Czech Republic - Travel Deals

Even with its explosion of tourism over the past decade and even though seemingly every American under the age of 40 is living there writing his or her first novel, there is still only one airline that flies directly from the United States to Prague. Want to take a guess which airline that is? Three seconds. One….two…three.

Time’s up. If you answered Czech Airlines you would be correct. Your fabulous prize is that you can read the rest of this post and click on the link that will take you to a page where you can book a flight on the airline. If you answered anything other than Czech Airlines, you can also click on the link and book yourself a ticket on the airline. Winners and losers are all the same around these parts.

At an attempt at seriousness, I will say that Prague is an absolutely wonderful city to visit as long as you aren’t under the impression that you will be the only foreign traveler there. Czech Airlines also do a nice job of getting you from here to there, which is a good thing since they do in fact have that non-stop monopoly.

Ok, here’s your reward for making it this far.

Quick, what is the sixth most visited city in Europe. If you guess London, Paris, Rome, Madrid or Berlin, you would be wrong. Those are the top five most visited European cities. Number six is Prague.

If you go to Prague in the summer you will quickly understand why it is one of the hot spots to visit in Europe. The city is absolutely lovely during the warm months and it is absolutely teeming with tourists. Don’t let that scare you aware, however. Like most popular destinations the flocks of fanny pack wearing tourists flock to see all the same sites and to eat at all the same restaurants listed in all the same travel guide books. Undoubtedly if you go to Prague you’ll end up strolling across the Charles Bridge and hanging out in Old Town Square too, but you shouldn’t limit yourself to just seeing what is popular.

For example, you can have just as interesting a time visiting the New Jewish Cemetery in Olsany. It is where Franz Kafka lies under the ground. Perhaps a bit morose but along the journey you will go through real neighborhoods where real Czechs live and work. Make a point to stop off at one of these hoods. You’ll see a Prague that isn’t postcard picture beautiful, but fascinating nevertheless.

SAS Spring Flights to Europe from $484 RT! (ends 4/30)

When I first visited Prague back in the early 1990s it still had a bit of that Eastern European feel to it. You could walk a few blocks away from the Charles Bridge and find a genuine communist cafeteria that served unidentifiable gruel for about 50 cents. It was kind of neat for westerners to experience life on the other side of the Iron Curtain in a city that is nothing short of beautiful.

Flash forward to today and you’ll have a hard time finding any evidence that Prague was once under the Soviet sphere. Seemingly every American who has ever dreamed of becoming a writer is there right now working on their first novel while they earn beer drinking money by being TEFL teachers. The old grungy charm has been replaced by a hip new attitude.

That isn’t to say that Prague is not worth visiting. It clearly is. The historic downtown is one of Europe’s jewels and a look at its famous castle should be high on anyone’s travel list. The prices have gone up, the crowds have poured in and the gruel is gone, but Prague is still very, very nice and when you can fly to Prague for cheap you should take advantage while you can.

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