Four days itinerary in Prague

If you plan on spending a few days in Prague and want to make the most of it, here’s the best four days itinerary in Prague.

From the Christmas markets, to the Old Town square, passing by the Kafka attraction, I’ll show you the ultimate circuit around the city. If you need a weekend itinerary, I’ll also indicate which activities and sightseeing can be forgotten when coming for two days only.

I also made an article about visiting Prague by night as well as one about the best museums to do in Prague.

Moving on to this itinerary !

• Day One : Old Town square (with the Christmas market in winter), Male namesti and Wenceslas square
• Day Two : Dancing house, Vltava river, Lennon Wall, Book tunnel and statues all over the city
• Day Three : Petrin park, Kunsthalle museum, Charles bridge and prague castle
• Day Four : Lucerna passage and National Prague Museum

Day One

We landed around 2pm and went straight to the Old Town square. In December there is a big market and a lot of decorations, Christmas trees and lights.

We got to try some Czech food specialties at the market (you can learn more about the best food to try out in Prague in this article).

On the Old Square, there’s an astronomical clock. It is medieval timepiece on the facade of the city hall, displaying the 12 apostles as the clock strikes.

I suggest visiting the 2 churches :

• Church of Our Lady before Tyn : It was built from the mid-14th to the early 16th centuries. The 80 meters high twin towers of this Gothic church (with a Baroque interior) can be seen from all over Prague. (free entrance)
• St Nicolas Church : It’s a Late-Gothic and Baroque church in the Old Town of Prague. (free entrance)

We enjoyed the atmosphere of this square for a bit longer and then went to see two other Christmas markets. First, the one on the adjacent square, Male Namesti, and then on Wenceslas square.

As the night sets pretty quickly, we took this first (half) day to do a tour of the city by night. Going to these christmas markets makes you cross a part of the city and discover some great area.

We ate at the markets and decided to head to the Airbnb for the night.

Day Two

For the first full day, we decided to start with the dancing house. This symbol of Prague, realised in 1996 was inspired by the dance skills of the famous film couple – the stone tower symbolizes Fred Astaire and the glass tower, his partner Ginger Rogers. It is possible to visit the gallery inside and there’s also a restaurant with a 360° view terrace.

We then walked along the Vltava river, to reach our second stop which was the Lennon wall. It’s a colorful wall full of street art, is considered a symbol of peace, love, and freedom.

Following the 1980 assassination of John Lennon – a symbol of freedom – the wall has been filled with John Lennon inspired graffiti, lyrics from the Beatles’ songs. It has been painted over and decorated again and again with poems, lyrics, drawings about the artist. The widow of John Lennon even visited the wall in 2003.

On the way to the wall, you’ll stumble upon an artwork called the Crawling babies. Created bu David Černý in 2000, they’re made of bronze – each one weighing 800kg. Instead of a face, they have a barcode embossed, which symbolizes the consumerism or the scary technological advances. Apparently, the artist didn’t give the real interpretation of it. You can find a few other climbing babies on the Žižkov Tower.

We continued to walk in Mala strana (the hillside area), and went to see the narrowest street in Prague. It’s a very narrow street with traffic lights at each end for pedestrians.

If you are coming between April to September, you can continue the tour by visiting the Waldstein garden. In winter it was closed so we crossed the river on the Manesuv most bridge to have a great view of Charles bridge. On the other end, you’ll find the Rudolfinum, a concert hall with nice architecture.

After a lunch break, we decided to head to the Powder tower. It’s the city gate, built in the XV century and restored after being damaged in the Battle of Prague.

To continue our visit, we went to see the smallest house in Prague. The house in itself have nothing really interesting about it except its size, but it was a pleasant walk in a calm area and with great architecture.

To end the circuit, we visited the Spanish synagogue which is a 4-minute walk from the last stop.

On our way back, we stumbled upon the Franz Kafka monument. Designed by Jaroslav Róna, the sculptor was apparently inspired by Kafka’s 1912 story Description of a Struggle. 

We also saw the statue of the Reader in an armchair by Jaroslav Róna, at the beginning of Kaprova Street.

That was pretty much when the sun went down and we decided to do a little tour by night.

We went to see the Prague book tunnel in the municipal library of Prague. It’s actually called Idiom, a column of 8,000 books made by Matej Krén. The books were either donated or saved from landfill. The tear shaped hole in the front of the tower of books is more than 2 meters high and within the column both the ceiling and base are mirrors to increase the sense of infinite space. It’s also a free attraction.

