Tell me about Prague...Or other?

[SnakeCharmer]

Wife and I are making plans for a vacation in early May.  She wants to go to Prague.  I'm a bit ambivalent about it; I just want to get the heck out of dodge and relax.  Pros?  Cons?

We've got a few options that we can take besides that, one of which is Paris.  We have family there, and have talked about doing a house swap for a couple weeks so they can come back to the States and spend some time with family here.  I love Paris, but we were there a couple years ago.  However, Paris has the benefit of (relatively) cheap travel to other countries once we're there, zero hotel cost (in Paris anyway), and we're quite familiar with the city.  We've been to Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France (obviously), Great Britian, and Spain.  Have seen most of what's to see in the US.

I suppose I'm kinda looking for something off the beaten path.  The plan is to ship the kiddo off to her parents while we're away, but as always, this far in advance things can change.  I am seriously considering proposing something down in the Caribbean.

Thoughts?

[Righ]

I've never been, but by all accounts, Prague is a historical, architectural and cultural marvel. It has one of the most ancient urban centers in Europe as it was subject to relatively little bombing. But yes, head off the beaten track. Go to Machu Picchu.

[Cory Jacobs]

Your choices:

Prague - Where every Bond villain hangs out, and despite sounding awesome the most you can ever achieve there is the role of sidekick... then you die. Die = bad.

Machu Picchu - Bugs, bugs that will end your face.

Arizona -  Current location of the fabled Cory Jacobs.

I believe the decision is obvious.

[Segoris]

I've never been, but by all accounts, Prague is a historical, architectural and cultural marvel. It has one of the most ancient urban centers in Europe as it was subject to relatively little bombing. But yes, head off the beaten track. Go to Machu Picchu.

^This.

If I may throw another name in the hat...a couple of friends of mine went to Turkey and loved it so much they went back 2 months later. I kept hearing about how great it is with nice beaches, history, and people. Overall, just a good place to vacation.

[UnSub]

I was going to go to Prague with a friend, but Budapest was slightly cheaper and seen as less tourist-y.

Budapest was awesome. As fair warning, palinka is the local spirit / schappes / paint stripper and Unicum is the shot of choice. I've forgotten the name of the local sweet wine that was very nice. I did do more than drink in Budapest, I promise.

[Mosesandstick]

Prague is just beautiful. The main things I did there was visit places, eat and went to a few concerts.

[apocrypha]

I nearly went to Prague for my honeymoon but ended up going to Iceland instead. Which was awesome, weird, cold, expensive, cold and very very cold.

[NowhereMan]

Budapest was awesome. As fair warning, palinka is the local spirit / schappes / paint stripper and Unicum is the shot of choice. I've forgotten the name of the local sweet wine that was very nice. I did do more than drink in Budapest, I promise.

Local sweet wine may have been Tokaj? If so it's pricey but by all accounts delicious.

One word of advice with Prague, while it is amazingly historical (never bombed since the Czechs surrendered to Hitler without a fight) and has wonderful cheap beer, it has wonderful cheap beer. This means it also serves as the European centre for students/stag and hen parties. Depending on when you go it may be full of English people drunk off their faces most nights. The same of course goes for anywhere you might want to visit in the UK or Dublin.

Possibility to consider is somewhere like Belgrade, Serbia's still off the beaten track and calmed down a lot (i.e. they stopped shooting each other). I know people who have been and really liked it but being unfamiliar with it I'll toss it out as somewhere to look into that will probably be fairly cheap.

[Oban]

Prague is great place to visit without a wife.

Keep your eyes down if you want to avoid any fights.

[Le0]

I've been to Prague once, it is a really beautyful place. Also it is not expensive at all and its hot in the summer. There is plenty of historical things to see and you can go shopping as well.

I'd recommand it.

[Raging Turtle]

I live in Prague.  It's as amazing and gorgeous as you can imagine, particularly during spring, and while it is touristy, you can easily take day trips to other places in the Czech Republic if you want to get away from the crowds.   I just put up a few pics on the last page of the 'take a picture a day' thread if you want a small glimpse of the city.

One word of advice with Prague, while it is amazingly historical (never bombed since the Czechs surrendered to Hitler without a fight) and has wonderful cheap beer, it has wonderful cheap beer. This means it also serves as the European centre for students/stag and hen parties. Depending on when you go it may be full of English people drunk off their faces most nights. The same of course goes for anywhere you might want to visit in the UK or Dublin.

