First post updated ^

I just pulled the trigger on my ticket. I arrive Jun 5th and depart June 16th. I will most likely visit other cities before and after the DO so I won't be in Prague that whole time.

Please move me to Confirmed.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend. Will be in Africa. Maybe this will become an annual event, and i will be able to catch it another time.

It's truly my pleasure. If there are specific areas of interest or questions I'd be happy to try to help. I feel like there's no need to cover the main tourist things...for one, I don't spend much time there and second, there's so much comprehensive information about them in other places online that it's kind of a waste of time.

Food/restaurants? I just don't spend much time eating in the center unless it's street food and again, I think that's one of those things that others do much better. For some contemporary information and up-to-date reviews, I'd use these sites:

http://czechoutchannel.blogspot.com/

http://dobrou-chut.com/ (although this blog has ended, it's just happened recently so many of the reviews are still up-to-date)

I don't think it's surprising that Czech cuisine is not widely known for being amazing. There are some interesting dishes and traditions, but bland meat & dumplings/potatoes are the standard. (As a result, restaurants that cater primarily to Czechs feature bland food, even in other cuisines ... I know of one good Mexican restaurant in town, and "Czexican" is some of the more disagreeable food you'll ever eat).

Weird things or places to go? I can do a little of that.

Day excursions? I can do a little of that...

Just let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to know or hear about.

Best,
Adam

Ugh. So I have my airline ticket and I submitted my vacation request. Normally since we set our own schedule the vacation request is just a technicality so they track everything and tell people we're on vacation.

It's right before the end of the fiscal year so my boss was threatening to reject my vacation request even though I've taken vacation every year in June at that time :td:

That just means I'll have to take all 4 weeks between July1 and Dec 31 since we have to use it or lose it. That messes me up in FY12. I tried explaining that.

Hopefully she'll approve this request so i don't have to cancel my ticket.

MrpAlert had that happen for StarMegaDo last year. PM him to find out what he said/why the boss caved, in case it can help you.

And off course we don't need unions. Your rights, just like mine, will be restricted with each passing year. Your vacation days will be dictated by your company so don't bother planing with your partner because your companies will not see the problem.

Bitter much - Where did that come from and why here? :confused:

the_happiness_store and I know each other in real life and this is a personal joke.

Does anyone have plans to take day trips out of the city (beyond those where there's easy infrastructure to do so...Karlstejn, Kutna Hora, etc.)? Or is looking for another place in the country to stay before/after the DO?

As a matter of fact, yes for both. Do you have any suggestions??

Alas, will not be able to attend this one. Hope this becomes a recurring event!

Hi,
It looks like I won't be able to partake in the festivities this year unfortunately. Please have a Pivo or 10 for me.

Bostonbali

I'll be flying into Prague June 5th and out on the 16th. I'd love to take some excursions.

I was thinking about taking overnight trips to Berlin and Vienna since there is direct train service to both of those places, but I'm open to any and all suggestions!


...and BTW, I showed my boss my current numbers, then just sold another $5,000 worth of services to put me at $7,000 above my revenue goal. I don't know what will happen if for some reason I don't make my goal, but oh well.

DAY TRIPS FROM PRAGUE

So this is kind of tough, because the C.R. is a small country and has a great train/bus system, so many places are easily accessible.

I think the three most popular day trips are:

KARLSTEJN: a small town with a big castle, about 40 minutes out of Prague by train.

KUTNA HORA: a town with a ossuary (bone church), about an hour out of Prague by train.

CESKY KRUMLOV: picturesque tiny town on hills above a winding river with a castle looming above it all, and its own brewery.

KRUMLOV is a difficult day trip...several hours on a bus or train each way (many take the bus because it's quicker and the bus station in CK is more ideal than the train station. However, the final leg of the train ride -- from Ceske Budejovice to Cesky Krumlov, is pretty amazing.

All three of these locations are very heavily touristed by non-Czechs, with prices to match. All three are the subject of organized bus tours from Prague, with, you can imagine, the corresponding markup.

So these are the places you'll read about in guidebooks, hear other tourists talking about, etc. they're all fine, there's a reason that they're tourist favorites.

But there are so many other interesting, less crowded, cheaper places not so far away. Up the Labe/Elbe river towards Germany are some interesting river towns...Usti nad Labem and Decin are two cities/towns on the river. Decin is further away -- right near the German border, but still only 90 minutes on the EC train. Both have cool town centers, Decin has a castle, there are hills surrounding so you can have nice views of river+town+ castle. And they are relatively untouristed. I think I had a beer in Decin a couple years ago for 12 crowns (at some of the places along the river in prague theyr'e 80).

Hradec Kralove is another nice smaller city about the same distance outside of Prague.

For something a little closer, the town of Beroun is maybe 45 minutes out of Prague by train, at the conflux of two rivers, has a beautiful old square and architecture between the square and one of the rivers. It's also on the same line and only a few km from Karlstejn. You could hit up Karlstejn in the morning, then walk along the river to Beroun, eat a meal and take the train back to Prague.

OF course there are 100 other places within 60 or 90 minutes of Prague that are interesting or fun, especially for a day.