Just got back from New Year in Prague. Had a great time but if you don`t smoke or have asthma, then it will be a nightmare for you.
You can smoke anywhere and there are no %26quot;no smoking%26quot; areas in any restaurant or bar. My clothes reek of the smell of nicotine and it played hell with my asthma. Likewise, the stale smell of smoke on my clothes the next morning was disgusting.
I can`t see the situation changing as large numbers of Czechs smoke as do Italians, of which there was many visitors. To be eating food surrounded by smokers was enough to stop me ever going to Prague again whilst the policy remains.
The other two negatives was the fact there was dog poo everywhere and the average price of a pint was about £6. The most I paid was £8.
Prague is a beautiful, beautiful city but there was part of me was thinking that they were taking the michael with their pricing. I can see many bars closing if they try this nonsense during quiter times than New Year.
Way more expensive than both London and Paris and you get the added bonus of smelling like an ashtray. All these problems need to be addresses asap by the authorities.
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I know what you mean about the smoke - especially in the winter it is really annoying as you have to hang everything out all night (or day!) to get rid of it. This law will never be enforced, as I see it - it is too entrenched. Austria is similar as well, as is Slovakia. Coming from the UK just one cigarette in a pub/restaurant can make all the difference as one%26#39;s sense of smell has become all the keener.
I don%26#39;t know where you went for a beer. I have never knowingly spent more than 30 Crowns (about £1) on a beer in Prague, and much less elsewhere. The fact that the Pound has lost so much value this year against the Crown/Euro has not helped visitors coming from the UK. However, even at today%26#39;s rates, £8 is about 225 Crowns, which I find difficult to believe - even in the airport, which is probably the most expensive place in the city, they don%26#39;t charge that much. Are you sure you had the right exchange rate?
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I just returned from Prague on Tuesday and I loved it.
I am a smoker so it was nice to be able to smoke inside again, although I felt a bit self-conscious about it at first (it felt like I was being naughty). I can sympathise if you are a non-smoker, I know many non-smokers that would hate it. But I did find that there were some places that were non-smoking and some places that had non-smoking sections.
I would have to agree that £6 sounds ridiculous for a pint of beer, as has been mentioned previously we never paid more than about 30 crowns, just a bit over £1 with the current exchange rate. We were warned by our taxi driver from the airport that it is the way to judge how expensive a restaurant is. A pint should cost about 29 crowns and never pay more than 39 crowns. Having said that we never ate at a restaurant in the centre and stuck to places around our hotel.
I thought Prague was stunningly beautiful but absolutely freezing!!
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I agree with you both regarding smoking! The smell versus the enjoyment. I went to Brussels about 2 weeks ago, and my first port of call, was my local smelly smoking pub. How I enjoyed it.
The price of the beer £6 - not even hotels charge that much!
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OP - reading your postings - Riga, Kiev, Krakow - must have been pretty much the same as Prague as regards smoke. You did not complain then! Why?
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6 pound apint seems very expensive. I am due over there next wee. please tell me this is nor true
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The three Irish pubs, George %26amp; Dragon, Cayotes and a number around old town square were about 105K a pint. A guiness was about 100K. Now as the exchange rate is roughly 23.1K to the £1 that works out as £4.30 a pint.
In Cayotes, 0.5L of Budvar draught was 84K (£3.63) whilst a bottle of Strongbow was 125K (£5.41). A bottle of Evian was 75K (£3.25).
There are slightly cheaper, non touristy places up the back streets but they were very quiet and not the sort of places where tourists would stay for a great deal of time. Nowhere did I see anywhere that came even close to £1 a pint.
Re the smoking, it was worse in Prague than the other cities I have been to.
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Well, %26#39;normal%26#39; places would charge up to £1.50 per pint. So wherever you go, check the menu first.
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£4 seems rather expensive for a pint especially in Prague wheer I got the impression it was around £1-2.
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In rip off place which OP clearly frequented, you can pay any amount! In normal places, and don%26#39;t be afraid of going to %26#39;non-touristy%26#39; the price is in the range you indicated.
We should be joined here by praguepivo, brewsta, pivero, vax.....the local beer experts.
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Yikes! My fiance and I are both non-smokers and our city has banned smoking in all bars and restaurants, so we haven%26#39;t really been forced to be around smoke while we%26#39;re out. I know Europeans smoke more than Americans do on average, so I guess when we%26#39;re in Prague in February we%26#39;ll have to do some research beforehand to find restaurants and bars that are at least somewhat non-smoker-friendly (i.e. non-smoking areas that are enforced).
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