Actually, the stag/hen parties (hated by the vast majority of the locals) have mostly moved on - Poland and other places with weaker economies, and therefore cheaper locales to get wasted and make an complete ass of yourself, are now the destinations of choice.  The fantastic and fantastically cheap beer is still here, though. 

Paris is vastly more expensive and it's just as easy to get around in Europe from Prague - maybe easier, since the airport here isn't nearly as chaotic and the city is a lot easier to get around (1.5-2 million as compared to 10).  The same with Budapest - it was just too big for me to really get a feel for during my time there.  I'd be happy to answer any specific questions about the city.

And the Czechs didn't quite surrender, they were 'given' to Germany as part of the Munich Agreement (which they call the Munich Betrayal) and were smart enough to realize that putting up a fight would have seen Prague wiped off the map.  Not that it saved the Jewish population of the city.

[Oz]

this is just my experience with my wife, but i recomend any of the following Euro places:

1-prague is awesome
2-Cork, Ireland is my favorite city ever.  the people are so cool and its rather nice in may
3-anywhere else in Ireland
4-Italy (i like florence and venice alot, forget rome)
5-Spain
6-Morroco (can take a ferry from spain)
7-Greece (hold onto your shit though, with death grip)
8-i'm always biased for Germany.

[Broughden]

I was going to go to Prague with a friend, but Budapest was slightly cheaper and seen as less tourist-y.

Budapest was awesome. As fair warning, palinka is the local spirit / schappes / paint stripper and Unicum is the shot of choice. I've forgotten the name of the local sweet wine that was very nice. I did do more than drink in Budapest, I promise.

Ive been to both while working in Kosovo. Unsub is correct. Both are cool but Budapest is cooler. We used to call it Boodiefest.

Try island hopping in Greece? Rhodes? Santorini?

Why the fuck havent you been to Ireland? Stay one or two nights in Dublin then grab a backpack and a rail pass and hit the country side. Or do some of their long distance trails like the Dingle Way (95 miles) or the Wicklow Way.   I have been to 35+ countries and Ireland ranks in the top three in terms of friendliness (not counting the pub fight I got in at Lillie's Bordello in Dublin with a couple of suited toughs trying to beat up a local stage actor with a broken arm) and cleanliness.


Or go all out and do the Patagonia! That is a MUST do life time adventure!

[IainC]

Why the fuck havent you been to Ireland? Stay one or two nights in Dublin then grab a backpack and a rail pass and hit the country side. Or do some of their long distance trails like the Dingle Way (95 miles) or the Wicklow Way.   I have been to 35+ countries and Ireland ranks in the top three in terms of friendliness (not counting the pub fight I got in at Lillie's Bordello in Dublin with a couple of suited toughs trying to beat up a local stage actor with a broken arm) and cleanliness.

Dublin is a horrid, grimy city that is far too expensive for the experience it delivers. Stay well away and if you want to enjoy Ireland stick to the countryside or the other cities which are awesome - Galway on the west and Cork in the south are both much, much better than Dublin on every level. Inis Mór is nice but very touristy.

[Oz]

i have to agree.  hated Dublin...fucking loved Cork and Cove, etc.  Also, do a little digging.  in the past i've been able to fly to a random country in Europe, then fly/train my way to where i want to go and it was WWWAAAYYYY cheaper then flying straight into the country you want to go to.  not always, but sometimes its worth it.

[Big Gulp]

Prague is just beautiful. The main things I did there was visit places, eat and went to a few concerts.

Yep, one of my favorite cities ever.  Of course, I went in '95 when the exchange rate was ridiculous.  You could live like a king in Czech for something like $30 a day.  A KING.

[Tebonas]

I loved Ireland to pieces, but Dublin was indeed the second worst city I encountered there. I only found Limerick worse. While I would have moved to Galway and stayed there in a heartbeat if somebody walked up to me and offered me a job.

Anybody got experience with the Baltic states? We want to go there this vacation, starting from Riga.

[Raging Turtle]

The beaches in Croatia are supposed to be amazing, if you don't mind stone instead of sand. 