When you exit the library, you in front you can go see the Klementinum, a complex comprised of the Mirror Chapel and baroque library.

In the courtyard, a light exhibition was happening and was worth stopping by for a few minutes.

While heading back to our Airbnb, we stopped on the way to see Franz Kafka rotating head. Installed in 2014, the 11m tall mirrored head is made of 42 rotating layers of stainless steel. It weighs around 45 tons. The piece cleverly reveals Kafka’s tortured personality and relentless self doubt that tormented him his entire life.

We originally planned to see the Franz Kafka rotating head during the day, but the sun had set very quickly. It resulted in an even better experience with all the city lights reflecting on the mirrored head. 

I suggest eating at Knedlin which is close by. It serves a great Czech specialty, you can find more details one my article here.

Day Three

A great way to start the day is by walking to Petrin park and going up to the Petrin Tower. This cast-iron tower has a great panoramic view of the city.

We took a combined ticket to go in the mirror maze next. For student under 26, the combined ticket was 7€ and 11€ for adults.

I recommend going up to the tower, however, the Mirror Maze is clearly not a must do. It’s really short, fun but mainly for kids I’d say.

We then walked in the park for a bit and headed towards the Old Town square. By then, it was noon and we had a lunch reservation at Pasta Fresca (a great – non expensive – restaurant I talk more about here).

For the afternoon we had planned to take a walk along the Vltava river and to the Kunsthalle museum. We arrived around 2:30pm and stayed there for a great hour. A made a detailed explanation of the site on this article.

A great way to end the afternoon was to go see the sunset and lanterns lighting on Charles bridge. It’s done by a lantern lighter wearing a historical suit and lighting the gas lanterns with a long pole.

In winter it’s only 4:30pm after that, and it’s already dark. We took it as an opportunity to visit the city by night.

Starting from Charles bridge, we went all the way up to the Prague Castle. The cathedral was already closed by then, but a Christmas market was just in front. The Castle was really well decorated for Christmas (many lights, trees and all).

This location also provides a great panoramic view over Prague.

Going back to the center, we walked along the river, which also features great views by night.

For our final dinner, we decided to try a famous Mediterranean restaurant in Prague called Paprika. The menu to share was a great option (and very inexpensive). I also detailed what you can expect from this place here.

Day Four

On the last morning, we had the surprise to see that it had snowed all over the city.

We took a walk to enjoy this new scenery in the park near the Narodni museum (Celakovskeho sady) and Old Town square.

After we went to see the Lucerna passage with the horse statue and the Ascensore paternoster.

It’s an intricate system of passages running under the Art Nouveau Lucerna Palace from 1920 connecting Vodickova and Stepanska streets.

You cannot miss the upside down version of St. Wenceslas and his horse, by David Cerny, hanging from the atrium of the passage. Although the place is in need of a renovation, the monument is still impressive and a must do when coming to Prague.

The Ascensore paternoster (now apparently closed to the public), is a a two-way elevator that does not stop. It’s continuously going up and down.

After a lunch break at Mlejnice restaurant, we spent our last afternoon at the National museum of Prague (or Narodni museum).

100% recommend this museum, it’s the biggest one in Czechia. We took the tickets for the museum complex + Cupola. It costs 250 CZK (10,5€) for adults or 150 CZK (6,3€) for students/seniors. The monument in itself is worth the visit. I go into more detailed about the museum in my Prague museums article.

Before heading back to the airport, we went to see the dancing house by night and tried to book a reservation to a famous bar called Anonymous Shrink’s office. The concept is that you get a personalised cocktail based on your answer on a Rorschach (or inkblot test). It was completely full for the week (I would suggest making a reservation well in advance), so we tried to go to the Alchemist where the concept was as original. You get a drink based on the tarot card you pick. Because it was also booked for the night, we went to the Ice Pub. Except for experiencing the freezing cold, I wouldn’t recommend it. It was completely empty when we came (6pm), the drinks weren’t great at all and it was overpriced for what we got.

That wraps up my four days itinerary in Prague !

It was a wonderful city trip, in 4 days you get a really good feel of the town and can do a lot ! It’s well doable in 2 or 3 days if you skip some museums.

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