularly Easyjet from various European hubs, Jet 2 from Leeds and Manchester in the UK, and Fly Globespan from Scotland.

Arriving By Train.

Several international routes run through the Czech republic. The most important of these are the following

• Prague is on the main route for the Eurocity trains from Hamburg and Berlin in Germany to Bratislava in Slovakia and Budapest in Hungary. Prague is approximately 5 hours from Berlin and Bratislava on this train, and 7 hours from Budapest. Breclav, at the other end of the country is 9 hours from Berlin and 1 hour from Bratislava.
• Cesky Draahy (the Czech national railway company), run trains from Prague via Cesky Budevice (Budvar in German), and via Breclav in the east of the country to Vienna several time a day. It is possible to save some money on this journey by catching a local train from Vienna to Breclav, and then buying a ticket for the EC trains from here to Prague.
• PKP the Polish national railway run a daily train from Budapest to Katowice and Warsaw which calls at Breclav in the east of the Czech republic
• A Euronight service runs from Prague to Krakow in the south of Poland
. This train has an extremely bad reputation for theft.

Many international trains to Prague only run to Holesovice station, 3 metro stops to the north of Prague Hlavni Nadrazi (central station). The best place to get timetable and price information about these trains is the Deutsche Bahn website.

Arriving By Coach.

Eurolines run coaches to the Czech republic from various locations in Europe.

Getting around by public transport

Public transport in the Czech republic is almost entirely run by the state, and is fairly well integrated. The best place to get information about times and fares for all modes of transport is IDOS - which runs an integrated public transport planning website for the country.

Trains.

The Czech republic's rail network is much the same as rail networks throughout Eastern Europe. They are cheap, especially for groups of 2 or more people travelling together. They are not quick however - the route from Prague to Breclav is the only really fast line in the whole country, and they generally lack facilities such as buffet cars. They can also be pretty uncomfortable in second class, and the quality of small local trains is extremely bad. Here are some tips on how to get the best out of the train service:

• Some routes, such as Prague to Cesky Krumlov are better done by bus because the route by train is quite indirect, meaning that it takes longer, and because prices are calculated by the distance travelled, may actually be more expensive.
• Lists of departures and arrivals are posted at every station. You are likely to need to refer to these as few staff apart from those at international counters speak english. Departures are listed in yellow.
• Ask for your tickets together - a single ticket will be issued for a group. A group of 4 will pay about the same as 2 people travelling separately

Coaches.

The Czech Republic is a fairly small country, so journeys tend to be quite short. Because of this, and because the train service leaves rather a lot to be desired, buses are an important mode of travel in the Czech republic. They are generally fairly basic coaches, so they are not particularly comfortable in themselves. Apart from at major bus stations such as Prague you pay the driver when you board the bus. You must pay extra if you are carrying luggage. Buses generally leave from Florenc (pronounced Florents) bus station in Prague, but buses returning to the cty will stop at one of three different bus stations at the ends of the various Metro lines. You will then need to catch the metro into the centre. See the section on public transport in Prague for details of this.

Post

Stamps can be bought from Post Offices and various corner stores. Costs are probably the lowest in Europe - as at December 2005, costs for a standard letter up to 20g are:

• 9Kc for standard delivery (generally next-day) within the Czech Republic.
• 9Kc for delivery within Europe.
• 9Kc for surface mail to the rest of the world.
• 14Kc (12Kc for less than 10g) for airmail to the rest of the world.

Up to date prices, and full details are available from Ceska Posta

Hostels

The Czech Republic has a large number of excellent hostels. Prague specializes in party hostels, where a cheap bar and crowds of backpackers and weekenders will ensure that you have better things to do than sleep for as long as you are there. There are however quieter more relaxed hostels where even in Prague you can have a quiet chat with some interesting characters and be fairly sure of a good night's sleep. Apart from one or two party hostels in tourist centres such as Brno and Cesky Krumlov, most hostels outside of Prague are of the more relaxed kind - places where you can spend a quiet week watching the world outside doing not-very-much, while you yourself do absolutely nothing but enjoy some beers and hopefully some like-minded company. Even the local Hostelling International affiliate (the czech Youth Hostelling Association seems to consist of a loose affiliation of relaxed well-run hostels, rather than the huge regimented institutions full of school parties you find in HI hostels elsewhere in Europe.

Self-catering

Most hostels in the Czech republic have some kind of kitchen which can be used to prepare food. Large supermarkets such as Tesco exist in most towns, and have a reasonable range of produce, though as this is not an expensive country it is usually perfectly reasonable to shop in any corner shop. A good selection of bread, meat, cheese, fish and dried goods such as pasta is available. Fruit and vegetables are fairly seasonal however, and in winter may be restricted to frozen spinach and pickled gherkins, with potatoes, onions and few very sorry-looking items such as green peppers lingering in the corner. This is fine for a while, but vegetarians in particular are likely to find they get quite bored after a week.

Cheap eats

In the Czech Republic all eats are cheap eats! This is of course not quite true, and certainly doesn't apply in the centre of Prague, but in general you shouldn't need to look at the menus outside of more than one or two restaurants to find somewhere within your price range.

Restaurants

Most meals in Czech restaurants appear to be based around pork. This can be prepared in many different ways, but here it only seems to be in the form of sznitzel or cutlet. If you are feeling adventurous you could try trout, or take a vegetarian option, which will almost certainly be made from cheese. These will be served with some form of potato (brambory) or dumplings, and should you so desire you can order a side dish of vegetables. Occasionally there will be some kind of pasta option, and it is not impossible to find chicken and veal. If your dumplings have been covered with something suspiciously sweet then congratulations - you have discovered dessert! Most people will probably be quite happy with this for a few days, after which they will hanker for more international foods. Happily, anywhere that has any number of tourists will also have a selection of restaurants serving anyting from pizza to sushi.

Practicalities

• Outside of Prague you will most restaurants quite reasonably priced.
• A small amount (less than 10%), or rounding up the change is an acceptable tip for a meal. If you slavishly tip 15% the serving staff will probably not think any the less of you, but everybody else will think you are a flash idiot.
• People eat fairly early here compared to other parts of Europe. Off the beaten track, and particularly on Sundays, you will find your options are severely reduced after 8 or 9 pm.