Hotels in Prague: nine places to stay on both banks of the river

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.