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- Useful tips before you go
Useful tips before you go
- If you wish to exchange money in Prague (especially in the city centre) please be careful as many exchange offices charge very high commission. You will have no problem withdrawing cash from any ATM machine as they all accept UK-issued debit or credit cards (much cheaper). Please note that the majority of exchange offices do not accept Scottish or Northern Ireland-issued banknotes. Therefore be sure that you have English notes (or use your card).
- When eating in cheaper restaurants please check your bill as sometimes foreigners can be overcharged with extra items added or changed prices. Prices in the menu always include VAT and you are not obliged to leave any tips. A service charge is always included although tips between 5% and 10% are widely expected when satisfied (recently the situation has improved and this is almost unheard of in the more upmarket restaurants).
- When taking a taxi on the street be very careful; when possible always call a cab, from the airport pre-book safe airport transfer. It is not recommended to take a taxi from a tourist spot or a train station or from the inner city centre - even the locals avoid doing this.
- If you are taking your mobile phone with you to Prague then before you go call your operator to check your roaming rates.
- Cash Machines (trick - stealing your card): if you getting cash from an ATM try to use one inside a bank. If you have to use one on the street get someone in your party to watch out for you whilst using the machine. A favourite trick is for someone to interrupt you as you make your transaction, by pointing to a Czech note on the ground and saying you have just dropped it. You bend down to pick up the note and when you stand up again your card has gone.
- The discount card “Prague Card” is suitable especially for those who wish to spend several days in Prague and visit the best-known sights while spending less money on the entrance tickets. As well as free entrance to more than 50 attractions, including the Prague Castle, the card also offers discounts at selected partners, and includes also a multi-language tourist guide to Prague.
Have you considered an armed bodyguard team to escort you around Prague?
Or wearing a bullet proof vest?
Irony aside, Prague is not Iraq or Afghanistan or Somalia...
Most Czechs are normal, friendly human beings.
Part of being on holiday is to try and relax and enjoy new surrounds / culture.
By all means keep your eyes open but don't turn it into a special forces mission.
Do go out for at least 1 meal and experience some local cuisine.
Enjoy your trip!
I have planned this trip for a week in Prague since May. Researched the country, the culture and the currency - and read websites like this, before deciding where to go and where to stay, etc...having done that - we paid in advance, in £'s to Loving Prague for a duplex apartment, self-catering just off the main area - 5 mins from Wenceslas Square so we can wander about safely in the city at night when it's balmy and buzzy.
I checked out the company LovingApartments first, and satisfied they were genuine, went ahead and paid the non-returnable deposit, but later decided to ask them to let us pay the whole lot up front to them, not the apartment manager in CASH Euros.
why?
We dont want to carry our debit card, with access to income and savings, with us. It's being left somewhere safe in the house and partner's son has a spare key just in case. We also have another key lodged in the garden, somewhere "safe" as a precaution too....
We registered with "LOCATE", the British embassy and consulate in Prague. They take your name, address you are staying at, flights in and out details, passport details and your next of kin or emergency contact in UK should anything transpire. IF anything happens, they are aware of your journeys, and will assist you should you god forbid, end up in hospital or under arrest...
Having done all that, I got our EHIC cards registered and sent to us in early June - so we are covered by the NHS here, should anything happen health-wise out there. No risk, no charges. I also paid a single trip Travel Insurance Policy with AVIVA, who covered us, our things, our money, our cards, and our clothing for only £60 for the time we leave the house till we get home again, 15 days in all....that is only £2 per day, per each of us. Well worth it.
Finally - to avoid the need for travellers cheques, or ATMs, we have the post office travel money card in Euros for the presents to bring home to kids and grandchildren, and for the odd treat for ourselves ( he said I might find some clothing I wanted?) lol, and are carrying local currency in small notes and coins, for tips and incidentals, and to prepare for being pick-pocketed. They wont be happy to find their tiny korunas...will they? LOL
All the day trips, airport transfers both ways, and taxis to and from the night time trip are already paid for - the rest leave from and come back to Wenceslas Square, and we are staying 5 mins walk from there, so no need for taxis at all...no rip off. Nor risk.
I dont know what else we can do to protect ourselves and enjoy the stay? Tesco is only a few minutes from the flat, so we are eating in our little terrace, not in restaurants or cafes. Only having the odd coffee outside - with local money.
Hopefully, these precautions will give us peace of mind and protection and we will come home happy and exhausted!
Enjoy Praha. Na shledenou...::}}