Blue Danube, Prague practical tips
Cruise was fantastic. Cindy, Tara and Ray were awesome TD. The boat and staff were outstanding and the cruise director Abraham may things run like clockwork. Enough for the review. Here are some practical tips that you may find helpful.
Prague is a magic. You will not have enough time there.
The Marriott is well appointed and in great location. The breakfast buffet will not disappoint and has everything you need and you probably won't have to have lunch. The hotel is located 15minutes from the old town square and another 5 minutes to the Charles Bridge. It is 3 minutes from the underground system where you can but tram tickets as well. The hotel did not have tickets for purchase. There is a main tram stop adjacent to this. You can take tram 15 to the bottom of the castle and then grab tram 22 to go up to the top of the castle district and walk downhill. Remember to validate your ticket in the little yellow box when you get on. You can buy tickets that are good for a set period of time and you only validate it once.
There is a grocery store 2 minutes from the hotel. In 5 minutes you can me at a number of places to eat. Close to the hotel we ate at Lokol for dinner the first night, Sister Bistro and Pauls for a quick small lunch, and the Municipal House for an afternoon desert. Other very close(100 yards) places to eat are Red Stag, Sia, and Kolkovna Ceinice. There a ton of great restaurants in Prague.
Try to take in a classical music concert. They are frequent and relatively inexpensive. We used Classictic.com for a 6 PM concert at the Minor Chapel, walked to see sunset on the Charles Bridge(5 minute walk), had dinner at Mlynec with a bridge view, and then walked back to the hotel with Prague lit up at night.
The tours do not include the Charles Bridge other than seeing it from the bus. You will need to venture there on you own. The bus did drop people off after the Cathedral tour. It is worth an evening visit and also a sunrise visits. At sunrise there are basically only photographers there and in my opinion is one of the best time to take pictures. Stop a grab a coffee and pastry on the way back to the hotel.
We did two tours outside of the Tauck included tours. Both were through Prague Walkers. One with Tereza of the Jewish Town which was fantastic and having only the three of us made for an intimate tour of an important part of Prague's history. The second was with Lucie which was fantastic as well and that was of the Castle Town and Prague Castle. The Tauck tour of the castle is basically the Strahov Monastery where actually get to go into the libraries rather than standing at the door and St Vitus. There is so much more to the castle and surrounding area. She was happy to alter the typical stops knowing that we were going to the libraries on our tour and that we didn't need to have her get us back to the hotel. Instead she took us into the lesser town where we spent the rest of the day on our own.
The walking tour of the Old Town is mostly outside. The only interior that we did was St Agnes Convent. For the best sites of the city you can climb the Powder Tour or one of the Charles Bridge towers. There is also a tower at the Old Town Square at the town hall. For a small extra charge there is a lift to the top rather than walking the stairs.
For the dinner at the Lokowicz Palace, you will be walking from the shuttle van drop off. This is on cobblestones. This won't work with heels. Either wear flat shoes or bring a small tote with you heels and switch once inside.
For men; yes I brought a sport coat, yes I wore it more than once, and yes for this tour I would bring it again. One evening it was a little warm so I ended up taking It off during dinner.
If you are going eastbound, Prague to Budapest, the luggage pull if you are going to Regensberg is 7AM. For those who are new to luggage pulls, this means that your luggage except what you need for the day has to be packed by 7 AM and inside your door with the Tauck provided tag. You will not see this luggage until you get on the ship. The bus leaves for Regensberg at 815. That is the departure time not the loading time. It takes 3 hours to get to Regensberg with a rest stop about 2 hours into the trip. If I had limited time in Prague, I would skip Regensberg even though the sausage and beer at the Historische Wurstkuche is great.
I love Prague and didn't get to see all of what I wanted. I am sure I will be back.
Comments
We are so grateful for these insights. We are on the June 12th Blue Danube trip, going in a day early, and know absolutely nothing about Prague. I'm saving this for reference! Thanks again for taking the time to post these tips.
Thank you for the comments Ben.
Thanks Ben. I made a copy of your suggestions as I’ll be in Prague in August for an extra day after one of Tauck’s land journeys. One can never get enough of Prague!
If you do the land tour that includes Prague, you get to see the extras that Ben had to organize himself.
In 2018 we did Blue Danube eastbound. We went two days early and used PragueWalker for two outside tours. We had Tereza for both as well- she was fantastic. That allowed us to see everything on Tauck's options list at that time- some with Tauck and some with PragueWalker. That included visiting both Salzburg and Cesky Krumlov. We had seen Salzburg on prior tours but wanted to see it again, so we went there with Tauck a few days later. We arranged with PragueWalker to take us for a full day excursion to Cesky Krumlov so saw them both! We were able to spend more time in Cesky Krumlov than Tauck normally does according to a TD friend. In fact, we arrived there just as a Tauck bus from the westbound Blue Danube did. They were gone well before we had to head back to Prague. We saw some of the countryside and had some great discussions with Tereza during the approx 2 hour van ride.
If your haven't heard of PragueWalker in posts here, you might have seen them in Rick Steves videos about Prague and the Czech Republic- he has a number of them you can watch for free on his website.
I went on the Blue Danube cruise (in October 2023). We added several days before the TAUCK trip in Prague as well as extra days in Budapest.
As per Alan’s suggestions, I used praguewalkers for 2 private tours: Cesky Krumlov (all day) as well as a Jewish heritage tour of old town Prague (5 hrs). Tauck had an option of the Jewish heritage but praguewalkers was more detailed and extensive. On the morning of TAUCK’s Heritage tour, we selected a different option (the architecture of Old Town). It was excellent.
During our added time in Prague we pre-booked various tours. All were excellent.
A food walking tour (Tastesofprague.com)
Electric trike tour of Prague (so much fun)
Classical music concert at the Spanish Synagogue
Museum of Communism (around the corner from the hotel) was very enlightening
Finally, on the route from the hotel to Old Town, there is a fantastic shop that sells Chimney Cakes. A must-eat!! We have them in other cities but the one in Prague was far and away the best!
This was a very special trip with much to see and do!!
Thx Ben / Alan / Nancy - good info for October 2024 Blue Danube trip. Glad we chose Prague start - and 2 days early ! Appreciate the suggestions.
Thks 4 your comts. We did this in 2015, our first tauck trip. Looking at 2026 with relatives who never been on a RC. keep posting. I see itinerary has changed from 2015. more nights on the boat in BP.
Thank so you much for your helpful notes Ben! We are on The Blue Danube Prague to Budapest May 27 and will arrive 2 days early.
If u have time in Prague, visit the area around Embassy Row. on the other side of the river. Great local eating place which is underground. Look for cathedral "infant Jesus'. Just get out and walk during free time.
At the museum of communism on the wall of ‘defectors’ you will see one my my wife’s skating associates in the
Ice Capades. Her Americanized name was Aja Zanova, but her Chec name was much more complicated. We told our guide during the tour that my wife skated with her, but I don’t think she believed us. . They actually were not ‘friends’ as my wife was at the time just a ‘kid’, and Aja was ‘mature’. They were the two female ‘principles’ as they called them. They were not in the ‘line’.