Hotels
Hotels in Prague: nine places to stay on both banks of the river
At seven in the morning you share Charles Bridge with a street sweeper and two photographers. By eleven you cannot walk in a straight line. Prague is a city where timing and address decide everything, which is why we start with the districts rather than the star ratings.
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Prague is small enough to walk everywhere and popular enough for that to be a problem. From eleven until six the lanes between Old Town Square and Charles Bridge are thick with groups, and you quickly see why people who have been before talk about the mornings. The hotel you pick decides whether you get them. Stay within ten minutes' walk of the bridge and you can be out before the coaches, eat breakfast as they arrive, and retreat to a quiet room in the middle of the day.
The Vltava splits the city in two. On the east bank are Staré Město, the Old Town, and Nové Město, the New Town, with Wenceslas Square and most of the shopping and nightlife. On the west bank is Malá Strana, the Lesser Town, with the castle above it and steep, quiet streets running down to the bridge. Further east is Vinohrady, where the locals live, with parks and cafés. We have chosen nine hotels across all four, from modern mid-range to converted monasteries, and we say who each one is not for.
Short answer: where to stay in Prague
Stay in Malá Strana if you want quiet, the castle overhead and Charles Bridge before the crowds. Choose the Old Town for a first visit when you want everything on foot and can live with the bustle of the day. The New Town gives you more room for your money and better restaurants, while Vinohrady suits anyone who wants a real neighbourhood and a short tram ride in.
Best for romance: Aria Hotel Prague
Best for first-timers: Hotel Residence Agnes
Best for value: BoHo Prague Hotel
Best for design: Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel
How to choose a hotel in Prague
Pick your side of the river first: Malá Strana is quiet and beautiful, but steep and short on late-night restaurants. The Old Town and New Town have everything, noise included. Decide what you want after ten at night.
Cobbles and stairs come with the territory: Prague is not flat, and many of the loveliest hotels occupy old buildings with staircases. If you travel with a wheeled case or tired knees, ask about the lift before you book.
The centre is smaller than you think: Wenceslas Square to Charles Bridge is a ten-minute walk. A hotel described as slightly outside, in Vinohrady, is still a quarter of an hour by tram from almost everything.
Avoid the stag-party streets: Parts of the Old Town around Dlouhá and a few streets in the New Town are loud on Friday and Saturday nights. The hotels in this guide sit away from them, but check the street name if you look elsewhere.
Breakfast is often included, and often good: Czech hotels take breakfast seriously. When it is in the rate, it is a real plus here, unlike in many other European cities.
Four Seasons Hotel Prague
Charles Bridge, the river and the castle in one frame from the riverbank.
Staré Město: the Old Town, with everything around you
The Old Town is a web of narrow lanes between Old Town Square with its astronomical clock, Charles Bridge and the river. It is where everyone wants to be, and in the middle of the day you can tell. Yet a corner away from the busiest lanes there are quiet blocks, and the hotels we have chosen sit in them.
Four Seasons Hotel Prague: Charles Bridge from the breakfast table
The hotel sits right on the riverbank, a couple of minutes north of Charles Bridge, and the view carries it: from the restaurant and the best rooms you see the bridge, the river and the castle in a single frame. The building is pieced together from several old houses and a newer wing, so the rooms range in style from baroque to contemporary.
You stay for the view and to have the whole Old Town around you without hearing it. The service is at the level the name suggests, and the price is the highest in this guide. It is a good fit for a big occasion. It is less suited to anyone who wants a neighbourhood feel or thinks a hotel should be smaller than a city block.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Four Seasons Hotel Prague
Ventana Hotel Prague
Celetná, with Old Town Square round the corner.
Ventana Hotel Prague: a stone's throw from the astronomical clock
Ventana is on Celetná, the street that runs from Old Town Square towards the Powder Tower, so close to the square that you hear the clock chime from your room. The hotel is small, decorated in warm colours with tall windows, and has a library lounge where you can sit with a book while the street outside is at its busiest.
