I recently spent one full week in Prague with my husband as part of our “Year Long Honeymoon.” We are taking a full year off of work to travel so we are on a pre-established budget in each location we visit. In Prague we managed to do a few activities, eat meals out almost every day, have a drink or two each day and generally not feel like we were on too strict of a budget. In this post I’ll share every we did in a week and exactly how much it costs to spend a week in Prague!
Our Budget - $840
Our budget for Prague was $120 a day for both of us, or $60 a day each. We stayed for seven nights so our total budget was $840 for the week. We were soooooo close to hitting this budget!
At the time of our visit $1 = Kč24 (Czech Koruna). I will try to list the Czech prices in addition to the USD price for as much as I can.
Lodging Costs - $283.91
What We Spent
We stayed at an Airbnb (not a sponsored link, we just liked it!) about 1.5 miles outside the old town in the Vinohrady neighborhood. It cost $283.91 for the week or $40.56 per day. The further from the old town you stay, the cheaper the Airbnb’s get. We found Vinohrady to be the perfect neighborhood, not too far and not too close. It felt very local and had so many nice restaurants, bars, and cafes. I really think there were 50 restaurants within 3 blocks of us in any direction.
We also had a tram stop directly in front of our apartment and a metro stop one block away. It truly was an amazing stay and if we come back to Prague I wouldn’t hesitate to book it again. If only you could stay for $40/night in a nice apartment in the US!
Other Options
If you’re traveling as a couple, I highly recommend staying in an Airbnb as that will get you the best per person rate. You can find them for as low as $30 (probably a private room in a shared apartment) or up to $150+ per night for a private apartment in the Old Town area.
A single dorm bed in a hostel will not be much cheaper than an Airbnb in the summer months. Except to pay between $15-$35 for a dorm bed in the summer and $10-$25 in the off seasons. Expect to pay more for a private room in a hostel than you would for an Airbnb. They typically go for $50-$125.
There aren’t many big chain hotels right in Prague, but expect to pay typical hotel prices for a mid tier city, between $100-$300 per night.
Transportation Costs - $52.49
Prague Metro System – $43.27
A single metro ticket valid for 30 minutes after the time of validating is 30Kč or ~$1.25. You can buy a handful of tickets at once so you don’t have to stop and buy one each time. We used a total of 12 single tickets, or 6 each. We also bought a 72 hour ticket for 330Kč or ~$14. You would have to use the ticket 11 times in the 72 hour period to get your money’s worth. We did not ride that many times but it was nice not having to carry around a bunch of tickets and validate them every time you ride. I wish there had been a 7 day pass instead of just the 72 hour or monthly pass. It would have been a little more convenient for us, but do the math and pick between individual tickets and the 72 hour pass for yourself.
A note on how the metro tickets work:
The tickets operate on a hybrid “good faith/ audit” system. There are no gates or turnstiles to walk through on the metros and no place to tap a ticket on the busses or trams. You simply buy a ticket and validate it before you board for the metro, or once on board for busses and trams. Of course you can hop on without a ticket but there are officers who come around occasionally to check your tickets and they definitely have an eye for picking tourists out to check. We road the trams and metros several times a day for a week and were checked for a ticket twice. You should always ride with a valid ticket and know that if you’re caught without one you will be charged a fine.
Round Trip Train to Karlstejn – $9.22
We did one day trip on our own, taking the train from Prague’s main train station to the small town of Karlestejn. It was about an hour long train ride, and cost just 109Kč round trip per person. We booked our tickets online the morning of, so it might be even cheaper if you buy them in advance.
There really is no reason to take a taxi or Uber in Prague as the metro and trams go everywhere in the city and run very frequently. You can take public transportation to and from the airport to the city center in about 45 minutes. According to Google a taxi would cost you almost $30 from the airport to the city center, or you could just pay $1.25 for the bus like we did.
Activities - $244.71
What We Spent
Trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park – $223.58
The majority of our activity budget was a full day trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park. Yes, it is in the Czech Republic and not in Switzerland! We booked an Airbnb experience that included transportation to and from Prague, a quick visit to Kost Castle, a guided hike through Bohemian Switzerland National Park, lunch at a nice restaurant (pictured below), and a quick trip to a local recreational lake.
We paid $112 per person for this day trip, but it’s $133 if you book last minute. We did enjoy this full day tour but it really ate into our budget. If you enjoy hiking and want to get out of the city this is a really great experience. However, if you’re on a strict budget, it’s not necessarily worth breaking the bank for.
