Notes of Prague Transportation
The public transportation system in Prague is well-organized. You can get to know around the city just by metro and trams, and the suggested routes provided by Google maps are reliable (whereas it doesn’t work in Italy).
There are so many detailed information on the Internet about how to take the public transportation in Prague, so we are not going to cover that part in this article. Instead, we will write about what we have noticed in the public transportation system in Prague.
Ways we move around Prague city center include:
1. Metro
In Taiwan, we have to swipe our e-ticket to gain access to the platform, while in Prague Metro, there isn’t any block between the platform and the outside, that is, it is possible to go to the platform without a valid ticket. After buying a ticket, you have to punch it with the validation machine before going to the platform. Sometimes, the inspectors in the station will randomly check if someone has a valid ticket (especially Asian tourists).
Prague Metro is very deep and the escalators in some stations move very fast. It is said that the reason why the Soviet Government construct Prague Metro deep under the ground is they were concerned that Prague might be attacked by the West with nuclear bomb.
The internet signal is weak in the metro. I used to think that’s why people are not using their smartphones while taking metro, but I was wrong. People on trams and buses act just as those on metro. Some are just sitting, some are talking to the person next to him/her and some are reading books.
The announcements broadcast on the metro are only in Czech. As the train arrives at the station, the doors will open only when you push the button on the doors.
2. Trams
The trams in Prague always arrive on time, and you don’t need to worried that there will be no trams running if you hang out too late at night, because the trams operate 24 hours a day, but the night trams go by different routes and the intervals are longer.
Same as the metro, the announcements are all in Czech and doors will not automatically open unless you press the button.
3. Bus
We don’t take buses quite often, since metro and trams can take us almost everywhere. The bus we take the most frequently is Bus 119, which connects Nádraží Veleslavín metro station and Prague airport.
4. Walking
Prague city center is not big. It will be a pity if you don’t walk around the city leisurely to enjoy the beautiful street view. The roads in old town are mostly paved with cobblestones. Thus, you should avoid wearing high heels or carrying a wheeled suitcase while visiting old town, or you will want to get rid of them after walking 30 seconds.
Drivers always give way to pedestrians. Before crossing roads, you have to push the button on the traffic light pole. (We never tried what will happen if we don’t do so. Maybe it helps nothing.)
5. Electric scooter
There isn’t any public bicycle in Prague, but you can find green electric scooters marked Lime beside the roads. Unfortunately, as we’ve mentioned above, the cobblestone roads are very bumpy, and those randomly parked Limes have a negative impact on the city view. As a result, we seldom ride it.
6. Ferry
The ferries can shorten your path across Vltava, but they stop at places we rarely go, so we only tried once.
As Prague is located at the center of Europe, it is very convenient to travel around. Ways we move between cities or travel abroad include:
1. Bus (Coach)
FlixBus and RegioJet are two buses we usually take. Tickets are available on their apps and the prices are not fixed. The earlier you buy the ticket, the cheaper it will be. We travel by bus in Europe very often and it’s quite commonplace to have a 4 or 5-hour bus ride.
2. Train
In addition to bus, train is sometimes a better choice for longer trips. It takes only an hour to go to Karlštejn Castle or Kutná Hora from Prague by train and the tickets are not expensive as well.
The train’s interior of Czech Railways is quite different from that of Taiwan. Some trains are double-decked and some has many separate rooms.
If you want to buy train tickets for your group, you have to make sure you buy the correct number of tickets, since the ticketing clerk will give you only one ticket with the number of passengers marked on it. Before getting on the train bound for Pilsen, we didn’t check our ticket. It was not until the inspector on the train checked our tickets did we realize that we only bought one. At that time, we had no choice but to buy another at a higher price from the inspector.
3. Airplane
Taking a budget airline to travel around Europe is one of the most important part in our exchange life. It takes only about 40 minutes to get to the airport from city center by metro and Bus 119. There are many direct flights from Prague, but if those are not enough for you, you can head to Vienna where more flight destinations are provided and it is just about 2 hours away from Prague. Currently, no direct flight from Taipei to Prague is offered. An alternative is to fly to Vienna and take a RegioJet train to Prague.
Omio
We recommend a website called Omio that helps you plan your trip in Europe. Just by entering your departure and destination, information on how to get there will be listed for you. Then, you can compare the time and fare in an very efficient way.