This is the choice for anyone who wants to stay in the middle of the historic centre and make full use of the early mornings. Rooms are peaceful for the location, especially those facing the courtyard. Celetná is one of the most visited streets in the city, so if you dislike crowds, choose Malá Strana instead.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Ventana Hotel Prague
Hotel Residence Agnes
The courtyard at the Agnes, in the quietest part of the Old Town.
Hotel Residence Agnes: the quiet corner of the Old Town
Haštalská is a small street in the northern, calmest part of the Old Town, by the old Convent of St Agnes. The hotel occupies an old building with an inner courtyard, has a limited number of rooms, and is run with a care that brings guests back. Breakfast is served at the table rather than from a buffet.
You stay here to have the Old Town around you and still sleep well. Old Town Square is five minutes away, Charles Bridge ten, and the street you live on has barely a tourist in it. It is our pick for a first visit. It is not a hotel with a bar, a spa or room service, so if you want facilities, read further down the list.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Hotel Residence Agnes
Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel
Whitewashed vaults and modern design in the old monastery below the castle.
Malá Strana: below the castle, above the river
Malá Strana, the Lesser Town, is the district between Charles Bridge and the castle, all baroque palaces, steep lanes and gardens climbing the hillside. It is quieter than the Old Town, especially in the evening, and you cross the bridge to the rest of the city in five minutes. Stay here if you want the most beautiful part of Prague outside your door.
Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel: the monastery with its own brewery
The hotel is on Letenská, directly beneath the castle, in a former Augustinian monastery where monks still live in part of the complex. The buildings enclose several courtyards, the bar pours the monastery's own beer, and the contrast between whitewashed vaults and modern Czech design in the rooms is handled with a sure touch.
Augustine is the choice for design with history, and for anyone who wants to stay in Malá Strana without giving up a proper bar and restaurant. Rooms in the old wings come in different shapes and sizes, so ask for what you want. If you are travelling with young children, the monastic calm is more constraint than comfort.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel
Mandarin Oriental, Prague
The spa sits in the former chapel, with a glass floor over the ruins.
Mandarin Oriental, Prague: a spa in the old chapel
This hotel too occupies a former monastery, on Nebovidská in the southern, quietest part of Malá Strana. The spa has been set into what was once the monastery chapel, with a glass floor above excavated ruins, and it is the room you remember when you get home. The garden between the buildings stays peaceful even in high season.
This is a hotel for calm, for couples and for long afternoons in a bathrobe. Charles Bridge is a ten-minute walk, yet the surrounding streets are so quiet you forget how close to the centre you are. If you want life on the doorstep and restaurants late into the evening, it is too tucked away, and you should stay on the east bank.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Mandarin Oriental, Prague
Aria Hotel Prague
The roof terrace at Aria, above the Vrtba Garden and below the castle.
Aria Hotel Prague: music on every floor
Aria is on Tržiště, beside the Vrtba Garden, one of the finest baroque gardens in the city, and the hotel's roof terrace looks straight down into it and up to the castle. The place is built around music: each floor has its genre, each room is dedicated to a composer or artist, and a resident music director helps you with concert tickets.
This is our romantic pick, for the terrace and for the care in the details. Rooms are medium-sized and dark in tone, and the terrace at dusk is reason enough to stay. It is less suited to anyone who finds themes a step too far, or who wants big, bright rooms.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Aria Hotel Prague
BoHo Prague Hotel
Wood, linen and grey tones, five minutes from the Old Town.
Nové Město: the New Town, with space and restaurants
The New Town is not new, it was laid out in the fourteenth century, but it is wider, taller and busier than the Old Town. Wenceslas Square, the long plaza that is really a boulevard, is its centre, and around it are the city's best restaurants, theatres and offices. Hotels here give you more space for your money and a shorter walk to the evenings.