[Tebonas]

I'm not a fan of beaches regardless of building material, but I mind them less than the 800 miles that lie between the Baltic States and Croatia 

[Cranky]

Yep, one of my favorite cities ever.  Of course, I went in '95 when the exchange rate was ridiculous.  You could live like a king in Czech for something like $30 a day.  A KING.

I went in 1998, it was cheap, like 20c a beer cheap. I went again in October last year, it's not that cheap anymore.

Also, NoWhereman is right, if you go on a weekend it'll be full of Brits on Stag do's. I'm British and although I love a beer there's nothing more I hate than drunken crowds of my own country men. They'll be ear fucking you all weekend.

It's a beautiful city though and I really recommend it, just make sure you go in the week and take plenty of cash if your spending your time around the most touristy parts.

[Raging Turtle]

Bah, that's more than close enough by the standards of American geography!   

[Broughden]

i have to agree.  hated Dublin...fucking loved Cork and Cove, etc.  Also, do a little digging.  in the past i've been able to fly to a random country in Europe, then fly/train my way to where i want to go and it was WWWAAAYYYY cheaper then flying straight into the country you want to go to.  not always, but sometimes its worth it.

Thats why I suggested only spending a day or two there to do the tourist sites. And grimy? Have you fuckin been to Rome? Dont talk to me about grimy.

Also Cork better than Dublin? Cork is the industrial base...not exactly a beauty to behold.
Get out into the countryside and hit the rails and trails.

[Strazos]

Agreed  with the above posts on Rome, where I stayed for a month back in '05 - Loved the city, even though it was a fucking DUMP.

And Venice could be cool, but DO NOT go during the summer months. The stench and bugs were unbearable when I went in July.

I really want to get to Prague someday.

[pants]

Anybody got experience with the Baltic states? We want to go there this vacation, starting from Riga.

Me and my wife spent 2 weeks in the Baltics 4 years ago.  My general thoughts.

Estonia:  Like Finland, but smaller.
Latvia:  Like Russia, but smaller.
Lithuania:  Like Poland, but smaller.

I wasn't really blown away by the Baltics - they're nice enough small countries, and their history is pretty interesting (they got fucked over baaad in WW2 - firstly they cheered the Nazis who kicked out the Russians.  Oops.  Then they cheered the Soviets when they kicked out the Nazis.  Oops again.)  However for real touristy stuff - I didnt find a heap of wow stuff.  Of course, we had come from St Petersburg, so its pretty hard for anywhere to back up after that.

Bits I would suggest if you're heading there.

Stalin World.  Yes, its called Grutas Park, but everyone calls it Stalin World.  Its about an hour southwest of Vilnius, and its worth it to see the world's only collection of Lenin statues and other communist propaganda.
The Hill of Crosses.  A very low hill in the middle of a farm in Lithuania, absolutely covered in crosses people have put there.  The soviets bulldozed it a few times, and people kept putting crosses there.
Tallinn old town.  Medieval old town in reasonable nick - cobbled pavestones etc.  Watch the drunk finns on booze cruises, and notice the oh-so-subtle enormous Russian Orthodox church locationed about 10 feet out the front of the Estonian parliament - just so they could be reminded who the power around those parts is.

Thats all I really got, as I say, I can't remember too many other touristy things there.  If you go to Riga and drive west, watch out where you go.  If you just follow the road you wind up in this seaside suburb of Riga (forget its name) which is a popular summertime escape, and you need to pay a toll to enter the town.  But the signs are in Latvian, so the cops love to pull over tourists and fine you for not paying the toll at the local petrol station.  cunts.

[Zetor]

I've lived in Budapest for my entire life and I'd recommend visiting Prague over it, honestly. Bp does have a few things going for it (it IS cheaper, and has a few interesting monuments, though it isn't as well-preserved as Prague, especially since it spent ~50% of its last 1000 years of history being occupied by one country or another, including 3 different empires in the 20th century alone), but overall I found Prague to be significantly more awesome. Also, Hungarians in general are asshats. 

