City focus
A Weekend Alone in Prague
Prague makes sense to women who travel alone, and particularly to women 50 and over. Nobody blinks at a woman alone with a beer and a book here. It is the default.
It is also a working capital of about 1.4 million people, not only a storybook city. Timing decides most of what you will enjoy. A beer hall that is unbearable late on a Saturday, full of a stag group in matching shirts, is pleasant on a weekday morning. Old Town Square is nearly empty at seven.
Where to base yourself
Vinohrady is a functioning residential district of nineteenth-century apartment blocks, tree-lined streets, real shops and good local restaurants. The medieval city is a short metro ride away. It is a strong all-round base for stays of four nights or more.
For a short stay, the practical middle is Nové Město around Senovážné náměstí. It is flat, about ten minutes on foot from Old Town and quieter after dark than the Wenceslas Square end of the same district.
If you want to walk to the famous things, Old Town and Josefov work for a short first visit. Expect the highest room prices in the city, restaurant streets built for turnover and late-night noise that is loudest where the hotels are.
The shape of a good day
Be on Old Town Square early, when the square is empty and you can look at the clock mechanism in peace. Walk to the Charles Bridge and cross it while it is nearly empty. At noon in season it is a slow-moving press of tourists. Cross it early and again late in the evening, when it is quiet and lit.
Go up through Malá Strana to the Church of St. Nicholas. Then climb Nerudova to the castle. Do not eat up there. Walk down about fifteen minutes to Lokál U Bílé kuželky on Míšeňská, which serves proper Pilsner Urquell and plain Czech cooking, for a seated lunch.
In the afternoon, stop at the Lennon Wall, where five minutes is enough, and go on to Kampa Island for a bench by the water. For coffee, Kavárna Slavia on the riverbank is a famous café to visit for the setting rather than a meal, with the National Theater across the way.
For dinner, ride metro Line A to Flora and eat at Vinohradský pivovar on Korunní. It is a brewery restaurant that seats you at a table. Have one half-liter and be home early.
On Sunday, take a slower route through Vinohrady. Have coffee on Náměstí Míru, walk the tree-lined streets and sit on the open grass slope of Riegrovy Sady for the view of the castle and the Old Town spires.
Eating alone
Alone, you are seated at a regular table and served as a group would be. Counter seating exists at many restaurants and is the easiest seat to take on your own.
Lunch is the large meal. Many restaurants offer a fixed-price lunch menu, the obědové menu, at midday and into the afternoon. Eat the substantial meal then and go lighter in the evening. Many menus list menší porce, smaller portions, separately from the full plates. That is the line to look for when you are alone.
Beer halls, the pivnice, are the social centers. They have long wooden tables where strangers sit together, so sitting alone is common, and you can start a conversation or sit quietly. The kavárna, the coffeehouse, is a serious and literary tradition, and a woman with a book or journal is taking part in it.
The thing first-timers get wrong
They eat on Old Town Square. The restaurants directly facing it are expensive and mediocre, and they rely on the view. Restaurants around the Charles Bridge and along Nerudova are much the same.
The rule to use on a street corner: never eat at the first place you see after leaving a sight. Five to fifteen minutes in almost any direction is the difference between a menu in six languages with photographs and a room where people are having lunch because they work nearby.
A few other notes:
Watch your bag. Pickpocketing in crowds and on trams is the most likely problem. Money-changing and taxi scams come next.
Expect reserve. Service in shops and on trams is correct rather than chatty, and strangers rarely start conversations. It is not unfriendliness.
Avoid weekend nightlife streets. Drunk groups and organized stag and hen parties fill the old districts in summer and on weekends. Riegrovy Sady beer garden is loud and packed on warm evenings, so go on a weekday evening, early.
Start early, eat a few streets from the sights, and Prague is easy.
If this is the nudge you needed, the free starter guide is the next step.
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