BoHo Prague Hotel: Nordic calm by Náměstí Republiky
BoHo is on Senovážná, a quiet street a couple of minutes from Náměstí Republiky and the Powder Tower, where the Old Town shades into the New. The interiors are light and muted, wood, linen and grey tones, closer to Stockholm than Prague in feel, and there is a small spa with a pool in the basement.
It gets our vote as the value pick, because you get modern standards and a location that puts the Old Town five minutes away on foot, at a rate well below the hotels inside it. It works best for anyone who wants clean, calm and practical. It is not for travellers who come to Prague to sleep in something old.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at BoHo Prague Hotel
Almanac X Alcron Prague
The art deco lobby at the Alcron, kept from the interwar years.
Almanac X Alcron Prague: art deco just off Wenceslas Square
The Alcron is on Štěpánská, a side street off Wenceslas Square, in an art deco building that has been a hotel since between the wars. The marble lobby with its curved lines has been kept, and the rooms have been updated in a style that carries the thirties with it without turning into a museum.
You stay here to have the New Town's restaurants, theatres and shopping streets outside the door, and for a hotel with history that does not charge Four Seasons prices. It is made for couples and business travellers who want more than a chain. The Old Town and Charles Bridge are a quarter of an hour on foot, so it is not the place if you want them on the doorstep.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Almanac X Alcron Prague
Le Palais Art Hotel Prague
The villa in Vinohrady, frescoes on the stairs and the city below.
Vinohrady: where Prague lives
Vinohrady lies east of the New Town, up on the rise behind the main railway station. The name means vineyards, and the district has wide streets, art nouveau facades, two big parks and a density of cafés and wine bars the Old Town cannot match. It is a neighbourhood, not a sight, and the tram takes you into the centre in ten minutes.
Le Palais Art Hotel Prague: the villa in Vinohrady
The hotel is on U Zvonařky, a quiet street right at the edge of Vinohrady with views down over the city, in a belle époque villa with frescoes and artwork up the staircase. It is a small house with a spa and a terrace quiet enough to hear birdsong.
You stay here to get away, and to see Prague as a city people live in. The restaurants and wine bars of Vinohrady are among the best in town, and it is a quarter of an hour by tram or twenty minutes on foot down to Wenceslas Square. It is ideal for second and third visits, and anyone who values quiet over location. First-timers will probably miss having the Old Town outside.
Book your stay: Check availability and prices at Le Palais Art Hotel Prague
When to book
Advent and New Year are the peak: The Christmas markets on Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square draw people from all over Europe from late November, and the New Year weekend is the most expensive of the year. Book several months ahead for a specific hotel then.
May to September is high season: The city is full from early May to the end of September, with July and August the busiest. Hotels in Malá Strana and the Old Town should be booked two to three months out.
January, February and November are quiet: Prices drop noticeably, the groups thin out, and you get Charles Bridge to yourself even at midday. Still check whether a big conference or an international match falls on your dates.
Frequently asked questions about hotels in Prague
Where should I stay in Prague?
Malá Strana for quiet and castle views, the Old Town to have everything around you, the New Town for more space and better restaurants. All three are within fifteen minutes' walk of Charles Bridge.
Is it better to stay in the Old Town or Malá Strana?
The Old Town is practical and crowded, Malá Strana is quieter, steeper and lovelier in the evening. Most people choose the Old Town on a first visit and Malá Strana on the second.
Are hotels in Prague expensive?
Prague is cheaper than Vienna, Munich and most western European capitals, including at the luxury end. The price gap between the Old Town and Vinohrady is large for otherwise similar hotels.
How many nights should I spend in Prague?
Three nights cover the castle, the Old Town, Malá Strana and an evening in Vinohrady. With four you can add a day trip to Kutná Hora or Karlštejn.
How do I get from the airport to the centre?
Bus to the nearest metro station and metro onwards takes around forty-five minutes, and an express bus runs direct to the main railway station. A taxi or hotel transfer takes half an hour outside rush hour.