If you were visiting during August, though, I'd def. recommend Budapest, as Sziget is one of the biggest summertime music festivals in Europe, sometimes jokingly called "Vladiwoodstock"... there's something in there for everyone, literally, with plenty of international big names. :p

If you DO choose Budapest, stay away from Unicum, it's terrible (people don't actually drink it here, except as medicine and the occasional aperitif). Hungary is fairly famous of its wine regions: the Tokaj region is best known for the aforementioned sweet Tokaji wines, there's also Egri Bikavér (Bull's Blood) which is a strong red wine. However, Hungarian beers SUCK, especially when compared to Czech stuff. YMMV.


Edit for a perspective on prices: Right now I make about $700 a month after taxes as an R&D engineer [master's degree, CISA] working for a small IT security company. Despite what you might think, this is very good money over here...
Edit edit: There's a "Stalin world equivalent" in Budapest too. Hungary was supposed to be the model communist satellite country to show off to the West, so the soviets tried hard to make it appealing back in the 1960-70s...


-- Z.

[Raging Turtle]

Too late for an edit: Oooh  I got Baltic and Balkan mixed up.  Yes, a bit of a difference there...

[Big Gulp]

I've lived in Budapest for my entire life and I'd recommend visiting Prague over it, honestly. Bp does have a few things going for it (it IS cheaper, and has a few interesting monuments, though it isn't as well-preserved as Prague, especially since it spent ~50% of its last 1000 years of history being occupied by one country or another, including 3 different empires in the 20th century alone), but overall I found Prague to be significantly more awesome. Also, Hungarians in general are asshats. 

Ahhh...  Come on, man.  Budapest was our main R&R stop when I was deployed to Bosnia, and I had nothing but good times there.  I also thought that the Hungarians were much warmer people compared to the Czechs (who actually reminded me a lot of Germans).  Budapest is still a cool city, but you're right that it hasn't maintained it's medieval flavor as much as Prague has.

Anyway, don't dog your own country like that.

ETA:  What depressed me about Hungary at the time was that when we were intially deployed to Bosnia we had load all our equipment (Humvee's, Bradleys, etc) in Germany onto a train, which would then take us into Hungary.  We would then convoy through Croatia into Bosnia.  Considering the distance from Germany to Hungary I thought it would take a day at most.  WRONG.  We spent 4 days on that fucking train, and I burned through my crossword puzzle book on day one.  The following days were spent in a Euchre filled haze.

To make a long story short, when we finally got into Hungary we'd have hordes of little kids running up to the train selling us bags of fruit, booze, and cigarettes.  I bought as much as I could, but I really felt kind of pissed that I was in a European country and the people there were reduced to this because they'd basically been economically retarded by an outside power for nearly 50 years.  It was really a downer for me.

[Zetor]

It's just local-patriot cynicism. I probably take a lot of things about Budapest for granted that other people would find new/interesting/exciting. Hungary's also changed a lot in the last ~10-15 years, mostly for the worse.

Anyway, IMO if someone was to visit one city in central/eastern europe, it should be Prague simply because it's so much 'better' than the alternatives from a tourist POV. I'd even recommend it over Paris.


-- Z.

[Xuri]

I was in Prague on a "study-trip" when I was 18 (i.e. 1998). One of the most beautiful cities I've seen.

My two clearest memories from visiting the Czech Republic though:
-Everyone in the bus shuffling over to one side to peer out the windows at hookers on display in buildings we drove by just as we crossed the border into the country.
-One particular taxi-driver in Prague who drove from A to B with the gas-pedal floored because "he was running out of fuel and wanted to get us to where we wanted to go before he ran out" (quote from memory).

[UnSub]

I will say that as a foreigner I was target #1 for sex tour offers in Budapest. Even the cab driver assumed that's what I'd want to do.

EDIT: and yes, the wine was tokaji. Brought two bottles back. Wife tried to take them as hand luggage through customs in Singapore. Bye bye tokaji.

[Strazos]

lol, Sex Tours?

[Big Gulp]

lol, Sex Tours?

I never did a "sex tour" but I've gone to hookers from Frankfurt, Nurnberg, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, and Seoul.  Never gone to an American hooker, though.  Something about being in the military overseas made me think, "You know what?  This is okay.  In fact, it's patriotic".

[Tebonas]

It may help that its legal there as well. So it IS ok.

[Falconeer]

4-Italy (i like florence and venice alot, forget rome)

 

[Bunk]

This entire thread is depressing the shit out of me, considering the farthest I've ever gotten from home is Orlando.