Karlstejn Castle Tour – $21.13
Our tour was Kč250, and they have a few other tour options as well. A guided tour is the only way to enter the interior of the castle. Check online for the English tour times as Czech tours run frequently and there are just a few English tours a day. The castle was built in the 14th century so the interior is rather sparse, but non the less beautiful, and the tour was very informative.
After you get to the Karstejn train station you have a mile uphill walk to the castle through Karstejn town. It’s an enjoyable walk with a lot of ice cream places, bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Karlestejn and in Karstejn castle. I would recommend a visit if you have more than 3-4 days to spend in Prague.
Other Activity Options
Prague Castle is a very popular spot in Prague. We walked around the exterior but did not pay for an entrance ticket or tour. Ticket prices can be found on their website here.
The Jewish Museum is another activity we were interested in but decided not to do. Had we not been on a budget, we definitely would have visited! Prices range from 200Kč-500Kč depending on what you want to visit. There is an actual museum plus several synagogues to visit.
Boat Tours and Boat Rentals are another fun option when in Prague. There are several types of boat tours down the Vltava River, or you can rent a kayak or paddle boat.
Food & Drinks - $264.26
We spent $37.75 per day on food and drinks for both of us, or $18.88 per person per day. We each had at least 1 beer per day, so if you don’t drink you could get by on $15 or less per day.
We spent $47 on groceries, including veggies from the farmers market, $17.40 on beer (purchased separately from food) and $199 at restaurants. We made dinner at home twice, had leftovers for dinner once, had lunch included in our all day Airbnb Experience, and had breakfast at home most mornings.
We had four nice sit-down meals, and the rest were carryout or quick snacks. Expect a typical entree at a sit down restaurant to cost between 150Kč and 300Kč or $6-$12. A beer should cost around 50Kč or $2 for a half liter, and if you’re paying much more than that you’re probably at a tourist trap.
Miscellaneous - $24.41
$9.29 to buy and mail post cards to the US
$14.28 to buy 2 carabiners to attach our water bottles to our backpacks
$0.84 or 20Kč to use the restroom at the train station. Most public restrooms in Czech were free, this was one of the only paid WCs I saw.
So, How Much Does a Week in Prague Cost?
We ended up spending $869.78 total for everything in Prague for the week. This works out to $124.25 per day or $62.13 per person.
We are still trying to learn what is worth spending money on and what isn’t for this full year off of work. If we were on a very strict budget I think we could have done it with $700, or $100 a day. On the other hand, if this was a normal vacation and we weren’t traveling long term, I could easily see us spending over $1,000 or $142+ per day.
We were only $29.78 over our budget of $840, or $4.25 over budget per day. If we hadn’t spent $14 on carabiners we would have been even closer! I’m not even going to mention cutting out beer, because what’s the point in traveling to Czech Republic without sampling the Czech beers? 🙂
Please let me know in the comments if you have any specific budgeting questions or Prague questions.
Our next stop is Poland and we have the same per day budget of $120. Follow along on our adventures to see how much we end up spending on our Year Long Honeymoon!
Cheers!
Kailyn & Andrew
6 Comments
Love this ! Thank you for sharing , what an experience and will review this article as I hope to travel to Prague soon.
This is a super helpful post for planning a trip! I’ve had a few friends tell me I needed to go to Prague, so this is just another push in that direction. Only problem is going to be getting the flights out there on a budget!
Being a backpacker, budgeting is the most important part of my travelling. This is such a detailed and insightful post about Prague. Bookmarkarking it for future reference 🙂
It was great to read that you kept close to your original budget for Prague. And that included what looked like a great trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park. That will be something we would book if we return to Prague. Well worth a little splurge to get out of the city and hike. A good point that you need to figure out what is worth spending more on when you are travelling for such a long time.
You are doing a great job budgeting- You were so close. This will be a great talent to take through your marriage!
“I’m not even going to mention cutting out beer, because what’s the point in traveling to Czech Republic without sampling the Czech beers? ”
Well said, well said! As I recall there are many very local brews… so many to sample. When I was there with my son in 2007 I am quite sure our beer budget FAR exceeded our food costs. Our favorite commercial brews were Budvar (controversionally the original Budweiser) and Velvet, and silky sweet type of ale.